After the release of Seth MacFarlane’s 2012 movie Ted, and the sequel, Ted 2, in 2015, the prequel series landed lots of laughs for its audience, never shying away from the most outrageous joke possible. In Season 2 of Ted (premiering Thursday, March 5 at 9:00 p.m. ET on Showcase and STACKTV in Canada), it’s 1994, and John Bennett (Max Burkholder) is in his senior year of high school, spending a lot of time in his room getting high with Ted (Seth MacFarlane).
There are a ton of hysterical new misadventures in a new season that feels even more heightened. From playing Dungeons & Dragons to making calls to a phone sex hotline from the school basement, there’s a lot of new territory that John and Ted explore.
But Season 2 also really makes the whole Bennett family shine, with so many more brazen and just downright funny moments for John’s mom, Susan (Alanna Ubach), his dad Matty (Scott Grimes) and cousin Blair (Giorgia Whigham).
“[Seth] has amazing taste. His taste in what is funny is perfection, because it really will tickle anyone from the age of, you know, 16 to 106. Everyone has someone they can relate to,” Alanna Ubach told Yahoo Canada. “And he’s also cherry-picked these incredible writers that have the same sensibility as he has, comedy-wise, … they know what tickles people. … And a lot of it is naughty, and just for pure fun.”
How Lucille Ball influences Alanna Ubach
Susan, in particular, really goes on a ride in Ted Season 2. We see more of her outside the Bennett home, and this devout Catholic, soft-spoken housewife even gets drunk in one episode.
“Fun and wacky, and I played it for the laughs,” Ubach said. “And that was the exciting part of it is that it’s just, oh my gosh, another side of her.”
For Ubach’s personal approach to playing Susan as brilliantly as she does, she takes inspiration from Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy.
“I grew up watching I Love Lucy, forever, and there were so many wonderful situations that she was put in. And that’s what I think of anytime I’m in trouble, and I’m trying to figure out what the scene is about, I’m like, ‘Alanna, just Lucy it.’ … Go with whatever you’re given.”
While we won’t spoil one particularly insane storyline for Susan in Season 2, we will say it’s a highlight of the series, completely unexpected but incredibly hysterical, as Susan is put in a situation with a lot of new characters.
“I couldn’t wait,” Ubach said about that episode of Ted Season 2. “The casting director is so wonderful on this, I knew she was going to bring the best of the best character actresses to this particular episode, and they were so good. So fun to watch and learn from.”
TED — “Talk Dirty to Me” Episode 205 — Pictured: (l-r) Scott Grimes as Matty, Alanna Ubach as Susan — (Photo by: Justin Lubin/PEACOCK via Getty Images)
(Peacock via Getty Images)Alanna Ubach and Scott Grimes: ‘Anything for a laugh’
But always a core element for Susan is her relationship with her brash husband, Matty, and while Season 2 gets even crazier between them, you also explore that relationship so much more.
“When a couple has been together that long, … if it is dysfunctional, … they’re really codependent. I don’t think she has a purpose unless it’s trying to justify this crazy, wacky dude’s reason for being,” Ubach said. “I don’t think they’d be anything without each other. … He’s such a needle scratcher, and it’s her job to just keep playing the music.”
Speaking about working with costar Scott Grimes, Ubach highlighted that they share a comedic language, which creates an infectious banter between them, lobbing funny lines back and forth, paired with the most amazing physicality for their characters.
“I think it really does help when you love your costar,” Ubach said. “And so whatever situation we’re thrown into, Scott and I are just so game.”
“We sort of come from that school of anything goes, anything for a laugh. We’re huge Mel Brooks fans. We’re huge Gene Wilder fans. And so he and I speak the same language. And so that really, really helps, because when you’re reading the scene, you’re like, ‘Oh, I wonder what Scott’s going to bring to this? Oh, I’m going to surprise him with this!’ We just love the play.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 05: (L-R) Scott Grimes, Alanna Ubach, Giorgia Whigham, Seth MacFarlane and Max Burkholder attend Peacock’s “Ted” Season 2 Premiere on March 05, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/WireImage)
(Dia Dipasupil via Getty Images)
While Ubach has been in several incredibly successful and beloved projects in her career, from Legally Blonde to Friday Night Lights, Euphoria, Mythic Quest and The Last of Us, she has a great appreciation for all the fans who have been loving Ted.
“It’s the coolest thing in the world,” Ubach said. “Your work was done a year and a half ago, and then you’re reminded, wow, this is so cool. They’re really responding to this. And then it brings you back to those wonderful memories of trying to make it as special as possible while you’re on set.”