It is a play on wall-to-wall carpeting, signifying one of the many modern luxuries enjoyed by the main character, a high-paid publicity executive, who feels trapped in his position at a movie production company.
His high salary affords him a nice car and furnishes his large apartment, where he lives with his wife, Roxy, and their two children.
Although Ted has experience in the specious marketing game played between publicists, actors, directors, producers, and tabloid journalists, he feels trapped in office politics after a rumor is started that he is about to be fired by his new boss, Larry.
Larry takes the Machiavellian approach to management, even convincing Ted to shed crocodile tears over his potentially destitute family during a business dinner with a magazine editor.
Ted's former boss, Willie – who had left Above All to be a television executive in Chicago, Illinois – had a more lenient management approach.