Newlywed Portia de Rossi, 35, will be returning to prime time television early next year in Better Off Ted, one of five pilots picked up by ABC for its midseason lineup.

The satirical office comedy revolves around a successful but morally conscious man, Ted (played by Jay Harrington), who runs a research and development department at a morally questionable corporation, Veridian Technologies.

No achievement is too far fetched and no invention too unorthodox for Veridian. Need a suicidal turkey? Done. Need a metal that is hard as steel but bounces — and is edible? Done and done. 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.

De Rossi plays "superhuman boss" Veronica.

The comedy also stars Andrea Anders, Jonathan Slavin, and Malcolm Barrett. ABC has yet to announce when the series will debut on its 2008-2009 schedule.

De Rossi, who married Ellen DeGeneres last week, made her first cinematic appearance in the movie Sirens (1994). But it was her role as icy lawyer Nelle Porter on Ally McBeal from 1998-2002 that catapulted her to fame. She went on to co-star in the low-rated but critically acclaimed Fox comedy Arrested Development from 2003-2006, and she most recently guest-starred as a lesbian on the FX drama Nip/Tuck.