Pickleball in Pop Culture: TV Shows

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Pickleball is a fast-growing sport in America. People decided to learn how to play pickleball and loved the sport. What’s not to love though, right? Pickleball has many health benefits and you can even meet new pickleball buddies.

The sport has come a long way and is more popular now. You can even catch pickleball in a TV show now. Here are some episodes you can check to see pickleball in a TV show.

Pickleball in a TV Show

The Goldbergs Season 7 Episode 11 “Pickleball” (2020)

Starring

Wendi McLendon-Covey, Sean Giambrone, Troy Gentile, Hayley Orrantia, Sam Lerner, George Segal, Jeff Garlin, Bryan Callen, Jennifer Irwin, Stephen Tobolowsky, Cedric Yarbrough, Mindy Sterling, Stephanie Courtney, Bill Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Kenny Ridwan, Stephanie Katherine Grant, Augie Isaac

Plot

The Goldbergs episode “Pickleball” centers on pickleball in the TV show where Adam, the youngest Goldberg, aims to join a sports team and earn a letterman jacket so his academic record will look better.

via GIPHY

The family found out that Murray, the father, is younger than he actually is. Murray and the rest of the family thought that he was turning 51, but he was actually only turning 50. When Bev found out about this, she was ecstatic as this would give her an opportunity for a party do-over. She insisted on throwing a “surprise” birthday party for Murray and forced Murray to practice a “surprised” face.

Meanwhile, Adam is aiming to go to a film school and according to him, he has to be an athlete so his academic record will be impressive. Their school principal, Principal Ball, offers him to try out for their school’s pickleball team. The pickleball coach refused to train Adam so the latter and his brother tracked down their old coach, Coach Rick, to teach him pickleball. After training with Coach Rick, Adam decided to try out. Principal Ball proposes that if he beats the team’s worst player, Schernecke, he will be accepted to the team. 

Adam scored once and then lost the rest of the game. Coach Rick became disappointed and realized that he couldn’t be a coach anymore. In the end, Adam visited him at his home and told him that he was a great coach for trying to teach him. Coach Rick gave him a letterman jacket. 

Ghosts Season 1 Episode 4 “Dinner Party” (2021)

Starring

Rose McIver, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Mark Linn-Baker, Kathryn Greenwood, Richie Moriarty, Rebecca Wisocky, Devan Chandler Long, Brandon Scott Jones, Danielle Pinnock, Sheila Carrasco, Asher Grodman

Plot

Ghosts episode “Dinner Party” centers on Sam and Jay trying to get a permit to turn their house into a B&B. They only mentioned pickleball in the TV show as part of a conversation during dinner.

For a bit of background, Sam and Jay are originally from upstate New York. Sam inherits a beautiful mansion in the countryside and finds out ghosts inhabit it. Sam was able to see and hear the ghosts due to her being clinically dead for three minutes after being in an accident.

Back to the episode, Sam and Jay invite Henry and Margaret Farnsby for dinner at their house to convince the latter to approve their B&B permit (they’re planning on turning the mansion into a B&B). Sam banned the ghosts from joining the dinner, except for four: Hetty, Thor, Alberta, and Isaac. During dinner, the Farnsbys mentioned their new favorite hobby: Pickleball, the fastest-growing sport in America!

The Farnsbys turned down the B&B permit and mentioned that they can’t demolish existing structures and can only redecorate the interior. Sam persuaded the Farnsbys (with Pete’s, one of the other ghosts, help) to approve their permit by comparing the B&B to the one in Newhart. Henry agrees, on the condition that Sam and Jay will donate $20,000 or more to the Historical Prevention Fund. After the Farnsbys left, Isaac (one of the other ghosts) told them that he had overheard the Farnsbys talking about how they had torn down a house to build their pickleball court. Sam and Jay used this to blackmail the Farnsbys and finally got their permit approved without paying anything.

Watch the mention of pickleball in Ghosts in this video from 4:51 - 5:23.

Tacoma FD Season 3 Episode 12 “Pickleball”

Starring

Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Eugene Cordero, Hassie Harrison, Marcus Henderson, Gabriel Hogan, Robert Costanzo, Nicole Andrews, Michael Yurchak, Taylor Krasne

Plot

Tacoma FD’s episode “Pickleball” centers on the department’s annual pickleball tournament. All-time champions Chief Terry and Captain Eddie are very cocky winners and rub this on everyone’s faces. This started to annoy Lucy, Terry’s daughter, that she decided to recruit Granny to play against the champions. Granny was a football punter in college and Lucy thinks that  Granny is athletic enough to beat Terry and Eddie. However, during the game, it became apparent that Granny had lost his athleticism. 

With Terry and Eddie leading the game, they became cocky as usual and mocked Lucy and Granny. Suddenly, they were called to a scene where a teen was stuck up a tree doing an internet challenge called “treeing” where they climb trees and take selfies. One of the firefighters, Ike, started having an allergic reaction to Pacific poison oak. Because time was sensitive, Granny punted the EpiPen bag to Ike and the latter was able to inject himself. Everyone celebrated Granny for getting his mojo back.

Tacoma FD was one of the few to make an episode about pickleball in a TV show and show the sport being played.

