Tami Taylor, Mother to All:Abortion on Friday Night Lights

Renee PowersCOMS 650-2 Dr. Vazquez

May 2, 2011

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The secret of Friday Night Lights: It’s actually a chick show. The secret Texas: The women are in charge. Tami is both a small-town society wife (much as she strains against those obligations) and a no-nonsense Ann Richards stateswoman as high school principal. Sometimes she is a paragon of supportiveness and understanding; other times she’s easily frustrated by her teenage daughter and football-focused husband… Friday Night Lights is about a lot of things other than football, but the one subject that recurs throughout is parenthood. Tami is the mother to us all. (Cohen 102)

Introduction and Review of Literature

Television, by definition, is a domestic medium. It is in the home, or private

sphere, where women have historically been positioned. Furthermore, it is a

feminine medium in that it operates as flow, or the nature of television that allows

one program to blend into the next seamlessly through credits and commercials. It

also allows for innumerable points of identification in characters, through

advertisements, and within narratives. Television additionally addresses cultural

and political issues, such as the women’s movement. Hence, women have always

had a certain association with television.

Throughout the women’s movement, television often reflected that which

was happening in the real world. Television narratives provide an outlet for

ideological perspectives. Television writers and producers created content that

taught women which side of the movement they could or should join. Additionally,

advertisers saw the untapped market of women watching television and soon

women were inundated with images that spoke to how they should look. The media

tamed the politically voracious feminists of the 1960s through sexualized

advertisements, their bodies on display for male pleasure. Yet programming

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attempted to fight back. In the 1970s, The Mary Tyler Moore Show defined the new

woman—a young career woman and feminist icon without a partner who was

determined to make it on her own. As the medium matured through the 1980s,

television reflected the backlash of feminism in shows like Murphy Brown, who was

portrayed as the feminist buffoon. In the 1990s, television portrayed the post

feminist confusion of Ally McBeal, who grew up being told she could have anything

she wanted so she strove to have it all—like a man. The millennium saw the HBO

production of Sex and the City featuring four women who equated success with

material consumption.

Meanwhile, in 2006, NBC aired the critically acclaimed drama Friday Night

Lights, which highlighted a number of issues that resonated with women on either

side of the feminist spectrum. Based loosely on a book of the same name by H.G.

Bissinger, Friday Night Lights portrays women realistically and told their stories

courageously in its five season run, particularly that of Tami Taylor played by

Connie Britton. Near the end of the fourth season, a student named Becky Sproles

from East Dillon High School visits Tami for counsel on her unintended pregnancy

that was a result of a one-night stand with football player Luke Cafferty. Tami is the

principal and former guidance counselor at East Dillon’s rival school, Dillon High

School, who is no stranger to providing advice to teens. Tami provides Becky with

information on inexpensive prenatal care and adoption. When Becky asks, “But

what if I don’t want to keep the baby?” Tami tells her she can provide information

on abortion, as well. The final episodes of season four depict the harassment of

Tami and her family by the anti-abortion constituency in Texas, which results in the

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loss of her job as principal. I will explore how Friday Night Lights provides a perfect

storm of industry and narrative to successfully handle the taboo subject of abortion.

In Tami Taylor, FNL found a character with strong morals combined with gritty

common sense to drive honest narratives. On DirecTV, FNL found a safe home to

courageously tell the truth, no matter how controversial.

In 1997, Anne Elizabeth Moore wrote “The Silent Screen,” a plea for accurate

representations of abortion on television. She claims that abortion is the most

contentious topic one could put on television despite it being a common occurrence.

Moore explains how television is not afraid of controversial narratives including gay

marriage, child rape, or murder but continues: “And yet, of all these, abortion is the

most common experience.” Moore delineates network and cable programs that have

toyed with the storyline where a character has an abortion, from Roseanne to Party

of Five, and even HBO’s film If These Walls Could Talk. However, all characters have

either opted to have the child or conveniently miscarried before their scheduled

abortion. Additionally, when these women consider the procedure, the storyline

becomes traumatic, or as Moore writes, “it always seems to be an ugly, violent,

miserable process.” Moore speaks from personal experience with abortion that

these are not a realistic portrayal of how women deal with the issue.

Not only does the pregnant teenager in Friday Night Lights go through with

the abortion, it becomes the catalyst for a number of narrative changes.

Furthermore, the pregnancy was a result of consenting sex and not rape, which can

be seen as an easy way out for some writers. Moore’s point is that a television

program has not accurately portrayed women’s experiences with abortion since

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Maude in 1972. However, Moore wrote this article before Friday Night Lights was

broadcast.

As previously mentioned, though contentious, Friday Night Lights is not the

first show to feature a character’s contemplation of abortion in its narrative. Lewis

Beale recalls Maude as the first television program whose protagonist terminates a

pregnancy. Beale writes, “Maude’s decision stands as a watershed in TV history, an

event that brought the battle over choice into the prime-time arena” and notes that

it did so a year prior to the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the

United States. Maude, a character created by the politically savvy Norman Lear, was

written to realistically represent older women. Beale writes that she was a

“contrast to the perfection of such TV mothers as Donna Reed and Harriet Nelson.”

When the opportunity arose for network comedies to win $10,000 for portrayals of

population control, Lear opted in favor of the script featuring an abortion. CBS was

hesitant to air the two-part episode, even threatening not to air it, however all but

two CBS affiliates broadcasted “Maude’s Dilemma.” Granted, the show received a bit

of backlash but this history did not deter the writers of Friday Night Lights. Beale

also notes that NBC, the network that aired the first two seasons of FNL and reruns

of the last three seasons, has seen its share of trouble with abortion themed

programs: “NBC said that it lost $1 million in advertising revenue due to sponsor

withdrawals from its 1989 movie ‘Roe vs. Wade,’ and it took another hit when ‘Law

& Order’ dealt with the bombing of abortion clinics.” Nevertheless, according to

Beale, Norman Lear was confident that decisions to terminate a character’s

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pregnancy can be handled skillfully on primetime television with little detriment to

the integrity of the program, as we will see with Friday Night Lights.

Friday Night Lights aired initially on NBC but moved to DirecTV Channel 101

after poor ratings. In an article about the kinds of programming HBO embraces in a

post-network era, Al Auster contends cable subscriptions allow for edgier and more

realistic narratives. Though he asserts HBO produces the highest quality of

television due to a number of talented producers, Auster writes that HBO gives

these producers “the space—and money—to create without interference” (245).

Space, money, and the freedom to be creative are precisely why some programs

flourish on cable. Furthermore, HBO allowed for alternate forms of genres including

the fictional documentary-style drama, much like Friday Night Lights, as seen in The

Sopranos. HBO has impacted cable television in a number of ways and shows like

FNL have benefitted from this industrial change.

In her book Redesigning Women, Amanda Lotz also addresses the

multichannel industrial change as having a positive impact on women’s stories on

television. She contends that narrowcasting, or “targeting a niche segment of the

overall audience” (26), explains this influx of diverse female characters. Cable

networks, like Lifetime and Oxygen, can target women specifically in ways that

network television could not due to advertising costs. Network television

broadcasts in order to make the most of their advertisers’ dollars. With the dawn of

cable networks, advertisers can afford to narrowcast because this audience is

targeted. This is beneficial for women and representations of women on television.

Targeted advertising allows for targeted narratives speaking to and reflecting

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diverse experiences. This targeting, coupled with cable television’s freedom for

creativity as discussed by Auster, post-network dramas have the potential to

provide authentic characters and narratives. Though Friday Night Lights debuted on

network television, the narrative became much more courageous and boldly

feminist when discussing women’s issues once it switched to DirecTV, as will be

discussed later.

Curiously, Lotz explains that representations of women’s experiences are not

confined to programs that advertise themselves as overtly feminine. In a discussion

of the mixed-sex ensemble show Family Law, Lotz claims it “offers audiences not

specified as female a narrative that examines issues through multiple viewpoints

and emphasizes a diversity of female perspectives” (158). Furthermore, Lotz

contends that such shows, because they do not specifically target females rather a

broader demographic, allow for a greater reception of authentically female

perspectives, a gain for representations of women on television. As such, Friday

Night Lights includes women’s narratives in a broadly defined mixed-sex ensemble

drama. This advancement was made possible by narrowcasting women’s drama of

the late 1990s and early 2000s as previously discussed.

Lotz writes, “Feminist television critics explore representations of women’s

lives, discourse about their abilities, and stories that dominate cultural narratives

based upon the presumption that these series contribute to the audience’s

perceptions of gender roles and understanding of the world” (18). Post-network

television provides a multiplicity of stories for and about women thanks to an

expanding market that broadens programming choices for women. Indeed, this is

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the reason that the feminist role model framework is an invalid way to evaluate

women’s roles within television programs. Feminism varies according to context

and can contradict itself within a single program. Defining a specific television

program or even a character on a program as feminist can be troublesome because

the range of women’s representation is far more expansive than ever before.

Therefore, the exploration of representation, discourse, and narratives is necessary

when discussing women’s roles on television.

Like Lotz, I subscribe to bell hooks’ definition of feminism:

To me feminism is not simply a struggle to end male chauvinism or a

movement to ensure that women will have equal rights with men; it is a

commitment to eradicating the ideology of domination that permeates

Western culture on various levels—sex, race, and class, to name a few—and a

commitment to reorganizing U.S. society so that the self-development of

people can take precedence over imperialism, economic expansion, and

material desires. (qtd. in Lotz 21)

It is this foundation of feminism that I discuss Tami Taylor as a feminist character

and, moreover, Friday Night Lights as a feminist program. This is the feminism that

allows for a television program about football to subversively act to eradicate

Western ideology of patriarchal domination. Through an analysis of narrative and

industry in a specific cultural and political context, I will explore how Friday Night

Lights allows for new feminist narratives, representation, and discourse to flourish

in the multichannel era.

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In the epilogue of her book, Lotz addresses the proliferation of television

dramas that “attempt to repackage female characters in narratives that do not

resolutely announce themselves as programs for women” (165). Someone not

familiar with the show Friday Night Lights may wonder what a show about football

has to do with feminism. As it turns out, quite a bit. Though Friday Night Lights

revolves around football in a small Texas town, the narrative focuses on Coach Eric

Taylor and his wife Tami. In the first season, Coach Taylor is new to Dillon High

School but, as head coach, leads the football team to the state championship.

Meanwhile, Tami Taylor lands a job at Dillon High School as a guidance counselor

and lends her ear to countless misguided teens. At work, Tami earns the trust of the

community and is promoted to Dillon High School principal. In the home, she

manages to support her husband and his team, be involved in her teenage

daughter’s life, and, in the second season, she and Eric welcome baby Gracie into

their lives.

Though it may seem that Tami Taylor is superwoman, her flaws keep her

from adhering to a feminist role-model framework. Lotz writes, “Adherence to the

role-model framework yields narrow conversations; it is unequipped to assess the

nuances of narrative complexity” (172). Though many characteristics of Tami are

admirable, such as her patience and passion to help struggling teens, it is the

honesty of the character that resonates with women. When her newborn Gracie

arrives at the beginning of the second season, Eric Taylor is away from home to

coach college football. The audience sees Tami’s struggles to manage the household

and family alone. A few episodes feature Tami in tears late at night, sometimes

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attempting to reach Eric by phone. Furthermore, the final episodes of season five

leave the audience wondering if the couple can come to a compromise, as Tami is

offered a job in Philadelphia and Eric fights to stay in Dillon. At one point, Tami tells

daughter Julie, “You know that your father and I love each other very much,”

suggesting that love can’t keep even the strongest marriages together. Though

many times admirable, Tami is not always put on a pedestal, neither as a mother nor

as a wife. She has realistic character flaws just like any other woman, wife, and

mother.

That said, Tami Taylor embodies grace. At the end of her book, Lotz calls for

expanding the range of women’s stories to include “lesbian characters, partnered

characters, characters without rewarding careers, and stay-at-home parents” (180).

Tami Taylor represents a partnered character in a strong marriage. The Taylors’

marriage is enviable. Though they may argue, bicker, and spend episodes without

speaking to one another, Friday Night Lights depicts an honest representation of a

strong, loving marriage. Regardless of financial issues that emerge or job

opportunities for either partner, Tami and Eric respect one another. Instead of

punctuating the narrative with marital issues, Friday Night Lights is built on the

foundation of the Taylor family. Nonetheless, the show tackles controversial issues

from underage drinking and hazing to teen pregnancy and abortion.

Abortion in the United States in the late 2000s

When discussing a text, we must situate it in the cultural milieu that

surrounds the program. In this case, a discussion of the abortion debate during a

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contentious political time is necessary. The fourth season of Friday Night Lights

began in October 2009 and ran through February of 2010 on DirecTV Channel 101.

This marks the end of Barack Obama’s first year as President, who ran for the office

in 2008 with the understanding that he is a pro-choice Democratic candidate. The

Congress maintained its Democratic majority as well, with pro-choice

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. However, the opposing

Presidential ticket, John McCain and Sarah Palin, ran into hot water. Though

running on an anti-abortion platform, McCain and Palin were forced to tackle the

issues surrounding teen pregnancy on the campaign trail after it was released that

Palin’s teenage daughter Bristol was pregnant. The abortion debate seemed to have

become more contentious than ever.

Regardless, the Obama administration’s support for reproductive rights was

obvious from the beginning. In the first week of taking office, President Obama

lifted the regulation put in place by the previous administration that banned the

United States Agency for International Development from funding international

organizations that provides abortions (Baker 13). In the fall of 2009, the Obama

administration initiated discussions regarding healthcare reform, which included

abortion rights and a lengthy dispute about the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits

federal aid to be used to obtain an abortion. Many anti-abortion groups deemed the

Obama Administration’s actions reprehensible and protested to make their voices

heard. In fact, in May of 2009, the University of Notre Dame invited the President to

speak at their commencement ceremony. Notre Dame is a Catholic institution, a

religion that is passionately anti-abortion, which brought this debate to a climax

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that President Obama had not experienced. Months prior to the commencement

ceremony, protestors congregated at Notre Dame and even shouted protests during

the President’s address, though he called for “open hearts, open minds, and fair-

minded words” on the issue (Shear A1). This illustrates the heated discourse

around the abortion issue in the United States. Put simply, this is an issue close to

the hearts of many. A pro-choice President is a grave threat to those who may

disagree.

Meanwhile, the producers of Friday Night Lights worked on a series of

episodes that reflected this issue. The episodes were received with great critical

success. Tony Lee describes in The Atlantic the dialogue between Tami and Becky as

“masterful and nuanced” while Ginia Bellafonte in The New York Times lauds FNL

choosing to “maintain its commitment, above all, to the world it renders.” Feminist

websites and opinion columns sang praises of the episodes as well. NARAL Pro-

Choice New York designed a t-shirt fundraising campaign with a logo similar to the

“Don’t Mess With Texas” design that read instead, “Don’t mess with Tami.” The

NARAL New York website writes: “Last week, Friday Night Lights hero Tami Taylor

was harassed for doing the right thing: being there for a young woman who needed

her. NARAL Pro-Choice New York supports all trusted adults who provide support

to the young people in their lives and we believe that they should do so without fear

of retribution.” Additionally, Gloria Feldt, former president of Planned Parenthood,

writes in The Washington Post, “I want to hug the necks of everyone associated with

Friday Night Lights for being courageous enough to tell it like it is.” Through these

and many other examples, it is clear that the narrative pleased pro-choice viewers

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as well as television critics. However, what is the most interesting are some of the

responses the episodes garnered from the other side of the political aisle.

Of course, any abortion on television, regardless of how gracefully the issue

might be handled, will cause controversy. What is surprising is the message that

came from one of the movement’s largest organizations. Dave Andrusko writes the

newsletter Today’s News & Views for the National Right to Life Campaign. In the July

2010 newsletters, when the episodes in question appeared on NBC, Andrusko was

surprisingly complimentary. He claims that Becky does not actually want to have

the abortion but does so to please her mother, therefore Becky is not a murderer,

rather a victim of overaggressive parenting. Andrusko reasons that this show

presents a pro-life narrative by demonizing Becky’s mother and that Luke Cafferty’s

passionately anti-abortion parents should be praised as role models. Furthermore,

Andrusko mentions the dialogue in which Becky asks Tami what she would tell her

daughter if she were in the same position. Tami tells Becky that she would support

her decision. Because Becky was apparently hesitant in her decision to terminate

the pregnancy, Andrusko rationalizes that Tami’s daughter would make the decision

to keep the baby. In the end, Andrusko warps the narrative to be both

congratulatory of pro-life values as well as in admiration of Tami Taylor.

Industrial Aspects of Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights began in 2006 on NBC and ran for five seasons, with the

final three seasons debuting on DirecTV months prior to NBC air. Friday Night

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Lights received much critical acclaim but the ratings were never very high. The

most recent episodes aired on NBC have seen around 3.5 million viewers each week

(Ng). In fact, NBC threatened to cancel the show after season two, influenced by the

writers’ strike, however fans sent thousands of plastic footballs in protest (Spong

100). This prompted a deal with DirecTV who picked up the third season (and all

remaining seasons) for the price of 40% of production costs (Grossman 36). It was

an easy decision for DirecTV. Knowing the enthusiastic, albeit small, audience FNL

boasts, Eric Shanks, DirecTV executive vice president of entertainment hoped to

please customers who already subscribed to DirecTV. Furthermore, DirecTV

already offered a package for exclusive NFL football games called “Sunday Ticket”

which Shanks tells Grossman might translate into fans of Friday Night Lights (36).

DirecTV recognizes that airing Friday Night Lights may not necessarily bring new

subscribers to the service, but it hopes to cultivate the relationship with current

subscribers through quality television. In Shanks’ words, it is “a way of rewarding

our customers for being DirecTV subscribers, to give them things that cable and

other providers can’t give them” (qtd. in Stilson 8).

Just as Auster contends that HBO granted producers spatial and monetary

access for creative liberty, so too did DirecTV give artistic freedom to Friday Night

Lights. It is precisely these conditions that allowed for honest representations of all

facets of women’s lives to thrive on a show supposedly about football. Moving to

distribution on DirecTV turned out to be incredibly beneficial for the show’s writers.

First and foremost, DirecTV allowed for a quality show to run its natural narrative

course without the threat of cancellation. Additionally, Friday Night Lights’

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producer Jason Katims told USA Today that moving to DirecTV would allow the

program to run longer and have more mature themes (Bianco and Levin). This is

evident in the seasons that aired on DirecTV: season three featured a child abuse

case, season four featured a teenager seeking an abortion as well as a mother

dealing with a drug habit, and in season five Tami’s daughter Julie sleeps with her

married teaching assistant. Though the first two seasons, which aired solely on

NBC, did lend much of its story line to an attempted rape and one character’s use of

performance-enhancing drugs, the last three seasons were a bit more explicit about

controversial issues.

An article by Bill Keveney in USA Today exposes the producers’ plan to target

women in the second season due to low ratings in the first season. It is suggested

that the fan base is small because women, particularly between the ages 35 and 49,

dismiss the show for being about teenagers and sports. Season two aired on Friday

nights in an attempt to draw this demographic. The narrative in this season begins

with the birth of Gracie to Tami and Eric and also limits scenes featuring game play.

This is evident of the producers’ use of narrative to draw in that missing

demographic.

Interestingly, the advertising in FNL is not geared towards women. Because

the show’s foundation is football, UnderArmour athletic gear and Schutt football

helmets receive much time on air. In fact, the only other noticeable product

placement outside of UnderArmour and Schutt are Ford, driven by all the Taylors,

and Applebee’s, where Julie Taylor and her friend Tyra Collette work in the first few

seasons. It would seem if the producers were looking for women ages 35-49, more

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products would be included for that demographic. However, not once does Tami

Taylor apply under-eye cream or even feed Gracie with branded baby food. It

should be noted that this analysis was conducted through viewing solely through

Netflix Instant Play or on DVD where there are no commercial breaks. Interestingly,

DirecTV aired FNL commercial-free so it is only NBC that disrupted the narrative

flow with commercials.

