47 Fun Facts About The Bad News Bears

Who plays coach Morris Buttermaker in the 1976 film The Bad News Bears?

Walter Matthau. He later sued the studio for selling the hit to television in a single package with its two sequels, arguing the original was worth far more than they were.

The Bad News Bears was written by the son of which Hollywood star?

Burt Lancaster. His son Bill, left with one short leg by childhood polio, drew on his own Little League days, and the field he played on was renamed Bad News Bears Field in 2005.

What is Morris Buttermaker's day job in the 1976 film The Bad News Bears?

Pool cleaner. He soon has the Bears working his pools with him, and tells them it was 'contract disputes' that kept him out of the major leagues.

Which opera supplies the main themes of the score for The Bad News Bears?

Carmen. The trick caught on: both sequels built their scores out of borrowed classics as well, and the Bears' trip to Japan in the third film is set to Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

Who plays Amanda Whurlizer, the Bears' star pitcher?

Tatum O'Neal. Her Amanda has sworn off 'all that tomboy stuff' and sends Buttermaker packing the first time he asks her to take the mound.

Buttermaker gets Amanda to pitch for the Bears by agreeing to pay for which lessons?

Ballet. Amanda, who is saving up for braces, haggles hard over how many lessons he owes her and tries to squeeze a pair of imported French jeans out of him too.

Who plays motorcycle-riding troublemaker Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears?

Jackie Earle Haley. He played Kelly in all three films of the 1970s series, and has since called the third one, set in Japan, the worst movie ever made.

What brand of motorcycle does Kelly Leak ride in The Bad News Bears?

Harley-Davidson. The best athlete in the neighborhood rides it straight onto the field, and joins the Bears only after the rival coach tells him he has no place in the league.

Which business sponsors the Bears' uniforms in the 1976 film The Bad News Bears?

Chico's Bail Bonds. Rival teams wear family names like Pizza Hut and Denny's, and landing this sponsor is about all Buttermaker gets done before opening day.

With the Bears down 26–0 in the first inning of their opener, what does Buttermaker do?

Forfeits the game. The rival coach has just told him his team has no right to be on the field, and the humiliated kids vote to quit before he finally starts coaching them.

Which team do the Bears face in the 1976 championship game?

The Yankees. They had routed the Bears on opening day, when their coach told Buttermaker to do the league a favor and pull his team out of it.

Who plays rival coach Roy Turner in the 1976 film The Bad News Bears?

Vic Morrow. The star of TV's Combat! gives Turner a chilling pep talk before the title game, telling his boys that if they lose they will have to live with it.

What does rival coach Roy Turner do to his son Joey on the mound in the Bears' title game?

Slaps him. Joey had thrown at a batter's head against orders, and he answers by holding the next ball hit to him until the Bears' runner scores, then walking off the field.

How does the championship game end for the Bears in the original 1976 film?

They lose narrowly. Buttermaker, seeing that winning has gone to his head, sends in his benchwarmers so that everyone plays, and the Bears still very nearly pull it off.

What does Buttermaker hand out to the Bears after the championship game in the 1976 film?

Beer. The kids end up spraying it all over each other, a scene the 2005 remake kept only by making the beer non-alcoholic.

What happens to Buttermaker at the Bears' last practice before opening day?

He passes out drunk. He keels over while retelling how he once struck out Ted Williams, and the kids decide he is no good to them sober either.

Which Bear is the short-tempered shortstop who fights the entire seventh grade?

Tanner Boyle. He takes on the whole grade after classmates taunt the Bears over their opening-day humiliation, loses the fight, and is the one player who refuses to quit.

Which Bear plays catcher and breaks Buttermaker's windshield at the first practice?

Mike Engelberg. A compulsive eater and a strong hitter, he is told on the spot that his father will be the one paying for the glass.

Which Bear does a teammate introduce as a "booger-eating spaz"?

Timmy Lupus. The shy right fielder, written off as the worst player in the league, is sent in late in the title game and comes through with a key play nobody expected.

Which bookworm Bear memorizes baseball statistics and helps with strategy?

Alfred Ogilvie. The asthmatic stats whiz rides the bench all season, and when he is finally sent up to bat in the title game he points out he is 0 for 14, then draws a walk.

Which major leaguer does Bears outfielder Ahmad Abdul-Rahim idolize in the 1976 film?

Hank Aaron. When Ahmad quits in shame over his opening-day errors, Buttermaker talks him back with a tale of a nine-year-old Aaron making 42 errors in his first sandlot season.

What does Buttermaker order nervous Bear Rudi Stein to do to reach base?

Get hit by a pitch. "Lean into it and let it hit you," he tells the frightened boy, the moment the film shows that the need to win has got to the Bears' coach as well.

Who secretly pays Buttermaker to coach the Bears in the 1976 film?

Councilman Bob Whitewood. He had won the lawsuit that forced the league to take the kids it turned away, his own son among them, and no father had the time to coach them.

How was The Bad News Bears rated on its release in 1976?

Rated PG. Nearly thirty years on, the 2005 remake told much the same foul-mouthed story and came out rated PG-13.

