 The television series Friday Night Lights was based on the 2004 movie Friday Night Lights , which was in turn based on the 1990 non @-@ fiction book Friday Night Lights : A Town , a Team , and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger . The book describes the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers , a high school football team in Odessa , Texas . While the movie was set in 1988 , the television series takes place in the present . Peter Berg – who is Bissinger 's cousin – co @-@ wrote and directed the movie , and also wrote and directed the Friday Night Lights pilot . In addition to writing the script of the pilot , he also executively produced the entire project together with Sarah Aubrey and John Cameron . 