The Simpsons Season 35 Episode 3 “McMansion & Wife” (2023)

Starring

Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria

Plot

The Simpsons episode “McMansion & Wife” centers around Homer’s dream of driving a “lambuggini” (Lamborghini) and living the best life. In the real world, a rich lambuggini salesman moves into their neighborhood. Homer and Marge went to welcome their new neighbors and Thayer, the salesman, invited him to a game of pickleball. Homer wasn’t interested at first because he thought pickleball was like tennis but you didn’t have to move. Thayer convinced him to play because there was an ice cream store in front of the court. 

After playing pickleball, Homer and Thayer sat in the ice cream store while Homer tried to catch his breath. Homer admitted that it was his first time playing and Thayer said that he knew because Homer tried to eat the ball. Homer remarked that things shouldn’t be named after a food if they’re not meant to be eaten. Thayer proceeds to trick Homer into being “friends” and have him sign a contract to let him renovate the house next to Homer’s by bribing him to drive the lambuggini.

Meanwhile, Homer’s children Bart and Lisa experience bullying at school. After an anti-bullying assembly at school, the school bully Nelson targets Bart and Milhouse even more. Lisa retaliates by making a website that shows Nelson’s most embarrassing moments. Nelson hires a nerd, Hubert, to hack and take down the website. This results in Lisa and Hubert bonding instead and Bart and Nelson enjoying a see-saw ride together.

The Simpsons only mentioned pickleball in the TV show episode and even made fun of the sport with Homer’s usual antics

Pickleball in a Reality TV Show

Pickleball has also appeared in a few reality series. 

Keeping Up with The Kardashians Season 16 Episode 2 “Kourtney's Choice” (2019)

Starring

Scott Disick, Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Ye

Plot 

At the start of the episode “Kourtney's Choice” in Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the girls were shown playing pickleball in the TV show. Kourtney and Khloe played doubles against Kim and Malika Haqq, Khloe's best friend. There were hilarious interactions between them as they played the sport. With Khloe poking fun at Kim when they won a score, to her being confused at how the scoring works. Khloe and Kourtney play as a team, while Kim keeps on poaching Malika. The funniest part was when Malika said “Sportsmanship out the window” while Kourtney and Kim were arguing about the scores. 

Watch the Kardashians play pickleball here.

Vanderpump Rules Season 9 Episode 3 “Welcome to Rachella!” (2021)

Starring

Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval, Tom Schwartz, Kate Maloney, Raquel Leviss, James Kennedy, Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, Brock Davies, Charli Burnett

Plot

The Vanderpump Rules cast played pickleball in the reality TV show episode “Welcome to Rachella”. They called it Lala & Randall's 1st Annual Pickleball Open and the game was hosted in Palm Springs. 

There were many hilarious interactions during the scenes showing pickleball in the reality TV show. Lala, Randall's fiancee, said that pickleball was the “old man's tennis” and that when Randall became obsessed with the sport, she was sure she was dating an old man. Brock, the overly-competitive boyfriend of Scheana, was the earliest in the court to practice making Scheana annoyed since she was tired because of their newborn. 

The most amusing part of the episode was when the competitive Lala became furious when she couldn't play properly. James compared Lala, who threw her paddle to the net and kept hitting the fence with her paddle, to Raquel, who was playing calmly and was able to hit the ball properly. 

The Golden Bachelor Episode #1.4 (2023)

Starring

Jesse Palmer, Gerry Turner, Theresa Nist, Ellen Goltzer, Kathy Swarts, Leslie Fhima, Faith Martin, Sandra Mason, Joey Graziadei, Susan Noles, April Kirkwood, Nancy Hulkower, Trista Sutter

Plot

In this episode of The Golden Bachelor, Gerry (the Golden Bachelor), Jesse, and Trista hosted the first annual Golden Bachelor Pickleball Championship. Eight of the nine remaining contestants went on a competitive group date with Gerry and the winners will be featured in the InPicleball Magazine with Gerry. The women were divided into four teams, with two members in each team: The Purple Picklettes, Pinky Dinkies, Picklelicious Paddles (Green), and Bitchin’ Kitchen. The first round’s winners are the Picklelicious Paddles and Bitchin’ Kitchen, resulting in them going into the final round. The Picklelicious Paddles ended up winning the game and being featured in the magazine with Gerry.

Special Mention

The Melons

Concussion Awareness Now, a program made by Abbott and the Brain Injury Association of America, was launched to raise awareness about the dangers of concussions. The Melons are videos of melon-headed people who would hit their heads and show symptoms of concussion. These ads promote having your “melons” checked to prevent bad injuries. 

One of the ads involves two melon-headed seniors playing pickleball and bumping their “melons” with each other. The older woman doesn't want to go to the doctor because she wants to continue playing and win. The older man eventually convinced her to get checked and found out she had a concussion. 

Because of its rapid growth and increasing popularity, there have been mentions of pickleball in TV shows. Some of them aren’t even just mentions, but a whole plot. As picklers, isn’t it fun to see our favorite sport on these episodes and relate to them like when Adam Goldberg struggled at first or when Lala became super frustrated when she couldn’t hit a single successful shot? There may be some making fun like in the Simpsons or when Lala mentioned it being older man’s tennis. But isn’t that a sign that something is getting popular when TV shows make an effort to make fun?