The Bad News Bears (TV series)

The Bad News Bears is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from March 24, 1979, until July 26, 1980, consisting of 26 episodes (three unaired by CBS). It was based on the 1976 film of the same name, that was followed by two sequels in 1977 and 1978.

The Bad News Bears
Genre	Sitcom
Based on	The Bad News Bears Bill Lancaster
Developed by	Bob Brunner Arthur Silver
Written by	Paul Diamond Stephen Fischer
Directed by	Norman Abbott William Asher Bruce Bilson Jeffrey Ganz Lowell Ganz Jeffrey Hayden Alan Myerson Gene Nelson
Starring	Jack Warden Catherine Hicks Sparky Marcus Meeno Peluce Billy Jayne Corey Feldman Shane Butterworth Kristoff St. John Tricia Cast
Theme music composer	David Michael Frank
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 (3 unaired)
Production
Executive producers	Bob Brunner[1] Arthur Silver
Producers	John Boni Jeffrey Ganz Ron Leavitt Brian Levant Norman Stiles
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production companies	Huk, Inc. & Frog Productions Paramount Television
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	March 24, 1979 (1979-03-24) – July 26, 1980 (1980-07-26)
Related
The Bad News Bears

Synopsis

In the television series, Jack Warden portrayed former minor-leaguer Morris Buttermaker, the coach of the W. Wendel Weever Junior High Bears, a team of young adolescents with poor skills and little ability to play baseball. Catherine Hicks played the role of Weever principal Dr. Emily Rappant, and Phillip Richard Allen played Roy Turner, the coach of rival team the Lions. Corey Feldman, Billy Jayne (then credited as Billy Jacoby) and Meeno Peluce were cast amongst the team's players, and Tricia Cast played Amanda Wurlitzer, the Bears' talented pitcher. Kristoff St. John, Cast's future co-star on The Young and the Restless, played Ahmad Abdul-Rahim.

The series was originally scheduled on Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. In September 1979, it was moved to 8:30 p.m. Three episodes into the series' second season, CBS canceled The Bad News Bears due to low ratings. When CBS broadcast unaired episodes in June 1980, it was moved back to 8:00 p.m. One month later, the series was again moved to the 8:30 timeslot, but by then, audiences were confused by the frequent time changes and stopped tuning in.^[2]

Cast

• Jack Warden ... Morris Buttermaker
• Catherine Hicks ... Dr. Emily Rappant
• Phillip Richard Allen ... Roy Turner
• Sparky Marcus ... Leslie Ogilvie
• Meeno Peluce ... Tanner Boyle
• Billy Jayne ... Rudi Stein
• Corey Feldman ... Regi Tower
• Shane Butterworth ... Timmy Lupus
• Kristoff St. John ... Ahmad Abdul-Rahim
• J. Brennan Smith ... Mike Engelberg
• Charles Nunez ... Miguel Agilar
• Danny Nunez ... Jose Agilar
• Tricia Cast ... Amanda Wurlitzer
• Bill Lazarus ... Frosty
• Gregg Forrest ... Kelly Leak
• Rad Daly ... Josh Matthews
• Persephanie Silverthorn ... Student
• Sherrie Wills ... Marsha

Episodes

Season 1: 1979

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	1	"Here Comes the Coach"	Bruce Bilson	Bob Brunner, Arthur Silver	March 24, 1979 (1979-03-24)
2	2	"Amanda Joins the Bears"	William Asher	John Boni (s), Hap Schlein (t), Betty Steck (t), Norman Stiles (s)	March 31, 1979 (1979-03-31)
3	3	"Nakedness Is Next to Godliness"	Norman Abbott	Sam Greenbaum	April 7, 1979 (1979-04-07)
4	4	"The Kelly Story"	Norman Abbott	Tom Moore, Jeremy Stevens	April 21, 1979 (1979-04-21)
5	5	"Tanner's Bird"	Jeremy Stevens	Tom Moore, Jeremy Stevens	April 28, 1979 (1979-04-28)
6	6	"Emily Loves Morris"	William Asher	Jeff Franklin	May 5, 1979 (1979-05-05)
7	7	"The Food Caper"	Gene Nelson	Jim Brecher	May 12, 1979 (1979-05-12)
8	8	"Men Will Be Boys"	William Asher	Richard Rosenstock	May 19, 1979 (1979-05-19)
9	9	"Three's a Crowd"	Alan Myerson	Richard Rosenstock	May 26, 1979 (1979-05-26)
10	10	"Save the Bears"	William Asher	Jeff Franklin (t), Elliot Werber (s)	June 2, 1979 (1979-06-02)
11	11	"Dance Fever"	Lowell Ganz	Roy Teicher	June 9, 1979 (1979-06-09)
12	12	"Fielder's Choice"	William Asher	Jeff Franklin	June 23, 1979 (1979-06-23)

Season 2: 1979–80

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
13	1	"Run Down"	Jeffrey Ganz	Jeffrey Ganz, Brian Levant	September 15, 1979 (1979-09-15)
14	2	"Buttermaker Rides Again"	Brian Levant	Ron Leavitt	September 22, 1979 (1979-09-22)
15	3	"First Base"	Ron Leavitt	Ron Leavitt, Brian Levant	September 29, 1979 (1979-09-29)
16	4	"Wedding Bells: Part 1"	William Asher	Paul Diamond	October 6, 1979 (1979-10-06)
17	5	"The Birds, the Bees and the Bears"	Jeffrey Ganz	Richard Rosenstock	June 7, 1980 (1980-06-07)
18	6	"Lights Out"	Jeffrey Hayden	Al Aidekman (t)	June 14, 1980 (1980-06-14)
19	7	"Wedding Bells: Part 2"	Unknown	Unknown	June 21, 1980 (1980-06-21)
20	8	"Matched Set"	Jeffrey Ganz	Cindy Begel, David Lerner	June 28, 1980 (1980-06-28)
21	9	"Old Timers' Day"	William Asher	Allen Goldstein, Levi Taylor	July 12, 1980 (1980-07-12)
22	10	"Scrambled Eggs"	John Tracy	Richard Gurman, Lesa Kite	July 19, 1980 (1980-07-19)
23	11	"Double Play"	William Asher	Fred Fox Jr.	July 26, 1980 (1980-07-26)
24	12	"The Good Life"	William Asher	Judy Olstein	N/A
25	13	"The Pride of the Bears"	William Asher	Richard Rosenstock	N/A
26	14	"The Headless Ghost of MacKintosh Manor"	William Asher	Paul Diamond	N/A

Syndication

In the late 1980s, the show was occasionally rerun on Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite. In the early 1990s, it was rerun on Comedy Central.

Home media

Visual Entertainment released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 in October 2018.^[3]