Seth MacFarlane Gives Update on the TED Prequel Series Saying "Fans of the First Movie Are Going To Love It"
Seth MacFarlane is best known for creating Family Guy, American Dad!, The Orville, and the two movies based on the foul-mouthed Teddy bear named Ted. That R-rated, stuffed character is now headed for a TV prequel series at Peacock, and MacFarlane has given fans an update as to what they can expect.
In a recent interview with Collider, MacFarlane, who is returning to voice Ted, explained:
"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 came out in 2012, it’s over-the-top style 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). Aside from MacFarlane himself, other cast members confirmed so far are 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.
Peacock has not yet revealed a release window for the 10 episode first season of Ted, but we will keep you posted. Are you looking forward to this prequel series?