The iconic Bad News Bears franchise is officially returning to the small screen with an upcoming female-led television series for CBS. The original 1976 film, written by Bill Lancaster and Michael Ritehie, saw Walter Matthau in the lead role of former minor-league pitcher and alcoholic Morris Buttermaker who finds himself coaching a youth team of misfit baseball players. Following the original Bad News Bears film, the franchise soon began to blossom with the 1978 sequel The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and the 1979 followup of The Bad News Bears Go To Japan.
Shortly after the franchise’s first three films, CBS took a stab at a Bad News Bears television series based off of the original film, which ran for two seasons in the late 1970s. The iconic tale of Coach Buttermaker and his ragtag team then laid dormant until 2005, when the Bad News Bears franchise saw a Billy Bob Thornton-led remake of the original film, introducing the story to a new generation.
It has now been confirmed via Deadline that CBS is in the process of developing a female-led Bad News Bears television series. The upcoming single-camera comedy series is written by Corey Nickerson (black-ish) and will act as a reimagining of the franchise’s original premise. The upcoming sports comedy series will be a collaboration between Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Wendi Trilling’s TrillTV.
What To Expect From Bad News Bears
Applying her real-life experiences of coaching her son’s youth baseball team, Nickerson’s upcoming Bad News Bears television series will focus on a down-and-out divorced mother who finds herself coaching an unlikely team of misfits in a brutal, merciless Little League. Assuming that the upcoming series will pull inspiration from its predecessors, it will be interesting to see Nickerson’s female take on the iconic alcoholic, womanizing Coach Buttermaker and the positive influence the Bad News Bears are bound to eventually get at hands of a female coach.
Following the success of rebooted sport films turned television series, like with Amazon Primes’ A League of Their Own, it leaves no question as to why CBS would be making yet another attempt at a Bad News Bears TV series after all these years. Although there is currently no known release date for the upcoming television series, Nickerson’s fresh take on the famed tale of the Bad News Bears is sure to be one that audiences and sports fans alike won’t want to miss.
Source: Deadline