It’s no longer “Texas Forever” on NBC as “Friday Night Lights” finishes up it’s final season this summer. As sad as I am to see that serial depart, at the least the franchise will exit on top. And when one door closes, another opens.
The pigskin of high school gridiron drama is now handed off to Current Tv’s “4th and Forever,” which centers around the promising team at Long Beach Poly. It’s helmed by head coach Raul Lara, whose nearly 20 years of coaching experience at his alma mater includes 100 wins in nine seasons as head coach. The program boasts the largest roster of high school players who have gone on to the NFL, including Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson and Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Marcedes Lewis, among many others.
Sports Illustrated named the institution the “sports school of the century.”
(In this web extra, Marcedes Lewis, NFL star and tight end for the Jacksonville Jaguars, talks about life as a Poly student and football player. Marcedes gives graduating seniors advice for their future.)
“4th and Forever,” a new docu-series from Current TV, premieres May 26, 2011 at 10/9c.
After seeing the first two episodes, I feel there are many reasons critics will have a lot of “California Love” for it.
By Paul M. Banks
After decades of success, Poly had a down year in 2009. The Jackrabbits had their worst season (6-6) in 15 years and lost to local rival Lakewood for the first time in more than 25 years. The community is frustrated and the knock on Coach Lara is that he can only run an offense based around the talents of a running back, not one based around a quarterback. After 26 Regional titles and 6 state titles in 13 years the aura of invincibility is now gone.
At first it may sound bizarre to compare a fictional drama series like “Friday Night Lights” to a real life Docu-Series such as “4th and Forever,” but it makes perfect sense if you’ve seen both and you quickly realize- the most compelling television takes place off the field. Both shows are about a heck of a lot more than football. On FNL, the football is actually the worst part of the episode. On 4th, (in the first two episodes at least) it’s kind of like the dessert course of the meal. It’s memorable, but it’s not meat and potatoes.
It’s impossible to call 4th a “reality series,” because it doesn’t suffer from the dreaded Hawthorne Effect the way nearly all reality television does. There are no false pretenses about characters changing their behavior to compete for attention on-camera. Maybe it’s the editing, or the episodic structure, but everyone seems to already know the role they’ll play, and the dialogue unfolds accordingly.
One striking similarity between 4th and FNL is the invisible yet omnipresent play-by-announcer calling the football games. It’s like the opposite of the NFL Films John “Voice of God” Facedna. Both shows have individuals calling the game in a friendly down to Earth voice with a flare for the big picture. The game action is chronicled to the viewer with the gestalt of the overall situation in mind. No media outlet could hire an on-air talent like this in real life.
Shot on location in Long Beach, Calif., and throughout Southern California, the series explores how the team is a point of pride for a community that struggles with poverty, drugs, and gangs, and documents the personal relationships the players have with their families on and off the field.
After the famous steamship the Queen Mary, the cultural artifacts most synonymous with Long Beach are Snoop Doggy Dogg, “the Eastside of the LBC” and “Nate Dogg and Warren G. had to regulate.” The west coast gangsta rap trend that blew up in the mid ’90s gave America a depiction of Long Beach as a place of gangbangin’ and violent crime. (At least on the corners of 21st & Lewis or Pacific Coast Highway & MLK). Like Warren G. (Dr. Dre’s half-brother) said on one of his tracks: “walking alone real late in Long Beach is a no-no.”
For Coach Lara, whose full-time job is working the graveyard shift as a Deputy Probation Officer, the football program provides its players a way out; everyone is pushing ahead for that “golden ticket”: a college scholarship and a better life. If the episodes of FNL focusing on Vince Howard’s lot in life moved you, then many of 4th’s story lines will certainly speak to you as well.
As the season’s first practice begins beside the “Home of Scholars and Champions” sign, there are two contenders for the all-important quarterback position: Chaiyse Hales and Lara’s own son, Emmanuel. Both are juniors and untested, so no one has a lock on the top spot.
Also, during an unfocused practice session, senior Jeremiah Hollowell injures his shoulder and jeopardizes his last season at Poly. Jeremiah’s mother is clearly upset that he is not able to play. With his two year-old son in his lap, Jeremiah swears on a bible that he will be dedicated to football, but his future remains uncertain. All the pressures of the beginning of the season culminate on the field during a scrimmage where a brawl breaks out between the teams. Leading the refs to end the game.
And the plot only thickens from there.
Watch the trailer here
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4th and Forever Facebook Page
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and Facebook