A new Prime Video series of the same name is paying tribute to the groundbreaking film A League of Their Own, which first hit theaters 30 years ago.
With a wider “lens to tell the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball,” the new series, set to air on August 12, also focuses on a women’s baseball club in 1943.
Star and co-creator Abbi Jacobson told People that she sought out the original film’s Penny Marshall and Geena Davis for their “blessing” before working on the remake. You might be asking yourself while you watch the show if A League of Their Own is based on a true story. We should get started.
Is A League Of Their Own Based On a True Story?
Yes, the movie is, indeed, based on a true story—a pretty personal one, at that! Kelly Candaele, who shares a story credit on the original film, recently explained the inspiration behind A League of Their Own to MLB.com.
His mother, Helen Candaele, and her sister, Margaret, were actually the first sisters to compete in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League—the real professional league, founded in 1943, that appears in both the film and TV versions of A League of Their Own.
How the Series Expanded on Their Reality?
In the Amazon Prime Video series League of Their Own, the characters and the realities that the ladies of the AAGPBL experienced in 1943 are expanded. The film concentrates on the game itself, but the program provides a more realistic portrayal of life at the time.
Relationships between the ladies and their strategies for surviving in that environment take center stage in the new A League of Their Own. In contrast to the show, the film makes no mention of the fact that some of the ladies are gay or of the league’s discrimination towards African American women.
Many groups had it rough in the middle of the twentieth century, but the experiences of the LGTBQIA+ community are often overlooked. The LGBTQ community endured severe prejudice in the 1940s, including loss of employment, social isolation, and even criminal prosecution.
Many people in the community would be “outed” to their friends and family if their identities were published in the local papers after an arrest. Because of this, many people had no choice but to leave their homes and conceal their identities in order to survive.
People were able to relax and be themselves with their partners in speakeasies, which became a haven for the community. There were frequent raids on these establishments, making them extremely unsafe for patrons. Nonetheless, the show gives viewers a realistic depiction of life in these taverns, which served as gathering places for the neighborhood.
To top it all off, they correctly guessed the coded phrase: “Are you a friend of Dorothy?” The phrase originated in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz as a non-threatening technique to find out if another person was gay. Another expression from the era was “My best Judy,” which was a reference to a particularly close (usually queer) buddy and was named after Judy Garland.
The tweet show a clip of A League of Their Own:
watch a league of their own pic.twitter.com/cbcSeNjsDc
— ۟ (@Iatinopercy) May 6, 2023
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Who Did League of Their Own Better?
The question of whether the TV show or the movie was superior has now been raised. The natural response is to name the picture, which is widely regarded as among Tom Hanks’ finest works. However, this is a complex discussion. They are both built on the same concept and share many similarities, including the name, but they have quite different atmospheres.
While the documentary highlights the AAGPBL’s successes, the series focuses on the women themselves, including the challenges many of them encountered because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The male coach character, played by Hanks in the film, is given much more screen time than Nick Offerman’s counterpart did in the series, which focused on the female characters.
It’s hard to compare the two because the film ends the tale while the series is only getting started. It’s like reading the first chapter of a sequel and trying to figure out if you’ll like the rest of the book. This discussion borders on inequitable.
It’s not surprising that they would remake such a well-liked film. The success of the film, however, could have doomed the subsequent installments.
Thankfully, the writers of A League of Their Own handled it effectively by delving into the period’s history and not sugarcoating the unpleasant truth. Season two is rumored to be in the works, so we can’t wait to see what happens next. You can see the movie right now on Netflix, and the first season of A League of Their Own is available in its entirety on Prime Video.
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