Bongs and Teddy Bears: 'Ted' Series Goes for It on Peacock

January 16, 2024

Ted with a beer at left and a bong at right, via Peacock

Fans of the Ted movies will be overjoyed with the new Ted prequel TV series on Peacock. It's actually way better than the movies starring Mark Wahlberg in 2012 and 2015.

It's 1993 in Framingham, MA and everyone has a wicked New England accent. We learn Ted came to life in 1985 and had a few years of notoreity before America tired of his talking Teddy bear act. By '93, he's living with a family and is best friends with introverted 16-year-old Johnny (Max Burkholder). Ted's the perfect antidote for his shyness.

Sheila (Charly Jordan) smokes and then sells Ted weed.

In Ep. 1, Johnny decides he'd be a lot cooler among the high school kids if he smoked pot, but he's too nervous to ask hot-girl Sheila (Charly Jordan) who's puffing on a joint in her red convertible. Ted eggs him on. After an awkward introduction, she inadvertently connects him with Johnny's cousin Blaire (Giorgia Whigham), who lives with his family. Blaire provides the weed and – poof! – Johnnny instantly becomes a stoner. For the rest of the series, he and Ted trade bong hits.

Johnny: "I don't know what the big deal is. Pot's gonna be legal in a year anyway."

The family's straight out of All in the Family, Married with Children and That '70s Show. The dad, Matty (Scott Grimes), is an Archie Bunker-style racist, wife Susan (Alana Ubach) plays the classic "dingbat" and Blaire's a feminist like Gloria Bunker. Johnny's too young to approximate Rob Reiner's "Meathead." But he might just get there if Ted is extended for several more seasons. Ted (voiced by the show''s creator Todd MacFarlane) is the wildcard, the conscience, the unfiltered voice that says what others are thinking but wouldn't dare blurt out. Ted and Johnny are like Beavis & Butthead, constantly feeding off each other with dumbass comments.

Ep. 1 sets the tone for this cannabis-infused comedy. Both Johnny and Ted smoke weed for the first time. Blaire and her GF Sarah (Marissa Shankar) are growing it but you never see the room. An argument breaks out at dinner.

Johnny: "I don't know what the big deal is. Pot's gonna be legal in a year anyway."

Matty: "It's a gateway drug. They talk about it on the news."

Ted: "What are we supposed to do - start with heroin?"

It's the kind of smart, funny dialogue that makes Ted worth watching.

During a Halloween party in Ep. 4, girls fawn all over Ted. "I alway wanted to smoke weed with a Teddy bear," one coos.

Later in the car, Blaire is mad at Ted: "What are you? A deadbeat Teddy bear with a drug problem."

"At least I have a drug problem," he fires back.