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Ted: Burkholder & Whigham on What Viewers Can Expect From Season 2

Ted stars Max Burkholder and Giorgia Whigham on the second season, embracing Seth MacFarlane's creativity, the John-Blair dynamic, and more.

When it comes to embracing the empire of comedy that Seth MacFarlane built, it would be two of his central characters in his Peacock live-action series Ted, which acts as a prequel to the film franchise of the same name, with Max Burkholder, playing John Bennett, who is struggling in high school alongside his teddy bear best friend and title character, voiced by MacFarlane, and Giorgia Whigham, who is perhaps tasked with the most difficult role of the series as Blair, John's liberal cousin and voice of reason in the Bennett household. Along with Scott Grimes and Alanna Ubach as Matty and Susan Bennett, the dysfunctional family is back for season two of the Peacock live-action comedy with more misadventures in the '90s and youth-bear stoner hijinks. Burkholder and Whigham spoke to Bleeding Cool about how they're picking up where they left off last season, whether Whigham ever wanted to change things up for Blair, teasing season two, and fully leaning into MacFarlane's creativity.

Ted Stars Max Burkholder and Giorgia Whigham Preview Season 2

BC: Heading into Season 2, how do you feel you've grown as Blair and John? Do you feel like you've got a better understanding as you're filming as opposed to when you got started originally in the series?

Whigham: When we came back, it was just jumping right back into where we left off. I always say you're so lucky in this business if you get two seasons of a show, let alone even more than that, but you really get an opportunity, season one to explore your character, get to know them, and the cast is so amazing. We all truly love each other, so it was nice to just come back to that. It felt like coming home.

Burkholder: Very much.

Whigham: Aw.

Burkholder: Nothing changed for John at all, a hundred percent. Yeah, no, he's the same guy, absolutely, but Georgia has said it better than I could.

How do you feel the family dynamic grew among you two, along with Scott and Alanna?

Burkholder: How did the family dynamic grow? I mean, we got more time to settle into things, I feel like. Season one was nice. We had rehearsal time, and we all got to know each other beforehand. Coming into season two, having had so much actual time on and off set with everybody, it felt even more like a family, like you're saying for sure.

Whigham: Even through the rehearsals as we came back, we were already picking up the cues that maybe we didn't necessarily jump into right away last time. Yeah, in terms of the family vibe, I think when you have all that time coming into it for another season, it just makes it that much more natural, and you know it was beautiful.

Giorgia, does it ever become difficult to keep being the straight character? Do you ever pitch some oddball, quirky things that Blair would do this season, or is it just something like you just go with the wave?

Burkholder: Odd things that Blair does this season?

Whigham: Oh, it's hard being the smartest person on this show. Blair's very much still Blair this season. She goes through a couple more emotional storylines, which I was really excited to explore, but that's it. Blair adds a level of grounding to the show. Honestly, as viewers, we always look for opposites; that's what makes TV interesting and entertaining. I think if Blair was just as absurd as the rest of them, I don't think it would work. It's not so hard, and it comes naturally.

Given all the crazy antics on the show, have you ever gotten the strange Deja vu going in your personal life that it's like, "Holy shit! This actually did happen to me before?"

Burkholder: Yeah, no, straight up dog, no, absolutely. Really interesting, well-crafted specific question, and I'm sorry to have to shoot it down, but no, this show's a fucking cartoon, man. None of this is in my real life.

Whigham: Truly, yeah. I haven't had too many bizarre incidents like this. You know what I mean? I think if I were to come in contact with something of this nature in real life, Blair's a lot more patient than me, I'll just say that.

What are your character's most favorite respective moments?

Burkholder: Our characters' most favorite moments or our most favorite moment?

Whatever comes to mind.

Whigham: Blair has a great moment in the first episode that was really fun for me to do. It's the most we've seen Blair explode, and that was really fun for me to do. The season's really well written, and I think there's a lot of great moments that she has, but I'll just say for now… Without spoiling anything, she kind of goes off the handle or flies off the handle a little bit in the first episode, which is awesome.

Burkholder: There's a hot date that Ted and I go on at one point in one of the episodes that I think is my favorite.

Just thought of this, what's the best thing about working with Seth through both these seasons for you?

Whigham: Man, I think the way that he has such a strong concept and idea of what he wants and why he makes such great television. It's because he has this plan and there's not a whole lot of like…there's room to play, and I think that's because it's so fine-tuned. The crew is such a well-oiled machine. They're just amazing, so because of all of that, we have so much room to play. Everyone comes so prepared that there's room for improv and just having fun, and so I'd say that just the way that he knows how to captain the ship is really awesome.

Burkholder: It's really cool. Exactly as you said, he's got very specific ideas, and he's not afraid to share with you when you're deviating from that path, but he always does it in a very measured, mindful way.

Whigham: But like, again, with the idea, you're like, "Okay, so he knows that's how it works."

Burkholder: Yeah, exactly! There's a level of trust that you can give over to somebody who's been so proven successful in this arena for so long, where it's just like, "Amen!" My instincts may be telling me to go this way with it, but if this fucking guy tells me that there's good direction this way. Yeah.

Whigham: I'm going to listen to that.

Was there ever any particular scene that you felt had to be changed or thought, "Okay, I can't do that."

Whigham: We're all…this is the most game cast I've ever met in my life. We're down to play. Everybody's down for whatever.

Season two of Ted premieres on March 5th.

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