Fox fall TV preview: Sports drama creates a buzz

Fox’s presentation at the Television Critics Association press tour on Monday in Beverly Hills previewed a fall featuring everything from sports to pop music to a cult-classic musical.

In addition to panels for its small-screen reboots of the films “Lethal Weapon” and “The Exorcist” and its animated/live-action mash-up “Son of Zorn,” Fox also unveiled its sports drama “Pitch.” The buzzed-about series, which premieres Sept. 22, chronicles the excitement surrounding the first female athlete to compete in Major League Baseball, a pitcher, naturally, played by Kylie Bunbury.

When asked if he was prepared for any controversy that could come out of a depiction of the breaking of MLB’s glass ceiling, series creator Dan Fogelman (also behind the NBC newcomer “This Is Us”) was optimistic:

“Maybe I’m naive, but I find it hard to fathom in the great wide world –who would really be against this?” he asked. “If a young woman comes along who is capable of playing with ‘the guys,’ I can’t think of a person who wouldn’t be interested in seeing it.”

The discussion’s tone shifted when the panel was asked why a woman gets to be the center of a sports show on network TV only when playing a man’s game, as opposed to the sports where women already excel, such as soccer.

“I think the big story here is the attention the world and this country would give that move,” he said. “There’s these four major North American sports right now. If a woman broke into one of them, it would be a monstrous story on a narrative scale.”