‘Very special’: Kansas City residents who worked on ‘Ted Lasso’ reflect after season premiere

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.

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Kansas City residents who worked as background actors and production staff on "Ted Lasso" said the show's season four premiere felt like a celebration of their city.

The debut episode, which was released Wednesday, was filmed across Kansas City last summer with scenes at Gates Bar-B-Q, the Country Club Plaza and CPKC Stadium, among other locations.

Isaac Knopf, a Kansas City filmmaker who worked as a production assistant on the show, said having a production of that scale come to his city was unlike anything he expected.

“When you grow up in Kansas City and you have this aspiration to be a filmmaker, you don't really picture yourself working on a big production here,” Knopf said. “You imagine having to move somewhere else or take your production on the road. So, to have something of this magnitude be in Kansas City was kind of surreal.”

Knopf said the Kansas City shoot gave the cast and crew from outside the city a deeper understanding of the show's lead character — who is from Kansas City just like the actor who plays him, Jason Sudeikis.

"It was very special to welcome the actors and the out-of-market crew here because they could understand Jason's character more by being in Kansas City," Knopf said.

Some even fell in love with the city — including Hannah Waddingham, who plays fictitious AFC Richmond owner "Rebecca Welton" in the show, and Juno Temple, who plays "Keeley Jones."

“They feel like Kansas City locals in some ways,” Knopf said. “I won’t name who said this, but one of the cast members said that they didn’t want to go back to London. They wanted to take our crew if they had to go back.”

I met Corinne Zager and Matt Determan last July when we worked as background actors on "Ted Lasso." We reconnected Friday with Knopf at CPKC Stadium, which was featured prominently in the episode.

"This is very meta to watch this at the (Kansas City) Current stadium right now," Knopf said.

For Zager, the experience last summer — spending more than 14 hours as a background actress for the Gates Bar-B-Q scene — sparked a new passion.

"I am now applying for any background job I can do,” Zager said. “I absolutely love it. It has sparked a fire. I'm like, 'I want to do this all the time,' and so I have been able to do more. This was my first background experience.”

“Not a bad first one,” Knopf chimed in.

To which Zager replied, “Right? It was so amazing.”

Watching the premiere brought those memories back for Zager, who said the Kansas City settings made the episode feel personal.

"I felt connected, because we know these places and we have memories and things like that, so I know I felt the love," Zager said.

Determan said being part of the production felt meaningful for a city that does not often find itself at the center of a major Hollywood shoot.

"For Kansas City, where this stuff doesn't happen, these are people in your community,” he said. “It just feels like a really cool thing to be a part of.”

Determan wasn’t the only member of his family to feel the “Ted Lasso” love. His wife, Dee, also landed work as a background actress in the show.

The first time they watched the season premiere he admitted to focusing more on the background to try and spot people he knew rather than the storyline, including in the opening grocery store scene.

“The guy that’s bagging, he actually works at Cosentino’s downtown,” Determan said. “Because I recognized him — my wife and I recognized him.”

That was a memorable moment for Knopf too.

"During that scene, I was actually hanging out with Jason's parents," Knopf said.

"Ted Lasso," which features numerous Kansas City-themed Easter eggs and references, streams on Apple TV+.

“The series has been a love letter to Kansas City in moments,” Knopf said. “There's always been these little Easter eggs to kind of pay tribute to Kansas City, and I think I can imagine how special it probably felt for him (Sudeikis) to be able to dedicate an entire episode here and kind of show what made him who he is.”

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