All is not well for the Rockford Peaches.
Based on the true story and inspired by Penny Marshall’s 1992 hit film of the same name, Amazon Prime Video’s “A League of Their Own” captures all-girls baseball league during World War II. “Broad City” showrunner Abbi Jacobson co-created, starred and produced the eight-episode series, which will premiere on the streamer on August 12. Will Graham, the director of “Mozart in the Jungle”, co-created the series.
Centered on the real all-female traveling baseball league formed in 1943, “A League of Their Own” features entirely new characters distinct from the film. Jacobson stars as Carson, a catcher who joins a team during World War II and seems to strike up a romance with slugger Greta (D’Arcy Carden). Chanté Adams (“A Journal for Jordan”) co-directs baseball phenom Max, a composite character portraying real-life Negro League players Mamie Johnson, Connie Morgan and Toni Stone. Scene stealer Gbemisola Ikumelo (“Sex Education”) is Max’s “chosen sister” Clance. Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”) also plays the head coach of the Rockford Peaches, reprising the role of Tom Hanks from the original.
Marshall consulted the show before his death in 2018, and Maybelle Blair, an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League alum, also served as an inspiration for the show. The series highlights racial barriers for black players, with the league only allowing white or white women to join teams. Sexuality is also explored through queer romances involving various actors.
The theme of the series is rooted in the “transformative quality of joy” and the goal of finding a real team both on and off the field, according to co-creator Graham at the series premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. . “I think the line that D’Arcy says in the pilot, ‘As long as we’re here, let’s do this, let’s rob the bank,’ is kind of how we all feel about the show,” Graham said, where it’s like it’s crazy that we tell these kinds of stories, so we feel very responsible to do it very well and to do it in a fun way and in a way that hopefully will allow everyone to identify themselves.
“A League of Their Own” premieres August 12 on Amazon Prime Video. Check out the trailer below.
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