Albeit Amazon TV.
I wrote about this more than a year ago but there’s new information. According to several sources, they’re trying once more to bring the acclaimed film to the small screen.
From The Hollywood Reporter (with my emphasis in bold):
The Good Place actress D’Arcy Carden (left in photo below) is in talks to star in the pilot opposite Broad City‘s Abbi Jacobson (right), who is also writing and executive producing. The half-hour comedy is based on the beloved 1992 movie about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Penny Marshall directed the film, which starred Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Lori Petty.
Will Graham (Mozart in the Jungle) will write and exec produce with Jacobson. Hailey Wierengo, head of Graham’s Amazon-based Field Trip Productions, is also an exec producer.
Amazon’s take on the story is a modern look at the league and will not feature sisters Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller, played by Davis and Petty, respectively, in the film.
The logline for the series, which Amazon put into development in 2018, reads as follows: “A League of Their Own is a half-hour comedy infusing the warmth, humor and DNA of the classic film, while taking a contemporary spin on the stories of the women surrounding the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The show will begin with the formation of the league in 1943 and follows the Rockford Peaches season to season as they struggle to keep the team alive through close games, injuries, late night bar crawls, sexual awakenings, not crying and road trips across a rapidly changing United States. The series dives deeper into the issues facing the country while following a ragtag team of women figuring themselves out while fighting to realize their dreams of playing professional baseball.”
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The Amazon show is the second attempt at a series based on the film; a 1993 CBS sitcom lasted just three episodes before being pulled (five of six produced episodes eventually aired).
From Deadline:
Kelly McCormack (Killjoys) and Priscilla Delgado (Julieta) have been cast in Amazon’s hourlong pilot A League of Their Own, an adaptation of Penny Marshall’s 1992 feature film, from writers/executive producers Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham and Sony Pictures TV.
They will co-star opposite D’Arcy Carden and Jacobson, who are finalizing their acting deals, and Gbemisola Ikumelo, who is set.
Like the movie, A League of Their Own the series is about a women’s professional baseball league during World War II.
McCormack plays Jess, a talented pitcher and a vocal leader who is not afraid to speak up. Delgado plays Izzy, an optimistic and fun girl who is probably the youngest player to try out for the Rockford Peaches. The brave teenager left Cuba and landed in the Midwest just to play the game.
Sometimes I think it’s unfair to compare TV today with that of 20-30 years ago. Certainly the technology is much improved, plus the actors could be more athletic and pull off the sporty scenes without benefit of special effects. And, of course, on premium cable and streaming services like Amazon, you can get away with a lot more language, sex, and violence. Seems unfair to include such programs when it comes to the Emmys.
Baseball series have as never been a great fit for a television. Aside from the previous incarnation of ALOTO, there were Bay City Blues, Ball Four, The Bad News Bears, and a few more that escape memory but are included in this entry.
Most recently (three years ago), we had Pitch, about the first woman in the major leagues. Too many cliched storylines for my taste. There had been talk earlier this year about a revival but I haven’t heard anything further on the topic.
Let’s hope for a better run for Penny Marshall’s classic.
is available on Amazon.com,
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