Kevin James to play pro golf “Wild Thing” John Daly in limited series
James will play Daly, a flamboyant, frequently notorious figure in the world of professional golf
Aux News Golf
The “limited TV series” has become a staple of any major star’s portfolio in recent years, a good way for a Big Name to do a little small-screen work, without getting bogged down in any extensive or uncomfortable contracts. Kevin James doesn’t entirely fit that profile—he’s arguably been more successful in TV than film already, what with the whole King Of Queens thing—but he’s nevertheless about to make the leap into the world of limited biographical television. James’ choice of subject matter suggests it won’t be the most stolid of TV adaptations, though, with Deadline reporting that James will be starring in a new series as John Daly, the “Wild Thing” of American professional golf.
And while you might scoff at the concept of golf (“The Boring Game”) having a “Wild Thing,” Daly’s history with the sport (which stretches back to the early 1990s and continues to this day) does, in fact, bear that descriptor out. By the man’s own admission, the hard-partying, flamboyant Daly spent decades struggling with alcohol and gambling addictions during the height of his career, ultimately losing something like $50 million while making bets, and getting disqualified from numerous tournaments after throwing some flavor of tantrum on the course. That’s before we get into the really gnarly stuff, like the various times he broke clubs or chucked them into the water in front of fans, or a notorious 1994 incident where he was banned from the PGA season after getting into a physical altercation with the father of another golfer during a tournament. (Which is probably as good a time as any to note that James’ old buddy Adam Sandler has never outright admitted that Happy Gilmore was based, at least a little, on Daly’s antics—but it’s hard not to draw the occasional parallel.)
In other words, Daly was, and remains, a fairly unique character in the otherwise staid landscape of professional golf; certainly, to the best of our knowledge, he’s the only PGA golfer to ever provide backing vocals to a Kid Rock song. (2007's “Half Your Age,” if you’re going hunting.) He also owns a golf course design company, and—this probably goes without saying—his own line of cannabis products.
The Daly project is being developed by Gary Valentine, James’ older brother, and a long-time member of the Happy Madison production posse. The two previously collaborate on 2022 Netflix film Home Team, which also saw James playing a real-life sports professional dealing with scandal (albeit in a comedic, family-friendly kind of way).
18 Comments
I always thought Ron White would be a good choice for a John Daly biopic, but I don’t know if White acts at all. There’s a local legend that when Daly was in town for a PGA event many, many years ago, he got an invite to play at an area country club, but got kicked out for being barefoot, shirtless, drunk and belligerent on the golf course. No word on the club member who thought inviting him was a good idea.
I’m just glad there’s someone finally bringing a bit of class to the game.
There is a definite degree of athleticism in golf but I always felt that any game where you can smoke and drink while playing falls short of being a true sport. As a matter of fact, I would argue that smoking and drinking are what make the game of golf tolerable if not fun.
I think I need to start playing golf!
I shouldn’t tell you about bowling then…
Bowlers are indeed impressive athletes, but they can’t compare to what you see when you watch darts players!
And now, the Not The Nine O’Clock News Darts sketch…
The stereotype of your typical professional darts player: an overweight individual who loves nothing more than a pint of lager. Sometimes even while playing.This perceived idea of all darts players being like this – from the outside looking in – seems to be somewhat lighthearted. But in the eyes of the Professional Darts Corporation, this exact stereotype has damaged the image of the sport for many years.Where did this all stem from, you ask? The answer: a television show from the 80s.“There was an old comedy show called Not the Nine O’Clock News that had this one sketch about darts players that whenever they’d go for a double or they’d go or a treble, they’d just start necking drinks,” said darts journalist and broadcaster Dan Dawson.“It seems weird to think that just one little comedy sketch can do so much sort of reputational damage to a sport and make it seem like a figure of fun, but it did sort of seem to cut through.” And to the present day, it is still something the PDC are desperately trying to pull themselves away from.Dawson added: “So the PDC said: ‘Look, we’re going to move away, we need to be something different’.“They wanted to make something that was different from what had been done before. And part of that was: ‘Right, everybody knows it and loves it for them all being beer-drinking, fag smokers. But it’s still a sport’.“It kind of got lost among all that sort of haze about it just being fat blokes down a pub chucking arrows.”https://universityofsunderland.shorthandstories.com/on-the-oche-how-darts-went-from-pub-game-to-cash-rich-modern-sport-part-two-challenging-the-stereotype/index.html
Darts got in the way of my Tuesday night drinking league.
Ok lol I didn’t see your post until I posted the same exact video! It’s good to see fellow Not The Nine O’clock News fans. 😁
oops…
so a guy who became a meme will play another guy who became a meme?
This is pop culture now. It’s memes all the way down.
This timeline is like living in a shit version of Being John Malkovich.
It’s wild to me that I’m old enough to see the concept of John Daly being explained in an AV Club article.Also, I guess I’ve never seen John Daly in Happy Gilmore, but maybe that’s just me.
I can never think about John Daly without remembering a profile Rick Reilly wrote about him in SI years ago, when he talked about how, in the van he and Daly and another person were riding in, Daly whipped his dick out and said to Reilly, “That’s why they call me Long John.”
He’s a complicated dude. I think of Joe Posnanski’s story:
…I’ve had experiences with Marino. The most telling one happened when I was a very young columnist in Augusta — 24, I believe — I was sent to Florida to write a story about John Daly. This was just after Daly won the PGA Championship, back when he was an absolute phenomenon. I was a bit nervous about the whole thing, honestly, but I approached Daly, and he said, “Hey, sure, just come out tomorrow and you can walk with me during the Pro-Am and we can talk as much as you like.”
Next day, I get out there, and there’s a HUGE crowd around Daly. So I’m thinking, “Oh man, no chance now.” Well, then Daly sees me and he shouts, “Hey man, come on over.” And so I walk on the course and just start walking with Daly, and he’s talking, and it remains one of my favorite interviews ever.
What does this have to do with Marino? Well, it turns out that he was in the same Pro-Am group. And he wasn’t too happy about me interviewing Daly on his time. After a few minutes, Daly’s talking, and Marino starts shouting at me. “Hey,” he screams, “you know some of us here paid good money to play with John.”
And then John Daly, bless his soul, turns to Marino and says, “You are playing with me Dan. Pipe down.”
And so the official political position of this blog, no matter what events may happen over the next thousand years, will always remain as so: John Daly = Awesome. Dan Marino = Not Awesome.
I think he wrote that 15 years ago, so I suspect that as time as gone on he’s stopped finishing the story with an explicit “John Daly = Awesome,” but it is interesting how people reveal themselves.
I’m not really fond of James, but I don’t hate the idea. Whether it’s interesting will probably come down to how he gets directed.
“The Boring Game” ? Why is this in quotes? Why is it initial capped? Is it in reference to something else like some other show, story, book, etc? Does the writer think the game is Boring and they coined a new, non-original term for it? Still doesn’t explain the parentheticals or quotes.I used to love this site.