Beyond The Baseball TV Grave: A League of Their Own, A Multi-Cam Sitcom Based on the Movie

The Ratings Junkie

Beyond The Baseball TV Grave is a sub-series of Beyond The TV Grave, taking a look at short-lived baseball-themed TV shows. This ninth and final (for now?) edition focuses on CBS’s A League of Their Own, a baseball sitcom based on the movie that aired in 1993. It was pulled from the schedule twice, and aired just five episodes.

Background

A League of Their Own premiered in April 1993 on CBS’s Saturday lineup, historically a rough night for CBS. You’d have to go back to the 1975-76 TV season to find an instance of a CBS show that aired its entire season on Saturday making the Top 30. That is, until the season A League of Their Own premiered, when new western Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman aired at 8 pm and ranked 23rd overall for the season. Airing at 9 pm, A League of Their Own was scheduled between Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and the sitcom Brooklyn Bridge. The latter had won a Golden Globe for Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy in 1992 for its first season, and nominated earlier in 1993 for its second season. However, it had been off the air since November 1992 and was coming off of a long hiatus when it returned alongside the series premiere of A League of Their Own. It also was not a ratings powerhouse, ranking 20th out of 23 programs on CBS in the 1991-92 TV season. A League of Their Own found itself in a time slot that, while stronger than usual, was still not all that desirable — especially considering its lead-in was typically in rerun mode.

Synopsis

A League of Their Own is adapted from the 1992 film of the same name. Like the movie, the CBS series is a fictionalized tale of the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League’s Rockford Peaches. Unlike the movie of the same name, A League of Their Own is a multi-cam sitcom. It stars Sam McMurray as Coach Jimmy Dugan, taking over the role played by Tom Hanks in the movie as the Peaches’ head coach. Carey Lowell co-stars as star player Dottie Hinson, a role played by Geena Davis in the movie. A handful of actors from the movie returned to reprise their roles in the sitcom, but actors in more prominent roles like Hanks, Davis, Lori Petty, Rosie O’Donnell, and Madonna did not. Behind the scenes, movie screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel co-created the series, while storywriters Kelly Candaele and Kim Wilson did not return.

The transition of the successful baseball movie into a multi-cam sitcom proved difficult for the series. A League of Their Own’s filming locations were split between an on-site baseball field and a TV show set in front of a live studio audience. In any given episode, the show may go several minutes without any usage of the laugh track as it follows the Peaches on the field. Then, they would return to the clubhouse and practically every line would be followed by canned laughter. It all makes for an incredibly awkward viewing experience as the series couldn’t seem to figure out if it wanted to be a run-of-the-mill multi-cam sitcom or a made-for-TV adaptation of a well-received baseball movie.

By the third episode, A League of Their Own decided it could try to be both. The episode was directed by Tom Hanks, his highest level of involvement in the series. Despite the Hanks directing credit, the episode fits in with broadcast television’s past obsession with using chimpanzees as entertainment, featuring a predictable and thin plot. It’s just one example of the TV show being a far cry from the movie. This was the final episode to air before A League of Their Own first got pulled from the schedule.

Ratings & Cancellation

A League of Their Own premiered on Saturday, April 10, 1993 with a 9.3 Household rating. That was enough to win its time slot, and was handily ahead of lead-out Brooklyn Bridge’s 7.0 rating. However, it was a steep decrease from Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women’s 12.5 rating that led into the premiere. The following episode plummeted to a 7.7 Household rating, again losing more than three ratings points from its lead-in (this time a rerun). It also finished behind its time slot competition on NBC, a rerun of The Golden Girls spinoff Empty Nest. By the third episode, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman took a ratings dive (again for a rerun), and so did A League of Their Own. The baseball sitcom scored just a 6.1 Household rating, finishing in last place in its time slot and barely ahead of a baseball-themed episode of Brooklyn Bridge. Both sitcoms proceeded to be pulled from the schedule.

Two of the remaining three produced episodes of A League of Their Own did end up airing eventually. Doubled up in the 8 pm hour on Friday, August 13, the two episodes respectively notched abysmal 4.5 and 4.4 Household ratings. They lost to all but FOX’s movie, despite being the only program to air a new episode the entire night. The final produced episode would remain unaired. Over the course of four months, CBS aired five episodes of A League of Their Own, aired it in three different time slots, and pulled it from the schedule twice.

Thanks to the official 1992-93 TV season only capturing the first two episodes of A League of Their Own before the April 18 cutoff date, it technically averaged an 8.5 Household rating. That put it in 26th place out of 34 programs on CBS. However, its five-episode run actually averaged a 6.4 Household rating, which would have put it tied for 32nd. Based on its ratings trajectory, it very well may have fallen into last place had the sixth episode aired.

Had A League of Their Own averaged the same 9.3 Household rating it achieved for its premiere, it likely would have been on the cusp of a renewal. However, any initial interest in the series quickly dissipated. CBS also seemed to lack faith in it, scheduling it after reruns two out of its three weeks on Saturdays. Of course, reruns held much greater value in 1993 than they do today, and A League of Their Own still had a fairly sizable lead-in.

Aftermath

Against all odds, the 1993 sitcom adaptation of A League of Their Own has survived to the present day — even the unaired sixth episode. While unavailable on a traditional streaming service, they can be streamed on Internet Archive. Higher-quality picture versions of all but the fifth episode can also be found on YouTube.

A League of Their Own made for CBS’s second failed attempt to adapt a successful baseball movie into a sitcom. The other, The Bad News Bears, also aired on Saturday nights and was pulled from the schedule in its second season. It currently remains the network’s most recent attempt at a baseball sitcom.

Amazon Prime Video premiered a new A League of Their Own TV series in 2022. A dramedy, their version was a reimagining featuring all new characters. The eight-episode first season was much more warmly-received, and debuted at #6 on Luminate’s streaming originals chart with 500 million minutes watched in its first week. While originally renewed for a four-episode second and final season, the renewal was reversed in the wake of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes along with diminishing viewership over time. Like the 1993 sitcom, the streaming original started out with some signs of promise but faded quickly.