The world's favorite foul-mouthed teddy bear will soon be back in action, as Seth MacFarlane has confirmed that production has wrapped on his Ted prequel series. Plot details on Peacock's highly anticipated show from the Family Guy creator remain slim, but MacFarlane has given some hints as to what kind of hijinks the Boston-accented plush toy may get up to.
In a post on Instagram, MacFarlane showed off a picture of Ted seen though one of the monitors, and reiterated that principal photography on the show had concluded. This picture was probably chosen intentionally as it gives no hints as to the plot of the show. MacFarlane also took the opportunity to thank the cast of the upcoming show, including Scott Grimes, Alanna Ubach, Max Burkholder and Giorgia Whigham, calling them "brilliant." As the series is a 1990s-based prequel spun off the two previous Ted films, the cast will be portraying younger versions of characters seen in those projects. This includes Burkholder in the role of John Bennett, the protagonist of the films who was previously portrayed by Mark Wahlberg. Ubach and Grimes will be playing Bennett's parents, and MacFarlane is one again voicing Ted.
Earlier in the year, Collider asked MacFarlane about the upcoming project during an interview. While MacFarlane was mum on most details, he did talk about working with a CGI character as the star of the show. He also talked about how the series will connect and relate tonally to the films. Ted and Ted 2 were released in 2012 and 2015, respectively, and were both positively recieved for their twisted sense of humor. MacFarlane said the show will feeling similar, telling Collider, "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."
MacFarlane also gave a bit of insight into the overarching plot of the show, adding,
"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."
MacFarlane said that the series would remain tonally similar to the first film, and told Collider that fans of that film would most likely enjoy the television show. This is likely a smart move from MacFarlane, given that the 2012 film brought in more than $550 million at the worldwide box office, and it is currently the second-highest grossing R-rated comedy film ever.
For those that may be concerned that the standards of the small screen would have an effect on the series, MacFarlane put those concerns to rest. "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," MacFarlane said. "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."
MacFarlane is executive producing the series through his production company Fuzzy Door Productions, along with Jason Clark, Alana Kleiman and Erica Huggins. The project is co-showrun by Paul Korrigan and Brad Walsh, who also co-wrote the show. Peacock has not yet announced a release date for the 10-episode prequel series.