passage: Friday Night Lights (film) -- Friday Night Lights is a 2004 American sports drama film, directed by Peter Berg, which 'dramatized' the coach and players of a high school football team in the Texas city of Odessa that supported and was obsessed with them. The book on which it was based, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) by H.G. Bissinger, followed 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. The film won the Best Sports Movie ESPY Award and was ranked number 37 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Best High School Movies.