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Ted: Seth MacFarlane, Peacock Teaming Up for Series Adaptation

Published Thu, 10 Jun 2021 11:31:14 -0500

Seth MacFarlane's growing global takeover in front of behind the camera continued in full force on Thursday, with MNCUniversal's Peacock streaming service giving a green light to a straight-to-series order for a live-action comedy series based on MacFarlane's 2021 hit film Ted. Stemming from UCP and MRC Television, MacFarlane and Erica Huggins will executive produce through MacFarlane's Fuzzy Door as part of MacFarlane's overall deal with UCP- with the Family Guy and The Orville creator in negotiations to reprise the voice of the not-quite-safe-for-children teddy bear. As of the time of the announcement, there were no plans to have original film stars Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis appear, with a new cast of human characters being considered.

Co-written and directed by MacFarlane from MRC Films and Universal Pictures, the 2012 film starred Wahlberg and Kunis, with MacFarlane providing the voice and motion capture of the title character- with Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild co-writing. Wahlberg's John Bennett is a Boston native whose childhood wish brings his teddy bear friend Ted to life. But as John grows older and looks to move on with "adult things," Ted serves as a stumbling block to John and his girlfriend Lori Collins (Kunis) moving on with their lives (though we always sided with Ted in that they used him as a crutch). The combined box office gross for Ted and Ted 2 exceeded $750 million worldwide, with the first film hit the record for highest-grossing R-rated comedy (not a sequel, reboot, etc.).

For MacFarlane and Fuzzy Door, this is the second series green light for the production company, with the Bill Nye-hosted The End is Nye also at Peacock (produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio and UCP- divisions of Universal Studio Group- and Fuzzy Door). Fuzzy Door also has a number of other projects in play development-wise at UCP, including the limited series The Winds of War.

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