NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ star Jason Sudeikis plays Ted Lasso, a small-time college football coach from Kansas, in Apple TV+’s new original comedy series.
Ted Lasso is packing his bags and traveling to England to coach a professional soccer or ‘football’ team. Sounds like a great opportunity…except he knows absolutely nothing about coaching the sport.
AppleTV+
The hilarious series, ‘Ted Lasso,’ is based on the pre-existing format and characters from NBC Sports’ short videos of the American coach. We sat down with executive producers Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, and cast members Hannah Waddingham, Jeremy Swift, Brendan Hunt, Nick Mohammed, Juno Temple, Phil Dunster, and Brett Goldstein.
“Ted Lasso is sort of like a Jimmy Stewart-Mr.Rogers kind of coach who speaks in homespun wisdom. What people need to know about this show is there’s probably more going on then might appear from what they know of my previous work or what they may assume. We had fun in the writers’ room and throughout the production of the show in trying to surprise folks with both character moves and story moves,” Sudeikis explained while speaking exclusively with The Knockturnal about the series.
The executive producer who worked alongside Jason Sudeikis, ‘Scrubs’ creator Bill Lawrence, says they both wanted to create a ‘heart-felt optimistic, hopeful version’ of the sports series for everyone to enjoy during a ‘rough time.’ Lawrence goes on to say the talented cast members were wonderful to work within the U.K. and Sudeikis was incredibly passionate about the show.
The 10-episode comedy series ‘Ted Lasso’ premieres on August 14th on Apple TV+.
