Seth MacFarlane Ted TV Show Surprisingly Funny

"Ted" is a bawdy teddy bear fantasy series that brings crude humor and pop culture references to life. Hilarious and unpredictable.

Ted is a bawdy teddy bear fantasy that has spawned two R-rated movies and a new prequel series on Peacock. The furry beast talks back, often in a four-letter flourish, and behaves like a teenage troublemaker. Creator Seth MacFarlane clearly finds it all funny, continually returning to this particular well. In this case, he happens to be right.

You might feel cheap or dirty as you laugh, or wonder if you've fully regressed to a state of belated adolescence. This is the state where MacFarlane, the joker behind Family Guy, American Dad, and other pop culture-happy odes to arrested development, generally resides. But this new sitcom sendup provides some waters of rejuvenation. The carpet-bombed gags don't always hit, but when they do their cleverness resonates, especially for those of us who were alive and consuming culture in the series' early-Nineties timeframe.

Part of the appeal, in both the series and the original 2012 Mark Wahlberg movie, is the shoulder-shrugging indifference to the fact that some guy wished his teddy bear to life, and that said bear is now out in the world, acting the wiseacre. In the series, Ted is just another part of the Bennett household, best friend and bad influence to 16-year-old John, a likable teen burdened with typical teen stuff. John's burdens include bullies, awkwardness around the opposite sex, and a family that could have been ripped from a working class Nineties sitcom that made a point of being edgy.

The dad, Matty, is a parody of blue-collar Beantown bluster. The mom, Susan, is a passive, spacy housewife with some hidden depths. Both parents are nicely realized comic creations. John's cousin, Blaire, is a college student living with the Bennetts instead of her own screwed-up family, offering John life lessons and advice on the big, bad world ahead. Ted fits into this tapestry, not quite a family member but abiding by the family rules, such as they are.

The pop culture references fly fast and furious. Some of the nuggets dip into the previous decade: Ted and John have a taste for reruns of The A-Team, Matty is really into Rocky IV, and Ted dresses as an Ewok for Halloween, although people keep mistaking him for Lawrence of Arabia. MacFarlane is adept at swimming in this flotsam and jetsam, so it makes sense that his Ursidae creation would be as well.

Ted is crude by definition, and generally broad. But it can also get gleefully unpredictable. The series has the spirit of improv, including that form's turn-on-a-dime spontaneity. It also manages to poke fun at the very sitcom genre it embodies. No, it won't be winning any Peabody awards. But you could do a hell of a lot worse for a show about an ill-behaving toy.

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