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Friday Night Lights

In: English and Literature

Submitted By mbenitezjr9
Words 1020
Pages 5
Taylor Tamayo
Period 2
Feb. 3, 2012

Friday Night Lights
Movie/Book
Analytical Essay

H. G. Bissinger was a writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer when he was selected to be a Harvard Neiman Fellow. This was while he was at Harvard he had the idea to write a book that specifically focused on the role of high school football plays within American society. This happened to take place in particular rural societies. Bissinger returned to the Inquirer for a short amount of time, received a Pulitzer Prize, and then decided to go out in search of a community in which high school football was prevalent. Bissinger then settled on Odessa, Texas. In Odessa, Texas Permian High School and its football team, the Permian Panthers, had a long history of winning in Texas' 4A and 5A divisions. This earned Permian High School winning championships in 1965, 1972, 1980 and 1984. Bissinger moved himself and his family to Odessa, Texas and spent the entire 1988 football season with the Permian Panther players, their families, their coaches, and even many of the townspeople in an effort to understand the town and its die-hard football culture.

Bissinger's newest book, Shooting Stars, was published by Penguin Press in September 2009. The book, co-authored with basketball superstar LeBron James, tells the story of James' high school career. Bissinger is now in the process of completing a book about his twin sons. Born 13 weeks premature in 1983 and weighing less than two pounds, they have lived diametrically opposed lives. After obtaining his master’s in education from the University of Pennsylvania, Gerry, Bissinger’s son, is now a public school teacher while Zach, Bissinger’s other son who has had oxygen deprivation at birth, suffered trace brain damage and struggles every day with enormous learning disabilities. The book will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a team, and a Dream is a 1990 non-fiction book written by H. G. Bissinger. The book follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa, Texas as they made a run towards the Texas state championship. While originally intended to be a Hoosiers-type chronicle of high school sports holding a small town together, the final book ended up being critical about life in the town of Odessa, complete with portraits of what Bissinger called "the ugliest racism" he has ever witnessed, as well as misplaced priorities, where football conquered most aspects of the town and academics were ignored for the sake of championships.

The book opens with Permian's regular-season ending game against their arch-rival, the Midland Lee Rebels, then flashes back to the teams trials and tribulations throughout the season. Interspersed with the football team's saga is the history of Odessa and West Texas.
The role of Permian football in the town is examined. The Panther booster club is one of the largest social groups in the city. Many school children look up to the players and hope to play for the team one day. Many high school girls hope to become Permian cheerleaders, but the competition is fierce. Others become "Pepettes" who are assigned to one football player. Peppettes bring their assigned player gifts every Friday, are in charge of pep rallies, and personally decorate the exterior of the homes of their assigned player.
In the 5A playoff semifinals, Permian meets Dallas Carter, a predominately black team. Carter's system is even more corrupt than Permian's, and in a hard fought game in the rain, the Panthers are defeated. Carter goes on to win the state championship, but faces severe penalties the next year for their grade tampering, giving the state championship to Judson High School.
The book ends with Coach Gaines erasing names of the graduating seniors from his board and replacing them with names of the juniors who will replace them next season. Permian goes undefeated the next year, with future NFL playerStoney Case as quarterback, and becomes the 1989 Texas State football champions.

He graduated from the Phillips Academy in 1972 and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976, where he was a sports and opinion editor for The Daily Pennsylvanian.

He is perhaps best known for his book Friday Night Lights, which documents the 1988 season of the football team of Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. This work was the inspiration for the 1993 television series Against the Grain, and was turned into a successful film (which was released in October 2004), and a television series which debuted on NBC on October 3, 2006. The book has sold nearly two million copies. In a list of the one hundred best books on sports ever,Sports Illustrated ranked Friday Night Lights fourth and the best ever on football. ESPN called Friday Night Lights the best book on sports over the past quarter-century.
He has written two books in addition to Friday Night Lights: A Prayer for the City (1998), which offers insight into the urban political scene of Philadelphia during Mayor (who later became the Governor of Pennsylvania until 2011) Ed Rendell'sterm in the 1990s; and the New York Times' bestselling Three Nights in August (2005), which chronicles a series in August 2003 between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs through the perspective of Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.

Friday Night Lights is a 2004 drama film which documents the coach and players of a high school football team[1] and the Texas city of Odessa that supports and is obsessed with them. The book on which it was based, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, was authored by H. G. Bissinger and follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship. A television series of the same name premiered on October 3, 2006 on NBC. This movie ranked number 37 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Best High School Movies.

In many ways one could agreed that watching the film Friday Night Lights could be more effective to the viewer and reader

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