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Q: I've just started watching "Ted Lasso," and the credits say something about it being based on something from NBC Sports. What's that about?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

The next time you reach for your remote to skip through the ads, consider the fact that "Ted Lasso," one of the most decorated and beloved sitcoms of recent years, started as a pair of commercials.

Before the clueless coach debuted in a show on fledgling streamer Apple TV (and immediately started cleaning up at the awards shows), he was on NBC Sports, promoting their acquisition of broadcast rights for English Premier League soccer games. That was back in 2013 (and again in 2014, when a second promo was released).

The joke was, and continues to be, that the English don't call it soccer, they call it football. From that simple language difference, a whole character was born. (Lasso is a coach of American football who ends up coaching a soccer/football team in England.)

Jason Sudeikis ("Saturday Night Live"), who played Lasso in the promos and plays him on the show, is the co-writer of both. He said that, in the course of writing the commercials, he realized that the man had more to say than just, 'Watch NBC Sports.'

"After doing the second video, it really unlocked elements of the character that we found very, very fun to write and portray and view the world through," Sudeikis told Sports Illustrated in 2020.

At that point, he sat down with his writing partners Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt (who also plays Coach Beard on the show) to "bang out a pilot" and outline a first season. "And that let us know, 'OK, there's something here.'"

 

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Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town. Personal replies will not be provided.