The new comedy “Better Off Ted” (7:30 p.m., ABC) was probably not intended as a “Mad Men” parody, but it sure looks like one. Jay Harrington stars in the title role as the buttoned-down team leader in a modern and amoral corporation that manufactures and markets everything from office chairs to cluster bombs. His demeanor and speaking style seem directly patterned on Jon Hamm’s Don Draper character from “Mad Men,” and both shows evoke claustrophobia with photography that emphasizes low ceilings and florescent lighting.

Ted’s zany subordinates include Phil (Jonathan Slavin) and Lem (Malcolm Barrett), two mad scientists who bicker like an old married couple. A single dad, Ted must also fend off a mutual attraction he shares with the fetching Linda (Andrea Anders).

Portia de Rossi, who was wonderfully obtuse on “Arrested Development,” plays Veronica, Ted’s boss and the show’s most pivotal character. A sendup of the soulless executive, Veronica wears her hair in a cruel bun and sports severe business suits of icy hues. She speaks as if human interaction were an acquired second language and delivers corporate edicts with a succinct take-it-or-leave-it finality.

Veronica orders Ted to inform Phil that the company wants to use him as a guinea pig and put him in a cryogenic freezer for a year. In a second helping, Veronica takes a shine to Ted’s daughter because people tend to be on their best behavior around children. Before long, she’s using the child to terminate underperforming employees.

Like Veronica, “Ted” exudes a brittle weirdness that’s difficult to ignore. It’s not as cloying and self-consciously cute as “Scrubs,” but it affects the same “nothing matters, so anything can happen” attitude that makes for lower stakes and fewer laughs than really smart satire.

l Tom Brokaw hosts and narrates “Global Warming: The New Challenge” (9 p.m., Discovery). While the climate-change crisis has taken a back seat to the economic slowdown, this hour-long survey argues that the pace and destructive nature of the problem have only accelerated.

Brokaw ticks off a litany of woeful developments, from the remote to the immediate. Financial experts believe that another multistorm summer like 2005 would simply capsize the American insurance industry, with dire effects for an already shaky economy. Brokaw argues that global warming is a bottom-line issue that people and nations ignore at their peril.

Apparently, the number of corporations that embrace Brokaw’s message includes Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Careful viewers of last week’s “24” saw Cherry Jones, who plays the beleaguered President Allison Taylor, deliver a kind of presidential appeal in a public-service announcement. She said that “24” was fiction, but climate change was all too real. It seemed like a deliberate appeal to global-warming skeptics who might be among “24’s” conservative fans.

• On a similar theme, Matt Damon narrates “Journey to Planet Earth: The State of the World’s Oceans” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings).

Tonight’s other highlights

• Corporate sabotage is suspected on “Lie to Me” (7 p.m., Fox).

• A new partner tries too hard on “Life” (8 p.m., NBC).

• A contestant goes home on “American Idol” (8 p.m., Fox).

• Sawyer/La Fleur continues his yarn on “Lost” (8 p.m., ABC).

• Sam infiltrates a gang on “Life on Mars” (9 p.m., ABC).