Tonight I just caught the pilot episode on ABC of the new comedy series “Better off Ted”. Those of you who didn’t have the chance to see this may want to check out this link to catch some clips.
Essentially, Better off Ted is a comedy show about a soulless R&D company, where no idea is a bad idea if it means a profit. The main straight man character is the R&D head (Ted) and the laugh track actually comes from the scientists.
We start with a R&D meeting prompted by Ted’s boss who demands “We want to weaponize a pumpkin”. The roundtable discussion decides to mutate pumpkin fungus into human eating fungus; “spores in uniforms”.
The show is interspersed with faux adverts for the R&D company (Veridian Dynamics) on their products; a focus on food which boasts of producing “lemon flavored fish”, “chicken that lay 16 eggs per day” and “organic vegetable, chock full of anti-depressants”. In an obvious nod to the whole in vitro meat idea, the company decides to focus on growing meat in the lab. Unfortunately, apart from the emotional attachment of the lab scientists to the chunk of meat they name “blobby”, the company’s food taster classifies the lab meat as tasting like “despair.”
Whilst interpreted by the media as a workplace sitcom, this is definitely one for the scientists out there. Talk about connecting science to the masses…
I need to blog about this too. I hated the first episode (didn’t bother to watch more) and took some screenshots of my biggest pet peeve: coloured chemicals everywhere!
I just saw the re-run of the pilot and liked it.
Eva- our R&D group just did some photo-shoots and we had the required “oddly-colorful” liquids everywhere. We all laughed about this cliche that everyone has had to endure at some point. If only labs were truly that colorful. . .
@Craig: Over at The Lablit Forums, those are known as (UEBLs, pronounced Weebles)…Ubiqutous Eppendorfs of Blue Liquid
Well at least they left out the “group staring at an autorad” moment
Did anyone stick with The Big Bang Theory? I saw some early episodes and wasn’t too impressed. But, by all accounts, it’s blossoming into a pretty good show.
Matt- I stuck with it and still love it! I actually wrote a post about it recently.
Barry- I just watched the fist 2 episodes. It provided some much-needed comic relief after a long day. But there were an excessive amount of colored chemicals. The lab has entire walls of them!
I haven’t seen the show, but do the labs also employ substandard lighting like you see on CSI? I work with light-sensitive compounds on a regular basis and rarely have the lights off. But I guess a tin foil-wrapped container is a lot less glamorous than dim blue lights and shadows all over the lab!
The substandard lighting enhances the effect of the colored chemicals, to make it all seem more like a night club. This in turn gives the average CSI viewer the impression that spending the whole day in the lab analyzing forensic samples is actually, you know,…cool
Does the IT crowd count? I’ve not seen it but it is hugely popular with my teenage daughter and friends.
My review of Better Off Ted is now here. With screengrabs of some lab scenes. My criticism of the cloured chemicals is separate from my criticism that it’s just not funny. I do like comedies in general (How I Met Your Mother, The Office (American version), Arrested Development, Will & Grace, and Seinfeld are/were my favourites) but this didn’t make the grade.
Oh, right, I was supposed to link the word “here” to here
So, I guess you’re not a fan then, Eva? Do you like "The Big Bang Theory’ – I think it’s got a great set of dysfunctionals and some pretty sharp writing.
“The IT Crowd” is also brilliant, Maxine, though it’s not really about science. I wonder has it made it’s way across the pond (Eva?). It has a wonderfully surreal streak – and two of the best geeks you’re ever likely to meet.
I’ve only seen a few episodes of the Big Bang Theory, and I like it okay. It’s not one of my favourite shows, but fine to watch once in a while. (I like the title song!) I’ve never seen the IT crowd.
@Eva – its not the funniest of shows, but at least there’s a show with science folks. Although from the reviews out there (not including yours), not sure how long it will last.
If anyone’s in the mood for a real mad scientist, has anyone watched “Fringe”?
I wonder if they’ll do an episode that features this JSOIHMGOI (Joke So Old It Has Moss Growing On It):
Scientist 1: You know, recently, we genetically engineered a variety of chicken geared to the mass-catering market.
Scientist 2: What’s the USP?
Scientist 1: Maximizes the drumsticks-per-chicken ratio. Each bird has 28 pairs of legs.
Scientist 2: Interesting – what does it taste like?
Scientist 1: Who cares? We’re talking mass food provision on a budget here. In any case, we haven’t been fast enough to catch one.