It’s been twenty years since the people of Dillon, Texas, witnessed their star quarterback suffer a career-ending injury in the final quarter of the Dillon Panthers’ first game of the season, a moment that now exists as an iconic piece of television history. The Friday Night Lights pilot may have aired twenty years ago, but the show has been coming up in a lot of conversations recently.

From the success of the new DC show Lanterns creating a whole new crop of Kyle Chandler fans, to Heated Rivalry earlier this year reigniting the age-old debate of the best sports shows, to it ranking 14 on the recently released New York Times list of “The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century,” and, of course, Michael B. Jordan’s Oscar win, it’s no surprise that a lot of people are turning on the show for the first time. 

Given the show’s enduring legacy, it might shock you to learn it wasn’t wildly popular when it originally aired. Its ratings always struggled, despite it receiving widespread critical praise. The fanbase it did have was small but loyal, and it was largely thanks to their dedication that the show narrowly avoided being canceled each year. In the years since, more and more people have discovered the show, and it remains beloved by both critics and audiences alike. 

Peter Berg developed the show, adapted from Buzz Bissinger’s 1990 non-fiction book “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream.” Berg also directed the 2004 film of the same title. It centers on high school football coach Eric Taylor (Chandler) as he takes over as head coach of the Dillon Panthers. His first season is immediately pushed off course by the aforementioned tragic injury to his quarterback, Jason Street (Scott Porter). Enter Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), the Panthers’ second-string sophomore quarterback who suddenly finds himself leading the team. 

Don’t let the show’s sports premise fool you; it still has a healthy dose of melodrama and is ultimately a show about family and community. Taylor’s own family – his wife Tami (Connie Britton) and daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden) – are central characters. He also ends up serving as a stand-in father figure for several of his players, such as Saracen, his brooding boozer of a fullback Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), and boisterous phenom running back Brian “Smash” Williams (Gaius Charles). The show is also rife with teen romance, high school drama, and the occasional murder investigation (the 2007 writers’ strike was a weird time for everyone).

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The show’s sincere warmth is a big part of what makes it so timeless. The characters are lovable even when they’re flawed, and it’s easy to root for them. Even those who aren’t into football will find themselves cheering for their beloved characters come Friday night. It’s very earnest in how it portrays the dynamics between characters, but it’s also not afraid to grapple with serious subjects that are extremely relevant to the setting. The show functions as a dialogue starter for audiences, presenting dilemmas of racism, classism, and sexism that often feel packaged to get viewers thinking rather than to suggest solutions. And while it’s inevitable that not everything will have aged perfectly after 20 years, it’s still admirable that the show is willing to address these issues head-on in an era when many showrunners preferred to skirt questions of race and gender dynamics through practices such as color-blind casting. 

It’s also part of a small group of high school-based shows that can sustain their level of quality even as the original teenagers graduate and move away. The new characters introduced in the later seasons somehow manage to be just as compelling as those who have moved on, such as Vince Howard (Jordan) and Jess Merriweather (Jurnee Smollett). Of course, it doesn’t hurt when all-star actors like Jordan and Smollett join the cast late in the game, but the characters arrive fully developed and introduce a whole new batch of conflicts and intriguing storylines.

Not only are the characters lovable, but each is given their share of storylines and screen time. The show does a remarkable job shifting between characters and perspectives while still fully developing each one with a whole host of internal motivations, personal conflicts, etc. Whether it’s Matt’s adorably shy courtship of his crush (who just so happens to be the coach’s daughter), Tami’s virtuous work as the school counselor, or Smash’s senior-year recruitment saga, the show has a little bit of everything. And it helps that it’s populated by a remarkably talented lineup of actors of all ages. 

Britton and Chandler remain successful in both television and film. Chandler has starred in films such as Super 8 (2011), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Manchester by the Sea (2016), and Game Night (2018) (which also features his Friday Night Lights co-star Jesse Plemons). Britton has acted on numerous TV shows including Nashville, American Horror Story, The White Lotus, and 9-1-1.

Of the show’s younger cast, their post-Friday Night Lights careers vary wildly. There are a ton of fantastic performances from these up-and-comers, and yet their futures range from Oscar winners/nominees Jordan and Plemons, to the successful TV careers of Gilford and Charles, to the unfortunate failure to make Kitsch into an A-list movie star with the infamous bomb that was John Carter (2012).

When observing new sports shows, and specifically sports dramas, it’s hard not to look back to Friday Night Lights as the gold standard. The football scenes are exciting, with engaging camera work, sound design, and performances perfectly capturing the feeling of being at a game. But the show also does not rely so heavily on football that it lacks anything interesting happening off the field. Many modern shows find it hard to strike this balance, and even when they can they often fail to sustain it across multiple seasons. It’s also impossible not to see the impact of the show on both sports shows as well as TV dramas in general, with its distinctive look and feel proving to be an influence on many showrunners hoping to follow in Berg’s footsteps. 

If you’re looking for a cozy fall watch (or rewatch), Friday Night Lights is the gift that keeps on giving. As the Dillon Panthers say: Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. 

Article Courtesy of Claire May Lewis

Feature Image Credit to NBC