(Photo: FOX)
Pitch aired for one season on FOX during the 2016-2017 television season, and the decision to cancel the baseball drama greatly impacted one of its stars.
Starring Kylie Bunbury, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Ali Larter, Mark Consuelos, Dan Lauria, Mo McRae, Meagan Holder, and Tim Jo, the drama revolves around the first female player to join Major League baseball. In the story, Ginny Baker (Bunbury) joins the San Diego Padres, with Gosselaar playing her catcher.
He spoke about how the show’s cancellation by FOX affected him in a recent Saved by the Bell reunion panel at Retro Con. He said the following, according to People:
“I wanted to quit the industry after that ended. That’s one of those, you feel like in your lifetime you’re not going to be handed opportunities like that, so for that to pass in the fashion that it did it was sort of a gut punch.”
Gosselaar said that the role was one of his favorites and that he put on a lot of weight and muscle for it. Things weren’t all rosy, however, as he found he was bringing the attitude of the “really aggressive baseball player” character he was playing home with him.
“That’s a role though, that I don’t make light of it, but I had to go therapy with my wife. I’d come in through that front door and like my wife said in therapy sessions, ‘That’s not the guy I married.’ And you’re playing this guy and then the next day, you have to jump right into that. It is actually really difficult to go back and forth, especially when you have kids.”
A possible revival of the baseball drama was in the works in 2019, but it did not move forward.
What do you think? Were you a fan of Pitch? Were you sad that this FOX series was cancelled?
Loved this show….couldn’t believe they cancelled it.
Yes I loved the show
Pitch was such a great show. I was very disappointed it was cancelled.
I remember Pitch. It was a great show that also didn’t play on the whole equality tropes.
It just did it’s job very well and it was a big surprise when cancelled.
Great Show!!! Networks don’t always get it right or wrong, but this one should have been picked up by another network. Great cast, acting and stories. Maybe there were other factors behind the scenes? Then again Fox never had much in the way of smarts.
This was one of my favorite shows in a long time. Such a dumb decision by FOX to cancel it! It’s typical FOX though, considering it’s the same network that cancelled Firefly. Everyone involved should be proud of that amazing show.
How was it dumb it had low ratings? Networks want a show that’s a hit not a piss poor performer.
This was an awesome show and the network made a very bad decision cancelling it. I can’t say enough good things about the actors, the writing, etc. I was very sad to see it go.