Review by C.J. Bunce
Plenty of stories start as a TV show and then it switches to a movie version, and vice versa, including flipping around between sequels and prequels. But how many are actually consistent in quality? Count the new comedy series Ted in the win column. It’s a prequel worthy of its movie predecessors and more–adding more dimension to what could otherwise be merely a gross-out joke fest. A biting, laugh-out-loud combination of That ’70s Show, Alf, Mork & Mindy, and The Brady Bunch that only could emerge from the mind of creator and star Seth MacFarlane, the entire first season is streaming now on Peacock.
Don’t miss out–you really won’t want to miss a memorable Halloween episode featuring The Watcher in the Woods.
The 2012 Seth MacFarlane movie Ted starred Mark Wahlberg as John Bennett, an everyguy in Boston whose talking Teddy Ruxpin bear came to life in his youth, and he brought it… him… Ted… along as his buddy for his entire life. MacFarlane provided the snarky voice of Ted. Ted co-starred Mila Kunis, and Joel McHale, with Sam Jones returning as Flash Gordon, and it was narrated by Patrick Stewart. It’s a burst-out-loud every minute kind of gross-out comedy, that was followed up by the equally funny Ted 2, co-starring Amanda Seyfried, Jessica Barth, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Dorn.
The TV series stars MacFarlane again as Ted, with Max Burkholder as young John, in the year 1993. The comedy is 100% like the movies, only a coming-of-age version, like an updated Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In some parallel world there’s probably a Movies to Go with a season 1 VHS of Ted shelved right next to Alf and Mork & Mindy. The framework of the series is even better at what made the movies work–like Alf and Mork & Mindy (and like Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol), every scene works only to the extent of the seriousness of the actors. They had to appear to believe Alf and Mork were aliens before the viewers could believe, and here, you’ll never stop to ask whether a teddy bear is really running around talking because the actors never flinch or blink at the notion.
Also key to it all is the choice of music and comedy timing of every scene. The segues and music cues between scenes are like those in The Brady Bunch or Bewitched. After some quaint music the uninitiated never would guess what was coming up is a scene of a teenager and his bear sharing a bong. Harold Ramis would love it, and fans of Ramis’s humor will love the show. Somehow MacFarlane & Co. interweave it all into something for anyone who didn’t know they needed an R-Rated version of That ’70s Show.
The series has five major ties back to MacFarlane’s series The Orville. That of course includes MacFarlane in the lead role. The Orville’s pilot Scott Grimes plays John’s angry dad Matty, a truly obnoxious–and yet probably very real to many–update to the dads from My Three Sons and Leave it to Beaver, only he’s closer in temperament to the dad on The Wonder Years or A Christmas Story–or Fred Flintstone. Matty’s politics and worldview are kept in check by John’s older cousin Blaire, who lives with the Bennetts. She’s played by Giorgia Whigham, who played guest character Lysella on The Orville (and co-starred in The Punisher). The Orville (and Deep Space Nine) star Penny Johnson Jerald is the friendly but serious principal at John and Ted’s school. Also from The Orville is MacFarlane editing collaborator and producer Tom Costantino, who keeps all the jokes snappy. Even more players cross over from MacFarlane projects behind the scenes. Alanna Ubach rounds out the cast as John’s mousy 1950s throwback mom Suze–it’s very much like she was plucked straight from any family drama pre-1960. As a bonus Ian McKellen steps in as narrator. And Star Trek Voyager’s Tim Russ is along for a cameo.
Burkholder, Grimes, and Ubach seize what must be tough roles to play. But you can see Giorgia Whigham’s performance as a standout–with such a great range of antics to conquer, this show could propel her into much bigger projects in the near future. Sometimes she looks like she’s going to burst right out of the scene (or punch Matty in the face).
The unsung heroes of the series are sure to be Costantino, Blair Clark, Justin Ulrich, Allie Mitchell, and the rest of the editing team and VFX companies. The splicing into every scene of Ted the CGI bear, a puppet, his movements, his speaking, others’ reactions… every bit is seamless. One scene has an exhausted Blaire and Ted close together, interacting on a couch speaking over each other and it’s the kind of taken-for-granted Hollywood magic that would have spun Charlie Chaplin’s head around more than a century ago.
Season 1 delivers a classic Halloween episode, a Christmas episode, a show where Ted gets coerced into going to school with John, a bullying episode, John and Ted explore the secret room at the video store, an episode where Susan and Matty go to a marriage therapist, and one where Ted tries to help John lose his virginity. There’s a Fozzie the Bear joke from the first episode I’m still laughing about, and there’s a show pitch within the show that someone really needs to jump on. This is not a show to binge, but to watch weekly like a sitcom of years gone by. Once the last episode ends, you’ll wish there were more–now. Will there be a second season? There better be. To quote the late Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part.
It’s everything it promises to be. Fans of Ted and Ted 2 won’t want to miss the gut-busting comedy of Ted the series, one of the year’s funniest shows, with all seven first season episodes streaming now on Peacock.
