Seth MacFarlane Reveals Story Details For New Ted Prequel Series

Seth MacFarlane reveals new story details about the upcoming Ted television show based on the movies that starred Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis.

Seth MacFarlane Reveals Story Details For New Ted Prequel Series

Seth MacFarlane unveils new story details for the upcoming Ted prequel TV show. MacFarlane directed the original Ted in 2012, where he also starred as the voice of Ted, a raunchy teddy bear. Ted is a comedy aimed at a distinctly adult audience, following the story of John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg), who fulfills his childhood wish of his teddy bear coming to life. Rather than the sweet vision of his childhood dreams, Ted acts like a peer to John and is a beer-drinking, swearing, and pot-smoking stuffed animal instead of the cuddly toy he loved. Over the course of the eccentric comedy, John must choose between keeping his strange relationship with the humanized teddy bear or maintaining his relationship with his girlfriend Lori (Mila Kunis).

After the immense success of Ted in 2012, MacFarlane went on to make Ted 2 in 2015. Now, Ted will be adapted into a prequel TV series on Peacock. MacFarlane will reprise his role in the Ted series. MacFarlane is joined in the series by Alanna Ubach, Max Burkholder, Giorgia Whigham, and Scott Grimes. Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh are set to be showrunners and head writers for the series.

In advance of the Ted series’ release on Peacock, MacFarlane revealed more details about the series to Collider. The Ted TV show will be a prequel set in the year 1993 and tracks Ted and John’s teenage years. The series leans into its temporal setting, “embrac[ing] that era.” According to MacFarlane, the series will take on a similar tone to the Ted movies, likely giving it appeal to Ted fans. MacFarlane also notes that the series will have groundbreaking CGI, as it is rare on television for a live-action show to have the main character be fully computer-generated. Check out the full statement from MacFarlane below:

“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.”

If MacFarlane’s description holds, the Ted TV series will give viewers everything they desire from the foul-mouthed teddy bear series. By maintaining the tonal style of Ted and Ted 2, the show will appeal to fans that were drawn to the movie’s characteristic vulgarity, who may have seen the original film all the way back when it hit theaters in 2012. By setting the series in an earlier time period, the show could also deliver a 90s nostalgia factor that may further appeal to the existing Ted fans or bring in new audiences.

Time will tell whether the Ted TV series holds up to the high initial standard that MacFarlane is setting for it. Praised for its hilarity and originality, Ted will now have to step up to the plate to maintain its laughs for a longer period of time on the 10-episode TV series. With the additional challenge of CGI-ing a main character for that many episodes, Ted will have to ensure its visual believability as well so that viewers are not distracted by unconvincing CGI. The Ted TV series will stream on Peacock, but a release date has yet to be announced.