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Memorable moments
from a storied history90 Years of THR
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 118 AUGUST 14, 2019
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PHOTOFESTWalter Matthau (as Coach Buttermaker) and Tatum O’Neal (as Amanda Whurlitzer) in The Bad News Bears. Inset: THR’s June 9, 1975, front-page story on Paramount CEO Barry Diller greenlighting the film..
In its review of Good Boys, set
for an Aug. 16 release, THR says
director Gene Stupnitsky “has an
endless fascination with hear-
ing preteens curse.” Maybe what
worked for The Bad News Bears
in 1976 might work again four
decades later. Back then, THR
noted Bears’ “sharp, salty screen-
play,” which featured kid Tatum
O’Neal, fresh off her supporting
actress Oscar victory for Paper
Moon, saying such lines as, “You
handled it like shit!” The plot
centered on an alcoholic former
minor leaguer (Walter Matthau)
coaching a San Fernando Valley
Little League team full of misfits.
O’Neal, who portrayed the star
pitcher, says one of the movie’s
pluses was that it “took girls out
of the girlie position and put them
more in with the boys.” (Among
the other Bears was 15-year-old
Jackie Earl Haley playing a Harley-
riding outfielder.) Beneath the
mild verbal shocks lay an excel-
lent screenplay handled by real
talent. Written by Bill Lancaster
— who, besides being Burt
Lancaster’s son, went on to write
John Carpenter’s The Thing — it
was directed by Michael Ritchie,
who was coming off 1972’s The
Candidate. The $3.5 million
Paramount production ($16 mil-
lion today) brought in $32 million
domestically ($144 million today).
“The thing that surprised every-
body was that it was about kids
but adults loved it,” says producer
Stanley Jaffe. What surprisesO’Neal is the enduring interest
that males have in The Bad News
Bears. “The film had such an
impact on boys,” says O’Neal, 55.
“Guys my age are always saying,
‘You were my first love.’ Quentin
Tarantino told me I was the first
fan letter he’d ever written. I
was flattered. I think my grand-
mother threw it away. When I
knew Jason Patric in the ’90s, he
asked if I still had the Bears uni-
form and would I put it on. I was
like, ‘Are you fucking kidding?
That was when I was 11.’ ” The
movie spawned two O’Neal- and
Matthau-less sequels — 1977’s
The Bad New Bears in Breaking
Tr a i n i n g and 1978’s The Bad News
Bears Go to Japan — a short-lived
CBS series in 1979 and a RichardLinklater-helmed remake in 2005
with Billy Bob Thornton in the
Matthau role. — BILL HIGGINSIn 1976, Bad News Bears Made Stars of Cussing Kids
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