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In 1990, author H.G. Bissinger published a popular nonfiction book that detailed the story of the Periman High School football team, the Tigers, through their 1988 season. It was called “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream,” and it was terrifically popular, becoming a #1 New York Times Bestseller, a fact the publishers happily included on the cover of the 25th anniversary edition.
Many may not know this next part, but in 1993, TV creators Michael Pavone and Dave Alan Johnson loosely adapted “Friday Night Lights” into a little-seen and very short-lived NBC drama called “Against the Grain,” which starred a young Ben Affleck, four years before “Good Will Hunting” and long before he started making his best work behind the camera.
I say “loosely adapted” because a lot of the details were changed for the TV series, with pretty much only the Texan high school setting and football coaching motifs retained. However, this show wasn’t one of Affleck’s bigger successes.
“Against the Grain” only lasted for eight episodes, running from October to December of 1993. It starred John Terry as a character named Ed Clemons who becomes the coach of the local high school football team, the Sumpter Mustangs, in the town of Sumpter, Texas. The series is hard to find online — it’s nowhere to be found on streaming — but evidence of its existence is listed in volumes like “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present.” That book describes “Against the Grain” as a “warm, down-home drama.”
Against the Grain is the first version of Friday Night Lights
Many may be startled to learn that there was a spiritual adaptation of “Friday Night Lights” before the popular 2004 feature film. In 2004, director Peter Berg made the dramatic and incredibly successful movie, which, like the book, was about a high school football team in Odessa, Texas. “Friday Night Lights” made $62 million on its $30 million budget, but it somehow stuck in the consciousness, eventually spawning a hit TV series of its own.
The TV series ran for five crackerjack seasons from 2006 to 2011. The cast all became popular enough for /Film to publish a retrospective on their whereabouts since 2011.
“Against the Grain,” of course, wasn’t nearly as popular, but it sounds solid enough. The TV directory lists the show’s premise like this:
“Supter, Texas was football-obsessed, but its team, the Sumpter Mustangs, was in a slump. Ed Clemons was given exactly one year to turn things around. He knew it was a big challenge, but it was also a lot more fun than insurance, so he turned the business over to his eager-to-prove herself wife, Maggie, and tackled his new job with awesome, sometimes blinding, self-confidence. Trouble arose immediately when he replaced insolent quarterback Bobby with his own son, Joe Willie, who just happened to be a star in the making. Pushing Ed hard from the sidelines was loud auto salesman Niles (“Niles Autorama”), president of the team booster club and just about anyone else in town.”
The “insurance” crack is a reference to Ed’s former job as an insurance salesman. The description goes on to make mention of the character of Jill, Ed’s college-age daughter who would occasionally drop in from out of town.
Against the Grain might have been too sentimental for audiences in the ’90s
Ben Affleck became the biggest star of the cast of “Against the Grain,” of course, becoming a Hollywood A-lister over time. Also on the cast were Donna Bullock as the eager-to-prove herself Maggie, and Robin Lively as the college daughter Jill. Vanessa Evigan played the Clemons’ other daughter, Jenny. The eccentric Niles was played by reliable and prolific character actor Stephen Tobolowsky. He, more than anyone, will be able to tell you all about the art of being a character actor.
Future “Starship Troopers” star Denise Richards also appeared in two episodes of the show, and future “Seinfeld” actor Wayne Knight was in one episode. No one could have predicted that Affleck, as Joe Willie, would become the breakout star.
The caliber of the cast makes me suspect that “Against the Grain” was meant to be a major primetime hit for NBC. As we now know, it never rose above the point of “lost ’90s TV obscurity.” There were a few scant reviews when the show debuted back in 1993, including one from The New York Times that was actually quite positive. Critic John O’Connor wrote:
“In some respects, the new NBC series ‘Against the Grain’ does have the courage of its title. It’s not just another half-hour sitcom running on wisecracks. It’s an hourlong drama admirably aiming, according to one executive producer, Bruce Sallan, to present ‘real-life problems and family issues.’ Another executive producer happens to be Lee Rich. He produced ‘The Waltons,’ which gives you a giant clue as to the kind of family warmth “Against the Grain” would like to generate.”
Affleck is mentioned in the review, but not noted as a specific standout. From the review, it seems “Against the Grain” might have been a little too treacly for audiences in the 1990s.
