Buzz Bissinger

Did you know that the book turned movie turned TV show Friday Night Lights was originally an investigative reporter taking a look at what truly takes place on the fields at high school football? The best players weren't the students at all. The 25th anniversary is underway and we are talking to the man that created the championship story Buzz Bissinger. In 1988, in the dusty heat of Odessa, Texas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist H. G. “Buzz” Bissinger set out to chronicle the Permian Panthers’ season. The students, parents, and townspeople gathered under the lights each Friday night from September to December to watch their team on the gridiron. The socially and racially divided town placed unimaginable pressure on the shoulders of its high school football players as fans tried to forget about the instability of the oil business, high unemployment, and racial tensions. Upon its first publication in 1990, Bissinger endured anonymous threats of violence and was forced to cancel local appearances as controversy brewed around his tale of the fate of education in a town defined by football, and what happens when teenagers put all of their eggs in one very tenuous basket. Despite the backlash in west Texas, Friday Night Lights hit the New York Times bestseller list that year and again 14 years later at the #1 spot when it became a major motion picture drawing both an AFI Award for Movie of the Year and an ESPY Award for Best Sports Movie. In 2006, the narrative was re-imagined yet again as an Emmy award-winning TV series. Over the years, teachers and librarians have claimed that Friday Night Lights is one of the few books they can get adolescent boys to read. Characters like running back Boobie Miles—who bet his whole future on football and blew his knee out (in a scrimmage), thus ending his chances of creating a better life for himself—illustrate the exhilarating wins and devastating losses on the field and off. New to the 25th anniversary edition of this modern-day classic is an afterword in which Bissinger returns to Texas. He meets with six of the players (Mike Winchell, Boobie Miles, Brian Chavez, Jerrod McDougal, Ivory Christian, and Don Billingsley) and the updates are stirring. Boobie, for example, is in prison for violating the terms of his aggravated assault probation. The town of Odessa and the culture of Friday night football is much changed as well. Buzz Bissinger’s tour for the 25th Anniversary Edition of Friday Night Lights The Strand (New York, NY), 7 p.m. EDT, 9/8/15 Hastings (Odessa, TX), 7 p.m. CDT, 9/14/15 Midland County Public Library (Midland, TX), Centennial branch, 5:30 p.m. CDT, 9/15/15 Yucca Theater (Midland, TX), panel event, 7:30 p.m. CDT, 9/15/15 Brazos Bookstore (Houston, TX), 7 p.m. CDT, 9/16/15 HEB (San Antonio), 6 p.m. CDT, 9/17/15 Abilene Public Library (Abilene, TX), 12 p.m. CDT, 9/18/15 Half Price Books (Dallas, TX), 2 p.m. CDT, 9/19/15 Book People (Austin, TX), 2 p.m. CDT, 9/20/15 University Bookstore (Seattle, WA), 7 p.m. PDT, 9/22/15 Doylestown Bookshop (Philadelphia, PA), 7 p.m. EDT, 9/25/15 Powell’s Books (Portland, OR), 7 p.m. PDT, 9/29/15 Note: The Texas portion of this tour recreates the 1990 tour that was canceled due to death threats. ABOUT BUZZ BISSINGER H. G. “Buzz” Bissinger is the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller Three Nights in August and most recently Father’s Day. He is a longtime contributing editor for Vanity Fair and has written for the New York Times, the New Republic, the Daily Beast, and many other publications. He divides his time between homes in Philadelphia and the Pacific Northwest.