Sports are a universal activity that spans across every single country around the world. No matter where you go on Earth, it’s certain to include some sort of sporting facility or stadium or event that crowds can flock to in order to forget about their troubles for a few hours. Sports come in all shapes and sizes, as do the athletes who play said sports – the variety in Olympic athletes is enough to prove that. A gymnast might be shorter than 5 feet tall and weigh less than a hundred pounds; meanwhile, a basketball player could stand over 7 feet tall and reach the rim without jumping. Neither is more nor less athletic than the other – they’re just sports.
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With such a universal pastime, it only makes sense that this would be something that a massive amount of people could get behind (as they regularly do when thousands of them pack into arenas). But over the years, many sports movies and tv shows really honed in on what makes it all so special, and they remind us why it is the perfect setting for movies and TV shows in the first place. They also remind us why people pack into theaters and living rooms to watch tv shows and movies about sports and how a good story can relate to anybody who’s ever had to work hard for something. But even with all the fantastic shows and movies that we’ve gotten over the decades, there’s one franchise that deserves to get a shot on the big screen – the Backyard Sports franchise.
Largely Established IP
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We currently live in a day and age where Hollywood studios and producers are very rarely willing to take chances on a project that doesn’t already have some sort of established IP (i.e., if it isn’t based on a book or a comic or anything like that, they pass). With that in mind, the Backyard Sports franchise has more than a dozen different games under its belt that span across half a dozen sports. Not to mention, within the games themselves are more than 30 Backyard Kids with firmly established backgrounds and characteristics that could easily be adapted in a show or movie setting. With so much prior material to go off of, it only makes sense that a firmly established franchise that has never gotten a chance on the big (or even little) screen should make the transition to shows and movies.
Diverse Cast of Characters
One of the greatest aspects of the Backyard Sports series from the very beginning was how diverse the Backyard players were. With most games and media being oversaturated with predominantly white males, it was incredibly refreshing to have a children’s game that revolved entirely around a group of kids that included somebody from virtually every different walk of life. There were white kids, Black kids, Hispanic kids, Asian kids, twins, younger/older siblings, rich kids, poor kids – all were included and none were excluded. Kenny Kawaguchi was in a wheelchair, and never once did that stop the other kids from letting him partake in every sport that they played.
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Not only are the recurring characters in the franchise diverse, but the pros that appear in the video games always consist of a diverse cast of athletes as well. Combine that with a TV show or movie project, and child versions of both male and female professional athletes could be included and make the franchise even more diverse than it already is.
Covers All Sports
This would be the best part about doing a Backyard Sports show or movie – it would get to include every sport on the planet. As mentioned, the Backyard Sports franchise spanned across six different sports - baseball, football, soccer, basketball, hockey, and skateboarding. With that in mind, there are plenty of other sports out there that a show or movie could dive further into. In fact, that could even be the premise of one of the films or episodes. It’s well-known among the franchise fans that some Backyard players are better than others (Pablo Sanchez, Keisha Phillips, Jocinda Smith, etc.), and they tend to be better at just about every sport in the franchise.
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On the opposite end of it, there are some Backyard players who are known for not being great at virtually any sports in the series (Jorge Garcia, Ronny Dobbs). So, with a series or film spanning into different sports than the six the franchise already covers, it could allow some of the less-appreciated kids to get the spotlight once in a while. Maybe Marky Dubois is really good at wrestling; maybe the Webber twins are a phenomenal tennis-duo; we already know Vicky Kawaguchi is great at dancing. A movie or tv series would allow some of the Backyard kids to shine while simultaneously bringing in younger versions of pro players from other less-appreciated sports to get some exposure.
