Entertainment

'A League Of Their Own' TV Series Is In The Works & It's OK To Cry, '90s Kids

Try not to cry tears of joy when you hear this news. According to The Hollywood Reporter, A League of Their Own TV series is in the works at Amazon. And that's not even the best part. The series is co-created by Broad City's Abbi Jacobson and Mozart in the Jungle's Will Graham. While Jacobson isn't set to appear onscreen, knowing that she will be serving as an executive producer is reason enough to get excited about this project now.

While there are plenty of ways to pull off a reboot or movie-to-TV adaptation, this series appears to be taking the most sustainable route. Instead of trying to recreate the magic of the '90s movie, the show will not include Geena Davis' Dottie or Lori Petty's Kit. However, it will focus on the Rockford Peaches as they travel across a rapidly changing America. As revealed by THR, the official description reads:

"'A League of Their Own' is a half-hour comedy infusing the warmth, humor and DNA of the classic film, while taking a contemporary spin on the stories of the women surrounding the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The show will begin with the formation of the league in 1943 and follows the Rockford Peaches, season to season as they struggle to keep the team alive through close games, injuries, late night bar crawls, sexual awakenings, not crying and road trips across a rapidly changing United States. The series dives deeper into the issues facing the country while following a ragtag team of women figuring themselves out while fighting to realize their dreams of playing professional baseball."

The premise has just the right balance of nostalgia for the film and a promise to do its own thing. It clearly has the potential to delve into a number of feminist issues that the movie only touched on, including the very real segregation that was going on in the nation during the era.

At this point, the Amazon series is still in the earliest stages of development. Before the streaming site makes a decision about whether or not to move forward with the project, a small writer's room will be assembled to put together multiple scripts. It seems that ultimately, the strength of the writing will decide this adaptation's fate.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time that television has tried to capture the magic of A League of Their Own. The film was previously adapted into a short-lived CBS series in 1993. That show was more of a direct followup to the film that focused on Megan Cavanagh's Marla and Tracy Reiner's Betty "Spaghetti." The series was pulled after three episodes due to low ratings, but then again, it didn't have Jacobson on board as a writer.

The co-creator of Broad City has proven her comedic writing chops time and time again on her Comedy Central show, and she feels like the perfect choice to tap into the film's feminist premise. Of course, there's no way to know exactly how the A League of Their Own TV series will turn out unless Amazon commits to ordering the show.

For some '90s kids, A League of Their Own was a formative part of their young feminist experience. The message is simplistic on the surface, sure — yes, women can play baseball — but the fact that it was based on a true story gave it an extra layer of significance. Now Amazon has a chance to tap into an even more progressive take on the Rockford Peaches, one that could span multiple seasons and be penned at least in part by Jacobson. While there's no guarantee that it will be a home run, this is one TV reboot that could prove to be exactly what viewers need right now.