''Hardball'' is an American

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

television series that ran on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

from September 21, 1989 to June 29, 1990, during the 1989–90 television schedule.

Synopsis

''Hardball'' is a variation of the

buddy cop Buddy cop is a film and television genre with plots involving two people of very different and conflicting personalities who are forced to work together to solve a crime and/or defeat criminals, sometimes learning from each other in the process. ...

genre that focused on two plainclothes L.A. cops, Charlie "C.B." Battles (

John Ashton John Ashton may refer to: Entertainment * John Ashton (composer) (1830–1896), Welsh musician * Will Ashton (John William Ashton, 1881–1963), British-Australian artist and art director * John Rowland Ashton (1917–2008), English author * John ...

) and Joe "Kaz" Kaczierowski (

Richard Tyson Richard Tyson is an American actor. He is best known as Kaz in ''Hardball'' (1989–1990) as well as his film roles in ''Three O'Clock High'' (1987), ''Two Moon Junction'' (1988), ''Kindergarten Cop'' (1990), ''Bound to Vengeance'' (2015), and '' ...

). Battles is a 45-year-old hard-nosed veteran officer who is forced to take a desk job or retire. Battles is soon assigned a new partner, the 25-year-old hotshot Kaczierowski who follows his own set of rules when dealing with criminals. The pair are soon at odds over their respective methods of law enforcement.

President

Brandon Tartikoff Brandon Tartikoff (January 13, 1949 – August 27, 1997) was an American television executive who was the president of NBC from 1981 to 1991. He was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as ''Hill Stre ...

saw this series as inspired by the ''

Lethal Weapon ''Lethal Weapon'' is a 1987 American buddy cop action comedy film directed and co-produced by Richard Donner, written by Shane Black, and co-produced by Joel Silver. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darle ...

'' films and Battles was patterned after

Pete Rose Peter Edward Rose Sr. (born April 14, 1941), also known by his nickname "Charlie Hustle", is an American former professional baseball player and manager. Rose played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a membe ...

Cast

as Charlie "C.B." Battles *

as Joe "Kaz" Kaczierowski * John Pappas as Pappas * Barney McFadden as Ballantine

Production notes

The series was created by Robert Palm and executive produced by John Ashley and

Frank Lupo Frank Lupo (January 22, 1955 – February 18, 2021) was an American television writer and television producer, producer who created or co-created many successful TV series from the 1970s to the 1990s. In collaboration with Stephen J. Cannell, Lu ...

Theme song

The series' theme song "Roll It Over", was written by

Sylvester Levay Sylvester Levay (originally Lévay Szilveszter, Serbian language, Serbian: Силвестер Леваи, ''Silvester Levai'') is a Hungarian people, Hungarian recording artist and composer, born in Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Life and career Levay ...

Mark Spiro Mark Spiro (born March 28, 1957) is an American songwriter, record producer and recording artist. Represented on millions of records sold worldwide, Spiro has delivered songs to artists such as Julian Lennon, Cheap Trick, John Waite, Heart, Laura B ...

, and

Eddie Money Edward Joseph Mahoney (March 21, 1949 – September 13, 2019), known professionally as Eddie Money, was an American singer and songwriter who, in the 1970s and 1980s, had eleven Top 40 songs, including "Baby Hold On", "Two Tickets to Parad ...

. Money also performed the tune.

Episodes

References

External links

* * {{epguides, id=Hardball_1989, title=Hardball 1989 American television series debuts 1990 American television series endings 1980s American crime drama television series 1990s American crime drama television series American action television series English-language television shows Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television series by Universal Television NBC original programming Television shows set in Los Angeles