Friday, April 12, 2024

What Might've Been: Hardball (1994)

 Fictional baseball teams don't seem to succeed on television for some reason.

For example, Paramount took a chance on turning the original "Bad News Bears" into a sitcom for CBS in 1979. They were better served mounting this as a children's show. Four years later, NBC tried a drama, Bay City Blues, from the producers of Hill Street Blues. Lasted a month.

In 1994, during the baseball strike, Fox tried Hardball, which was clearly a case of trying to pick up the audience that had seen the "Major League" movies. Hardball marked the return to primetime of sitcom legend Rose Marie (ex-The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Doris Day Show, Hollywood Squares), leading an ensemble of players, some of whom would find greater success, including:

Dann Florek (later of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit).

Phill Lewis (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody).

Joe Rogan (NewsRadio, Fear Factor), now a podcaster and UFC commentator, better known now for his warped political views.

Bruce Greenwood (ex-St. Elsewhere, later of Nowhere Man).

Check the opener, introduced by Terry Bradshaw & Howie Long.


Another flop. Fox was better off having Married... With Children airing in front of it, instead of after it.

No rating. Just a public service.

2 comments:

  1. The lineup of baseball-themed comedies and dramas reads more like a lineup of benchwarmers. Don't forget the Steven Bochco drama Bay City Blues (lasted three weeks if it lasted a month), or the TWO attempts to turn A League of Our Own into a TV series. Or the attempt to take Jim Bouton's book Ball Four and make it a comedy. Or the Fox series Pitch, about a female pitcher in the major leagues, that barely limped along for a season before ending on the permanent DL. Or the kid-friendly drama Clubhouse, about a kid who works as a ballboy for a New York baseball team. Or ... Jeez, that's a lot right off the top.

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  2. Chuck, I did mention Bay City Blues, but left out Ball Four (which I'd reviewed a while ago) and the others you mentioned. BCB lasted 4 weeks.

    Funny how baseball-themed programs don't work, and yet, White Shadow, about a basketball team, had a healthy run......

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