The Baseball Bunch

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The Baseball Bunch
The San Diego Chicken
Opening theme"The Baseball Bunch"
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons5
Production
Executive producersGeoff Belinfante
Larry Parker
ProducersRich Domich
Jody Shapiro
Gary Cohen
Production locationTucson, Arizona
Running time30 minutes
Production companyMajor League Baseball Productions
Original release
NetworkSyndicated
ReleaseAugust 23, 1980 (1980-08-23) –
1985 (1985)

The Baseball Bunch is an American educational children's television series that originally aired in broadcast syndication from August 23, 1980 through the fall of 1985. Produced by Major League Baseball Productions, the series was a 30-minute baseball-themed program airing on Saturday mornings, which featured a combination of comedy sketches and Major League guest-stars, intended to provide instructional tips to Little League aged children.[1]

Throughout its five-season run, the series starred

The Famous San Diego Chicken
alongside a group of eight children (boys and girls ranging in age from 8–14) as "The Bunch".

Production

Produced by

Ted Giannoulas).[2] In a 2007 interview with JustMyShow.com, Giannoulas recounted how he became part of the series, saying "The producers called me up and they said 'We want to shoot this again. We think it's a little dry for kids to be watching this. A lot of good baseball information, but not enough color to it, so can you come in and just improvise around what we've done, and we'll re-shoot the whole thing.' I did that, and suddenly they had magic in the can, and they sold the show."[2] The pilot, starring Bench, Lasorda, and Major League guest-star Steve Garvey, aired as a "special" presentation on August 23, 1980 (with some stations airing it the next day instead).[3][4][5]

As preparations for the first full season began, production for the series was moved to

Las Vegas, Nevada.[2] The eight children ultimately chosen, boys and girls of varying ages and ethnicities, were selected for their "boy/girl-next-door" appeal, and to reflect the diversity of the intended audience,[7] rather than for extraordinary athletic prowess or singing abilities (contrary to popular belief, the eight children who made up "The Bunch" did not sing the show's theme song).[2] In his interview with JustMyShow.com, Giannoulas added, "I think they kinda were looking for kids that didn't have that polished 'Hollywood' look to them, that seemed more real and (would) come across as free and easier that way."[2]

Filming each entire season within a three-week period during the month of February would become the standard production practice throughout the five season run of the series.

Saturday morning cartoons.[9] Although airing in reruns year-round, the format of debuting each new season in the spring (April or May) and airing new episodes throughout the "summer vacation" season was used for all five seasons of the show's original run.[7][10][11]

Premise

Season 3 cast of The Baseball Bunch

The series starred

Ted Giannoulas) who served as a comic foil to Bench as he would attempt to mentor the children. Each episode was divided into two segments. The first segment featured a current or former Major League player demonstrating a baseball fundamental to the children (e.g., learning to pitch within a hitters' strike zone) as well as the children's sometimes humorous attempts to imitate the star. The Major League guest-stars would also serve to steer the children clear of what not to do (e.g., explaining why a growing child should not attempt to throw a curve ball). The second segment featured a skit with "The Dugout Wizard" (played by Tommy Lasorda), a mystical turban wearing "Swami" character who taught a second baseball fundamental (e.g., how to catch a fly ball). This second instructional segment was often accompanied by a music video (a genre then in its embryonic stage), composed of clips of Major League players either performing the act or failing at it-for instance, the episode which featured knuckleballer Phil Niekro mentions how difficult a knuckleball can be to catch and showed several clips of frustrated catchers trying to do so. In addition to the technical fundamentals of the game, the series would also touch on some of the psychological challenges youngsters face, including addressing performance anxieties (an adolescent boy's fears of not being "good enough" before a big game) and sportsmanship (a "little league father" criticizing his son unmercifully from the sidelines gently being urged to relax and enjoy the game).[3][7][9][10][12][13][14]

The Bunch

Throughout the show's five-season run, the series featured a rotating cast of eight children who starred as "The Bunch", usually ranging in age from eight to fourteen.[2][7][15] As the youngsters entered adolescence and outgrew their roles, they would be replaced by younger children closer in age to the target audience. Linda Coslett ("Kate", season 1) said of her time on the series, "I was eleven (when the show started). I turned twelve actually during the month of February, during the filming, and I was on (the show) for one year. [...] As you know, women get mature during those years and (by the second season) I didn't look like a little girl anymore, so they wanted to go with somebody that was younger looking."[2] Erik Lee ("Rick", seasons 1–4) said of his run on the series, "I was all of twelve years old when I started with The Baseball Bunch. I stayed with The Bunch for four incredible years, until my voice changed and I was taller than Johnny Bench."[2] With a rotating cast that included new children every season, only three youngsters appeared as "Bunch" team-members for all five seasons; Stacy Blythe ("Michelle"), Jared Holland ("Sam") and Danny Santa Cruz ("Louie", sometimes credited as "Luis"). The children who appeared as "The Bunch" team-members at one time or another during the show's five-season run are, in alphabetical order:[2][15][16][17][18]

