On my post highlighting the Best Dads in TV and Film , a couple of my friends pointed out that I had missed one of the most obvious candidates: Coach Eric Taylor of Friday Night Lights .
They’re right, it’s a glaring oversight considering that Taylor could take the top spot in a number of categories (Best Protector, Best Father Figure, Best Tough Father, Best Conservative Dad). But even that would be understating the case, since Coach Taylor is one of the the greatest portrayals of a family man ever on television.
Admittedly, since I’m from rural Texas and a fan of high school football, I’m culturally predisposed to love a show about high school football in a rural Texas town. But Friday Night Lights is not really about football. It’s a show about community and family—especially Coach Taylor’s family.
The Taylors are unlike anything I’ve ever seen on the small screen. There has simply never been a more honest and sympathetic portrayal of a married couple—much less a Christian couple with a rock-solid marriage—produced in Hollywood. Even scenes in which the Taylors fight (and they argue about as often as any normal couple) reveals more genuine love and emotion than all of the sex scenes in the history of television combined.
Take, for example, this clip from a previous season:
Eric and Tami Taylor are the best advertisements for marriage in pop culture.
Although the criminally under-appreciated show is wrapping up it’s run on NBC, all five seasons are already available on DVD (and Seasons 1-4 are available on Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” feature). If you haven’t watched Friday Night Lights yet, rent the first six episodes of the first season. A few episodes is often necessary before you get accustomed to the pace and setting—it didn’t grab me at first but when it did, it didn’t let go. Give it a chance this Father’s Day and I suspect you’ll be hooked too.
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