The Raunchy New TV Comedy That’s Just Begging For A Spinoff

By TeeJay Small
| Published 21 seconds ago

When I first heard that Peacock had ordered a prequel series based on Seth MacFarlane’s 2012 movie Ted, I thought it was the worst idea ever. Sure, I remember enjoying Ted upon release as a teenager, but then again, I also enjoyed Family Guy and The Master of Disguise back in the day. Now that I’ve consumed both seasons of the Ted series, I can wholeheartedly say that I was dead wrong, and that this is one of the funniest shows I’ve watched in years.

While the core characters of Ted and his owner John are played hilariously by MacFarlane and Max Burkholder, the real show stealers are John’s middle-aged parents, Matty and Susan (Scott Grimes and Alanna Ubach.) No matter what happens to the Ted franchise over the course of the next few years, I must insist that we get more of these two characters, even if Ted himself is not involved.

Isn’t This Show About A Teddy Bear?

Let’s back things up just a little bit. For those unaware, Ted is the story of John Bennett, who wished upon a shooting star that his teddy bear would come to life in the 1980s. Once this scientific anomaly came to pass, the bear underwent a brief period of fame and fortune, only to be forgotten by pop culture and sent back to the Bennett household to live a relatively normal post-fame life. The two Ted movies, starring Mark Wahlberg, follow Ted and John as burnout thirty-somethings with no career goals or ambitions, while the Ted series highlights the pair during their high school years.

In the series, John and Ted live under the roof of Matty Bennett (Scott Grimes) and his wife, Susan (Alanna Ubach). Matty is a Nixon super-fan, Vietnam veteran, and proudly ignorant tradesman, who reminds me of every old-school Boston dirtbag I knew growing up. Susan takes on the role of stay-at-home mom and homemaker while offering chipper, cutesy replies to the insanity her family brings. Some of the biggest laughs I’ve ever experienced in my life have come from Matty’s insistence that eating an egg at night will turn you homosexual, or Susan’s very European-inspired pronunciation of words like “porno” or “Cosmopolitan.”

Ted Is Too Expensive, But Doesn’t Have To Be

As Seth MacFarlane has candidly described in the past, the Ted series is prohibitively expensive to make, clocking in at roughly $8 million per episode. That may explain why Peacock has ordered an animated spinoff series to effectively replace the live-action show, with Wahlberg returning to the leading role. While Ted hasn’t officially been cancelled yet, the season 2 finale effectively bridges the gap between the show and the first movie, leaving very little room for more Matty and Susan stories.

Sure, the couple might appear in the new Ted cartoon, but that would mean aging the couple up to their late 70s. It would also mean that Matty and Susan would only appear as tertiary side characters, if at all, since their kids are grown and out of the house. That doesn’t work for me. I need a whole show of just Matty and Susan hijinks, with maybe an occasional CGI teddy bear thrown in for yuks.

Matty & Susan Vs. The World

Basically, my proposal is to copy the blueprint of another very successful sitcom universe, and make a Matty and Susan equivalent of Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage. In case you haven’t been following, Georgie & Mandy is a spinoff of Young Sheldon, which is itself a spinoff of The Big Bang Theory. The show became a must-watch for fans of the franchise after Montana Jordan’s George Jr. completely stole the show with his wicked charm and plucky attitude.

Surely Peacock could spare the money to produce a series under a working title like Matty & Susan Vs. The World, or The Bennetts And the Bees. Without Ted, the series could even be shot like an old-school sitcom, with a soundstage and a live studio audience.

This would give Seth MacFarlane an opportunity to expand into yet another television arena, which he seems to love doing, and it would give me more time with some of my favorite characters. I’d also get to keep doing the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme every time the characters go to the South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Massachusetts, my childhood mall.