Season 2 of Seth MacFarlane’s Ted is only about a month away, and we have a new trailer filled to the brim with laughs. All of your favorites are back–Seth MacFarlane as the voice of the funny and irascible titular teddy bear, Max Burkholder as John, The Punisher’s Giorgia Whigham as cousin Blaire, The Orville’s Scott Grimes as John’s dad Matty, and Venom: The Last Dance and The Good Cop’s Alanna Ubach as mom Suze. Season 2 begins Thursday, March 5, 2026, when all eight episodes arrive at once for your viewing pleasure.
Ted and John go where they’ve never gone before–their senior year of high school. Set your humor meter for stun, or eleven, or whatever. We can hardly wait. Check out the first trailer for Season 2 of Ted:
Plenty of stories start as a TV show and then switch to a movie version, and vice versa, including flipping around between sequels and prequels. But how many are actually consistent in quality? We at borg counted the first season of Ted in the win column (check it out here) naming it 2024’s Best Series, Best Comedy Series, Best TV Retro Fix, Best New Series, Best Coming-of-Age Series, Best TV Writing, and Best TV Visual Effects. 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.
One more thing: MacFarlane accounced a new animated spin-off is coming, featuring the cast from their older, movie incarnations. So look for Mark Wahlberg as the voice of older John, plus Ted the movie and Ted 2 the sequel co-stars Amanda Seyfried as Sam and Jessica Barth as Ted’s lady Tami-Lynn. Plus new to the franchise, Kyle Mooney will voice Apollo and first season actor Liz Richman (who played Polly) will voice a character named Ruth.
In case you don’t know Ted yet… 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 of Season 1 was 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.
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 stepped in as narrator. And Star Trek Voyager’s Tim Russ came along for a cameo.
The first season was everything it promised to be and more. Fans of Ted and Ted 2 won’t want to miss the gut-busting comedy of Ted the series, one of 2024 year’s funniest and smartest written shows, with all seven first season episodes streaming now on Peacock. Season 2 begins Thursday, March 5, 2025–keep checking back here at borg for news on the premiere of the animated series.
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
