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WE HAD HIGH hopes for “Better Off Ted,” offering both “Arrested Development” favorite Portia de Rossi and a darker, more corporate version of “The Office.” But the elements didn’t gel. Lead Jay Harrington plays an affably indifferent middle-manager – a believable coping strategy, given his job – who oversees the increasingly amoral research efforts of mega-conglomerate Veridian Dynamics. But where “The Office” (like another workplace comedy, “Cheers”) bunches everyone into a claustrophobic and dysfunctional microcosm, the characters of “Ted” are spread out over a massive company. As such, they don’t create a sense of ensemble – and ensembles are the root of all comedy. Kudos to the likeable Andrea Anders, who plays a love interest, along with a generally skilled cast. We hope to see them all again. But with 4.7 million for the latest episode, we don’t think it will be in a second season of “Ted.”