‘A League of Their Own’ TV Series Slides into Amazon from ‘Broad City’ Co-Creator

A League of Their Own Amazon Series

Everyone knows there’s no crying in baseball thanks to the iconic line yelled by Tom Hanks’ in the beloved sports comedy A League of Their Own. But fans might be crying tears of joy when they hear Amazon is developing a TV series adaptation of the 1992 film from director Penny Marshall about an all-female professional baseball league that pops up in the Midwest while most of the athletic young men are enlisted in World War II.

The Hollywood Reporter has news on the A League of Their Own Amazon series that has Mozart in the Jungle executive producer Will Graham and Broad City co-creator and co-star Abbi Jacobson on board to co-write and executive produce. The series is described as “less as a traditional reboot and more as a modern look at the story” in the form of a half-hour comedy. Does that mean the setting will be updated to be a more contemporary time period? The official synopsis has the answer:

“A League of Their Own is a half-hour comedy infusing the warmth, humor and DNA of the classic film, while taking a contemporary spin on the stories of the women surrounding the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The show will begin with the formation of the league in 1943 and follows the Rockford Peaches, season to season as they struggle to keep the team alive through close games, injuries, late night bar crawls, sexual awakenings, not crying and road trips across a rapidly changing United States. The series dives deeper into the issues facing the country while following a ragtag team of women figuring themselves out while fighting to realize their dreams of playing professional baseball.”

The original movie begins in 1988 as a museum exhibit dedicated to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) is opening, prompting a flashback to the actual story, which begins in 1943. A publicity-hungry candy maker, also the Chicago Cubs owner (Garry Marshall), comes up with the idea to sell more tickets and candy by creating an all-female baseball league.

The likes of David Strathairn and Jon Lovitz are sent out to recruit players, introducing us to a cast that includes Geena Davis and Lori Petty as sisters Dottie and Kit Henson. However, those characters will not be at the center of the new series. That likely means their teammates played by Madonna, Rosie O’Donnell, Ann Cusack, Megan Cavanagh and Tracy Reiner won’t be included in the new series either, but maybe the memorable character of Jimmy Dugan will still be featured. After all, he’s responsible for giving us that famous line:

Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson made sure to seek out the approval of Penny Marshall as well as star Geena Davis before moving forward with the project. And now Graham’s Field Trip Productions will be executive producing the series with Sony Pictures Television acting as producers.

As for the contemporary spin on the series mentioned in the synopsis, it’s still not entirely clear what that means. Both Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson have a background in comedy, so maybe just the comedic style of the movie will be a little more modern, perhaps even self-aware. The series is said to explore themes such as prejudice and equality, so it will be interesting to see how a show set in 1943 handles those issues through a contemporary lens.

This isn’t the first time A League of Their Own was adapted for television. Shortly after the success of the film, a sitcom was developed in 1993 that followed Megan Cavanagh and Tracy Reiner as their characters from the movie, adding a whole new cast around them. Six episodes were produced, and three of them aired in April of 1993 before the show was canceled. Two more episodes aired in August that year, but the final episode never made it to TV. If you’re curious how that turned out, here’s the original pilot, which was directed by Penny Marshall herself: