‘Friday Night Lights’ Creator Tells Mitt Romney To Stop Talking About His Show

During the pilot episode of Friday Night Lights, the ever-stoic Coach Taylor (played by Kyle Chandler) gives his team, the Dillon Panthers, a stirring pregame speech that ends with, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” It became a rallying cry for not only the Panthers, but also fans of the show, including President Obama and lately, Mitt Romney. Peter Berg, FNL‘s creator, doesn’t mind Barack saying it — he’s not so happy about Mitt, though.

In a letter to the Romney campaign sent Friday and obtained exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter, Berg calls the use of “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose” an act of stealing. “Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series,” Berg writes in the letter. “The only relevant comparison that I see between your campaign and [FNL] is in the character of Buddy Garrity — who turned his back on American car manufacturers selling imported cars from Japan.” (Via)

BUDDY GARRITY BURN. We also would have accepted J.D. and/or Joe McCoy. I guess this means that Romney is totally cool with abortion, going to Mexico to undergo extremely dangerous surgeries, and killing someone with a lead pipe. Obviously he’s down with Crucifictorious. But Peter Berg is only the creator of the show — what does not-thin-skinned Buzz Bissinger, the author of the FNL book, think about Romney?

“I love Pete but he is being childish and petulant,” Bissinger says in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “He should be flattered that Romney is honoring his show. Obama tried to use the slogan as well but unsurprisingly was ineffective in getting the message across.”

“Berg is just another member of the Hollywood glitterati whose idea of liberalism is making sure their Mexican gardeners get paid only several dollars below minimum wage,” he writes. “He has no idea what and who Romney is about. I find his letter uninformed and offensive.”

Bissinger also takes Berg to task for calling himself the creator of FNL.

“And I am frankly sick and tired of Berg and everyone else acting as if he was the creator of Friday Night Lights. Without the book there never would have been a television show. He should feel lucky that anyone cares about it.” (Via)

Hm, it sounds to me like one guy’s to the west of the issue, the other guy’s to the east, and they’re basically arguing over Privileged White Guy vs. Black Guy. Man, I wish there was a sport, possibly with a ball, that could settle this tiff once and for all. What say you, Riggins?

Yeah…um…good idea. We’ll get right on that. Thanks

(Via Hollywood Reporter)