Seth MacFarlane on Ted’s Journey to TV — and Why We Never Got a Ted 3
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Despite the massive success of 2012’s Ted (and its 2015 sequel), a third movie was never a guarantee.
“You know, there hadn’t ever really been any serious talks about doing a Ted 3,” franchise creator Seth MacFarlane tells TVLine. “After Ted 2, we weren’t sure if there was still an insatiable appetite for more Ted, and that coincided with my desire to go do The Orville. So, it kind of ceased to be a part of the conversation for a while.”
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Five years had passed since Ted 2 by the time MacFarlane signed an overall deal with NBCUniversal, where he produced the first two Ted movies, and he still hadn’t been approached about Ted 3. Instead, he was presented with a new idea: “When I signed my deal with Universal, one of the first things they said was, ‘Would you consider doing a Ted series for Peacock?’ And I said, ‘Wow, what’s Peacock?’ I’m kidding! No, I said that’s an intriguing idea….”
And with that, a prequel series was born. But the seven-episode, single-camera comedy that now lives on Peacock was not what MacFarlane initially had in mind when he agreed to do Ted as a TV show.
Ted Was Almost a Multi-Camera Sitcom
“For weeks, it was going to be a multi-cam [shot in front of a live studio audience],” co-showrunner Brad Walsh reveals. “We explored both what that would look like in terms of script, and creatively and also technically what that would be, because that would provide quite a challenge.”
“Keep in mind the tone would still be the same,” MacFarlane says of the multi-cam version of Ted. “There was no talk of ever changing it and softening it. We were not doing Who’s the Boss. Ted would still be dropping F-bombs. But the idea of shooting something with an audience and then adding the bear in later was something that was so interesting to me. Never seen anything like it. The only reason we didn’t do it was that Peacock wanted the show pretty quickly.”
And while he’d still like to try Ted as a multi-cam “at some point, because I do think it can be done,” he’s also quite happy with the ’90s-set single-cam, which casts Parenthood‘s Max Burkholder as 16-year-old John Bennett — a part previously occupied on the big screen by Mark Wahlberg.
Burkholder Steps In for Wahlberg
Burkholder, a former child star, was already in MacFarlane’s orbit, having lent his voice to American Dad! and Family Guy before appearing in a Season 1 episode of space odyssey The Orville (which is still awaiting word on a possible Season 4). Mind you, he still had to audition, but MacFarlane tells us that Burkholder “stood out so clearly” as the guy to succeed — or, in this case, precede — Wahlberg.
“It was just a no brainer. Every joke was delivered pitch perfectly,” MacFarlane recalls. “He really found a good balance between just enough of the swagger of Wahlberg to get a hint of what [John] was going to become in the future, but at the same time, very clearly occupying the kind of awkward, beta male phase that we established early on in the movie before [John] came into his own, and he just nailed it.” Adds fellow EP Paul Corrigan: “One of the really impressive things about Max was he made a choice in the audition not to do an impression of Mark Wahlberg,” but rather “do his own version of the character [while also] staying true to the character [from the movies].”
A Most eXcellent Narrator Swap
Another big change from the films is one you won’t see but hear, as the Magneto to Sir Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier steps in, and Sir Ian McKellen takes over as narrator.
“[Patrick] had a lot going on and, timing wise, it just didn’t work out,” MacFarlane explains. And while Corrigan “would like to believe that, over tea one afternoon,” Stewart convinced his ol’ pal McKellen to take his place, the actual story of how he was cast involves a previous stint on Family Guy.
“Somebody pitched the idea of maybe going out to Ian McKellen,” MacFarlane tells us. “My friend Gary Janetti, who used to write for Family Guy, worked with Ian McKellan [when he voiced Stewie’s therapist Dr. Cecil Pritchfield in 2018], and I called [Gary] and I said, ‘Do you think this is something Ian would maybe want to do?’ And Gary put in a call and made an introduction… and he was just a joy to work with, just the kindest person.”
Will Ted Be Renewed for Season 2?
While Ted is being billed as an “event series,” MacFarlane isn’t ruling out a Season 2. “Anything is possible,” he tells TVLine. “I would not want to shoehorn the show into a category as far as its sustainability. I think it depends on the response. If there’s an appetite for it, anything is possible.”
For now, let us know what you thought of Peacock’s Ted spinoff by grading it in our poll, then drop a comment with your full review.
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