The Cullen Brothers are relying on Back in the Game co-star James Caan to channel their "horrifying" father.
Robb and Mark Cullen's latest ABC comedy will center on Maggie Lawson’s Terry Gannon Jr., a former all-star softball player turned single mom who has moved in with her estranged father (Caan) and is now coaching her son’s sub-par little league team.
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Here are four things that the executive producers and actors suggested were in store during their turn before the Television Critics Association Sunday.
1. Life Imitates Art
Both the show’s co-creators Robb and Mark Cullen (Las Vegas, Work It) and Caan have experience as a baseball coach. The Cullen brothers coached Mark’s sons nearly year-round for five years, and the series is inspired by “real parents, real kids and real situations” from that experience, says Robb Cullen. As for Caan, the actor reveals that he quit the business for six years to coach his son, who proved to be an incredible ball player. Caan, himself a former player, had a batting machine at his house and was hitting ground balls with his son for some two hours each day. Like the character that he plays on Game, Caan suggests he grew very intense, even thrown out of a game on a couple of occasions. (The one he recounts from the TCA stage featured him chasing two young guys over a fence with a baseball bat.)
2. A Familiar Dad
The Cullen brothers have source material in their own father, who passed away a few years ago. Robb Cullen acknowledges that their dad, who coached their little league teams growing up, was somewhat “horrifying” as a coach. Robb Cullen remembers one instance in which he got hit in the leg with a baseball and his dad suggested he couldn't come home that night unless he punched the kid who hit him. He adds that he and his brother wrote the role for Caan, noting that the series gives them an opportunity to “have a conversation with our dad every week.”
3. No More Panties
Having won over the Cullen brothers with his turn on their short-lived, cross-dressing comedy Work It, the exec producers say Ben Koldyke was an easy choice to play Dick Slingbough in Game. That the actor “brought it every day” on that show, says Robb Cullen, was both impressive and appealing. “That’s all you can ask of an actor,” he adds. Koldyke suggests that Work It, which was universally panned by critics, was a risky role for him. “Creatively, it was difficult and challenging to give everything you have to something you didn’t know was going to fly,” he acknowledges, joking that he was pleased to be done with the “panties and fake boobs.”
4. More Than Baseball
The Cullens insist this show won’t be an “underdog story,” nor will it be all about baseball. According to Mark Cullen, the kids on Game are “never” going to be particularly good at the sport. “They’re not going to win a game all year,” he reveals, noting that the audience is more likely to see the team experience milestones like first hits and first runs. He adds: “We’re going to celebrate achievement, not the underdog elements.” At its core, the brothers say, Game will be a family show with baseball as its backdrop, with much of the show existing around the games as opposed to on the field.
