Seth MacFarlane sued over source of the idea of ‘Ted‘
Hours after a press release for the upcoming ‘Ted 2‘ open casting call, Deadline reports that creators of a web series came up with the idea of ‘Ted‘ before Seth MacFarlane.
Creators of a web series created a show centering on a foul-mouthed teddy bear that enjoys drinking, smoking and prostitutes. Now, producers of Ted, Seth MacFarlane and Universal Pictures are facing a copyright infringement lawsuit.
Read More: ‘TED 2′ Starring Mark Wahlberg Open Casting Call in Boston
Bengal Mangle Productions argues that Ted “is an unlawful copy” of their own animated teddy bear, who was featured in two different web series, Charlie The Abusive Teddy and Acting School Academy.
“Both Charlie and Ted reside in a substantially similar environment, including that both Charlie and Ted spend a significant amount of time sitting on a living room couch with a beer and/or cigarette in hand,” the suit claims. “Charlie and Ted each have a substantially similar persona, verbal tone, verbal delivery, dialogue, and attitude.”
The suit states that in the Charlie web series, the talking teddy is seen “describing what he wants to do to a prostitute; talking about not wanting to go to rehab; yelling at Amy for making him peas; telling his mother he has spread catnip on his testicles; suggesting he and his father go to the strip club together, and pistol whipping someone to get his point across,” while in Acting School Academy he is seen “telling Amy to get an abortion.” The suit claims that these scenes are “substantially similar to ones in Ted in which Ted is seen “showing a woman all the lewd acts he wants to perform with her; using violence to get his point across to John; talking to Nora Jones about their sexual history, and making fat jokes even when his life is in danger.”
Producers filing suit against Seth MacFarlane even pointed out similarities in Twitter postings.
Here is a clip from Charlie The Abusive Teddy that producers argue is a copies version of TED:
Discuss this story with fellow Project Casting fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @projectcasting.
