{"id":495379,"date":"2026-06-12T03:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495379\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T03:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:37:12","slug":"teds-seth-macfarlane-talks-season-2-upcoming-animated-series-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495379\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ted’s Seth MacFarlane Talks Season 2, Upcoming Animated Series & More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRunning a comedy is already hard enough. But, running one built around a CGI teddy bear presents its own unique challenges. For co-showrunners and EPs Seth MacFarlane<\/a>, Brad Walsh<\/a> and Paul Corrigan<\/a>, Ted<\/a> requires the same creative instincts as any sitcom: building stories, developing character arcs and eliciting laughs in the writers\u2019 room. Season 2 takes some worthy swings that blend broad comedy with surprising emotional depth, all while pulling off some of TV\u2019s most ambitious VFX feats across various sight gags.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, MacFarlane, Walsh and Corrigan talk to Deadline about the realities of showrunning Ted, their new Ted animated series, the collaborative process behind bringing laughs to life and why the show\u2019s VFX team remains integral to every creative decision.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Seth<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTed Season 2 Pictured: (L-R) Max Burkholder as John, Seth MacFarlane as the voice of Ted <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeacock<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You\u2019ve got a dildo to a lute ballad regarding the movie Philadelphia. How did you push the boundaries with the humor that you\u2019re doing this time around in Season 2?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSETH MACFARLANE: I think with any comedy of this type, there\u2019s always the pressure to top yourself from season to season or from episode to episode. I remember when they sent me the sculpt of the dildo from the props department, and that was definitely a career moment, where I thought to myself, \u201cGod, all I ever wanted to do was a musical. Now I\u2019m looking at plastic dicks and giving a thumbs up or thumbs down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: How do you all get together in the writers\u2019 room and figure out what jokes sell and which ones don\u2019t?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBRAD WALSH: I mean, I certainly think the reaction of the room is to be trusted first and foremost. Then we do step back sometimes and double-check, do a gut check on whether we want something to go out into the world, but you can sort of tell when the reaction, if you fill a table with people whose opinions you respect and then they react, you know that something is real.<\/p>\n

\n\tCORRIGAN: What Brad was saying is pretty true. If there\u2019s 10 people around a room and someone says something and we all laugh, it\u2019s a pretty good indication that it\u2019s funny. And by the same token, if there are a few people sitting there going, \u201cI\u2019m not comfortable with that,\u201d you think twice and you really do make sure it\u2019s something you want to put out in the world, because once it\u2019s out, it\u2019s out.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: You\u2019ve got Susan going to jail, an abortion storyline and themes of having vulnerabilities while maintaining your masculinity. Was there a challenging storyline to get through this season?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMACFARLANE: I don\u2019t think so. It\u2019s a pretty great writers\u2019 room. It\u2019s one of the best writers\u2019 rooms I\u2019ve ever been in. It\u2019s shocking how manageable the hours were that we worked from day to day, because the amount that we got done during that time that was of the caliber that we hoped to achieve for the show was really impressive. And I don\u2019t remember any particularly challenging story. I mean, it\u2019s not like we\u2019re doing The Handmaid\u2019s Tale here. [Laughs].\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Right, totally. I\u2019m wondering more about how you balanced the comedy and humor in the abortion episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMACFARLANE: I mean, for that kind of stuff, for me personally, I\u2019ll just say, I always go by the Norman Lear rule that anything that treads on controversial topics has to feel like everything is coming from the character. The characters always have to remain in character. You don\u2019t ever want a situation where you can hear the writer\u2019s voice speaking through the character, who effectively turns into a mouthpiece. Matty has to sound like Matty. Blaire has to sound like Blaire. Susan has to sound like Susan. The truth of the characters has to come first, and I think that protects you from falling into the soapboxy trap that some shows fall into.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTed Season 2 Pictured: Giorgia Whigham as Blaire, Alanna Ubach as Susan, Scott Grimes as Matty, Max Burkholder as John <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJustin Lubin\/Peacock<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Ted makes this joke about possibly being able to live for a thousand years, but he isn\u2019t sure if that\u2019s true or not. On the backend for you all, is there any other bear science that you still need to work out that you haven\u2019t yet?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCORRIGAN: Oh, that\u2019s a good question. We didn\u2019t wind up turning this into an episode, but in pre-production we did talk about Ted losing an eye and watching the eye go on a journey, that he had to figure out where the eye was, and he could still see through it. That\u2019s something that hopefully we\u2019ll explore in the future, perhaps on the animated show.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What do you think is the most underrated aspect about the show that people aren\u2019t talking about enough?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMACFARLANE: I think, in a broad sense, all of us would like to really get back to comedies being comedies on the Emmy ballot, as opposed to dramas that sneak into the category. I know there\u2019s a lot of comedy writers, most comedy writers, in my experience that are done rolling their eyes at that. But for me specifically, look, there\u2019s some great performances from these actors. Alanna Ubach, a thousand percent deserves recognition. But the one that really is my crusade is the VFX team. What they did, even in Season 1, is something that I have not ever seen done on television. I\u2019ve been in animation for years, so I pay attention to this stuff. And the quality of what they did and the quantity of what they did, coupled with each other, is just unprecedented on TV. You see it in features, for sure. But in television, for eight episodes, with not just a CGI character, but a CGI character who really has to be acted in the most subtle way in every single shot \u2014 and you\u2019re talking about thousands of shots \u2014 it\u2019s really extraordinary.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn some ways, the show suffered from how good the work was that that team did, that you almost don\u2019t even think about the fact that Ted is CGI, because the animators are so good. It\u2019s Blair Clark and his team here and then the team in Framestore Melbourne. They\u2019re just extraordinary and they just blew my mind on a daily basis with their talent. I\u2019m not somebody who obsesses over awards, but that was the first time that I thought, \u201cOh, maybe people aren\u2019t paying attention. Maybe nobody\u2019s watching this shit.\u201d\u00a0 Because what these guys did was unprecedented for TV. I\u2019ve just never seen anything like it, and they deserve recognition this time around. I think that\u2019s something that really needs to happen.<\/p>\n

