Writer/producer David Hudgins ’91, known for such soulful, family-centered dramas as Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, switches gears for his new NBC series, Game of Silence, a dark drama revolving around a group of childhood friends and a secret from their past.
Viewers will be treated to a preview airing of the first episode April 12 at 9 p.m. (CST) before the 10-episode series settles into its regular time slot at 9 p.m. (CST) on Thursdays, beginning April 14.
Hudgins, an executive producer and writer for the series, adapted Game of Silence from the Turkish series Suskunlar.
The network describes it as “a gripping new drama about friendship, love, revenge and the moral dilemma of how far one will go in the pursuit of justice.”
More from the series’ website: “Five best friends have a dark secret they thought was buried, but they soon discover that you can’t hide your past forever.
Jackson Brooks (David Lyons, Revolution) is a successful attorney who seems to have it all. He’s engaged to his boss, Marina (Claire van der Boom, Hawaii Five-O), and he’s on the fast track to becoming partner at his firm, but his world is turned upside down when his long-lost childhood friends unexpectedly reappear after 25 years. Jackson, Gil Harris (Michael Raymond-James, True Blood), Shawn Polk (Larenz Tate, Rush) and Boots (Derek Phillips, Friday Night Lights) always stuck together, like brothers. They spent their boyhood summers in the small town of Dalton, Texas. But their idyllic world turned chaotic one fateful summer afternoon when a well-intentioned and heroic attempt to save their friend Jessie (Bre Blair, Las Vegas) ultimately cost the 13-year-old boys nine months at Quitman Youth Detention Facility, where their lives were changed forever.
Now 25 years later, the nightmare of the worst nine months of their lives has resurfaced, uprooting a mystery even deeper than their buried past. The cast also includes Conor O’Farrell (The Lincoln Lawyer), Deidrie Henry (Justified) and Demetrius Grosse (Saving Mr. Banks).”
A childhood spent in Texas is familiar territory for Hudgins. He grew up in Dallas and graduated from St. Mark’s School of Texas. After earning his undergraduate degree from Duke University, he served as a staff assistant to Sen. Al Gore before entering SMU’s Dedman School of Law. After receiving his J.D. in 1991, he spent eight years working as a trial lawyer for a Dallas firm.
Hudgins’ journey to success as an executive producer and award-winning writer reads like a screenplay he might have written. In 2001, following the death of his sister from breast cancer, he made a life-altering decision to quit his law practice and and move with his family to the hills of Tennessee, where he concentrated on writing. Two years later, he sold his first feature screenplay, prompting a move to Los Angeles
A staff writer position on the WB show Everwood was his first job in television. Hudgins spent three seasons writing for the series and also served as a co-producer. He then moved to the NBC drama Friday Night Lights, where he served for three seasons as a writer and co-executive producer.
In 2009, Mr. Hudgins created and ran Past Life for Warner Brothers Television, a one-hour drama that aired on Fox. He then returned to Friday Night Lights, serving as showrunner and executive producer on the show’s fifth and final season, before moving on to Parenthood, where he spent four seasons as a writer and executive producer.
In March 2014, he moved his overall deal to Sony Pictures Television, where he also is adapting the best-selling novel Natchez Burning for cable.
For his work in television, he has received multiple Emmy and Writer’s Guild Award nominations, including Best Drama Series for Friday Night Lights. He is also a recipient of the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.
In 2012, Hudgins founded The Catherine H. Tuck Foundation in honor of his sister. He serves as president of the breast cancer charity. A frequent guest speaker and industry panelist, he also serves on the board of trustees for The Humanitas Foundation and the Austin Television Festival.
Hudgins lives in California with wife Meghan and their four sons: Jackson, Brooks, Reid and Owen.