Like last week's LOVE MONKEY, CLUBHOUSE was barely there, airing eleven episodes in 2004 and 2005. It was about a kid who gets to live out his dream of being a batboy for a major league baseball team. Christopher Lloyd was well-cast as the grumpy old manager, Dean Cain was an aging ballplayer, Mare Winningham was the kid's mother, and young British actor Jeremy Sumpter (who was later on another sports series, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS) played the lead. You know I'm a sucker for baseball yarns, so I enjoyed this series.
I barely caught this one...indeed, between this and BAY CITY BLUES (iirc), has there ever been a tv baseball drama series that has made it to the ninth inning? I'm thinking no...
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten about BAY CITY BLUES. We watched that one, too, for the short time it lasted. I can't think of a successful TV series centered around baseball, either. THE WHITE SHADOW was basketball, right? And we had FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS for football. Overall, though, sports hasn't been a hot topic for TV drama.
ReplyDeleteIt got by me. Great cast though.
ReplyDeleteSounds fun, but I missed it.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, THE WHITE SHADOW was set around a high-school basketball program. And neither it nor FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS did well in ratings, either...FNL was rescued by DirecTV's wanting to have some original programming with a built-in audience for its Channel 101. The CBC's soapy hockey drama MVP lasted three months...so, even the trashy ones often don't last, aside from FOOTBALLERS' WIVES...soccer soap.
ReplyDeleteAnother shortlived baseball drama that had slipped my mind...A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN...a spinoff from the film about the women's league of the 1940s.
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