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Why parents should let their kids take the lead during college application season

Alejandra Marquez Janse

Courtney Dorning

Mary Louise Kelly

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with writer, podcaster and TV Host Kelly Corrigan about her essay on how applying for college provides an opportunity for growth.

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Kelly Corrigan | An open letter to every high school senior waiting to hear back from college admissions

By kelly corrigan | december 16, 2018.

There’s a story about a farmer that’s been circulating for thousands of years that’s worth considering as you react to whatever news you get this week.

So there’s a farmer, let’s call him Joe. Joe had a horse, let’s call the horse Big Red. One morning, Big Red ran away. Word spread and all his neighbors said something like: OMG that sux! to which Joe said: We’ll see, and went back to tending his crops, best he could.

The next day, who turns up in the farmer’s field but Big Red, and he’s brought with him with two more horses and all his neighbors said: Dude you’re so lucky! And Joe said: We’ll see, and went back to tending his crops, best he could.

The next day, Joe’s son, Joey, tried to ride one of the new horses and was thrown. He broke his leg and the neighbors said: Totally brutal, so sorry! And Joe said: We’ll see, and went back to tending his crops, best he could.

The next day, the army came through village, drafting young men for war. Joey was disqualified from serving–thanks to that brutal broken leg–and all the neighbors said: that’s amazing! And Farmer Joe said: We’ll see, and went back to tending his crops,best he could.

Point is, it is impossible to predict whether getting exactly what we want at any given moment will end up being a good thing, a bad thing or a sometimes good/sometimes bad thing, and the single biggest determinant is you.

Personally, I got 1090 on my SATs and was accepted to one college. I cried for days after I was shot down by my first choice. I let it change the way I thought of myself. I acted like the guy who signed the rejection letter knew me, like the whole grim process has spit out a fair judgment of me and my value and it wasn’t pretty.

Many months later, I settled in at the only school that would take me, jumped into every club, project and class, and became more me than I had ever been. In other words, what began as “brutal” became “amazing.”

There are so many kids I love in the class of 2019, my oldest daughter chief among them. I have been rooting for you all for so long. What I’m rooting for is your daily well being, grounded in a sense of your goodness and capacity that is impervious to both recognition or rejection.

So whatever happens, remember this: You are your own good news. You can create a future for yourself, full of connection and purpose. Beneath the fear of inadequacy and the self-consciousness that suffuses public evaluation, you’re in there. You have gifts and power and will develop more of both. Tend your crops, best you can, and that will be enough. I promise.

We love you,

Kelly Corrigan

Kelly Corrigan is the author of four  New York Times  bestsellers, most recently  Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say.  Visit her website HERE .

2 thoughts on “ Kelly Corrigan | An open letter to every high school senior waiting to hear back from college admissions ”

Passing this onto my niece, a graduating senior. She will, and I do, appreciate your talent, kindness, and clarity.

Can I just say how much I LOVE this (where were these words of wisdom when my boys graduated?) Thank you. Julie Gardner

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Thanks For Being Here Stephen's College Essay - The J-Team Kelly Corrigan Wonders

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Stephen Gallagher’s college essay takes a look at what could have just been a simple summer job but became so much more. It’s often a tough job, a demanding boss or an uncomfortable experience which shapes a person and changes the course of one’s life for the better. Although this essay recounts a true story, the names of the participants have been changed.

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Read an excerpt from Kelly Corrigan's 'Tell Me More'

After six years in treatment for ovarian cancer, 46-year-old Liz Laats died, leaving her husband Andy and her children Margo, Gwen and Dru, as well as many grieving friends, including Kelly Corrigan, who writes about Liz — and to Liz — in her new book "Tell Me More."

"Tell Me More," by Kelly Corrigan, $14 (originally $16), Amazon

"Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say," by Kelly Corrigan

I’m writing from my chair in the nook off the kitchen where I always sat to talk with you on the phone. It’s been a year and a half since you were alive.

We’re just back from being with Andy and the kids. We’ve seen them a lot — I think five times in the last year. (My husband) Edward flew down a couple of days after you died. When he got to your house, the four of them were sitting at the kitchen table, stamping and addressing holiday cards — two hundred and twenty- five of them The cards said “Counting Blessings.” When Edward got home he said to me, “Are you sure we ‘don’t have the energy’ to send cards this year?”

