What to know
- Toronto filmmaker J. Stevens co-created, co-directed and co-architected Slo Pitch, a Crave comedy following a Queer beer-league softball team navigating messy hookups, heartbreak and rivalries.
- Inspired by Stevens’ own experiences playing on an increasingly Queer Australian rules football team, the series began as a web series before becoming a half-hour television comedy.
- Stevens hopes the show’s blend of Queer humour, vulnerable moments and joyful storytelling gives audiences a chance to escape the heaviness of the world.
Peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, salt and pepper, softball and Sapphics — some things just go together! Which is why Slo Pitch, a new Crave series set in the chaotic world of Queer beer-league softball, a new series from Toronto producer J. Stevens, just makes sense.
Created, co-directed and co-architected by Stevens, Slo Pitch follows Joanne Pico (Jess Salgueiro), a softball coach determined to turn around her team of lovable losers while navigating rivalries, heartbreak, messy hookups, and a conservative political sponsor, all while grappling with her own heartbreak.
Filled with relatable storylines, vulnerable moments, and Queer humour, the show has thus far been a hit with Lesbians and other Sapphics, since first hitting the small screen on Sept. 25. With Slo Pitch, Stevens is bringing a distinctly Queer take on the familiar sports comedy.
“I’m a sports fanatic, and I was playing on this Australian rules football team… and in the first year I played, I was the only out Queer person. Second year, like half the team was out. Third year, almost everyone was out,” Stevens told Queer & Now.
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“Everyone started dating each other, everyone started breaking up, and it just became so dramatic and messy and Queer, and I just was like this needs to be a television show, like this is so outrageous,” they continued.
Stevens is a fan of shows like The Office and Parks and Rec, and so filming Slo Pitch in a mockumentary style made sense.
“At the time, I was a huge fan of Karen Knox and Gwendolyn Cummin and their series Barbell, and so I reached out to them to see if they’d be interested in collaborating on a digital version of the show back in the day,” Stevens explained.
The trio went on to produce a web series of Slo Pitch, which ran for two seasons before they began developing it into an episodic television series running half an hour.
Queer femmes and sports: A tale as old as time
While the series is being welcomed by fans with open arms, it’s far from the first series to combine Queer women’s storylines and sports. From the short-lived Netflix series A League of Their Own to the Lesbian cult classic But I’m a Cheerleader, there’s just something about 2SLGBTQIA+ femmes and sports that go together, but why?
“I heard someone say yesterday that it’s almost like all of the professional women in the WNBA or the PWHL that they’re having to come out as straight,” the director laughed.
“I think there’s just a draw for Queer femmes and Non-Binary folks towards sports. Why? I’m not sure, but I’m glad there is because being a part of different sports leagues has been a huge part of my life and my Queerness as well.”
Slo Pitch: Big goals for a 30 minute series
Stevens’ directing credits include Sort Of and Astrid & Lilly Save The World, while their work also includes founding Spindle Films Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting Transgender, Non-Binary, Two-Spirit and Gender-Diverse Canadian filmmakers.
Slo Pitch is an extension of Stevens’ work in Queer storytelling, and now that the show is out in the world as a Crave series, Stevens hopes that audiences have a few key takeaways, including that it’s okay to just have fun.
“For us, it was so important to make a show that’s joyful. There are hard moments for the different characters throughout the season, but joy was something we really wanted to come across,” they explained.
“So I hope that a little bit of that joy seeps into our audiences’ lives as well, and that they get to have a bit of a break from the heaviness of the world and just escape.”
