Jeff Wachtel, who has overseen original programming for the USA Network since 2001, got a title boost today when he was named the networkâs president of original programming.
The announcement was made by Bonnie Hammer, the top USA executive who herself was promoted to president of NBC Universalâs cable entertainment and cable studio last year.
âAs head of original programming, Jeffâs leadership has inspired the team responsible for one of the most successful slates in all of television,â she said in a statement.
Wachtel, whose previous title was executive vice president of original programming, has overseen the launch of shows such as âMonk,â âPsychâ and âBurn Notice.â He also is co-head of original content for Universal Cable Productions with Mark Stern.
-- Matea Gold
Better off skipping âTedâ
Two stars
Perhaps itâs appropriate that the brittle, synthetic âBetter Off Tedâ (7:30 p.m. Central, Wednesday, ABC) gives the impression that it was grown in a lab.
This workplace comedy is set at an efficient and ominous corporation, Veridian Dynamics. Veridian employs scientists who come up with pumpkins that can kill and chairs that are so uncomfortable that they drive people insane.
But, like many of the products the company develops, âTedâ isnât quite ready for mass consumption. NBC has some good workplace comedies, most notably â30 Rockâ and âThe Office.â If you do watch âBetter Off Ted,â thereâs a good chance youâll find yourself comparing the ABC program to those two shows and finding âTedâ wanting.
Jay Harrington plays Ted, the research and development âgeniusâ who has to manage the nerds in the lab and keep his heartless manager, Veronica (Portia de Rossi), at bay. To round things out, thereâs also a co-worker in the picture, Linda (Andrea Anders).
There are some sly and savage ideas at play in âTedâ: The subtext is that big corporations are determined to suck not just the energy but the very lifeblood out of their employees. âTedâ works best when it focuses on small acts of rebellion, such as the theft of creamers from the company cafeteria. Itâs surprising, given how good she was on âArrested Development,â that de Rossi is so ineffective here, but then again, the humor on âTedâ is scattershot and most of the characters are underdeveloped. Perhaps the funniest thing about âTedâ are the fake ads that precede each episode. They feature an upbeat narrator and theyâre full of blandly cheerful stock footage meant to reassure us that Veridian has consumersâ best interests at heart. Which is proof, of course, that the company is very likely up to no good.
âBattlestarâ finale, Syfy news
On Monday, the Sci Fi Channel hosted a press screening of the âBattlestar Galacticaâ finale, which airs Friday. Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore made the assembled media types swear not to reveal anything that happens in the showâs final two hours.
But I was able to wrangle more information about âCaprica,â âThe Plan,â âEurekaâ and other upcoming projects on Sci Fi, which changes its name this summer to Syfy.
One bit of âBattlestarâ related news: âThe Plan,â a two-hour stand-alone movie shot last year, will âprobablyâ air in the fall, according to Sci Fi executive Mark Stern.
This summer, the network will debut a comedically flavored series, âWarehouse 13,â about a pair of federal agents who track down unusual objects and stow them in a warehouse full of intergalactic oddities.
âEurekaâ also returns in the summer, and Colin Ferguson, who stars as Sheriff Jack Carter, said his character has an ongoing love interest (played by Jaime Ray Newman).
Finally, âCaprica,â the âBattlestarâ prequel series, will debut in early 2010.
Esai Morales and Paula Malcolmson, who star in the new show, were at the Sci Fi event. Malcolmson said that âCapricaâ would be different from âBattlestar.â
âBattlestarâ has âcome to an end, and itâs a beautiful end and [fans] should mourn that show,â he said. âYou canât just come along with another show thatâs going to replicate it.â
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ï¡moryan@tribune.com
Lily Tomlin still cracking wise — and that's the truth
She will bring her cutting-edge stand-up act to Redwood City's Fox Theatre on March 29
Revisiting The Gardner Museum Art Heist
On March 18, 1990, thieves pulled off the biggest heist in U.S. history, taking art valued at half a billion dollars from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston. Olrich Boser, author of The Gardner Heist, talks about the crime and new leads that have recently emerged.
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