By Ethan Anderton/April 2, 2018 9:30 am EST
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:
