It was widely reported elsewhere this week that GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney had appropriated the fictional Dillion Panthers’ “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose” credo as a slogan of sorts for his campaign. Romney, allegedly a fan of the “Friday Night Lights” television series (loosely based on the book of the same name, penned by recent Romney endorser Buzz Bissenger), is under fire from the show’s creator, producer/director Peter Berg. From the Hollywood Reporter’s Matthew Belloni :
In a letter to the Romney campaign sent Friday and obtained exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter, Berg calls the use of ‘Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose” an act of stealing. “Your politics and campaign are clearly not aligned with the themes we portrayed in our series,” Berg writes in the letter. “The only relevant comparison that I see between your campaign and Friday Night Lights is in the character of Buddy Garrity — who turned his back on American car manufacturers selling imported cars from Japan.”
The low-rated, critically acclaimed series set in a high school football program also featured a number of themes that might not necessarily be approved by a Romney administration. Among them: a character (Madison Burge) goes through with an abortion late in the show’s fourth season. The decision follows a one-night stand the character had with football star (Matt Lauria), and it is the school’s (Connie Britton) who guides her through the decision process.
Another theme explored in the series is that of military parents. A character (Zach Gilford) is raised by his ailing grandmother after his mother departs, and his military father shows little sign of caring for his son.