''Back in the Game'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

about a newly divorced single mother who has to move back home to live with her ex-minor league baseball manager father. It aired from September 25, 2013, to February 23, 2014, on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. The series stars

James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972) – a performance which earned him Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award an ...

and

Maggie Lawson Margaret Cassidy Lawson (born August 12, 1980) is an American actress who is best known for her role as Detective Juliet "Jules" O'Hara in the TV show ''Psych''. From 2018 to 2019, she held the recurring role of Nathalie Flynn on Fox's ''Lethal ...

and aired during the 2013–14 American television season as a Wednesday night entry. ''Back in the Game'' was co-created and executive-produced by brothers

Mark Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fi ...

and

Robb Cullen Mark Cullen and Robb Cullen are brothers and American film and television writers and producers, who usually work together. The brothers have created multiple primetime TV series – ''Hitz'' for UPN, ''Lucky'' for FX, ''Gary The Rat'' for Spi ...

for

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...

. The series was

green-lit To green-light is to give permission to proceed with a project. The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead". Film industry In the context of the film and television industries, to green-light something is to ...

by ABC for a series order pickup on May 10, 2013. On November 1, 2013, ABC announced it was cancelling ''Back in the Game''. Following its tenth aired episode, ABC pulled the series from its schedule and left three episodes unaired. On February 23, 2014, the remaining episodes were released on iTunes, Amazon and other streaming services.

Cast

as Terry Gannon, Jr. *

as Terry "The Cannon" Gannon, Sr. *

Griffin Gluck Griffin Gluck (born August 24, 2000) is an American actor. In television, he is known for his roles as Charlie in ''Red Band Society'', Mason Warner in ''Private Practice'', and Danny Gannon in '' Back in the Game''. He also starred as a main ch ...

as Danny Gannon *

Ben Koldyke Benjamin Koldyke (born March 27, 1968) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Don Frank on '' How I Met Your Mother'' (2009–2010), Lee Standish in '' Work It'' (2012), and Greg Gibbon on '' Gortimer Gibbon's Life On Normal Street'' ...

as Dick Slingbaugh *

Lenora Crichlow Lenora Isabella Crichlow (born 4 January 1985) is a British actress. She became known for her starring roles as Maria "Sugar" Sweet in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series '' Sugar Rush'', Annie Sawyer in the BBC Three supernatural drama series '' ...

as Gigi Fernandez-Lovette *

Cooper Roth Cooper Roth (born September 27, 2000) is an American actor, widely known for his roles as David in the ABC's situation comedy '' Back in the Game'', and as voice of B-Dawg in '' Super Buddies''. Roth first showed interest in acting at the age o ...

as David Slingbaugh *

Josie Totah Josie Totah (born August 5, 2001), formerly known as J. J. Totah, is an American actress. She is known for her recurring role on the Disney Channel series '' Jessie'' and supporting role on the 2013 ABC comedy series '' Back in the Game''. Tot ...

as Michael Lovette * Kennedy Waite as Vanessa * Brandon Selgado-Telis as Dudley Douglas * Matthew Zhang as Dong Jing

Episodes

Broadcast

In Canada,

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

simulcast the ABC broadcast, which debuted on the same day as the American broadcast. In Australia, the series aired on the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

, and debuted on April 9, 2014, where it was originally advertised under the title ''Mum'' (the spelling of 'Mom' in Australian English) but later reverted to the original title. In India the show airs on STAR World Premiere HD. In

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, the series premiered on TV2 in 2014. In the United Kingdom, the series premiered on

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

on January 20, 2014. The series will be syndicated on TBS on August 25, 2014.

Reception

Kristin Dos Santos Kristin dos Santos (née Veitch; born February 24, 1975) is an American entertainment reporter, writer and host, specializing in the coverage of television, award shows and all things Hollywood. She is best known as E!’s resident TV (and award- ...

of E! Online said that while the show's writing and casting was good, the premise might not be original enough to score a big audience. Robert Bianco of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' gave the show 3 out of 4 stars. David Hinckley of the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' gave the show 2 out of 5 stars. Mary McNamara of the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

said Caan "owns the screen whenever he's on it," Lawson "holds her own," and Crichlow and Gluck's characters were "a delight."

Notes

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 2655470, Back in the Game 2010s American single-camera sitcoms 2013 American television series debuts 2013 American television series endings American sports television series American Broadcasting Company original programming Baseball television series English-language television shows Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television shows set in Los Angeles Television series by Kapital Entertainment