BUDDY GARRITY: Mitt Romney is compared -- unfavorably -- with the TV series character.

  • BUDDY GARRITY: Mitt Romney is compared — unfavorably — with the TV series character.

I was among the small but devoted following of “Friday Night Lights,” the TV series that captured Texas high school football culture and lifestyle about as well as anything I’ve ever seen. (It also introduced me to lovely Connie Britton, now starring in “Nashville.”)

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So I was dismayed when I read and heard Republican Mitt Romney had cadged Coach Eric Taylor’s motto for the fictional Dillon Panthers — clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose — for campaign purposes. Smash, Landry, Matt, Julie, Riggins or Tyra on Romney’s team? Not likely.

I was not so dismayed as Peter Berg, creator of the TV series.

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Peter Berg, the creator of the TV series “Friday Night Lights,” sent Mitt Romney a letter on Friday expressing his displeasure with the Republican presidential candidate for co-opting the show’s slogan, “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”

“Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series,” Berg wrote to Romney. “The only relevant comparison that I see between your campaign and ‘Friday Night Lights’ is the character of Buddy Garrity — who turned his back on American car manufactures selling imported cars from Japan.”

Full letter in Hollywood Reporter.

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