We were all together recently in Montana. Edward and I took the master — Andy made us. He slept with Dru on a big mattress on the floor. The girls had the bunk room downstairs. So many things went right.

Dru at 10 years old is impossibly lean and muscular and gorgeous. He’s still a madman on the slopes, always first to the bottom, but he makes turns and seems more controlled in every way. When I look at him, Liz, you are right there. He holds my gaze, he lets me fall in.

Margo is settled in her new school. At 14, she’s getting busier. Volleyball, parties, days at the beach. She started lacrosse this year. Her mind still wanders. She gets that dreamy look and I laugh, thinking about how happy it would make you that she hasn’t changed, that the loss of you hasn’t snapped her out of herself.

Gwennie is planning her twelfth birthday; she wants to go to the library to celebrate. I know, so perfect. The three of us talked on the ski lift this winter. Smart girls. Deep. Gwen was wearing your purple helmet. Later that afternoon, back at your house, Gwen let me hold her for a long time. I was laying on the couch in long johns in front of a fire Edward made and Andy fixed. I reached out my arms and Gwennie came over and got on top of me and I held her for you. It was sublime.

I think back a lot on our conversations about what would happen after you died — your fears that Andy would hide at the office or drink too much or yell at the kids. But he’s not, Liz. He’s reading C.S.Lewis and going to grief counseling and swimming three days a week. He’s taking time off and learning to cook and slowing up on the Manhattans. He says he can’t afford to be hungover now that he’s a mom.

Parents Kelly Corrigan on seeing her mother in a new light

Andy has a big list of the things he can’t do yet but knows he must. Your closet is untouched. Your dresses, your shoes, your socks and old workout clothes. Your lotion and perfume. The last time I was there, I went into your bathroom to touch something of yours. There was a hoodie on the hook, hung so casually it seemed as if you’d worn it that morning. Andy knows he has to clean the closet out. We’ve talked about it. I told him I’d do it with him. He said thanks, but he was holding off for now. He did let me borrow an old pair of your sneakers, the ones with all the crazy colors, to go on a walk. I wanted to take them home but he made me put them back.

In all the times we worried about whether Andy could be mother and father, whether he could endure the loneliness and frustration and thousand tiny failures, we forgot: He’s an A student. He’s diligently learning how to be you. He works from your journals. He is your apprentice.

He cries a lot. His eyes get red and fill up and spill over and he keeps rights on talking. He doesn’t look away or apologize. It’s so wonderful, the way he lets it happen. You are right there, on his lips, at the top of his throat, all the time. Like recently I caught Andy in the kitchen making beet juice with the kids. He took out your giant metal juicing machine, the one that irked him so. The girls fed purple beets and ginger root and cucumber through the grinder. Dru dumped out the pulp. They clinked their little glasses, the ones you kept on the low shelf by the sink. Andy saw me across the kitchen simpering and said, “Yeah, yeah, I know.” They drank it all, Liz. They had beet-juice mustaches.

He and the kids are moving onward, not away from you but with you. You are everywhere they are.

I love you through them.

Why parents should let their kids take the lead during college application season

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

If you have a college bound high school senior or you know one or you are one, then you know this is the time of year that things get intense. College application deadlines are bearing down like a freight train, essays and transcripts and SATs and essays and references. And did I mention more essays?

The dumpster fire that is senior fall - that's how writer, podcaster and TV host Kelly Corrigan puts it. She is the mother of two current college students. She recently wrote, yes, an essay about the process of applying to college and about how somehow something beautiful is being formed in that dumpster fire. Kelly Corrigan, welcome.

KELLY CORRIGAN: Hey. Great to be here.

KELLY: I want to acknowledge up here near the top of the conversation the privilege in having a conversation about the stress of college and applying to college. And you get to that, you know, that for a lot of people, the financial piece of this is stressful, if not more than getting good grades or SAT scores. You write about how your kid is about to be the central figure in a shockingly expensive venture with little visibility into what the family can bear. But you argue that for the kid doing the applying, this also forces growth.

