The beloved The Bad News Bears franchise is making a comeback, but instead of being headlined by an alcoholic coach, the new iteration is being led by a woman. Walter Matthau starred as the aging, down-on-his-luck Coach Morris Buttermaker in 1976’s The Bad News Bears, where he wound up coaching a plucky underdog team of young baseball players. The franchise would spawn two more sequels – 1977’s The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, and 1978’s The Bad News Bears Go to Japan – as well as another reboot starring Billy Bob Thorton and a CBS sitcom. CBS is getting back in The Bad News Bears business once again, with a new reboot in the works.
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Deadline reports on a new The Bad News Bears single-camera comedy written by Corey Nickerson (black-ish), which will star “a down-on-her-luck divorced mom coaches a team of misfits in a cutthroat Little League.” The Bad News Bears reboot hails from Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Wendi Trilling’s TrillTV. Nickerson will pull from her own personal experiences coaching her son’s baseball team. She will executive produce with Kaplan and Melanie Frankel from Kapital and Trilling from TrillTV. Kevin Marco is overseeing the project for Kapital.
The last The Bad News Bears series to air on CBS ran for two seasons from 1979 to 1980. Jack Warden played the role of Coach Morris Buttermaker for the Bad News Bears. The series was continuously moved around CBS’s Saturday lineup, jumping from 8 pm to 8:30 pm. CBS decided to pull the plug on The Bad News Bears in its second season after only airing three episodes.
Who Starred in The Bad News Bears?
Walter Matthau portrayed Coach Morris Buttermaker in the first The Bad News Bears movie in 1976, where he led the Bears to a second-place finish in the North Valley League. He was joined in the cast by Tatum O’Neal as the 11-year-old tomboy starting pitcher Amanda Wurlitzer, Vic Morrow as Yankees coach Roy Turner, and Jackie Earle Haley as the troublesome star player Kelly Leak.
Matthau didn’t return in The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training. Instead, he was replaced with William Devane, who went on to coach the Bears as Kelly’s estranged father Mike Leak. Jackie Earle Haley also returned, along with Chris Barnes as shortstop Tanner Boyle. Haley also appeared in The Bad News Bears Go to Japan.
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