Die Bären sind los

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.

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"

Pool cleaner Morris Buttermaker (Jack Warden) gets into a fight with a dead-beat client. Instead of jail, he is ordered by the court to coach the troubled local school's baseball team, the Bears. He recruits his former girlfriend's daughter Amanda Wurlitzer to be his star pitcher. Dr. Emily Rappant (Catherine Hicks) is the principal. Corey Feldman plays one of the kids named Regi Tower.

The movie is a classic but most people forget its foul-mouthed and violent nature. It wouldn't be a kiddie movie today. The TV show is a different story. The swear words have been squashed into non-sense. It fits much more into the network TV mode. As long as one doesn't expect the child abuse to transfer onto the TV show, this is fine. Jack Warden is a great Buttermaker and he's no longer a drunk. He's a simple grumpy old man. The kids are all cute and fun. Amanda is great. Corey Feldman has a smaller role. Other than Kelly and Josh, the kids have good functional charisma. The problem with Josh is that he's supposed to be smart and edgy. He's not a meathead who doesn't see Amanda's flailing attempts at romance. He has to acknowledge it sooner. It could have been a fun back and forth but he's not written as a good partner. This is a fun (modern day PG) version of the movie.

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.

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.