Bryan Cranston Tabbed as Narrator For MLB Network’s 1988 Dodgers Documentary
While I’m not sure if it’s a part of the MLB Network Presents documentary series, MLB Network is doing a film on the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers’ run to the World Series. The documentary, I’m sure, will be outstanding. If not for the content, it will be easily watchable because the actor tabbed as the film’s narrator is none other than Walter White himself: Bryan Cranston.
Per the Los Angeles Times, Cranston was approached by Major League Baseball to do the job and he gladly accepted.
I didn’t know this before reading the article but Cranston is a big-time Dodgers’ fanatic.
From the LA Times article by .
“MLB Network officials pursued Cranston because they knew he was a huge Dodgers fan. They probably didn’t realize the intensity and depth of his passion.
Cranston was 5 years old when his father took him to his first Dodgers game in the Coliseum in 1961. He was so enamored with the way Wally Moon flicked balls over the high net in left field — homers known as “Moon Shots” — that he named his production company Moon Shot Entertainment.
Scully didn’t just provide the soundtrack of his summers growing up in Canoga Park. The broadcaster’s soothing voice was like a security blanket for Cranston, whose father, Joe, a struggling actor and amateur boxer, walked out on the family when Cranston was 11.
“I had a very challenging childhood — there was some alcoholism, abandonment, a bitter divorce, family separation,” Cranston said. “It was very tough in many ways, and that’s why I had, almost as a talisman, the Dodgers.
“At least for those three hours, when the game was on, I could allow myself to feel distracted enough in a comfortable way, in a way that felt like a hug. It felt like for the duration of the game, all was well. And Vin Scully had a lot to do with that.”
In the 1988 World Series, the Dodgers beat the Oakland A’s in five games. This came after an epic seven-game NLCS against the New York Mets.
As for Cranston, he is fresh off the creation of an Amazon Prime series alongside Superbad director Greg Mottola. The series, titled The Dangerous Book for Boys, had a six-episode first season which holds a 71-percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It premiered in March of 2018.
The MLB Network doc, titled Only in Hollywood, is set to debut on Sunday, July 15th before the 2018 All-Star Game.