(Bear in mind it has been twenty years since I have seen this gem....)
"Bleacher Bums" is a video production of a play famous in Chicago but little known elsewhere. It takes place in the bleachers, the cheap seats set at the very back of a baseball stadium, where tickets were about a buck but the view needed binoculars. The characters are a bunch of Chicago Cubs fans, sitting in the bleachers watching a Cubs game on a summer afternoon. Most of them have been gathering here for some time and know each other, even if they might not necessarily like or tolerate each other. Beer flows, hot dogs disappear, and friendly wagers take on increasing importance.... Dennis Franz really stands out, a working class guy who dreams of just having enough money to take his wife out to his ideal fancy restaurant, The House of Sweden. The production was done in Chicago, in a time when PBS stations had the money to actually produce full-scale productions. It is pretty much what you would have seen had you attended a production of "Bleacher Bums" back in the 70s, albeit with close-ups. I doubt a videotape was ever released for sale, so your best chance to see it is if a PBS station or one of the PBS-clone cable channels decides to show it.
"Bleacher Bums" is a video production of a play famous in Chicago but little known elsewhere. It takes place in the bleachers, the cheap seats set at the very back of a baseball stadium, where tickets were about a buck but the view needed binoculars. The characters are a bunch of Chicago Cubs fans, sitting in the bleachers watching a Cubs game on a summer afternoon. Most of them have been gathering here for some time and know each other, even if they might not necessarily like or tolerate each other. Beer flows, hot dogs disappear, and friendly wagers take on increasing importance.... Dennis Franz really stands out, a working class guy who dreams of just having enough money to take his wife out to his ideal fancy restaurant, The House of Sweden. The production was done in Chicago, in a time when PBS stations had the money to actually produce full-scale productions. It is pretty much what you would have seen had you attended a production of "Bleacher Bums" back in the 70s, albeit with close-ups. I doubt a videotape was ever released for sale, so your best chance to see it is if a PBS station or one of the PBS-clone cable channels decides to show it.