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Better Off Ted
2009 · TV series · 2 seasons
Created by Victor Fresco
Ted, a successful but morally conscious man, runs a research and development department at a morally questionable corporation, Veridian Dynamics. No achievement is too far fetched and no invention too unorthodox for Veridian. Ted loves his seemingly perfect job; he loves his superhuman boss, Veronica, and colleagues Lem, Phil and Linda, but he's starting to take a closer look at the company's extremely questionable practices... especially when they try to cryogenically freeze one of Ted's scientists for testing purposes.
14 positive20 neutralfrom 34 commenters
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36 comments on Hacker News
Makes me think of an episode of Better off Ted, when the company sends out a memo that employees must NOW use offensive language (instead of NOT).
> The movie showcases culture and human nature more than any particular era.
Most of my middle management experiences has been between Office Space and Better off Ted.
One with "Don't care" as an answer and the other says "Care more" as its.
Those are the two extremes of the genre.
A very obvious answer is that, for example, film was toned to white tones, which meant that film was not as good at capturing people with black skin on film or in lighting. Another example is of course facial sensors seeing white people but not seeing black people (which informs one of the funniest episodes of the defunct show Better Off Ted).
You say these are superficial features and yet the reality is that skin color drastically impacts one’s experience of life in this world.
Therefore if one is designing products, why would you exclude the perspective of people who would ultimately use your product?
It sounds like an episode of Better Off Ted [1]
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Off_Ted
Or Better Off Ted. The episode about racially insensitive security cameras is comedy gold.
Check out "Better Off Ted". It's a fun and silly tv series about a company that comes up with crazy inventions that aired for two seasons.
Example scene from the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCPsT0mU4so
This features prominently in one of my most-quoted sitcom episodes: Better Off Ted's "It's Nothing Business, It's Just Personal" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1459081/
"I worked so hard so that this exact thing wouldn't happen"
Ooh, good stuff!
Reminds me of the excellent, but unfortunately short-lived, "Better Off Ted".
The episode these bits (link below) are from was, (also) unfortunately, far less amusing / acerbic, as aired. But, while the "official episode" may have been rather weak, for the show in general, these far higher-quality outtakes live on:
https://youtu.be/Bh7Nz4bIwss
"A)" reminds me of a certain Better Off Ted episode.
(If anyone here hasn't watched the series, do yourself a favor and do so.)
>but you get six times three choices, which is barely 4 bits, to express yourself.
This reminded me so much of that one Better Off Ted[0] episode, especially considering all the marketing speak in that article on top. In it, the Veridian company decided to allow employees to individualize their work space, but couldn't allow them to make choices themselves, so they choose the individuality for their employees, out of 4 exciting and non-offensive choices. "Enjoy your new personalities".
[0] S01E07, 5:23, totally legit I am sure copy available here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6l5j39?start=323
Reminds me of Jabberwocky episode of Better Off Ted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spyJ5yxTfas
Cruelty-free wheat makes me wonder what the normal stuff tastes like.
This whole thread is sounding like a Better Off Ted episode[1]
[1] https://youtu.be/HnXfLGcENnI
I can’t help but think about that episode from “Better Off Ted“ where they do this exact same thing.
A bit. This whole fiasco reminds me of Better Off Ted's "Racial Sensitivity" episode (S01E04).
"Money before people," that's the company motto. Engraved on the lobby floor. It just looks more heroic in Latin.
-- Veronica Palmer in TV series 'Better off Ted'
That was such a great show!
For those wondering, Veridian Dynamics is the fictional company where the show “Better off Ted” is set in. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235547/
This is literally an episode of Better Off Ted.[1] In it, the titular Ted is inadvertenly deleted from the company system when trying to correct a misspelling of his last name. Eventually, he is forced to interview for his own job as the system had already put out an ad for his replacement. I think the most striking part of it, and of the true story from the post, is the human factor - the idea that the humans involved looked to the system as an authority and followed its orders blindly.
I wonder what other examples there are of people blindly following technology - people driving into lakes because their GPS told them to, etc. Plus, as our society gets more and more dependent on these systems, we may lose out on the flexibility that human mediators and problem solvers once gave us. The human tendency to defer to authority may never be as terrifying as when that authority is held by an uncaring machine with a couple bugs.
What was once satire has become too real.
[1]: http://betteroffted.wikia.com/wiki/Goodbye,_Mr._Chips
> How about PowerPoint?
Tangent:
There's a great TV show on Comedy Central called "Corporate". (It reminds me of Better Off Ted if any of you liked that series.) There is an episode titled, The Powerpoint of Death, where the main character creates a PowerPoint presentation to win a govt contract for a war.
If anything, it reminds me of the Better Off Ted episode with "Jabberwocky."
Nobody knew what it did or what it was, but everyone wanted in on it... somehow.
And now I feel compelled to mention Better Off Ted, Season 1 Episode 4.
This reminds me of "Better Off Ted"[0], where the protagonist worked for veridian dynamics[1], a faceless multinational conglomerate.
[0] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235547/
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia8OKMlqxLs
The cynic in me thinks that, in most places, it would be like the Better Off Ted episode where the bosses decided it was too risky to let people "just do whatever the hell they wanted", but they could express their individuality through one of four preselected and inoffensive themes: Green Bay Packers, cats, space, and race cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnWJ0NQuicE
> This kind of reminds me of the 'Better off Ted' episode, where the company's new motion detection system does not detect any of the African Americans in the office.
Which is itself a reference to real-life results involving motion detection/computer vision/image processing (this was a particularly bad problem in the earlier days of the field, but still persists today to some extent).
