Brad Leland stars as Buddy Garrity, a high school football booster on the hit television series 'Friday Night Lights.' Leland's 'FNL' character 'Buddy Garrity' is one of those great characters in television because every town across the nation has their own Buddy Garrity. Garrity is the dad who will cheer on words of encouragement from the sideline of his kid's game each weekend, always being ready to help the coach if asked, almost always sees a better way of doing things and goes about being helpful in a way that can just get under ones skin at times.

While 'FNL' revolves around high school football in the fictional town of Dillon, TX; it's about so much more. 'FNL' explores the universal role that parents, teachers and coaches play when it comes to providing the skills and safety net needed for students to succeed during their formative years of high school. They all work and strive for the kids, yet they're not all on the same page about how to go about it.

Eric Stromsvold: Last season ended with so many major changes happening in Dillon, TX. What can you tell us about the upcoming fourth season?

Brad Leland: It changes so much every week. It's a wonderful surprise for all of us because we never know what's coming and we get some idea of what's going to occur this year with the redistricting; which occurs in many small towns when they get so big they have to divide their school. This provides fodder for lots of new stories and we're introducing lots of new characters. Not only the kids who are in the school, but new administrators, boosters and football team people; yet a lot of the same follow the coach. We see some of those kids already graduated coming back home to visit mom and dad and we see what they're doing in their other lives.

Dillon was always just this one part of town and now we've gone to the other side where there was another little world going on that we never really approached or talked about. Of course, the football team on the east side had been closed and shut down for years, so it's interesting to see it be revitalized and watch the coach take something from scratch because he had come into a program that had been a championship program.

How does the yearly change in actors and actresses playing the high school kids affect the show?

Well, I love it because it brings fresh blood. Buddy and Coach both love the new people that we have to deal with. It's a huge change for Buddy this year. I love all the new characters and they're wonderful young actors who are giving us an entire different look at an entirely different part of Dillon.

Is Buddy Garrity the type who long after his kids are done with the high school is still down there demanding and pressuring for the win?

I never thought of him that way. I always thought of him as someone so passionate about his job as the booster club president what with him being a former player and having lived in Dillon his entire life. Everything he does, in his mind it's the right thing. It's the thing for the community and the best thing for the team because he had been a part of a championship team and had had a great coach when he was a kid.

How real is 'FNL' in comparison to the real Friday Night Lights that occur each week in towns all over Texas where it seems as though an entire town lives and dies by way of how great their high school football team plays?

I really believe in lots of towns it is. On a Friday night in the smaller towns that's the only thing to do so everybody does pack up and go to the game; that's their entertainment. They may not even have a movie theater in that town or any other thing that sort of brings the community together once a week. During those seasons, whether it is basketball or football or lacrosse or whatever sport it happens to be…hockey in Canada…or soccer in England. The smaller town will sort of thrive on that thing each week because that's their entertainment. But I don't think that it's as fanatical as it is more of just that's what we do for entertainment; and I don't think that you can single out Texas, although I think it was at one time.

Can you tell us about your Beyond the Lights celebrity golf tournament that you and Kyle Chandler organize?

Lots of people are being helped through our charity. Not just football players, but gymnastics and lots of children that have suffered spinal cord injuries. Kyle and I were playing golf one day and literally within a golf hole the idea was born and then lots of people jumped on and helped us. This was during the first season and we were dealing with Jason Street and his wheelchair problem; so we thought why not give to charities that help people with spinal cord injury.

We'll have the Beyond the Lights Celebrity Classic tournament again this spring in Austin. It's a one day tournament but we make it into a three-day event. We bring in big name entertainment; have a banquet, a live auction and a silent auction. It's a lot of fun and we're raising a lot of money for a good cause. I love doing it.

For more information on Brad & Kyle's charity, visit beyondthelights.org. You can catch Friday Night Lights Wednesdays on DirecTV ch. 101.


Story by Eric Stromsvold

Starpulse contributing writer