As eagle-eyed fans will know,the opening credits ofTed Lasso feature a disclaimer stating it is “based on pre-existing format/characters from NBC Sports”. That’s because the character was created by Sudeikis,Brendan Hunt (who plays Coach Beard,Ted’s taciturn right-hand man) and Joe Kelly for a promo for the American network’s coverage of English Premier League,along with the tagline “it’s football,but not as we know it”.
That proto-Ted was hopelessly out of his depth,marvelling at the fact his team,Tottenham Hotspur,had a logo featuring “a cock on a ball”,committing his side to fighting hard “all four quarters”,and struggling to comprehend foreign concepts such as relegation and offside. Six-and-a-half hours after he was hired,Ted was sacked.
A year later,a second spot found Ted working as an “expert” pundit,drawing on his vast experience of the Premier League. Together,those two ads have amassed more than 23 million views on YouTube alone – many of them from far beyond the American market for which they were intended.
“I had a hunch there might be a story to be told here,a bigger one,” says Sudeikis of that far-flung acceptance of his goofy creation. So in 2015 the three old comedy friends – who had first worked together in Amsterdam in the early 2000s,a time when Hunt might occasionally be seen on stage impersonating the famously fiery Manchester United captain Roy Keane (inspiration for the series’ Roy Kent) – got together to write. Four days later they had the outline for a series. By 2020,and with veteran comedy writer-producer-director Bill Lawrence joining the team,they finally had a show.
You can count the number of successful TV sports comedies on one hand – with several fingers to spare – but what really makesTed Lasso special is the tone. No matter how terrible the circumstances he confronts,Ted remains relentlessly,ridiculously,but never retch-inducingly upbeat. In a world suffused by cynicism,it’s a radical posture to strike.