PREMIERE

"BETTER OFF TED," AN ALL-NEW OFFICE COMEDY ABOUT A GOOD GUY WORKING AT A MASSIVE, NOT-SO-NICE CORPORATION, PREMIERES MARCH 18 ON ABC

Jay Harrington ("Desperate Housewives") and Portia de Rossi ("Arrested Development") Star

"Better Off Ted," a new office comedy about successful good guy Ted who runs Research and Development at the morally questionable Veridian Dynamics, premieres WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18 (8:30-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

No achievement is too far-fetched and no invention too unorthodox for Veridian. Need cow-less meat grown in a test tube? Done. Need pumpkins that also double as weapons of mass destruction? No problem. Ted's a single dad to a seven-year-old girl, and he loves his job, but he's starting to take a closer look at the company's extremely dubious practices. He's also fighting an attraction to co-worker Linda, who enjoys small acts of rebellion against Veridian (she's secretly stealing and hoarding all the company's creamer packets). But he holds back about his true feelings. He's already had his self imposed "one office affair" with �berboss Veronica. Incredibly beautiful (if seemingly devoid of conscience and emotion-free), Veronica lets nothing get in her way to serve Veridian's needs.

In "Pilot," Ted finds out just how far Veronica's willing to go for Veridian's greater good when she charges him with convincing brilliant research scientist Phil to be cryogenically frozen for a test experiment. Phil is excited, even if best friend and research partner, Lem, is a little jealous. . . and Ted is more than a little worried about the long-term effects if the experiment actually goes ahead.

For cast biographies and photography, please visit www.abcmedianet.com and go to the "Better Off Ted" showpage under the Primetime section.

"Better Off Ted" stars Jay Harrington as Ted, Portia de Rossi as Veronica, Andrea Anders as Linda, Jonathan Slavin as Phil and Malcolm Barrett as Lem. Isabella Acres appears in the recurring role of Rose, Ted's daughter.

Guest starring are Maz Jobrani as Dr. Bhamba and Jim Lau as the screaming office worker. "Pilot" was written by Victor Fresco and directed by Mike Fresco.

"Better Off Ted" is produced by 20th Century Fox Television. Victor Fresco ("My Name Is Earl," "Andy Richter Controls the Universe") is executive producer and creator of the series. Dan O'Shannon, Justin Adler, Michael Glouberman, Michael Ross and Mike Teverbaugh are series co-executive producers, Michael Fresco is series consulting producer and director and Marc Solakian is producer. "Better Off Ted" is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with 5.1-channel surround sound and Spanish subtitles via secondary Closed Captioning. This program carries a TV-PG,D,L parental guideline.

This episode of "Better Off Ted" will be available on abc.com the day after airing on the network for users to watch online.