Narrative Elements of Friday Night Lights

Although the advertising did not target women, the story lines were often

centered on women’s experiences. Granted, much of the narrative revolved around

the football team that Eric coaches (be it Dillon, East Dillon, or Texas Methodist

University), but the writers spent many episodes focused on stories specific to

women. For instance, after witnessing Julie’s boyfriend buying condoms at the

supermarket, Tami spends an episode preoccupied with having to discuss safe sex

and contraception with her teenage daughter. Another example comes from the end

of the first season. Tami knew she was pregnant with Gracie for an entire episode

before she tells Eric. The narrative explores the concerns of older women giving

birth, unplanned pregnancy within a marriage, and even hints at infertility struggles.

A third example of the show’s focus on women’s stories is the attempted rape of

Tyra Collette. She was assaulted in a parking lot, forced into her truck, but managed

to burn the perpetrator with a cigarette lighter. The man begins to stalk her and

Tyra lives her days in fear. This struggle is woven into many episodes over the

course of the second season.

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In the fourth season, Becky Sproles, a student at East Dillon High School,

discovers she is pregnant after losing her virginity to quarterback Luke Cafferty.

She seeks the advice of Tim Riggins, the older brother figure who rents a trailer

from Becky’s mother. Tim played football under Coach Taylor and, prior to renting

the trailer, lived with the Taylor family for several episodes. Knowing how Tami has

helped numerous other troubled teenagers, Tim takes Becky to Tami for guidance.

At this point, Tami is principal at Dillon High School where the football boosters are

already not pleased with her reallocation of funding intended for a jumbo-tron to

schoolbooks. Becky sits down at the Taylor dinner table and tells Tami, a stranger

to her, of her predicament. Tami, as the compassionate “mother to all,” discusses

adoption and affordable pre-natal care. When Becky asks, “What if I don’t want to

keep it?” Tami offers pamphlets for that, too. The scene ends here.

Later, we discover Becky’s boyfriend Luke’s parents know of the pregnancy.

Luke’s mother, Mrs. Cafferty, tells Luke, “Mary and Joseph thought they were in a

predicament, too,” signaling the anti-abortion political and religious views of the

Cafferty family. When Luke tells her that Becky terminated the pregnancy, Mrs.

Cafferty calls the school board to complain that Tami Taylor instructed a student to

have an abortion. Tami and the Taylor family are harassed throughout the final

episodes of the fourth season. Angry protestors with anti-abortion signs greet Tami

at school. The Taylor family phone rings at all hours and the callers berate whoever

answers. Finally, Tami meets with the school board and decides to leave her

position as principal of Dillon High School. (Interestingly, though Friday Night

Lights revolves around the Taylor family and their connection to football, it is Tami’s

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career that drives the narrative of the program over the course of its five seasons.

Upon her resignation, she accepts a counseling position at East Dillon High School,

where her husband is now coaching. This leads to a conference out of town where

Tami meets an old colleague who recommends her for a position at an east coast Ivy

League-type university. The series ends with Tami moving her family to

Pennsylvania for this position.)

Much like Maude, Friday Night Lights uses the narrative as a vehicle to

educate its viewers about abortion. Maude’s daughter tells Maude that abortion is

legal in the state of New York. On the other hand, in FNL, Becky and her mother

attend the abortion consultation together where the doctor instructs them of a

waiting period and is forced to read a document detailing the procedure itself. This

is borne of anti-abortion legislation that was passed in Texas in 2003 that requires

parental consent, a doctor to inform women about “medical risks and adoption

alternatives,” and a waiting period of 24 hours that may involve “reviewing color

pictures of the developmental stages of a fetus” (Planned Parenthood). Just as

Maude informed viewers that abortion is legal in the state of New York, FNL informs

viewers that abortion, though legal in Texas, is a bureaucratic nightmare no matter

the circumstances.