\n\tWALSH: Yeah. It\u2019s not just photoreal, which would be impressive enough, but it\u2019s a comedic performance and it\u2019s carrying the show. It\u2019s pretty remarkable.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What are you excited for fans to see in the Ted animated series?<\/p>\n

\n\tCORRIGAN: Obviously, the core of Ted for me has always been the friendship between John and Ted. And in the animated show, seeing them take that friendship to when they\u2019re adults and they have families and how they help each other deal with those challenges, that\u2019s, for me, going forward, what I\u2019m excited about.<\/p>\n

\n\tWALSH: I think the live-action movie and TV show and hopefully the animated series have a surprising amount of heart considering how raunchy and TV-MA they are. And we\u2019re trying to continue that as well, where they\u2019re wrestling with what does it mean to be a good dad? What does it mean to be a good spouse? What does it mean to be a good friend? And also, of course, expanding the world, as one always does with a TV show.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Ted<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTed Season 2 Pictured: (L-R) Seth MacFarlane as the voice of Ted, Michaela McManus as Mrs. Robichek. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeacock<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Do you feel you\u2019ve completed everything you wanted to do in the live-action version?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMACFARLANE: Yeah, where the prequel goes from here is really up to Peacock. It\u2019s a show that\u2019s quite costly to produce, but it\u2019s also a show that fortunately has been very successful. So, it is one of those nice situations where it has justified its budget with audience response.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut yeah, I mean, it\u2019s a lot of work to spend two years doing eight episodes of a TV series. And so, for me going forward, I love this group, I love this cast. As I\u2019ve said before, I\u2019d be game to do a one-off feature with this cast that tells a single story. As far as another eight episodes, it\u2019s certainly a discussion I\u2019m willing to have, but that\u2019s kind of where my head is at the moment.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Also, I mean, I don\u2019t think this property is going anywhere. You have that giant Ted statue on the Universal Studios Hollywood<\/a> backlot tram tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMACFARLANE: As close as we\u2019re ever getting to a theme park ride.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Oh, do you want to get a theme park ride for Ted?<\/p>\n

\n\tMACFARLANE: I mean, it wouldn\u2019t be the worst thing in the world, right? [Laughs].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Running a comedy is already hard enough. But, running one built around a CGI teddy bear presents its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[212436,93,61,60,212437,152212,82923,212438,282,41394],"class_list":["post-495379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-brad-walsh","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-paul-corrigan","tag-seth-macfarlane","tag-ted","tag-ted-season-2","tag-tv","tag-universal-studios-hollywood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}