Ted McGinley is hitting the beach.
The veteran actor, who stars in Apple TV‘s Shrinking, has been tapped to narrate Kings of the Beach, a documentary about the epic rise (and subsequent fall) of beach volleyball, featuring many of the boldfaced names from Southern California who helped popularize it back then. It’s a fitting gig for the honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, as he was born and raised in Newport Beach, California, and lived through the era he talks about on screen.
News of McGinley’s narration comes just days ahead of the film’s Nov. 3 debut for purchase or rental on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play and YouTube. Kings of the Beach was co-directed by David Johnson and Tom Feuer and produced by St. Louis-based creative production company Coolfire Studios.
As seen in the clip above, the doc dives into the sport’s early heyday, starting in the early 1980s and continuing through the next decade. It features rare archival videos, photos and anecdotes from the sport’s insiders. The film features stars of the game like Sinjin Smith, Karch Kiraly, Tim Hovland, Mike Dodd, Dain Blanton, Jim Menges, Steve Obradovich, Dane Selznick, Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Holly McPeak and more.
But beyond a glowing portrait of beach volleyball, the doc uncovers how it went from being bolstered by title sponsorships from Miller Brewing to nearly being undone by conflicts involving player ego, ambition, in-fighting and wrestling over control of its governing organization, the Association of Volleyball Professionals.
“When David Johnson, one of the producers of Kings of the Beach, approached me about doing the voiceover for the movie, I had already seen a couple small ‘leaked’ scenes on Instagram. I was fascinated with the movie before my involvement. I was a Newport Beach ocean lifeguard. I was very much a part of that era, so much so, that in the wide shots of the volleyball tournaments, I was looking for myself in the stands,” McGinley explained. “It was a magical time as the tour was coming of age along with the rest of us. I was honored to have the opportunity to be involved in a story I watched from not that far away.”
Said Johnson: “This film started out as a love letter to the sport, but the deeper we went into the footage and the stories, the more we realized that the sport actually captured lightning in a bottle. Twice, actually, with Smith and Stoklos, Hovland and Dodd, and then Misty and Kerri. The challenge with lightning in a bottle is keeping it there. We hope this film leaves people believing it could happen again.”
McGinley’s other credits include Married…With Children, Revenge of the Nerds, Hope and Faith, The Love Boat, Happy Days and many more. He has previously lent his voice to Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Family Guy, The Proud Family and Justice League. He is repped by Teitelbaum Artists Group, Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher and Viewpoint.