Nostalgia for the ’90s

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, August 18th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Thirty years ago, the baseball comedy A League of Their Own delighted audiences with the story of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.

EICHER: Amazon Studios recently released a new series based on the movie, but arts and media editor Collin Garbarino warns that fans of the original movie might not like what they find in the series.

MUSIC: [A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN THEME]

COLLIN GARBARINO: Nostalgia for the 80s and 90s continues to drive the entertainment industry. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when a reboot of A League of Their Own showed up on Prime Video last week.

The 1992 movie starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis performed well at the box office and has become a beloved classic. This new show might start in the same place as the movie, but the series takes its story in a new direction that won’t appeal to Christian fans of the original.

Mr. Baker: This is not about money, Pat. You know, Americans need baseball to keep their spirits in fighting shape.

Marshall: That’s right.

It’s 1943, and as more men are drafted into World War II, baseball owners start thinking about how they’re going to keep the sport alive.

Pat: You really think people are gonna pay to watch women run around like men?

Marshall: Our players will be ladies through and through. No pants wearing, trash talking, chew spitting…

One of these ladies recruited to play in the new girls league is Carson Shaw. She’s played by comedian Abbi Jacobson. When Carson gets a letter saying her husband will be back from the war soon, she panics and runs away to try out.

Greta: You’re married?

Carson: Oh, uh, yes, yeah, of course, I am.

Greta: Huh. What does your Freddie think about you going to play baseball?

Carson: Oh, uh, well. Charlie, um… He’s super excited about it. Yeah. When I was first scouted, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna come, ‘cause I have a lot of responsibilities at home, you know, but I’ve always loved baseball more than anything. I mean, except Charlie, obviously.

The series treads some of the same ground as the movie. These tomboy athletes protest playing in skirts and they often rebel against the decorum their employers expect.

Beverly: Peaches! Welcome to your Rockford home. Come and join me out by the banister. Everyone out of your rooms, please. Very quickly. This will only take a moment. Open your books. I’d like to go through a few rules. No smoking or drinking in public. No pants in public.

Lupe: What?

Beverly: You’ve heard of pants?

Maybelle: I have!

Beverly: Congratulations. Don’t wear them outside. Curfew is at 10:00 p.m. sharp.

Jess: Wait, what?

Beverly: Stragglers will have their pay docked. And you can call me Sergeant Beverly or Sarge, if you must. That’s what I was called in the Marines. I will be your chaperone for the season. Thank you ladies, dismissed.

Jacobson’s Carson has the role Geena Davis played in the original—the level-headed catcher who becomes the team’s leader. And the series puts Nick Offerman of Parks and Rec fame in the role of Tom Hanks’ reluctant coach.

Dove Porter: I love a locker room. You know, all the things people write on the walls, little prayers they send up to the gods. So please, for the love of George Washington, let them have their moment.

Offerman’s character isn’t a fall-down drunk like Hanks’ Jimmy Dugan, and he has some funny moments. But there’s nothing in the series that even approaches Hanks’ iconic “There’s no crying in baseball” scene.

And that’s about where the similarities end.

In addition to the girls on the Rockford Peaches, we meet Max, a black girl who gets snubbed when she attempts to try out.

Coach: You gals get lost on the way to the South Side?

Max: We’re here for the tryouts.

Clance: But that’s very chivalrous of you to worry about us being lost, sir.

Coach: Look, I don’t think you understand. This is the All-American League.

Max: We’re pretty all-American.

Clance: Yeah, we American.

Max: We were born here.

Clance: Yeah, “In God We Trust.” You know, Jesus…

Coach: You think you look like them?

Max: Well, actually, I think my form is a tad bit better, but… We’re from Rockford, Illinois, where we saw you’re putting one of the teams. The Peaches?

Throughout the series, Max’s story runs parallel to Carson’s without much interaction. It’s almost as if each episode contains two different series smashed together.

This structure is distracting. And while the costuming and production values are top notch, the conversation can be annoyingly anachronistic with plenty of bad language. But these are the least of the show’s problems. Amazon’s A League of Their Own isn’t a baseball comedy. It’s a lesbian romantic fantasy. Half the Rockford Peaches are lesbians, and one of these lesbians seduces the married Carson, convincing her she’s a lesbian too. Inexplicably, Max too turns out to be a lesbian, and even more surprisingly her girlfriend turns out to be the black preacher’s wife.

The historical All American Girls Professional Baseball League did have some lesbian players, a fact that the 1992 movie passes over. But Amazon’s series inserts the worst of contemporary identity politics into the 1940s complete with a subplot about a thriving transgender African American. It doesn’t get more “intersectional” than that.

The 1992 movie had a lot of heart, but this show has a hollowness at its core. The series fails because it tells lies about the 1940s and it tells lies about our human condition and what it means to lead a fulfilling life.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, August 18th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Thirty years ago, the baseball comedy A League of Their Own delighted audiences with the story of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.

