Beloved Movie Getting Made Into TV Series

The Bad News Bears are making a comeback. CBS is developing a TV series based on the beloved Paramount comedy. The Bad News Bears hit theaters in 1976 and starred Walter Matthau as the vulgar, alcoholic coach of a misfit little league baseball team. Tatum O’Neal played the team’s star pitcher.

CBS’ series will be a multi-camera sitcom written by Corey Nickerson (Black-ish), reports Deadline. The plot will replace Matthau’s character with a down-on-her-luck divorced mom who coaches the young misfits. Nickerson will infuse the story with moments inspired by her own time as her son’s little league coach.

Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Wendi Trilling’s TrillTV are producing the series. CBS Studios, where Nickerson has an overall deal, is the studio. It is the latest collaboration between CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures, which are under the same corporate parent Paramount Global.

The original Bad News Bears film was written by Bill Lancaster and Michael Ritchie. It cost just $9 million to make and was a big box office smash, grossing over $42 million. Two sequels followed, The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977) and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978). Matthau and O’Neal did not return for the sequels. In 2005, Richard Linklater directed a remake starring Billy Bob Thornton as the team’s coach.

Paramount Television previously brought The Bad News Bears to television in 1979. CBS aired the series, which ran only two seasons and 26 episodes, three of which did not air. Jack Warden starred as the coach, while future 7th Heaven star Catherine Hicks played the kids’ school principal.

This will also not be the first baseball-themed comedy from Kapital. The company was also behind the short-lived and underrated 2013 ABC comedy Back in the Game. That series starred Maggie Lawson as a divorced mom who coaches her son’s team with the help of her father, played by the late James Caan.

Nickerson was an executive producer on ABC’s Black-ish. She also co-created Fresh Off the Boat and Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23. Her other credits include Scrubs, Chuck, The Bernie Mac Show, My Boys, and The Class. Nickerson has three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series for Black-ish.