Winner 2006

Friday Night Lights

NBC Universal Television Studio, in association with Imagine Entertainment and Film 44

Set in fictional Dillon, Texas, the core subject of Friday Night Lights is, to some degree, familiar to almost everyone in the United States. High school football—American style—is filled with the exuberance of youth, the ecstasy of victory, the embarrassment of loss, the battle for recognition, the obsessive memories of old men and the frustration of those who just do not understand. Friday Night Lights, the series, captures all these emotions associated with the game. But it is about much more than football. It is about coming of age, about the internal and external struggles of families, about dreams shattered and dreams undreamt until a single moment opens a future. Significantly it is about community and most significantly it is about community beyond the confines of Los Angeles, of back lots, of urban canyons. This television series speaks of—and to—viewers who do not live their lives exclusively inside the walls of familiar institutions such as hospitals and courtrooms. Friday Night Lights is that rare program that creates a world at once common and extraordinary, and for this receives a Peabody Award.

PRIMARY PRODUCTION CREDITS

Executive producers: Jason Katims, Peter Berg, Sarah Aubrey, David Nevins, Brian Grazer. Co-executive producers: Jeff Reiner, Elizabeth Heldens, John Cameron. Producers: Kerry Ehrin, Patrick Massett, John Zinman, Carter Harris, Bridget Carpenter, David Hudgins, Nan Bernstein, Mike Lewis. Directors: Jeff Reiner, Allison Liddi-Brown, Dan Lerner, Mark Piznarsky, Stephen Kay, Patrick Norris, Jonas Pate, Josh Pate. Writers: Peter Berg (pilot), Jason Katims, Liz Heldens, Kerry Ehrin, Patrick Massett, John Zinman, Carter Harris, Bridget Carpenter, David Hudgins, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, Andy Miller. Actors: Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Aimee Teegarden, Minka Kelly, Brad Leland, Merrilee McCommas, Scott Porter.