CORRIGAN: I mean, I think these are some of the biggest questions a kid has ever asked of him or herself and of his or her parents. So if you're thinking about, is it kind of greedy to want to go to a private school, is it greedy to want to go to a school that you have to fly to? I don't know what my younger siblings might need. So if I drain the bank account, you know, what's my little sister going to - what options will my little sister have? And I think that might be the first time that many kids are thinking in numbers quite that large. I mean, these are huge, huge numbers.

KELLY: So full disclosure, I have fought in these trenches. My oldest applied to college last year. We will do it all again next year with my second. I read with supreme recognition the section of your essay headlined College Fear Is Based On A Lie. What's the why?

CORRIGAN: The lie is that this is it, that this is a binary moment. And then if you get to the University of Stretch Dream Goal, everything will unfold accordingly, and if you don't, you're kind of screwed. Like, it's just - the world is going to be an uphill battle for you for the rest of your days. And I feel it. I know that that's the idea that's circulating in hallways and classrooms. I know that most parents say the word college way too many times before the fall of their kid's senior year, where you can't just take it back with one statement.

Like, if you've been noting your whole life - and I only say this from experience - who went to what college, and then your kids are starting to look at schools, and you say, it doesn't matter where you go, you'll be successful wherever you go, the kid's thinking, right, but why did you bring it up every time? Why have I been hearing about it for 15 years if it doesn't matter? Like, of course it matters. So I think for the parents of younger children, one thing I would say is make a decision with your co-parent about how many times you're going to say the word college.

KELLY: You got to start early on the self-discipline.

CORRIGAN: Of course, because they're - the children will listen.

KELLY: How - you said, I say all this based on experience. How did these conversations unfold in your house?

CORRIGAN: You know, I really feel like at some level, we blew it, to be totally honest. Because it did come up a lot. It came up too much. I mean, we both really liked college. I felt lucky that my husband got an early decision to his dream school, which is a lot of people's dream school, Yale. And I got rejected by every school except for the one I went to, University of Richmond. And I went with, like, tears in my eyes. And it was awesome. I had the best experience.

So I felt lucky that I could say to my children, look, you might be me. It might turn out that you're standing in the driveway with rejection letters hanging from both hands. And you may drag yourself to some school that you don't think is right for you. But that's not the end of the story. That's the lie is that the story ends there in the driveway with the rejection letters. The truth is the story unfolds every day and a lot of it's based on what you do.

KELLY: One of the lines from your essay that will stick with me is this - I will quote - if we agree that any one acceptance letter is not the prize, what could the reward be - developing comfort with uncertainty, expanding self-knowledge, building new capacities and a sense of agency? Because that kind of personal growth is not too much to ask of this process and what a grand outcome that would be." That's such a lovely way of thinking about it. What a grand outcome that would be.

CORRIGAN: I know. But, you know, you're fighting a culture that's sending a different message. So sometimes I think about all the voices that are in my kid's head in a given day. So that's everything that the sort of commercial entities are throwing their way, everything they're getting, all those mailers that they get throughout the fall that could fill a recycle bin, all the things you're hearing between classes from friends and whatever their college counselors are telling them. And then I'm just this tiny voice saying, you're growing right now. This is it. What you're doing right now is the stuff of greatness. But, you know, I'm like one person trying to underline one part of their existence. I mean, it's worth trying. But it's also humbling to think about the chorus of voices that's telling them otherwise, that's telling them that it's - this is only about the outcome.

KELLY: Well, and also the temptation, I suppose, for parents to get in there, roll up their sleeves and help. And it sounds like where you landed was the key. The whole point is for both parents and kids to figure out, uh-uh (ph), it's got to be the kid leading. It's not about the parents jumping in to help.

CORRIGAN: You know, it's interesting. We're doing a series on "Kelly Corrigan Wonders" right now called Live From College. And so I'm talking to kids who are all the way into school looking back on this process. And I will tell you that every kid says, my mom thought I should go here. My dad really wanted me to go here. I mean, my dad practically wrote the essay so that I would go here. Like, kids end up in schools they don't want to be in and that they might transfer from because they felt it coming through, the message loud and clear. Your father really wants you to go to such and such. Your mother would be so excited if you ended up at blahdy-blah (ph).

So the more you get involved, the more the blood's on your hands if it doesn't work. The more involved we are in our kids' lives, the less satisfaction they get to take from their achievements. Like, every time we get involved, we steal that sense of satisfaction that's possible in big undertakings like this.

KELLY: It's the writer Kelly Corrigan. She hosts the podcast "Kelly Corrigan Wonders" and the PBS program "Tell Me More." Thank you.

CORRIGAN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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A humble opinion on a successful post-pandemic world.

• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-humble-opinion-on-a-successful-post-pandemic-world

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the value of recalibrating our expectations and retraining our minds. Author Kelly Corrigan relies on a familiar mental exercise when the reality of the crisis feels like too much to handle. She shares her humble opinion on imagining a world after the pandemic -- and how the experience might change us.

Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Judy Woodruff:

One thing, among many, that COVID has taught us is how we need recalibrate our expectations and our imaginations.

Tonight, author Kelly Corrigan shares her Humble Opinion and projects what it will be like when a corner is turned.

Kelly Corrigan:

Sometimes, when I feel outmatched by the thing in front of me, I do a little mental exercise.

I tell myself the story of what happened, as if it's over and I nailed it.

This morning, I waited for 54 minutes to check out from the Safeway. The woman behind me, whose hair and makeup was perfect, had seven bottles of Martini & Rossi Vermouth. That's it.

And the guy in front of her had a full-face double ventilator gas mask. And I felt outmatched by the thing in front of me.

So, right there, I told myself the story of the 2020 pandemic and how we nailed it.

My success fantasy went like this. At first, it was awful, nothing but bad news on top of bad news. But then we rose up. We made soups and stews for old people and dropped them off, so they felt included and secure and nourished.

We read books to children over the Internet. We stepped outside at the end of the day and played music and clapped, so that each of us knew we were not alone.

We sent pizzas and Chinese food to E.R.s to sustain both our hospitals and our restaurants. We called old friends and told them things we'd forgotten to say: I miss you. I still think of you. Remember that time?

We turned up, all of us, on our screens to keep businesses afloat. And in so doing, we're exposed to the more tender elements of our colleagues' lives. Pets and children were now, to our mutual benefit, in the frame.

People figured out they don't need fancy equipment to exercise. We stopped flying around and jumping in cars for no reason. Everyone planted things they could eat. We played cards with our families. We had long conversations.

We identified what kind of learning can be delivered online. We discovered that teaching is the most complex, high-impact profession known to man, and we started compensating our teachers fairly for their irreplaceable work.

Everyone voted after coronavirus. Kids who lived through the virus valued science above all. They became researchers and doctors, kicking off the greatest period of world positive discovery and innovation the planet has ever seen.

We came, finally and forever, to appreciate the profound fact of our shared humanity and relish the full force of our love for one another.

Thank you, Kelly Corrigan.

And wouldn't it be wonderful if all of that came true?

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• American business should not empower a criminal, says Reid Hoffman

No rational CEO would want a capricious strongman in the White House, argues the entrepreneur

W OULD NEW YORK be a global financial capital, or even a prosperous city, if markets had no basis for trusting the transactions that happen there? Obviously not.

Businesses and investors rely on a robust legal system—especially courts of law and impartial, fact-based trials by jury—to enforce contracts and punish fraud. That’s why, in the past decade alone, New York City prosecutors have brought thousands of felony charges for falsifying business records. It’s a crime because it strikes at American prosperity.

For American business, the rule of law is essential. It is the soil in which commerce can take root and grow. Without this stable, predictable, rules-based environment, New York, and America, would not have become the hubs of innovation, investment, profit and progress that they are.

Unfortunately, many American business leaders have recently developed a kind of myopia, miscalculating what politics, and which political leaders, will truly support their long-term success. Perhaps this stems from their having lived their entire lives in a stable legal regime that they now take for granted. But a robust, reliable legal system is not a given. It is a necessity we can ill afford to live without. We trade it away at our peril.

Which makes it all the more lamentable that a growing number of America’s corporate and financial leaders are opening their wallets for Donald Trump.

Of course, few of these leaders would do actual business with Mr Trump. Even fewer would trust him to pay his bills. Long before the Electoral College made him president in 2016, Mr Trump was known as a liar and grifter who would browbeat vendors and debtors. More recently, American courts—including two unanimous juries—have found him to have engaged in sexual assault, defamation, fraud (including misuse of charitable funds) and—by a unanimous Colorado Supreme Court—insurrection.