Moore, who wrote in praise of Maude but criticized television since for not

including honest narratives, would be pleased to see that this show provides an

accurate, respectful, and courageous portrayal of the decision to have an abortion

and the feelings a young woman encounters after the procedure. Becky, though

devastated at her circumstances, overcomes the situation with poise and maturity.

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Friday Night Lights does not let go of this facet of the storyline once the pregnancy is

terminated, though. In keeping honest, the narrative occasionally returns to Becky’s

struggles with the decision, though never damning her. For example, after the

abortion, Becky and Luke discontinue their relationship, much to Luke’s

disappointment. He pursues her still but she tells him that there is simply too much

baggage between them, which makes her uncomfortable. Late in the fifth season,

she decides to start anew, put the past behind her, and begin a fresh relationship

with Luke. This infuriates Luke’s parents but Luke and Becky stand up to them

respectfully. Friday Night Lights does not paint abortion in a positive light but

neither does it handle the issue traumatically, as Moore criticizes other programs of

doing.

Conclusion

As Beale lauded Norman Lear for maintaining an honest representation of

abortion in Maude, so too do many critics on all sides of the political spectrum in

relation to Friday Night Lights. Cable television networks, such as HBO, paved the

way for edgier programming, providing producers the context and funds to be as

creative as they desire, as discussed by Auster. Lotz speaks to the impact target

marketing had on the post-network era, allowing programming to become more

narrowcasted and, as a result, more representative of women’s authentic lives.

Television depicting more honest narratives is a feminist issue because of its

potential to illuminate Western ideologies and inherent patriarchies, as defined by

bell hooks (qtd. in Lotz 21). Television as a domestic medium brings this

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consciousness-raising into the home. Furthermore, television programming can act

subversively by presenting feminist issues and sincere representations of women in

a show about football, a stereotypically male institution.

The historic 2008 election brought with it a new President who ran an

unabashedly pro-choice campaign. Running against him was a ticket whose vice

president praised her teenage daughter for “choosing” life. This illuminated the

stark division of the abortion debate in the United States, creating a controversial

culture in the realm of women’s reproductive rights and social issues. The anti-

abortion movement gained momentum in opposition to Barack Obama’s win and his

administration’s pro-choice policies. Friday Night Lights captured this cultural,

political, and religious context through a number of elements: young Becky Sproles’

pregnancy dilemma and subsequent abortion, the script Becky’s doctor had to read

by law to inform her on the risks of the procedure, how her boyfriend’s parents

represented the religious right through lines like, “Mary and Joseph thought they

were in a predicament, too,” Mrs. Cafferty calling for Tami Taylor’s resignation,

protestors yelling with signs outside Tami’s school and calling the Taylor house at

all hours, and lastly, Tami’s ultimate resignation from her position as principal at

Dillon High School.

A story line about abortion would be incredible controversial on network

television, even though Maude did the same in the 1970s. In this political context,

networks fear these kinds of issues. This is why DirecTV became so instrumental in

the success of this story line. DirecTV provided the producers and writers of Friday

Night Lights the artistic liberty to create at will. Up to this point, the show had not

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been the type to sugarcoat any issue, be it race, class, or sexual orientation.

Therefore it was only natural that it could be the place to harbor a sincere

representation of abortion.

Tami Taylor, as mother to all, acts as moral guide throughout all five seasons

to nearly every teenage character on the program. She pushes troubled Tyra

Collette to apply to college, she accepts Tim Riggins into her home when his brother

kicks him out, and she provides an unbiased ear when Becky desperately needs

adult support. All the while, Tami struggles to maintain work-home life balance and

keep the foundation of her marriage and family strong. It is only through such an

authentic character that a program can risk a narrative that features a teenage

abortion. Tami provides a safe place for honest stories.

In light of the contentious political culture of 2009 and 2010, it seems

audacious for a show to focus its narrative on the issue of abortion. Yet the

combination of moving to DirecTV and creating an honest character like Tami

Taylor allowed Friday Night Lights to thrive in this context. DirecTV shielded a

critically acclaimed show from the network’s hatchet whereas the character of Tami

Taylor allowed for courageous narratives driven by strong and smart women.

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Works Cited

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