Hardball is an American baseball sitcom that aired Sunday nights at 8:30 pm on Fox from September 4, 1994 to November 4, 1994. The series premiered in the middle of the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike and was canceled around the time that the year's World Series would have been played.[1] YouTube channel "Baseball's Not Dead" published a 30 minute video detailing the series in September 2023 which caused a minor cult following of people revisiting the show.[2]
| Hardball | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Jeff Martin Kevin Curran |
| Starring | Bruce Greenwood Mike Starr Joe Rogan Phill Lewis Dann Florek |
| Composer | Jonathan Wolff |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 9 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | Interbang, Inc. Magic Beans, Inc. Touchstone Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | Fox |
| Release | September 4 – November 4, 1994 |
Premise
editThe series focused on the players and staff of the Pioneers, a fictional American League baseball team. Among those shown were pitcher Dave Logan, who has been largely overlooked by MLB, catcher Mike Widmer, who is past his prime, team owner Mitzi Balzer, who is sharp-tongued and trying to get her team out of last place, public relations girl Lee Emory, who has her hands full with Mitzi and the team, center fielder Frank Valente, whose cocky high-priced "superstar" ways put him at odds with Dave. The first episode showed Mitzi firing the manager and replacing him with a timid man named Ernest "Happy" Talbot, who is unsure how to get the Pioneers working as a team.
Cast
edit- Bruce Greenwood as Dave Logan
- Mike Starr as Mike Widmer
- Joe Rogan as Frank Valente
- Phill Lewis as Arnold Nixon
- Chris Browning as Lloyd LaCombe
- Dann Florek as Ernest 'Happy' Talbot
- Steve Hytner as Brad Coolidge
- Alexandra Wentworth as Lee Emory
- Rose Marie as Mitzi Balzer
- Adam Hendershott as Nelson Balzer
Episodes
edit| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Pilot" | John Whitesell & Peter Baldwin | Kevin Curran & Jeff Martin | September 4, 1994 |
| 2 | "Mike's Release" | Peter Baldwin | Tracy Newman & Jonathan Stark | September 11, 1994 |
| 3 | "The Butt Winnick Story" | Peter Baldwin | Bill Freiberger | September 18, 1994 |
| 4 | "Whose Strike Is It Anyway?" | Peter Baldwin | Mike Barker & Matt Weitzman | October 2, 1994 |
| 5 | "Frank Buys an Island, Mike Pays the Price" | Peter Baldwin | Lona Williams | October 9, 1994 |
| 6 | "Lee's Bad, Bad Day" | Gil Junger | Lona Williams | October 16, 1994 |
| 7 | "My Name is Hard B." | Gerry Cohen | Bill Freiberger | October 23, 1994 |
| 8 | "See Spot Run" | Unknown | Unknown | October 30, 1994 |
| 9 | "The Rookie, the Batgirl, the Coach and His Wife" | Unknown | Unknown | November 4, 1994 |
References
edit- ^ The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. Ballantine Books. 2003. p. 506. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
- ^ Russo, Jared (10 October 2023). "Joe Rogan's 1994 FOX Baseball Sitcom 'Hardball' Was So Bad It Got Axed After Seven Episodes". Digg.
External links
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