So why are so many of my business-leader peers writing cheques to give nearly unchecked power to a man with whom they wouldn’t sign a condominium contract? There are a few explanations.

Some kid themselves, or pretend, that Mr Trump can be normal and controlled. Never mind the striking refusal by his former vice-president, Mike Pence, to endorse him as the Republican nominee. Or the stinging words of John Kelly, Mr Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, who has called him “a person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our constitution, and the rule of law”. Dozens of other former Trump officials, military leaders and campaign operatives echo this analysis.

Others of Mr Trump’s business-class supporters claim that President Joe Biden is somehow more dangerous than the convicted felon and pathological liar. The laziest cite the actions of far-left figures who play no role in Mr Biden’s administration. Relatively more serious critics mention disagreeable Democratic economic policies. When they manage to get specific with their criticisms, I sometimes agree. But if economics is their metric, it seems not just irrational but deeply irresponsible for them to ignore some clear financial truths. Under Mr Biden America has hit record after record: in stockmarkets, oil and gas production, employment and more. And its GDP growth is the envy of most of the world’s economies.

Sadly, the true motives of some in Mr Trump’s camp are even uglier. He and his ideological allies have been quite explicit: upon regaining power, they intend to corrupt the legal system to use the state against political opponents. Some American elites support this autocratic agenda because in such a Trumpist regime they expect to be the new oligarchs. Others fear that opposing Mr Trump will bring retaliation, so seek safety by pledging loyalty.

Most conventionally, of course, there is the simple siren promise of a second Trump term’s lower corporate-tax rates and softer regulatory enforcement. But it’s all penny-wise at best, when stacked against the likelihood of, say, Justice, State and Defence Departments purged and restaffed with MAGA cronies, loyal not to the USA but to DJT .

There is a historical pattern to the collapse of the rule of law in advanced countries: it happens when powerful groups naively judge that a strongman will stay contained. Today’s pro-Trump business elites are making the same crucial mistake as any other influential group choosing to empower an autocrat. To paraphrase Tim Snyder, a Yale historian: “He is not your strongman—he is his own strongman.”

Mr Trump’s felony convictions in the Stormy Daniels election-interference case, and the subsequent Republican attack on the American judicial system, have clarified this election’s epochal stakes: the systemic rule of law versus the capricious rule of a strongman.

America’s rules-based system, with its stability and continuity, has delivered enormous gains to the country—and to humanity. America saw its first peaceful transfer of political power in 1801. This proud tradition went unbroken until the Capitol attack of January 6th 2021. And the man who broke with it, a criminal, is dead-set on scuttling the system that really did make America great.

When the courts go against him, as they so often have, Mr Trump claims—just like every other “wrongly” convicted felon—that the system is rigged. Meanwhile his lawyers have argued at the Supreme Court that as president he should be permitted any use of state violence. And Mr Trump’s party is now committed to delegitimising, rejecting and attacking juries, courts, elections and any other mechanisms that might hold the leader legally or electorally accountable. The danger speaks for itself.

In short, the rule of law is on the line in this election. Americans who prize respect for the law, stability and prosperity—including even business leaders who might value the last of these most highly—should take Mr Trump literally and seriously, and do everything they can to prevent his return to the White House. ■

Reid Hoffman is a tech entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist and co-founder of LinkedIn. He provided third-party financial support for E. Jean Carroll’s civil lawsuits, which led to two unanimous guilty verdicts against Donald Trump.

By Invitation June 8th 2024

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Students Want Charges Dropped. What Is the Right Price for Protests?

At pro-Palestinian demonstrations, students have broken codes of conduct and, sometimes, the law. But the question of whether and how to discipline them is vexing universities.

By Jeremy W. Peters

Youssef Hasweh expected to receive his diploma from the University of Chicago on Saturday.

What he got instead was an email from the associate dean of students informing him that, because he was under investigation for his participation in a protest encampment on the campus quad, “your degree will not be conferred until the resolution of this matter.”

