The Hollywood Byte #36: Friday Night Lights

Actor Scott Porter loves football, which suits his starring role as quarterback Jason Street in NBC's "Friday Night Lights." The new dramatic series takes the premise of the hit movie, which was based on Buzz Bissinger's book on the true story of the 1988 season of the Permian High School Panthers in Odessa, Texas, and updates it to the present day in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas.

"The only thing it has in common with the movie is the fact that it's the same name, it takes place in Texas, and the quality of shooting is the same," said Porter. "Besides that, it is a fictional tale that takes place in 2006 and deals with a lot of the same issues. We're actually able to go a little more in-depth with these issues than the movie was."

Porter is a former All-Central Florida wide receiver. At Lake Howell High in Winter Park, Florida, he caught the winning pass that took his team to the State Finals. His teammates included current NFL players Trevor Pryce, Kawika Mitchell, and Tam Hopkins. That experience helped Porter for his role in the new TV show as the All-American quarterback.

"As the number one quarterback in America, he's being recruited by UT and Notre Dame and it looks like he's going to be going to Notre Dame," said Porter. "He's not your typical quarterback though, he's not your brash, cocky, abrasive quarterback. He's a level-headed, genuine, honest, polite kid. He deals with the pressure that the town puts on him and America is placing on him."

Porter was able to experience the real "Friday Night Lights" in Florida on the field, where as many as 4,000 people would come to every game. He said that experience was a step down from how big high school football is today in Texas.

"I do get that idea that the rest of America doesn't quite grip the magnitude of football within these small towns down here," said Porter. "I think there are four areas in the country that might understand it: Florida, Central Pennsylvania, California, and Texas. But even playing in Florida on state semi final championship caliber teams, which I did for my junior and senior year, I thought we were huge. But I got here and realized that it was nothing compared to Texas."

Everything's bigger in Texas. Porter said the TV show films at a high school in a small town with 13,000 people. Their football stadium cost $1 million and holds over 15,000 people. They spent an additional $1.8 million on the turf.