This week, Lem addressed his anger at Phil for allowing Veridian Dynamics to freeze him for one year (thankfully, he was accidentally thawed out after a few days). Phil had completely forgotten how this would dramatically change Lem's life (since they'd been lab partners for ten years as well). It was so adorable, I could cry when the two got in a spat and made up. Seriously if Ted gets canned I'm going to miss these two the most.

Also in this episode, Veridian Dynamics wanted to grow their own beef (cow free) with Portia de Rossi spearheading the developments. Last week I mentioned that I still hadn't really responded to Portia's character, but this episode yielded a much bigger pay-off. Mainly because she stopped being "scary boss" and tried to talk to the commoners, and her spot on timing really nailed it - from trying to seduce Phil into not suing the company, to creating a fake award that she later coveted. I'm not so sure how much staying power this character has, but I'm in for at least a season.

The good looking, monologuing-into-the-camera main character Ted's warm sensibility continues to guide the show forward, as the predictable straight man. But I worry that he may eventually need something else to do beside pining after the new office employee, because it's the second episode and I'm already tired of this going-nowhere relationship. All in all it was another sweet little half hour that I enjoyed - more so than what's become of a lot of other TV sitcoms (cough cough Scrubs). But it still can't hold a candle to 30 Rock's wit or How I Met Your Mothers' heart. Hopefully Ted can figure out what type of show it is fast, before people stop watching, because I want more Lem and Phil.

In Space Judge, an attorney gets abducted from Earth, and forced to preside over a People's Court-type courtroom for the amusement of bizarre-looking aliens.

Here's the synopsis:

On the planet Tukluk, Jack, an earthling, is forced to preside over an alien court where common punishments are severing of limbs (they’ll grow back), or 500 years in prison (if that being’s lifespan might be, say, 600 years). It’s all bizarre and extreme, and Jack, as Space Judge, succeeds at bringing a sense of decency and a moral code to the planet that didn’t exist before. As a result, Jack is hugely popular, and his biggest fan is the Earth-obsessed Overlord’s daughter, Chevy (named after the beautiful Earth transportation device). Chevy would like to be a lawyer herself, but her father won’t allow female lawyers (Who would take them seriously? Seriously!). There’s an intelligent banter between Jack and Chevy, and the sexual chemistry is obvious but, the Overlord warns his daughter, “People can’t date humans.”

You might have guessed that the Overlord is a pin-headed, sexist and homo-phobic buffoon. He’ll quickly laugh at his own stupid jokes, or pat his daughter on the head as he sends her on an important mission: “Find me the two coldest beers in the galaxy.”

Jobee, the Overlord’s sycophantic assistant, has the hots for Chevy too, and is obsessed with getting rid of Jack and taking over as Space Judge.

Space Judge is the brainchild of Mark Gross, currently a writer on the sitcom Gary Unmarried, and Scott Schofield, who's a producer on Kyle XY, and started his career as an assistant production coordinator on Space: Above And Beyond. Here's the show's trailer:

Gross says the idea of Space Judge came about as way to satirize thorny social issues without falling afoul of network interference. "I was working on a show for ABC, and the network was squshing a lot of our stories because of advertising." With an outer space setting, you can address racism, for example, using red and green people. And nobody will object. Also, Gross was attracted to the idea of a sitcom about a guy who's trapped in a place where he doesn't belong and doesn't want to be — but where people need him.

Gross and Schofield shot a 10-minute short video of Space Judge, and then edited it into the three-minute trailer you see above. They don't have a complete episode yet, but they have enough of a "sizzle reel" to show to the networks. As you can see from the above, the show is done very cheaply, using a greenscreen for all the backgrounds, but the cheapness is part of the show's humor. The show deliberately plays with its fake-looking stuff — for example, one spaceship is a Nerf football. Schofield says he and Gross thought about making the show much bigger and more ambitious, but decided it would actually be funnier to go small and "make your limitations part of the story." Silly touches include an alien overlord's chambers, which are one of the rooms in the palace at Versailles.

So far, the duo is just starting to talk to cable networks, including Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" block. They've also considered doing it as a webseries, which would give them more artistic freedom and less pressure to appeal to big advertisers. "There's huge advantages on the web," says Gross. But there might be more money, and more of of a chance for it take off, if they do it for a cable network.

I really like the weird cartoony look of the greenscreen fakery and the rubber-monster looking aliens. If the new space sitcom Boldly Going Nowhere takes off, I could totally see it riding that wave. One thing's for sure: the Space Judge is going to rule! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Here's a video of the making of Space Judge:

The natural temptation, with a comedy about superheroes who hang out in between saving the world, would be to create a bitchy ensemble of heroes who hate each others' guts. But show creator Drew Pearce says he's going the opposite way, creating a comedy about characters who actually like each other and using actors who are friends offscreen:

Two kinds of sitcom stick out in my mind. You have the one that makes you cringe and keep watching because you can't believe how awful the person at the core of it is; and there's the one where you want to come back and hang out with that group of people again. You need that when you are watching week after week.

Instead of the Central Perk coffee shop, the characters in No Heroics hang out in the Fortress, the heroes' social club/bar where they go to unwind. The walls are lined with the unfulfilled dreams of past heroes, but there's also a sense of cameraderie to go with the snarkiness.

Hero characters include Alex aka The Hotness, who can generate heat with his hands (and use it to microwave his lunch) and Don aka Timebomb, a gay Spanish retired superhero who can see 60 seconds into the future. Then there's the "rotund" Jenny aka She-Force, who always picks the wrong guy to date. And Devin aka Excelsior, who's at the top of the superhero pecking order and very smug about it. All of the characters are constantly jostling for attention and fame.

Most encouragingly, Pearce says he's going to avoid any excessive campiness:

Superhero comedy is seldom, if ever, well done in live action. The best superhero comedy is The Incredibles, and that's a cartoon. There have been some good attempts, such as Larry Charles's The Tick and Ben Stiller's Mystery Men, and a film called The Specials. All had good ideas but fell at the campness hurdle. I was interested in a British take on superheroes, and I think that take was to undercut it and hang out with the unfulfilled of that world; to exercise a kind of 'judo logic', where their weaknesses are actually their strengths.

[The Independent]

The Futon Critic was lucky enough to read the script for an episode and says that yes, it really isIt's Always Sunny in space, full of "selfish idiots" who pretty much ruin their own lives and the lives of others in every episode. The cast is made up with a pompus Captain Ron Teague, pilot Jane Beck (who is bipolar), head of security and body-builder Cobaltand, a robot who has been programed by the captain to be a wuss (the captain is afraid of robot uprisings), and the mechanic Pete who is a Manphibian. Lt. Zander Centari is sent in to make sure the crew is up to snuff, and of course it isn't. I hope this show lasts, just so I can hear the character deliver, "I will come to your home and photon the shit out of it!" before it gets canned by censors and other people who can't take a joke. [Futon Critic]