Production and Success
The Bad News Bears was filmed in and around Los Angeles, primarily in the San Fernando Valley. The field where they played is in Mason Park on Mason Avenue in Chatsworth, California. In the film, the Bears were sponsored by an actual company, "Chico's Bail Bonds." One scene was filmed in the council chamber at Los Angeles City Hall.
The film was notable in its time for the amount of vulgarity (including profanity and ethnic slurs) placed into the mouths of the various child actors who played the principal roles (specifically, a memorable Tanner Boyle, played by Chris Barnes, quoted as calling his teammates en masse "a bunch of Jews, spics, niggers, pansies, and a booger-eating moron"). Most of the questionable dialogue was used for comic effect. A true product of the mid-70s, it includes a scene that would most likely no longer be allowed in a PG-rated film today: an inebriated Buttermaker drives the players, who are not wearing seatbelts, in an open-top convertible.
In his 1976 review, critic Roger Ebert called the film "an unblinking, scathing look at competition in American society."
The film inspired two sequels, The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, a TV series, and a 2005 remake.
Saturday Night Live did a parody of the film with Matthau as the guest host called The Bad News Bees with John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and the rest in their recurring "bee" costumes. This subtly dealt with masturbation which was referred to as "buzzing-off".
American Film Institute
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs-nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10-nominated sports film
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers-nominated
Read more about this topic: The Bad News Bears
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