  • Stacy Blythe as Michelle
  • David Cenko as Doug
  • Linda Coslett as Kate
  • Lance Crawford as Ossie
  • Rolon Culver as Zack
  • Hurst Dorman as Harold
  • John Fordney as Sherman
  • Priscilla Hassel as Debbie
  • Jared Holland as Sam
  • Erik Lee as Rick
  • Jackie Masei as Jessie
  • Tom McCabe as Andy
  • John Podesta as Billy
  • Danny Santa Cruz as Louie
  • Eddy Tonai as Freddie
  • Wendy Haralson as Krista

Guest stars

With the rare exception of the occasional "Best Of" episode (which were composed of clips of previous episodes), most every episode featured a well-known guest-star from the Major Leagues brought in to mentor the children in their particular field of expertise and included many future Hall of Famers. Some of the Major League guest-stars to appear on the series include, in alphabetical order:[2][9][15][16][17][18][19]

Broadcasting

The Baseball Bunch aired in

WTBS[20] and later, in reruns on ESPN.[21]

Reception

During its run, The Baseball Bunch was well received by children and adults alike.

Emmy Awards for outstanding achievement in special programming, a gold medal from the International Film and Tape Festival in New York, and an award from Action for Children's Television, as well as receiving an endorsement from the National Education Association.[7][9][23][24] In its time, the series also spawned a fan club, (known as The Baseball Bunch "Fun Club"), which young fans of the show could join for a fee of $4.99. Members received a "membership certificate", a Baseball Bunch T-shirt and wrist-bands, a full-size color poster of "The Bunch", and The Baseball Bunch "Fun Book", which included color photos and biographies of Bench, Lasorda and the kids, puzzles, sheet music and lyrics for the show's theme song, and a comic strip known as "The Baseball Bunchies".[15]

In his March 1984 review of the series,

The Miami Herald Head Sports Writer, Bob Rubin praised the show, writing "'The Baseball Bunch' is a humorous, marvelously creative blend of entertainment and instruction. With the glut of dreck that passes for children's programming on the weekends, it's a breath of fresh air. And you don't have to be a kid or a baseball fan to enjoy it, either. [...] Serving as both participants and pupils is an eight-kid rainbow coalition that represents a typical neighborhood group. There are six boys and two girls, ranging in age from 9 to 14." Rubin also praised Giannoulas's contribution to the series, writing "The Chicken may be the most gifted physical comic since Curly, Larry and Moe. [...] It's a laugh and a lesson, which is SOP (standard operating procedure) on 'The Baseball Bunch'".[7]

In a March 2001 Sports Illustrated article about his younger days, writer Mark Bechtel looked back fondly on his childhood memories of the series writing, "The first three letters of the word notwithstanding, there's very little fun in fundamentals. Still, the creators of Baseball Bunch, a half-hour TV program that aired in the early 1980s, made learning the game's intricacies a joy. Each week, host Johnny Bench was joined on a sandlot in Anywhere, U.S.A., by one of his big league buddies and a group of preteens. Tommy Lasorda, in his Dugout Wizard get-up complete with absurd turban, competed for laughs with the San Diego Chicken. The result was sublime Saturday-morning fare, equal parts Tom Emanski and Barney. [...] The Bunch didn't make me a major leaguer, but it did make a lasting impression — and I can proudly say that in my days as a Little League catcher, no runner ever absconded with second."[13]

In his 2007 interview with JustMyShow.com,

Ted Giannoulas recalled Major League players also secretly enjoying the show, saying "That was a real highlight being on that program [...] During the show's existence, I had professional baseball players tell me that they would sneak a peek at the show and pick up tips because the information that Johnny and our guests would put on the show was very very good inside baseball information. [...] So I took that as a real compliment because it signified how credible and good the advice that Johnny and the players were giving, and that not only were kids picking up good advice, but I can attest that professional ball-players were also tuned in as well."[2]

