Ball Four

Ball Four (1976)


  • Genre: Comedy
  • First Air Date: 1976-09-22
  • Last Air Date: 1976-10-27
  • Total Seasons: 1
  • Total Episodes: 7
  • Status: Ended
  • Episode Runtime: 30 min.
  • Production Company: Time-Life Television Productions
  • Networks: CBS
star 5.5/10
From 2 Ratings

Summary

Ball Four is a 1976 American situation comedy that aired on CBS in 1976. The series is inspired by the 1970 book of the same name by Jim Bouton. Bouton co-created the show with humorist and television critic Marvin Kitman and sportswriter Vic Ziegel. Bouton also starred in the series. Ball Four followed the Washington Americans, a fictitious minor league baseball team, dealing with the fallout from a series of Sports Illustrated articles written by Americans player Jim Barton. Like the book, the series covered controversial subjects including womanizing players, drug use, homosexuality in sports and religion. The series included a gay rookie ballplayer, one of the earliest regular gay characters on television. The trio began developing the series in 1975, looking to other series like M*A*S*H and All in the Family as models. CBS expressed interest and the creative team developed a script. CBS shot the pilot episode and ultimately bought the series. Ball Four aired at 8:30 PM Eastern time, which was during the Family Viewing Hour, an FCC-mandated hour of early evening "family-friendly" broadcasting. Consequently the writers had some trouble with the network's Standards and Practices in their attempt to portray realistic locker room scenes, especially the language used by the players. Pseudo-profanity such as "bullpimp" was disallowed, while "horse-crock" and "bullhorse" were approved.

  • Keywords: baseball, sports, sitcom
  • Ball Four Trailer

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    Is Ball Four on Netflix? Unfortunately this serie is not yet available on Netflix.

    Ball Four Seasons

    Season 1

    First Air Date: 1976-09-22
    7 Episodes

    Ball Four Episodes

    Title Air Date Duration
    Season 1Episode 1Work in Progress30 min
    Season 1Episode 2The Unpractical Joke30 min
    Season 1Episode 3High-Flying Rookie30 min
    Season 1Episode 4A Quiet Day at the Iroquois Hotel30 min
    Season 1Episode 5What's a Nice Watch Like You Doin' in a Place Like This?30 min
    Season 1Episode 6Rookie in Love30 min
    Season 1Episode 7Closet Phobia30 min
    • Bill McCutcheon

      as
    • Ben Davidson

      as
    • Jim Bouton

      as
    • Marco St. John

      as
    • Jamie Tirelli

      as
    • David Carroll

      as
    • Jack Somack

      as
    • Samuel E. Wright

      as

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