The Bad News Bears

Jack Warden, one of our great character actors, plays Morris Buttermaker, a pool cleaner who loses his temper and drives a customer's car into same. A judge gives him a choice of jail or the chance to manage a junior high school's baseball team. Warden takes the job but soon realizes that jail might have been a better choice. This team had some great characters, not the least of which was a very young Corey Feldman. They were loveable and endearing and you cared about all of them. Why wasn't it given more time to catch on? I have no idea, but I'm sorry that it didn't get that chance. This TV version was better than the movie in my opinion. Not enough episodes were made for it to have a chance in reruns. "Bad News"

The Bad News Bears is one of my all-time favorite baseball movies that spawned two sequels and a prime time sitcom. The good news is that the show had an outstanding cast, anchored by Jack Warden who took over Walter Mattheu's role as Buttermaker and Catherine Hicks, years before she played Annie on 7th Heaven. There were also outstanding young actors, including Kristoff St. John as Ahmad, Corey Feldman as Regi and Meeno Peluce (Soleil Moon Frye's brother) as Tanner.

With a cast like that, the show had lots of potential. Warden's Buttermaker was still a swimming pool cleaner who was faced with going to jail after driving a client's car into a pool or coaching a little league team. He chose the latter and as the season progressed it was better than the big house.

Also, the producers did the right thing in keeping "March of the Toreadors" from the Bizet opera Carmen as the sitcom's theme music. It was also used over the closing credits in the original Bad News Bears movie.

Unfortunately, CBS kept moving the show around, confusing viewers over when it would be shown and three episodes into its second season, it struck out. Hopefully someday, the episodes will be available on DVD, proving to viewers that The Bad News Bears wasn't bad news.

This TV series cracks me up. Who would actually try to make a whole TV series about a baseball team? And what is up with the "slang" terms they use? Are we supposed to know what some kind of phrase like, "What the puckney are you doing" means? I'm not saying that this TV series is bad, it's just strange. Actually I've only seen one episode, because I wasn't alive when this series originally ran. But it was like it should have been a movie...which it was. Well, whatever.

"The Bad News Bears" was made into a movie in 1976 that became a sensational box-office hit Starring Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal that was written by Bill Lancaster(who was the son of the legendary Hollywood actor Burt Lancaster)that won the Writers Guild of America award that same year for Best Original Screenplay not to mention got an Oscar nomination also. The phenomenon success of "The Bad News Bears" spawned two sequels "The Bad News Bears Go To Japan"(1977) with Tony Curtis??? and "The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training" (1978) with William Devane. After the success of three theatrical versions,the powers that be over at Paramount Television and the CBS Television Network decided to green-light it's own weekly prime-time sitcom based on "The Bad News Bears" that would air on CBS' prime-time schedule. The series had a great premise throughout with interesting characters and a outstanding cast,but with a hitch...Who would have thought that one of the great character actors in cinema history Jack Warden would step into Walter Matthau's persona? The sad part was how do you follow Walter Matthau's Buttermaker character and eventually pulled off the character in the television series where as in the movie version actually worked and become successful? Interesting point.

About the "Bad News Bears" television series. The series premiered on CBS' prime-time schedule on Saturday nights on March 24,1979 for 13 episodes as the mid-season replacements for "Good Times" and "Rhoda". on it's prime time Saturday night schedule. "The Bad News Bears" after 13 episodes was picked up for the fall season. The problem was that CBS began moving the show around in different time slots during it's original prime-time run. First the series was originally scheduled on Saturday nights in the 8:00pm Eastern/7:00pm Central time slot. By September of 1979 when the network picked it up for the fall season it was moved to a different time slot at the 8:30pm Eastern/7:30pm Central time slot. Three episodes into the series' second season forced CBS to abruptly canceled the series on July 26,1980 after 26 episodes due to low ratings. When CBS broadcast the last three episodes that never aired during its original prime-time run in June of 1980 it went back to the 8:00 time slot,but by July of 1980 it moved again back to 8:30 in which then audiences were confused by the frequent time changes that they stopped tuning in. And after that the series was history. The competition it faced during it's short run on the air? It was placed on it's prime time Saturday night time slot where it faced strong competition from NBC's powerhouse action/adventure cop drama "CHiPS", and the ABC spin-off of Three's Company "The Ropers" that kill it in the ratings.

Based on characters created by Bill Lancaster(who served as executive producer of the series)along executive producers Bob Brunner and Arthur Silver and along with producers Jeffrey Ganz, Ron Leavitt, Norman Stiles,along with producer John Boni the series had an outstanding cast headed by Jack Warden who took over the Walter Matthau role as Buttermaker and Catherine Hicks,years before her career skyrocketed with "7th Heaven". The series was a launch pad for some outstanding young actors many of them would go on to bigger careers after this show which included actor Kristoff St. John(Ahmad) who would go on to become a huge daytime serial actor on "The Young and the Restless" along with actress Trisha Cast(in the Tatum O'Neal role as Amanda) years before her career found success also on "The Young and the Restless". The series also was the television debut of actors Corey Feldman(Regi),along with Meeno Peluce(Tanner) of "Voyagers!" fame. Also with the cast were Shane Butterworth(Timmy), Billy Jayne(Rudi),and Sparky Marcus(Leslie). With a cast like it had the show had potential until CBS kept moving the show around confusing viewers and fans of the hit movie and after three episodes into its second season it went off the air with only a whisper. In the fall of 1980,the powers that be in the programming department at CBS found a replacement for the series when "WKRP in Cincinnati"(which was on Monday nights)moved to Saturday nights in it's time slot along with the short-lived "The Tim Conway Show". By December of 1980, another replacement took over CBS' Saturday night schedule when the spin-off of "The Dukes of Hazzard" titled "Enos" replaced both "WRKP In Cincinnati"(which went back to Monday nights),and "The Tim Conway Show"(which was canceled after 12 episodes) that replaced "The Bad News Bears" in prime time.

But toned down for television. The show has the same story, about a pool cleaner cheated of his payment by a wealthy client, so he takes revenge by driving the client's car into the pool. Facing a criminal trial where he can either go to jail or coach the troubled local junior high school's baseball, team, he chooses the latter, only to find that it is less easy than he had thought. Also part of the story is that his wife had left him and his young daughter, and the daughter wants them to reunite.

The story works, the characters are all believable and not stereotypes, including the child members of the baseball team. Some of them would grow up to be famous adult actors. Unfortunately, as others have said, the show kept being moved around to different viewing times and that spoiled things for the viewership.