Members of the children’s baseball team, the Red Bikkies, managed by Reiko Ezaki
■Synopsis
Reiko Ezaki, an assistant of a high school baseball club, leaves the club in fury with the manager who ordered “No women on the bench!". Although she left the club, Reiko likes baseball so much that she thinks about baseball when she goes to sleep, she thinks about baseball when she wakes: she can’t get baseball out of her head. One day, walking home fed up, she sees a boys baseball team called the Vikings practicing. She is so impressed by the fact that the boys are practicing baseball so hard that she wants to be the manager of a children’s baseball team. One day, Reiko tells the owner of a soba noodle restaurant who she knows about her wish to be a children’s baseball team manager. The restaurant owner sets up a baseball team which he names the Red Bikkies for Reiko, and becomes the team owner. The children gathered to be members of the Red Bikkies don’t know a thing about baseball. The Red Bikkies is the weakest team ever, and stays at the bottom of the league. Reiko struggles to build up the team and eventually the Red Bikkies win the league. This is an exciting, moving drama of a female manager, who makes every effort for the team, and of the boys and girls of the team.
■Comment on the drama
"Bikkies, Bikkies, red frogs! ♪ Frogs squashed by a car! ♪"
This is a famous put-down chant about the Red Bikkies when they were stuck at the bottom of the league. The song became popular among children at primary and middle school at that time, so probably many people still remember it. This drama is called the Japanese version of The Bad News Bears. The Red Bikkies, a team of boys and girls knowing nothing of baseball lose their first game 30 to 0 in the first inning. The children on the team bond together as they overcome many difficulties and win for the first time in the 13th episode, becoming the league champions by the end of the series. Really, it’s an impossible success, but without realizing it, viewers are attracted by the efforts of the children, and by Hiroko Hayashi’s youthful acting. Viewers begin to feel that the Red Bikkies actually exist and root for them in front of the TV. This is the proof that the drama is pure and high quality. As said in the chant above, bikki means frog in the Tohoku dialect, the region where Ishinomori was born. Incidentally, red was added to Bikkies because the team is managed by a woman, and red is suggestive of women.
■Broadcast information
Broadcast: January 6, 1978 - December 29, 1978 (48 episodes)
TV Asahi Network, 19:30 - 20:00 every Friday
■Stuff
Original author: Shotaro Ishinomori
プロデューサー:小泉美明(テレビ朝日)・阿部征司
撮影:いのくままさお
照明:斉藤 久
録音:上出栄二郎
美術:井上 明
編集:成島一城
音楽:京 建輔
音楽制作:あんだんて
主題歌(オープニング)「青春虹の橋」
作詞:石森章太郎
作曲:京 建輔
歌:かおりくみこ/こおろぎ'73
主題歌(エンディング)「がんばれ!レッドビッキーズ」
作詞:八手三郎
作曲:京 建輔
歌:コロムビアゆりかご会・こおろぎ'73
技術指導:荒川 堯
衣装:鷹志衣装
現像:東映化学
制作:テレビ朝日・東映
■キャスト(順不同)
林 寛子
日吉としやす
高田敏江
柳生 博
深江章喜
九重ひろ子
佐久間真由美
古川 聡
増田康好
江村和紀
古見則彦
鈴木雅之
大野 太
大柴 学
高柳裕之
加藤森士
三島一夫
東映児童研修所
劇団いろは、他
ナレーター:中江真司