Home video

After the series' original run ended in the Fall of 1985, Scholastic-Lorimar, along with the show's long-time sponsor Kool-Aid, released three one-hour "Best Of" VHS tapes in April 1986.[25][26] Each tape was dedicated to a particular aspect of the game; "Pitching", "Hitting" and "Fielding", and compiled segments of various episodes from all five seasons. Hosted by Johnny Bench and the only three children to appear on all five seasons of the series; Stacy Blythe as "Michelle", Jared Holland as "Sam" and Danny Santa Cruz as "Louie", the three tapes also included new "Drill" segments, in which Bench would recommend basic drills young viewer's could use to improve their game, while the three children (by that time, teens) demonstrated each exercise. As compilations of previous episodes, no segments of Lasorda as "The Dugout Wizard" were included on the videos, instead, the tapes focused exclusively on segments which had featured The Bunch with Major League guest-stars. The tapes also did not include the show's well-known "The Baseball Bunch" theme song, replacing the opening and closing theme with an alternate instrumental version of the music.[16][17][18]

Revival series

Television producer, Steve Church created, directed and produced a local, St Louis market version of The Baseball Bunch with the

Los Angeles, California starred Harold Reynolds as the mentor and Philadelphia Phillies mascot The Phillie Phanatic, as well as cameo appearances by Jimmy Kimmel, J. K. Simmons, Roy Firestone, Scott Rolen, José Lima, Fernando Valenzuela and Bobcat Goldthwait. However, ESPN eventually "shelved" the project [2]

Church began development on another Baseball Bunch, this time under a production shingle CG Entertainment Partners with actor

MLB
sees the Baseball Bunch Series as a launch to expand its ancillary programming of its new MLB broadcast and streaming deals.

References

  1. ISBN 0-8108-1651-2
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "The Baseball Bunch 25th Anniversary Reunion Podcast". JustMyShow.com. May 25, 2007. Archived from the original on May 31, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Susan L. Arnott (August 22, 1980). "The Television Picture – What's Special". The Milwaukee Journal.
  4. ^ "Best Bets This Week". Ottawa Citizen. August 22, 1980.
  5. ^ "Television Times". Los Angeles Times. August 24, 1980.
  6. ^ a b "Reds' Bench Has Arm Pain". Sarasota Harold-Tribune. February 28, 1981.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Bob Rubin (March 23, 1984). "Baseball Bunch: More Than Just Kids Stuff". Miami Herald.
  8. ^ Sheldon Ocker (February 27, 1985). "Can Tribe's Behenna Shoulder His Part of the Load?". Akron Beacon Journal.
  9. ^ a b c d e "WABI offers baseball show". Bangor Daily News. May 1, 1981.
  10. ^ a b Pepper O'Brien (May 30, 1981). "Johnny Bench coaches 'Baseball Bunch'". St. Joseph News-Press.
  11. ^ "Johnny Bench is Pete Rose's biggest booster". Altus Times. September 10, 1985.
  12. ^ Mark Bechtel (October 20, 1998). "1998 World Series Diary". CNN/Sports Illustrated.
  13. ^ a b Mark Bechtel (March 5, 2001). "SI Vault – Baseball Bunch". Sports Illustrated.
  14. ^ a b Jason La Confora (August 30, 2006). "Redskins Insider – The Baseball Bunch". The Washington Post.
  15. ^ a b c d e f "The Baseball Bunch Fun Book". Major League Baseball. 1982. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  16. ^ a b c "The Baseball Bunch: Pitching". Scholastic-Lorimar. 1986.
  17. ^ a b c "The Baseball Bunch: Hitting". Scholastic-Lorimar. 1986.
  18. ^ a b c "The Baseball Bunch: Fielding". Scholastic-Lorimar. 1986.
  19. ^ "Baseball Bunch Episodes". TVGuide.com. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
  20. ^ "(WTBS) Baseball Bunch". The Telegraph-Herald. April 1, 1983.
  21. ^ "(ESPN) Baseball Bunch". The Times-Union. October 8, 1988.
  22. ^ Clif Garboden (April 24, 1984). "Hot dots". The Boston Phoenix.
  23. ^ "Bench's TV show wins Emmy". The Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. March 3, 1983.
  24. ^ Jonathan Vitti (July 2, 1986). "ABC gets 30 Sports Emmy Award nominations". The Rock Hill Herald.
  25. ^ Michael Janusonis (April 27, 1986). "The Latest Entry in the Baseball Video Sweepstakes". The Providence Journal.
  26. ^ "Start saving Kool-Aid proof-of-purchase points*". The Vindicator. May 18, 1986.

External links

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