Friday Night Lights

The chain runs book to film to series. H. G. "Buzz" Bissinger's 1990 book followed the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers of Odessa, Texas, with the real names left in; Peter Berg, Bissinger's second cousin, directed the 2004 Universal film with Billy Bob Thornton. Berg came away regretting how much of the book's small-town life a two-hour movie had to cut, and pitched a series set in a fictional town, Dillon, with its own Panthers. He carried two actors over in similar roles: Connie Britton as the coach's wife and Brad Leland as the booster Buddy Garrity.

The pilot was shot in Austin in February 2006, and Berg made filming in Texas a deal-breaker. All five seasons used Austin and Pflugerville, real locations rather than sets, hundreds of locals as extras, and the Pflugerville Panthers' actual stadium, with uniforms modeled on theirs. The method was the show's signature: three cameras, no rehearsal, no blocking, entire scenes shot in one take, and actors free to change lines as long as they hit the plot points. Kyle Chandler played Eric Taylor, Britton his wife Tami, a guidance counselor who becomes principal, and Aimee Teegarden their daughter Julie; the only two characters in every episode are the Taylors. Around them: Scott Porter as quarterback Jason Street, paralyzed in the pilot's first game in a storyline inspired by a real injury Berg had witnessed at a 2003 San Antonio game; Zach Gilford as the shy backup Matt Saracen; Taylor Kitsch as Tim Riggins; Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki, Jesse Plemons and Gaius Charles; and, from season four, Michael B. Jordan and Jurnee Smollett at the underfunded East Dillon High.

It premiered October 3, 2006, and NBC never figured out how to sell it. The network pitched football first, with school-spirit kits and a Toyota sweepstakes, then pivoted to "It's about life"; its president Kevin Reilly later admitted the show was at its core a "women's show" and the marketing had confused people. The first two seasons drew about six million viewers each, the writers' strike cut season two to 15 episodes, and fans raised money to send footballs in protest. In March 2008 NBC struck a cost-sharing deal with DirecTV: seasons three through five premiered on DirecTV's The 101 Network, with NBC airing them months later. Audiences kept shrinking, to 3.6 million by the end, and the series finale aired on DirecTV on February 9, 2011.

Critics stayed with it, a panned season-two murder storyline aside. The show won a Peabody, a Humanitas Prize and a Television Critics Association award; Bill Simmons called it "the greatest sports-related show ever made"; and in 2011, after it was already over, Chandler won the Emmy for lead actor in a drama and showrunner Jason Katims won for writing the finale, "Always." The Writers Guild ranked it 22nd among the best-written series ever in 2013. The story ends with Eric coaching a college team in Philadelphia. A film sequel was developed and dropped by 2013, and a reboot with Katims was announced at Peacock in December 2024.