Friday Night Lights

[Cerebus]

Being from Odessa, I've been keeping a close eye on the production of Friday Night Lights.

I've heard distrubing rumors that they are going to pull a "The Natural" on movie and turn a dark, depressing book into a hollywood ending.

For the record, if that happens, I'm going to riot.

ps: If anyone has every wondered what Odessa looks like, this pretty much sums it up:

[Green92]

They had a bad year the year the book was written didn’t they? Bad for Permian, anyway. Didn’t they lose to Midland Lee? I read the book, but it’s been 10+ years. Wasn’t there a running back named “Boobie?”

Here is the writeup...

Synopsis: Based on H.G. Bissinger's book, which profiled the economically depressed town of Odessa, Texas and their heroic high school football team, The Permian High Panthers. The story focuses on the team's 1988 championship season and how the town found inspiration through the team and its coach (Billy Bob Thornton).

Edited August 3, 2004 by Green92

[Coach]

This is my favorite book. I am reading it again for the 1,987th time right now.

Yes, Boobie Miles was the running back who got injured (sad story, the most disturbing thing about the book), they were in a 3way tie for district and advanced on a coin flip, and lost to Dallas Carter in the semifinals.

I am petrified about this movie, like LoRo said, if they give a "hollywood" ending, I will be pissed...to me the bad omen was when I heard Tim McGraw was on board. After what ESPN did to the Junction Boys, I am worried sick about what will happen to this great book. If they ruin it too much, I may not even see it.

Edited August 3, 2004 by Coach

[Greenblood94]

Yes, Boobie Miles was the running back who got injured (sad story, the most disturbing thing about the book), they were in a 3way tie for district and advanced on a coin flip, and lost to Dallas Carter in the semifinals.

In case you are wondering (and even if you're not), the reason for the coin flip, despite the three-way tie, was because back then only TWO teams went to the playoffs from each district, and this was when they still had only one champion per classification...none of the "Division I" and "Division II" stuff yet. I am even old enough to remember when only district champs went to the playoffs in football. As a matter of fact, it happened while I was in high school.

The Dallas Carter team that Permian lost to included Pro-Bowl linebacker and current Carolina Panther Jessie Armstead. This is the Carter team that was later stripped of the state championship they won against Converse Judson (after beating Permian) because of the academic ineligibility of one of their running backs.

Permian went on to win the Class 5A state title the next year, over Aldine. Either they will use that game instead of the Carter loss to make their "Hollywood" ending, or after the Carter loss, the screen with fade to black, and a graphic will come up before the credits roll, telling everyone about Permian winning the state title the next year.