Movie To TV Comparison: Big League To Little Screen

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[OtterMommy]

Please keep in mind that users visiting this thread may not have seen the entire series, so please play it on the safe side and use spoiler tags.  Thanks!

[Cranberry]

Every “A League of Their Own” Reference in Prime Video’s “A League of Their Own”: An Obsessive Guide

Spoilers for all eight episodes.

[yanksno1]

Okay, I'm 4 episodes in and don't think this is the League of their Own TV series I wanted. The first few eps I was confused if this was a re-creation of the movie or it's own thing. It's def it's own thing. I don't really care for the new characters like I did their movie "counterparts". I'm debating even finishing the season. I might do it if I have nothing else to watch, but I'm not in any rush to.

What I wished they did was to expand on the movie universe. That was so great, I really don't care about a retelling set in the same time period, same team with different characters. They should have told the story from the Belles, who the Peaches met win the World Series and lost. Kit got traded to them after her tiff with Dottie. Re-cast those characters and tell their story. There was also other years/stories they could have focused on.

Just seems like a wasted opportunity to me and not the direction I would have taken.

Edited August 22, 2022 by yanksno1

[keke23]

I think I'm almost done with the season. I still cannot figure out if I like it or not if that makes any sense. It's not what I thought I was getting into since it's called a league of their own. I agree with the poster above's statement that they could have based it on a different team. 

It just makes the movie I loved seem inauthentic now since it's like we're being told a completely different story now than the happy go luckiness of the movie. I'm sure this is closer to the reality of the time but I don't know it's just not the storylines I thought I was coming in for. That's partially my fault I guess because I only saw the title and decided to give it a view.

[Bastet]

27 minutes ago, keke23 said:

It just makes the movie I loved seem inauthentic now since it's like we're being told a completely different story now than the happy go luckiness of the movie. I'm sure this is closer to the reality of the time

To be fair to the film, the original cut was much more honest about the limitations the women were living under, and how the league, even with its own limitations, was a lifeline for them, but it was way too long, and nuanced realism is always first on the chopping block.

(As far as I know, the scene with the Black woman throwing a perfect pitch to Dottie was the only acknowledgment this lifeline was only available to white women, but the realities of life for those white women in the patriarchy of the 1940s was explored more fully.)

Edited September 3, 2022 by Bastet

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, keke23 said:

It just makes the movie I loved seem inauthentic now since it's like we're being told a completely different story now than the happy go luckiness of the movie. I'm sure this is closer to the reality of the time but I don't know it's just not the storylines I thought I was coming in for. That's partially my fault I guess because I only saw the title and decided to give it a view

I look at them as telling two different sides of the league. I love the movie for its happy nostalgia. It's like a celebration of a time when, for a brief shining moment, women were able to play professional baseball. It was a celebration of the barriers they broke. 

The show is a more in depth look at what the world around them was like and how hard it was to be different in that world. 

I don't think the movie is necessarily inauthentic because it didn't show that side of things. I think it had a particular part of the story it wanted to tell in the short amount of time a movie has while the show wanted to tell a different story, rather than retread what the movie did so well, and it had the luxury of more hours to get more in depth with the story. 

I think it was smart not to just basically remake the movie, like the old sitcom seemed to try to do. The movie was nearly perfect. It didn't need to be remade. 

[Bastet]

I see the movie as a celebration of the AAGPBL (which most Americans in 1992 didn't even realize had ever existed), and this series as a wider exploration of women of the '40s who yearned to play professional baseball. 

The series would never have existed without the film bringing the league to the country's attention.  The film, within its time restraints and studio execs' reservations (Sony didn't even want to make this movie, but they were courting Penny Marshall to direct Awakenings, so threw in "We'll let you do that girl movie you want to do" as an incentive), delivered something truly wonderful.  The series, with more time and the additional artistic freedom the past 30 years have brought, is running with that by telling additional stories.

Look how many different stories have been told about MLB.  We can have more than one about AAGPBL!

Edited September 5, 2022 by Bastet

[keke23]

I finished watching and shed several tears. 

I realized what was holding me back for the first half of my viewing. I was trying to figure out who was who from the movie characters. Like I said in my earlier post I went in watching this blind so my expectation was that this was just a tv adaptation of the movie since it had the same name.

Once I hit the last 3 episodes, I finally got into the groove of just following the current storylines and viewing this as something completely independent from the film as I think it was intended to be seen. Much more enjoyable that way.

[Bastet]

On 9/3/2022 at 6:47 PM, keke23 said:

something completely independent from the film as I think it was intended to be seen

Yes, the trailer made that clear (it's what got me interested).  Not everyone watches that, of course, some will tune in just based on the title, so the first episode took great pains to include fun allusions to the film but establish these are different people, not just different names:

Carson is married and running for the train, yeah, but she has no sister with her, and is desperate to join the league, not reluctantly doing so in order to help someone else.  There's no Marla equivalent, or Betty Spaghetti, no Evelyn-type with a kid in tow, etc.  There's an entire second world with a Black character excluded from this opportunity.  I think the closest resemblance to the film is with Greta and Jo as the new Mae and Doris, but there are enough significant differences that they're easily and early distinguished.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Bastet