The importance of the Kingston Trio

Warner Bros. wants to beef up TMZ

Warner Bros. wants to expand TMZ, the tabloid news website and TV show that has become the bane of every celebrity's life for its scathing -- and usually accurate -- reporting on the rich and the restless.

TMZ, which was the brainchild of lawyer turned muckraker Harvey Levin, has been run as a partnership between Warner Bros.' Telepictures unit and America Online since it launched in December 2005. Now though, as AOL prepares to spin off from Time Warner, TMZ will become 100% owned and operated by Warner Bros. AOL will continue to feature TMZ on its home page to drive traffic to the site for the next year, but Warner Bros. is also going to start establishing relationships with other portals in an effort to broaden its reach.

Often dismissed as a bunch of kids going through celebrity garbage cans, TMZ gained new prominence when it was first to report that pop star Michael Jackson died. It also has been out front on the Tiger Woods scandal. According to regulatory filings, TMZ had revenues in 2008 of $25.4 million. Warner Bros. wants to grow TMZ's news operation, people close to the operation said. At the same time, though, the company does not plan on investing more in TMZ even though it is now losing its partner.

Instead Warner Bros. wants to get more aggressive and effective in selling advertising across the TV show and the site. TMZ, a person a familiar with the company said, attracts more upscale consumers, and Warner Bros. thinks it can boost ad revenues substantially. TMZ also is increasing its presence on mobile phones, which Warner Bros. thinks it can exploit better now that it is the sole owner. 

One thing that is not planned for now is a TMZ cable channel. We think they're missing an opportunity there. How about combining TMZ with Time Warner's Headline News. A Nancy Grace-Harvey Levin combination would be something to behold. It would also be really scary, but anyway.

-- Joe Flint 

Photo: TMZ's Harvey Levin. Credit: TMZ / Warner Bros.

Laugh with 'Better Off Ted's' mad scientists and corporate drones

December may bring lots of holiday parties and far too many opportunities to snack on fattening treats, but if you want fresh episodes of television instead of warmed-over reruns, the pickings this month are usually pretty sparse.

So it's nice to find "Better Off Ted" (8:30 p.m. Central, ABC; three and a half stars) nestled under the tree like a refugee from the Island of Misfit Toys. This brightly colored gem, which acquired a small but devoted following during its low-rated spring and summer runs, does seem like the toy that ABC played with for two minutes and then forgot about.

"Ted," an entertainingly subversive comedy set in the labs and offices of an ominous corporation named Veridian Dynamics, deserves better than that.

Comedy is having a comeback this year, but it's a shame that "Ted" seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle (ABC's odd "Ted" scheduling during 2009 certainly didn't help). But "Ted" can and should take its place among smart new network comedies such as "Modern Family" and oft-praised veterans such as "How I Met Your Mother" and "30 Rock." If you like those shows, "Ted's" fast-paced brand of mildly absurd humor may be right up your alley.

Like a rogue fungus in one of Veridian's labs, "Ted" has grown on me. The show seems to be more thematically and tonally unified than it did early in its first season, when it was a bit too brittle and arch for my tastes. This season, "Ted" seems to have a looser, even goofier vibe, and it plays to its actors' strengths more consistently while also giving plenty of screen time to my favorite characters, insecure research scientists Phil (Jonathan Slavin) and Lem (Malcolm Barrett)

But perhaps "Ted's" wry, endearingly odd humor always going to appeal to a somewhat limited (limi-"Ted"?) audience. In the Dec. 15 episode, harried employee Linda (Andrea Anders) works on a kids' book in her spare time, in the hopes that her new career as an author will allow her to break free from Veridian's corporate death grip.

"I may have a career entertaining children instead of working for a place that uses them to assemble munitions," she says.

As Ted, Jay Harrington is dryly competent, but the character is rather colorless and bland. Perhaps that's to be expected; someone has to be the straight man at the center of Veridian's weird corporate labyrinth. But as Michael Bluth on "Arrested Development," a show that is one of "Ted's" most obvious influences, Jason Bateman got to be funnier, or at least he got to be exasperated in a more amusing way.

But like "Arrested," "Ted" doesn't get overly sentimental with its characters. In one episode, Ted repeatedly grills his daughter for information after she comes home from day care with some juicy office gossip.

Portia De Rossi, who I found off-puttingly expressionless early in "Ted's" run, continues to get many of the best show's lines, and her character, corporate executive Veronica, has been integrated more smoothly into "Ted's" whimsical plots. The socially clueless and relentlessly ambitious Veronica thinks only of acquiring more money and power for Veridian. The health and safety of employees and consumers and the rule of law? Those things are mere hurdles to be overcome in pursuit of ever-bigger corporate profits (in other words, she's Jack Donaghy's dream woman).

Perhaps the most complimentary thing I can say about "Ted" is that I don't want to repeat the show's best lines here. They're often so skillfully woven into the fabric of the episodes that putting them in this review could ruin some pleasing punch lines. 

It's probably not worth wondering if "Ted" will get a third season; I suppose we should just enjoy the comedy while we can. In this weird TV year, which gave us unexpected additional seasons of shows that were widely expected to get canceled, we should just be grateful, I guess, for the gifts that we got.

Photos: Jonathan Slavin as Phil, Malcolm Barrett as Lem.

The importance of the Kingston Trio
Why the Kingston Trio deserves to be considered for the title of the most important Bay Area band of all time.
CBS Cancels Daytime Drama 'As The World Turns'

CBS canceled As the World Turns on Tuesday, putting Procter & Gamble — the company that put the "soap" in soap operas — out of the business of making daytime dramas after 76 years. It's the second soap opera CBS has canceled in a year, after Guiding Light.