This kind of reminds me of the 'Better off Ted' episode, where the company's new motion detection system does not detect any of the African Americans in the office.
Reminds me of the episode of "Better Off Ted" where they invent an itchy chair and it increases productivity because workers can't get too comfortable. In focus group testing, they find a maximum limit of uncomfortableness before people start jumping out of windows.
I keep thinking the latest announcement of "gigantic open floor plan" is going to be that stroke too far. But I have also learned to be disappointed.
This hasn't been the case for a long time, although for some reason it remains a common misperception. I think it's mainly a marketing problem because people are always reading comments like this online, or hearing about such-and-such series that "is on Netflix" but disappointingly isn't currently available in the UK, while simultaneously being unaware of all the content that is available in the UK but not in the US.
For example, Netflix UK has the first 2 Hobbit movies, Pixar's Up, the original Danish versions of The Killing and The Bridge, all of Stargate SG-1/Atlantis, 24 and The Shield - none of which are currently available in the US. There's a load more I can't remember off the top of my head. The UK also got Breaking Bad a few hours after it was aired in the US, whereas US customers had to wait several months, presumably due to an exclusivity deal with AMC.
Obviously the UK also gets all the Netflix original content. Occasionally a new season will launch a few months ahead in the US, but that's not really a big deal. I can only assume this is done for same marketing reasons that blockbuster movie launches are typically staggered worldwide.
There are a small number of US shows like 30 Rock and Better Off Ted that I wish were on the UK service, and Star Trek DS9 is conspicuously absent, but that list is much smaller than it was 2 years ago.
"the added expense alone is not enough to justify treating people with disabilities as second-class citizens, who have to be "minded" rather than allowed to freely navigate their own communities, "because it's a bit cheaper that way!""
Reminds me of a Better Off Ted episode resolution: http://www.tv.com/shows/better-off-ted/racial-sensitivity-1260542/
Sounds like a "Better off Ted" episode. Amazing. I can't believe anyone who hadn't actually been working has the gall to complain when they get kicked out.
Slightly misleading title. However this reminds me of an episode of better off Ted, in which they create a steak in a lab. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Better_Off_Ted_episodessee episode 2
Firefly (as some-one mentioned underneath) are perfect examples of shows that would thrive under Netflix.
I have to disagree with this, Firefly is not the type of show Netflix should be focusing on. They need shows with low production costs with broad - lowest common denominator appeal. Expensive shows catering to a niche market (which they pretty much already have captured) is not what they're trying to do here.
There's a few ways they can go, sitcoms and short form comedies are going to be much more profitable for them at this point so Better off Ted is a much better fit.
Then there's the Showtime/HBO premium market (which folks are already paying for as a premium service). But even here I think they'd play it safe short term - more Sopranos and True Blood type mass appeal then Boardwalk Empire and The Wire (both are great, but much more focused market).
I've worked for a few companies over the years, and there is a type of manager I run into a lot. I can summarize them by a statement they make "Just get it done."
The thing about these managers are they are delivery focused, not product focused. The have no imagination, and no emotional attachment to the product. They are there to make sure the books balance and revenue increases, thats it.
These people have always frightened me a bit because they just don't understand what the people who work under them do. You can't sit in a meeting and explain a new concept to them, you have to completely design a working product and walk them through it step by step.
A verbal explanation will only confuse them, and often they get agitated... because they don't understand. I'm sure most of us have been in a meeting where every single person understands the speaker except for person who has the authority to approve or deny the work... and all they can say is "I don't get it" (and you are going holy crap 20 other people get it, I can see them rolling there eyes and smirking).
I wouldn't mind betting that these videos are a sign of delivery managers being brought into R&D departments. These videos are made so that the delivery manager can understand what the people around him are doing, and so he can explain it to the bean counters. Its a sign you have put the wrong people into positions of authority.
EDIT: I just realized that the character Veronica on "Better off Ted" is exactly what I'm describing. I recommend watching it if you've never seen it.
It's critically acclaimed because it's original. A critic (and I know this having worked as a reviewer) has likely seen every single show that came out every year. When you've seen generic sitcom A through F, you're going to love something that's original right through from premise to characters (the characters do fill out into the 2nd season, but Fuller has a problem that his main character is often a complete vacuum - like Dead Like Me the main character was simply a way too present observer; by the end I literally loved every character but the lead).
Better Off Ted suffered the same problem (different creator) with the main character being vacuous. His boss was great, his colleagues were great, his daughter was great, I even liked the narration because it was out-of-character from the main character.
I find with the major sitcoms people relate to the main character and solely the main character. I think the main reason Chuck Lorre has done so well with Two And A Half Men and The Big Bang Theory is that it's not just the main character that you can relate to, meaning you get the unbelievably avid fans from those "critically acclaimed" shows making huge noise and driving a near doubling in viewers of their shows (the big bang theory went almost 7-million viewers from the first till third season). You don't see this growth in your average series, it tends to start large and decline continuously (Hawaii Five-0 dropped 4-million viewers in the first 4 episodes).
I see this as a benefit too, especially for TV shows.
If you are the type of person that enjoys "critically acclaimed" but "unpopular" shows (Arrested Development, Pushing Daises, Better Off Ted, etc.), the signal-to-noise ratio is dramatically lower than regular Cable TV.
Does nobody do testing any more? Did they not learn when HP did this? Did nobody see the episode of Better Off Ted where this happened???
Wasn't this an episode from "Better Off Ted"?
http://www.tv.com/better-off-ted/racial-sensitivity/episode/1260542/summary.html
Was anyone else reminded of the Better Off Ted episode where they install motion detectors that can't detect black people?