Seth MacFarlane recently shared a first look at his upcoming Ted series, which is coming to the Peacock streaming service. The image offers a new look at the vulgar talking Bear, and it came with the following note: “An image from @framestore Melbourne, who have surpassed themselves with their exquisite VFX work on “Ted” for @peacock. Much gratitude to our Aussie friends!”
In the series, “It’s 1993 and Ted the bear’s moment of fame has passed, leaving him living with his best friend, 16-year-old John Bennett, who lives in a working-class Boston home with his parents and cousin. Ted may not be the best influence on John, but when it comes right down to it, Ted’s willing to go out on a limb to help his friend and his family.”
This is a prequel series, and MacFarlane, who is returning to voice Ted, previously talked about what fans can expect from the series:
“It’s going great. Look, it’s unprecedented to do a television series where your main character is fully generated CGI. I think for movies, we’re so used to it, but you don’t think about the fact that this hasn’t really been done to this extent for television. So that’s new. It’s going great. It’s a prequel that takes place in 1993 and embraces that era, embraces the nineties and tracks what is essentially Ted’s adolescence, I guess. Ted and John’s adolescence. And, growing up in a Boston suburb. Look, as somebody who grew up in that part of the country, it’s a fun thing to try and recreate. The sets themselves are oddly nostalgic. But it’s going great.
Tonally we’re sticking pretty close to the first movie. I think people who’ve enjoyed the first movie and enjoyed that tone are going to be pretty happy with what we’re doing here. We’re going with what worked. But we’re at the same time, exploring some new ground and kind of building up a past for John and Ted that we hadn’t really delved into in the film. But I think fans of ‘Ted’ are going to be very happy with this show.”
When the first film delivered a over-the-top style that made it a crowd-pleasing breakout, resulting in it becoming the highest-grossing R-rated comedy movie ever. As for whether fans can expect the same style of comedy, MacFarlane said:
“Oh yeah. It’s like a movie. There’s no broadcast standards there. It’s an R rated comedy. So our guidelines are the same as they were for the movie. It’s no different. You can say ‘fuck’, you can say whatever you want. The challenges for something like ‘Ted’ are more external. You’re dealing with a climate that is maybe a little less friendly to comedy than it has been in the past. That’s certainly something that we’re mindful of because we do want to keep Ted Ted. We do want to make sure that it’s not altered. So, but as far as Peacock itself, no, Peacock’s been great. They acknowledge that this was an R rated comedy and the show is going to be an R rated comedy too. So it’s that none of that’s changed.”
Ted is co-written and co-showrun by Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh (Modern Family). MacFarlane will also direct, write, co-showrun and executive produce all episodes. Other cast members include Alanna Ubach (Euphoria), Scott Grimes (American Dad!), Giorgia Whigham (Netflix’s Punisher), and Max Burkholder (Parenthood) as young John Bennet – the character originally played by Mark Wahlberg.
