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1994 American television documentary miniseries From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baseball is a 1994 American television documentary miniseries created by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns about the history of the sport of baseball.
| Baseball | |
|---|---|
| |
| Genre | Documentary film |
| Created by | Ken Burns |
| Written by | Geoffrey C. Ward Ken Burns |
| Starring | see text |
| Narrated by | John Chancellor |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 9 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Ken Burns Lynn Novick |
| Running time | approx. 18.5 hours total |
| Production company | National Endowment for the Humanities |
| Original release | |
| Network | PBS |
| Release | September 18 – September 28, 1994 |
| Related | |
| The Tenth Inning | |
First broadcast on PBS, this was Burns' ninth documentary and won the 1995 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series.[1] It was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Baseball, like Burns' previous documentaries such as The Civil War, used archived pictures and film footage mixed with interviews for visual presentation. Actors provide voice over reciting written work (letters, speeches, etc.) over pictures and video. Episodes are interspersed with the music of the times taken from previous Burns series, original played music, or recordings ranging from Louis Armstrong to Elvis Presley. John Chancellor, anchor of the NBC Nightly News from 1970 to 1982, narrated the series.
The documentary is divided into nine parts, each referred to as an "inning", following the division of a baseball game. Each "inning" reviews an era, mentioning notable moments in the world and in America itself, and begins with a brief prologue acting as an insight to the game during that era. The prologue ends with the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" just as a real baseball game would begin, being performed usually by a brass band, with a couple of exceptions: The 1920s, where the rendition is played by a piano of the era, and the 1960s, where the rendition is the version played by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. In some "inning" episodes, a period version of the baseball anthem "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is used. Roughly halfway through each "inning", a title card appears, reading "Bottom of" the inning, dividing the episode into two parts in a manner also recalling the game; in the seventh "inning", the "Bottom" is immediately preceded by the "seventh-inning stretch". Within these halves of the episode, there are smaller segments also highlighted with a simple title card that often highlights various important parts of baseball's history. These often include player highlights, important or eventful games, or the creation of various brands that are now well known throughout baseball such as Louisville Slugger.
Original airdate: Sunday, September 18, 1994.[2]
Original airdate: Monday, September 19, 1994.[2]
Original airdate: Tuesday, September 20, 1994.[2]
Original airdate: Wednesday, September 21, 1994.[2]
Original airdate: Thursday, September 22, 1994.[2]
Original airdate: Sunday, September 25, 1994.[2]
Original airdate: Monday, September 26, 1994.[2]
Original airdate: Tuesday, September 27, 1994.[2]
Original airdate: Wednesday, September 28, 1994.[2]
Original airdate: Tuesday, September 28, 2010.
Original airdate: Wednesday, September 29, 2010.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of people not involved in baseball who were interviewed in the documentary:
The following is a non-exhaustive list of people who were more involved in the game of baseball, and were interviewed in the documentary:
The following provided voice-over readings in Baseball:
Critics and audiences praised the series but criticized its length and detail. At 18.5 hours, the runtime of the series is one of Burns' longest.[3]
The first episode more than doubled PBS's average primetime ratings with a Nielsen rating of 5.1 and an audience share of 7% but did not do as well as Civil War's 9 rating and 13% share.[4]
At a preview screening of his 2007 documentary The War, Ken Burns spoke of the possibility of coming up to date in the history of baseball with a "Tenth Inning" episode of his Baseball documentary.[5] This was officially confirmed by Burns in an MLB Network interview, and later to the NBC LA web site during the winter Television Critics Association media tour January 8. It aired in Fall 2010 and covered the period from 1992 through the 2009 season.
During in-game coverage of a Texas Rangers game during July 2009, Burns was interviewed, and said The Tenth Inning would air "about a year from now" on PBS. He also stated that it would be two two-hour programs. One would be the "top of the 10th", and the other would be the "bottom of the 10th". He also said that "the good Lord willing", there would be an 11th Inning and a 12th Inning in the future. His aim was to air the 11th Inning in 2020 opening with Armando Galarraga.[6] Burns also said that Baseball is the only one of his documentaries to which he was ever interested in doing a "sequel" (of sorts).
The Tenth Inning premiered on PBS on September 28, 2010, narrated by Keith David. The Inning was broken into two halves airing on September 28 and 29, 2010. The documentary discussed the major stories that covered the period from 1992 through the 2009 season. It focuses heavily on examining the Steroid era and the many players who got caught up in it, but also discusses other major issues in baseball, such as how baseball rebounded from the 1994 strike largely thanks to the selflessness of Cal Ripken Jr. and other players, the return to prominence of the Yankees, the influence of international players (specifically Dominican and Japanese players) on the game, and the drama of the 2003 and 2004 American League Championship Series, which helped baseball, even in the midst of America's greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, become as popular as it has ever been.
David Hinckley of New York Daily News wrote, "Ken Burns hits another one out of the park."[7]
The complete series (including the Tenth Inning segments) was streamed online for free by PBS during the shortened 2020 Major League Baseball season, starting on what would have been the regular opening day for the season, hoping to "fill the void" left by the lack of baseball.[8][9] In a video message posted the Sunday prior, Ken Burns confirmed the following: "As we hunker down in the days ahead, it’s important that we find things that bring us together and show us our common humanity. That’s why, in the absence of many of our favorite sports, I’ve asked PBS — that’s the Public Broadcasting Service — to stream my film about America’s pastime, ‘Baseball.’ Stay healthy and let’s look after each other. Play ball."[10]
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