Like scores of other student demonstrators across the country, Mr. Hasweh has been swept up into a kind of disciplinary limbo. Although he was allowed to participate in graduation, his university is withholding his degree until it determines whether and how to punish him for breaking its code of conduct for refusing to vacate an encampment, which the police cleared on May 7.

He has already been formally reprimanded by the university for being part of a group that occupied an administration building last year in a protest over the Israel-Hamas war.

A Student Protester Facing Disciplinary Action Has ‘No Regrets’

As commencement season continues, youssef hasweh, a college senior in chicago, is one of many student protesters around the country who face disciplinary action. with less than two weeks until graduation, his academic future remains in limbo..

“This is the graduation gown that I may or may not be wearing — if they let me walk. I’m leaving UChicago with a criminal record and maybe not with a degree. My name is Youssef. I’m a Brooklyn native. I’m half Palestinian, half Moroccan, and UChicago was definitely my dream school.” “Oh my God. I got to the University of Chicago. Mom!” “And during my time here my mission was to make it a dream school for other folks. And that sort of led me straight into the admissions office. I became a student visit coordinator. I gave tours. I got to act as a college rep. And that sort of bubble of being an ambassador for UChicago on the global scale popped when I started talking about my identity, and I started talking about being Palestinian and critiquing the university.” [chanting] [unclear] “We’ve been doing actions all year. Blockades, sit-ins, rallies, protests, banner drops, flyers, brochures — everything. We really just wanted a meeting with Paul, the president of the University of Chicago. So we wanted, like, financial records. We wanted transparency. We wanted to know where our money was going. And then we wanted the university to divest from all Israeli entities. And it took having to occupy a building and perform a sit-in. Like, 30 of us went into Rosenwald, which is the admissions office, and we just sort of set up camp.” [chanting] [unclear] “I was just thinking to myself, Oh, like, I’m going to be arrested.” [chanting] “You invest in genocide.” “The state attorney had made a statement that she wasn’t going to prosecute protest charges. So as soon as our charges were dropped, the university decided to go through the formal process for us, which means everything is on the table. We could be suspended. We could be expelled.” “We came back to join a national encampment movement.” “We won’t stop until we win.” “We actually were planning an encampment as well, prior to Columbia’s launch. Just seeing solidarity all over the country made us more confident to do this encampment.” “What do you know.” “Where does all our money go.” “Where does our money go.” “I have family in Palestine, and I’m living in Palestine. This is my 24/7. I mean, I’m done. Like, I have nothing left here. And that’s weird, like, coming from me, who spent so many years, not just, like, loving this university, but helping others love it. Like, I’m crushed that the university would ever do this. I feel like I have nothing left at the university here, but people in Palestine truly have nothing.”

The question of how harshly to discipline these students cuts deep in academia, where many universities take pride in their history of student activism, on issues such as civil rights, the Vietnam War, South African apartheid and income inequality. Some faculty members themselves celebrate such activism and encourage students to become politically involved — and have also faced arrest and discipline for doing so.

But today, some students have made a demand of their colleges that is vexing administrators and veterans of past social movements: They want all charges against them, both academic and legal, dropped. Many students have been charged with criminal misdemeanors, such as trespassing. Others have faced discipline from their universities, which can range from a warning on their records to suspensions and expulsions.

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‘Ted’ Renewed for Season 2 at Peacock

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Joe Otterson

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The “ Ted ” prequel series has been renewed for Season 2 at Peacock , Variety has learned.

Originally presented as an event series, the seven-episode first season of “Ted” debuted on the streamer in January. It serves as a prequel to the two “Ted” feature films, which were released in 2012 and 2015.

Per Peacock, the show became its most-watched original title to date and was also the top streaming comedy in the U.S. for more than two consecutive months, according to Nielsen data.

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MacFarlane created the series and also serves as executive producer, director, and co-showrunner. Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh are also writers on the series as well as executive producers and co-showrunners. Erica Huggins, Alana Kleiman, Jason Clark, and Aimee Carlson of MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door Productions executive produce as well. UCP produces along with MRC. MacFarlane is currently under an overall deal with NBCUniversal.

The first “Ted” movie proved to be a major box office hit, grossing nearly $550 million on a budget of $65 million. The sequel grossed over $215 million. Both films were produced by Universal Pictures and MRC Films.

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