INDIANAPOLIS — Thunder buddies for life!
Everyone's favorite raunchy teddy bear is back in "Ted," a prequel television series from Seth MacFarlane ("Family Guy," "American Dad!") that follows the title character in the early 1990s — approximately 20 years before the events in the 2012 film take place.
"Ted's corruption of John (Bennett) hasn't fully taken hold yet. There's still some room for this to be a good, productive member of society, but we all know where it ends up," said actor Max Burkholder ("Parenthood," "Daddy Day Care"), who portrays Mark Wahlberg's character from the films. "It's such a fun combination of stuff because you get to still feel like a good guy while you're doing it. He's got a heart, he loves his family, he loves his best friend, but he's just so dumb."
And one may think, how does a former Harvard student like Burkholder take on a role of an immature teenager whose best friend is a troublemaking stuffed-animal?
"Me and John actually aren't all that different," Burkholder said. "We can both be real idiots about things and just really dig our heels in unnecessarily when we're definitely wrong about something."
There are various methods when it comes to films and television shows combining live action and animation/CGI, such as stand-in actors/objects. But when it comes to the character Ted, there's nobody and nothing there for Burkholder to act alongside.
"Kind of a trip for about the first two weeks. After then, you start to be able to see him in space," Burkholder said. "If I were to just look around the room, I could just see him anywhere, doing anything."
All seven episodes of "Ted" begin streaming on Peacock Thursday, Jan. 11.