If Jim Brockmire can go from being a one-off, short-form character to a great (like really, really great) TV show, then why can’t another sports-related character do the same? Well that’s the bet that Apple TV+ is making with Ted Lasso.
Ted Lasso is a character developed by SNL-alum Jason Sudeikis for NBC Sports to promote their English Premier League soccer coverage (sorry British readers, we’re gonna go with “soccer” on this one for consistency’s sake). Lasso is an American football coach who decides to try his hand at coaching the “other” football across the Atlantic. Lasso coached Tottenham Hotspur for the 2013 season in which they finished a disappointing sixth in the table. Check out the original Ted Lasso short below:
Now Apple TV+ has commissioned Sudeikis to turn the character into his own eponymous series. Ted Lasso is set to premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, August 14. Sudeikis will serve as an executive producer on the show alongside Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Whiskey Cavalier). Sudeikis, Lawrence, Joe Kelly, and Brendan Hunt developed the project. Warner Bros. Television is producing as well, alongside Universal Television (a division of NBC Universal, where the character was developed.
Apple’s official description of the character and series reads “Jason Sudeikis plays Ted Lasso, a small-time college football coach from Kansas hired to coach a professional soccer team in England, despite having no experience coaching soccer.”
