"Showing racism, education or lack thereof -- there were whole story lines in the script that we had to cut," he says.For example, the book recounts a cheating scandal at Carter High School, the team that eventually defeated Permian. After a teacher revealed that a Carter student flunked a class, the school board of Plano filed suit to bar Carter from the playoffs, so Plano could move on. Originally, that story was slated for the movie, but Berg thought it would take a half hour to show.
These days Bissinger is involved even less with the series than he was with the movie, although he did fly out to meet the show's writers.
Lights On or Off? The fight for a TV show about truth, justice and high school football
Courtesy Pflugerville High School
In the center are real-life principals Larry Bradley and David Wuest -- surrounded by (left to right) actors Scott Porter, Aimee Teegarden, Jesse Plemons and Taylor Kitsch (#33).
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"And 'good luck,'" he says. "Please don't turn this into some glossy version of The OC in Texas."
Bissinger enjoys the ratings-starved show as it is now and hopes producers just stick with the current style, themes and quality of the series.
"America's getting what America deserves if they want to watch second-rate celebrities dance around," he says. "We're heading for the cultural gutter. We're rapidly becoming second rate."
Which brings us back to the ratings. Despite small audiences, NBC has continued to push for the show, rather than drop it immediately or shove it over to some poor time slot. After the third episode, the network announced that it would show Friday Night Lights on Monday, October 30, right after Heroes, NBC's most successful new show. That night, the show's ratings improved; but when NBC aired the episode at its regular time slot the next day, it came in fourth again, according to zap2it.com. NBC has now posted all of the season's episodes online.
Besides this boost, NBC executives have also ordered more scripts to be written for the show. Now there will be enough scripts for a full 22-episode season -- whether or not NBC chooses to use them.
Meanwhile at Pflugerville High School, some football players seem like they could care less if the series survives.
Senior outside linebacker Taylor Sturdivant says that a senior pep rally was canceled because of shooting conflicts. Lots of students watch the show, he says, but it's not a major topic of conversation in the halls. The football team is less enthusiastic than the rest of the school. It's a "huge distraction," he says -- and oftentimes, he wishes things would just go back to normal.
As for the authenticity of Friday Night Lights, Sturdivant says some aspects of the football culture are portrayed correctly, others not as much.
"It's accurate in a sense that it's that hard -- but the coaches, that's not realistic at all. They yell at you a lot more than what's shown on TV," he says.
Senior quarterback Karl Brown also has lukewarm feelings about the show. His classmates aren't obsessed with it either, he says.
"It's cool to see our stuff on TV, but it's not something people talk about every day -- like 'did you see it?' It's not like that. It's like some people see it, some people don't."
Both guys echoed a similar sentiment: during the season, practicing, winning and maintaining focus on football were their top priorities in life.
At Katy High School outside Houston, senior outside linebacker Sammy Shelden says he watches the show when he can. But he isn't a devoted fan.
"I'll probably watch it, but it's not a must-see kind of deal," he says. So what does he prefer? "Two-A-Days is pretty good," he says. "I like that. But that's off the air now."
Meanwhile, other insiders are singing a different tune. Chris Doelle, cohost of the "Lone Star Gridiron High School Podcast" at lonestargridiron.com, reports weekly on high school football. He says he's watching the show -- as is everyone he knows.
"The coaches are watching it, the press is watching it, the officials are watching it, the players are watching it," he says. "The people who aren't watching it are the people that wouldn't go to a Friday night game anyway."