The actor who played Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears later played which horror villain in a remake?

Freddy Krueger. He took the part over from Robert Englund in A Nightmare on Elm Street, and an unimpressed Roger Ebert wrote that under the makeup he "might as well play Santa Claus".

Which studio released The Bad News Bears in April 1976?

Paramount. When Little League officials protested about the children's language, the studio answered that the film was not about Little League at all.

Buttermaker's actor shared one BAFTA Best Actor nomination between The Bad News Bears and which other comedy?

The Sunshine Boys. He was a substitute in that film: the part of the cranky old vaudevillian had been won by Red Skelton, who then walked away from it.

Roger Ebert called The Bad News Bears an "unblinking, scathing look" at what in American society?

Competition. Ebert found stretches of the comedy "very disturbing", because the competitors were Little Leaguers and the people who most needed to win were the adults.

The score of the Bears sequel Breaking Training borrows its themes from which Tchaikovsky piece?

The 1812 Overture. The original film had been scored from a famous opera, so the sequel's composer, Craig Safan, followed its lead and built his music on Tchaikovsky's showpiece.

In Breaking Training, the Bears travel to play in which famous stadium?

The Astrodome. Beating the Texas champions there earns the Bears a trip to take on the best young team in Japan, which is where the third film picks up.

Who becomes the Bears' coach in Breaking Training?

Kelly Leak's estranged father. Police find the team staying with no adult in charge, so Kelly tracks down the father who walked out on him years before and asks him to pose as coach.

Tanner's vow to "win one for the Looper" in Breaking Training echoes a famous line from which film?

Knute Rockne, All American. Tanner catches Pat O'Brien's "win one for the Gipper" speech on a motel television during the road trip, then borrows it for a teammate laid up at home.

What chant does the stadium crowd take up during the Bears' big game in Breaking Training?

"Let them play!" The Bears' coach whips the crowd into it while Tanner dodges two officials around the field, and the stadium gives in and lets the game go on.

Why do officials try to stop the Bears' big game partway through in Breaking Training?

A time limit runs out. The kids' game is only filler between the two games of a big-league doubleheader, so when its slot is used up the officials simply call it off.

How do the unchaperoned Bears travel to their big away game in Breaking Training?

They drive a van themselves. Kelly takes the wheel, and it is the van that gives them away: police turn up asking who drove it, who owns it and where the team's chaperone is.

Which veteran star plays promoter Marvin Lazar in The Bad News Bears Go to Japan?

Tony Curtis. His hustler Marvin Lazar, deep in debt, takes the team to Tokyo with no game, no money and no television deal actually arranged.

Which Japanese wrestler appears as himself in The Bad News Bears Go to Japan?

Antonio Inoki. Two years earlier in Tokyo he had fought Muhammad Ali under special rules, spending most of the bout on his back kicking at Ali's legs, and it was scored a draw.

Which talk-show host has a small role in The Bad News Bears Go to Japan?

Regis Philbin. Television sets the plot going too: the Bears go on the air to plead for a way to Japan, and a debt-ridden hustler who sees the broadcast spots his chance to cash in.

Who plays Buttermaker in the 1979–80 CBS sitcom based on The Bad News Bears?

Jack Warden. On television Buttermaker takes the coaching job only to stay out of jail, and his Bears are a junior high school team.

Which future 1980s teen star played Regi Tower in the Bad News Bears TV series?

Corey Feldman. He was seven when the series began in 1979; CBS cancelled it early in its second season and aired the leftover episodes the following summer.

At which arcade game does Amanda try to win Kelly Leak for the Bears?

Air hockey. If she wins he has to join the team, but she loses, and her forfeit is a date with him at a Rolling Stones concert.

Who directed the 2005 remake, Bad News Bears?

Richard Linklater. He stayed so close to the 1976 film that Roger Ebert called his version a fairly faithful remake, and a San Francisco critic wrote that he had left no fingerprints on it.

What does Buttermaker do for a living in the 2005 remake of The Bad News Bears?

Exterminator. He puts some of his own players to work as well, sending them crawling under houses to spray the chemicals for him.

What sponsor's logo do the Bears wear in the 2005 remake?

A gentlemen's club. The Bo-Peeps logo goes on the uniforms, and in 2012 a real Los Angeles-area league was offered a season-saving donation by a strip club, with no logo required.

Who plays Morris Buttermaker in the 2005 remake of The Bad News Bears?

Billy Bob Thornton. The remake's writers had also written his Bad Santa, and Roger Ebert called this role a head-on collision between that drunk and his Friday Night Lights coach.

Who plays Ray Bullock, the rival coach, in the 2005 remake of The Bad News Bears?

Greg Kinnear. His Bullock coaches the reigning champions and looks the model dad beside Buttermaker, until the title game shows how hard he is on his own son.

Who is Amanda to Buttermaker when he recruits her to pitch for the Bears in the 1976 film?

His ex-girlfriend's daughter. He taught her to pitch while he was seeing her mother and then walked out on them both, which is why she owes him nothing when he comes asking.