EICHER: Amazon Studios recently released a new series based on the movie, but arts and media editor Collin Garbarino warns that fans of the original movie might not like what they find in the series.

MUSIC: [A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN THEME]

COLLIN GARBARINO: Nostalgia for the 80s and 90s continues to drive the entertainment industry. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when a reboot of A League of Their Own showed up on Prime Video last week.

The 1992 movie starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis performed well at the box office and has become a beloved classic. This new show might start in the same place as the movie, but the series takes its story in a new direction that won’t appeal to Christian fans of the original.

Mr. Baker: This is not about money, Pat. You know, Americans need baseball to keep their spirits in fighting shape.

Marshall: That’s right.

It’s 1943, and as more men are drafted into World War II, baseball owners start thinking about how they’re going to keep the sport alive.

Pat: You really think people are gonna pay to watch women run around like men?

Marshall: Our players will be ladies through and through. No pants wearing, trash talking, chew spitting…

One of these ladies recruited to play in the new girls league is Carson Shaw. She’s played by comedian Abbi Jacobson. When Carson gets a letter saying her husband will be back from the war soon, she panics and runs away to try out.

Greta: You’re married?

Carson: Oh, uh, yes, yeah, of course, I am.

Greta: Huh. What does your Freddie think about you going to play baseball?

Carson: Oh, uh, well. Charlie, um… He’s super excited about it. Yeah. When I was first scouted, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna come, ‘cause I have a lot of responsibilities at home, you know, but I’ve always loved baseball more than anything. I mean, except Charlie, obviously.

The series treads some of the same ground as the movie. These tomboy athletes protest playing in skirts and they often rebel against the decorum their employers expect.

Beverly: Peaches! Welcome to your Rockford home. Come and join me out by the banister. Everyone out of your rooms, please. Very quickly. This will only take a moment. Open your books. I’d like to go through a few rules. No smoking or drinking in public. No pants in public.

Lupe: What?

Beverly: You’ve heard of pants?

Maybelle: I have!

Beverly: Congratulations. Don’t wear them outside. Curfew is at 10:00 p.m. sharp.

Jess: Wait, what?

Beverly: Stragglers will have their pay docked. And you can call me Sergeant Beverly or Sarge, if you must. That’s what I was called in the Marines. I will be your chaperone for the season. Thank you ladies, dismissed.

Jacobson’s Carson has the role Geena Davis played in the original—the level-headed catcher who becomes the team’s leader. And the series puts Nick Offerman of Parks and Rec fame in the role of Tom Hanks’ reluctant coach.

Dove Porter: I love a locker room. You know, all the things people write on the walls, little prayers they send up to the gods. So please, for the love of George Washington, let them have their moment.

Offerman’s character isn’t a fall-down drunk like Hanks’ Jimmy Dugan, and he has some funny moments. But there’s nothing in the series that even approaches Hanks’ iconic “There’s no crying in baseball” scene.

And that’s about where the similarities end.

In addition to the girls on the Rockford Peaches, we meet Max, a black girl who gets snubbed when she attempts to try out.

Coach: You gals get lost on the way to the South Side?

Max: We’re here for the tryouts.

Clance: But that’s very chivalrous of you to worry about us being lost, sir.

Coach: Look, I don’t think you understand. This is the All-American League.

Max: We’re pretty all-American.

Clance: Yeah, we American.

Max: We were born here.

Clance: Yeah, “In God We Trust.” You know, Jesus…

Coach: You think you look like them?

Max: Well, actually, I think my form is a tad bit better, but… We’re from Rockford, Illinois, where we saw you’re putting one of the teams. The Peaches?

Throughout the series, Max’s story runs parallel to Carson’s without much interaction. It’s almost as if each episode contains two different series smashed together.

This structure is distracting. And while the costuming and production values are top notch, the conversation can be annoyingly anachronistic with plenty of bad language. But these are the least of the show’s problems. Amazon’s A League of Their Own isn’t a baseball comedy. It’s a lesbian romantic fantasy. Half the Rockford Peaches are lesbians, and one of these lesbians seduces the married Carson, convincing her she’s a lesbian too. Inexplicably, Max too turns out to be a lesbian, and even more surprisingly her girlfriend turns out to be the black preacher’s wife.

The historical All American Girls Professional Baseball League did have some lesbian players, a fact that the 1992 movie passes over. But Amazon’s series inserts the worst of contemporary identity politics into the 1940s complete with a subplot about a thriving transgender African American. It doesn’t get more “intersectional” than that.

The 1992 movie had a lot of heart, but this show has a hollowness at its core. The series fails because it tells lies about the 1940s and it tells lies about our human condition and what it means to lead a fulfilling life.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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