To quote The A.V. Club’s Sam Barsanti, “Who was the first person to walk into a movie studio executive’s office and say ‘it’s like a movie for kids, but it has a hard-R rating,’ and does that person now have more money than God?” Whether or not that evil genius was actually Seth MacFarlane or not, he’s certainly the one receiving the windfall. Ted and Ted 2—his raunchy, 2010s-era films about a Teddy bear with a Boston accent who loves to rip bongs and say “fuck”—brought in a collective $700 million at the box office. Now, whether anyone asked for it or not (they probably didn’t), he’s doing it again.
If there’s one thing Hollywood loves more than a movie with a hard-R rating that looks like it should be for children, it’s an origin story for a character who probably didn’t need one in the first place. It sounds like Peacock hit the jackpot because they’re getting both in this seven-episode series, which explores how a sentient, porn-loving teddy bear in the ‘90s became a slightly older sentient, porn-loving teddy bear in the 2000s.
At least MacFarlane knows how ridiculous this all is. In a statement, he and c0-showrunners Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh wrote: “Each generation develops its own unique artistic style, its own way of seeing the world. In the twenties, it was the subversive musical phrasings of jazz. In the fifties, it was the bold brushwork of the abstract expressionists. Our generation’s unique art is streaming content based on previously successful intellectual property. In that proud tradition, we humbly give you Ted.”
“Our series is a prequel to the Ted movies,” the statement continues. “It takes place in the nineties but is based on the timeless truth that being sixteen sucks. The only thing that makes it tolerable is going through it with a friend, even if that friend is a has-been magical teddy bear with a foul mouth and a proclivity for drug use.”
The teaser doesn’t really show any of this but does use its time to make jabs at both the network it’s airing on and the usefulness of its own self, which is at least a little bit radical. Maybe there’s something here after all, even if it’s just a new generation of teenagers buying teddy bears to make them swear, and even more cash for Seth MacFarlane.