Is Ted Lasso based on a real person? Inspiration behind the Apple TV+ series, explored

Ted Lasso has undoubtedly made a name for itself as a prime sports comedy show on Apple TV+. Ted Lasso brought the world of English Premier League football to NBC and familiarized the game to a largely American audience. Created by Jason Sudekis and Brendan Hunt, Ted Lasso follows an American NFL coach by the same name who is hired to train an English Premier League football team.

Although the Apple TV+ show presents quite a few convincing overtures to the real-life game, the titular character is all but fictional. As Sudekis has revealed in the past, the pivotal character was created as a composite, drawing upon his own father, his high-school basketball coach, as well as several real-life football managers, viz. Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola.

Here's everything that we know.

The origins of Ted Lasso are explained in detail

The Apple TV+ show might be quite the sensation right now, but before its release, the world of Premier League football was quite unknown in the United States. Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hart first conceived the story almost two decades ago when they were working together in a comedy group by the name of Boom Chicago. The two eventually got hooked on the game after a visit to Amsterdam, and would often play FIFA on a PlayStation together.

Several years later, an unexpected windfall came their way when NBC first acquired the rights to telecast the Premier League games in the United States, and as a part of raising awareness about the tournament and the sport, they needed Sudekis and Hart to create a spot advertisement. Thematically, the advertisement was remarkably closer to the premise of the show, and it was an instant hit, garnering more than a million views on YouTube. Sudeikis had revealed to Entertainment Weekly:

"The whole story of that first commercial was that he gets hired to coach a professional soccer team, and he gets fired three days later, and we just thought it would be funny if he wasn’t cynical or angry about that, that he just loved the experience and he loved London and he loved soccer, and that he brought that home with him."

Speaking on another interview with Sports Illustrated, Sudeikis had recollected:

"After doing the second video (in 2014), it really unlocked elements of the character that we found very, very fun to write and portray and view the world through. So, one day in 2015, my partner Olivia came up to me and said, ‘You know, you should do Ted Lasso as a show,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know,’ but then after marinating on it, I thought maybe this could happen.”

Ted Lasso season 4 is confirmed

Following the conclusion of the hugely popular third season, Ted Lasso season four was recently confirmed in an official statement released to The Hollywood Reporter that noted:

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"As we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to look before we leap, in season 4, the folks at AFC Richmond learn to LEAP BEFORE THEY LOOK, discovering that wherever they land, it's exactly where they're meant to be."

Ted Lasso is exclusively available on Apple TV+.

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