Bad News Bears - featured Walter Matthau Tatum O'Neal 40th anniversary

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This will make many 70’s kids feel old. Its been 40 years since this wonderful movie came out.

How many saw it in the theater? I did. Loved it and have seen it at least ten times on VHS. My kids watched it in the 90’s.

This wonderful article has interviews with the surviving cast and director. Giving all the casting decisions and behind the scenes production details of this classic movie.

40th anniversary Article

But the Stanley Jaffe-produced, Michael Ritchie-directed film about the Little League culture in California cemented its place alongside other sports movie classics with what Jaffe calls “a terrific script,” a forever cast led by Walter Matthau (Buttermaker) and Tatum O’Neal (Whurlitzer), and a director (Ritchie) who mostly maintained the sanity on set while guiding an ensemble cast made up of mostly children.

But maybe the biggest reason why the movie remains as timeless in 2016 as it did 40 years ago is because, in actor Erin Blunt’s (who played Bears right fielder Ahmad Abdul Rahim) words, “It was honest.”

[Coriolanus]

Saw it in the theater with my family. I was nine. I had a bit of a crush on Tatum O’Neal since Paper Moon.

Me and at least one brother were still playing Little League and my father always managed one of our teams, and coached for the other.

I more than occasionally say “Crud!”