Friday Night Lights is an American
television series adapted by
Peter Berg,
Brian
Grazer and
David
Nevins from
a book and
film of the same name.
The series details events surrounding the Dillon Panthers, a
high school football team based
in fictional
Dillon, Texas, with
particular focus given to the team's coach,
Eric Taylor (
Kyle Chandler) and his family. The show uses
this small-town backdrop to address many issues facing contemporary
Middle America.
Produced by
NBC Universal,
Friday
Night Lights is broadcast by
NBC and
DirecTV (
The 101
Network). Premiering on October 3, 2006 on NBC with an initial
order of 13 episodes, the show was eventually picked up for a full
season. NBC renewed the show for a full 22-episode second season,
which began airing on October 5, 2007. Only 15 of these episodes
were completed before production was stopped due to the
2007–2008
Writers Guild of America strike, leading to speculation that
the show might be canceled. However, NBC renewed the show with
DirecTV for a 13-episode third season; episodes began airing on
DirecTV's The 101 Network on 1 October 2008 and were rebroadcast on
NBC. To date,
Friday Night Lights has aired
50 episodes, over the
course of three seasons. On March 30, 2009, NBC officially renewed
for two additional seasons of 13 episodes apiece with DirecTV
again.
Subject to multiple timeslot changes,
Friday Night Lights
has yet to obtain a sizable audience. The show has, however, been a
critical success and was featured on a number of critics' top ten
lists following its first season as well as being identified twice
by the
American Film
Institute as culturally significant. Lauded by critics for its
realistic portrayal of Middle America and deep personal exploration
of its central characters, the show has been awarded a
Peabody Award, an
Emmy
Award, and a
Television Critics
Association Award.
Production
Inspiration
Friday Night Lights takes its inspiration from a book
titled
Friday Night
Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream and the
2004 film based on it. The book,
published in 1990 and written by
H.G.
“Buzz” Bissinger, details the 1988 season of
the Permian
Panthers
, a high school football team in Odessa, Texas
. The book itself was intended as a work of
journalism and is assumed to be completely factual. The characters
in the book are not renamed and the book makes no attempt to
conceal their identities. The Universal Pictures film stars
Billy Bob Thornton and was
directed by Bissinger’s second cousin
Peter
Berg. The film's characters are again based on the real-life
residents of Odessa circa 1988. The film is not completely true to
the source material. In the book, the Panthers lose in the
semifinal game and don't play in the state title game.
Conception
Once filming on the movie was completed, Berg turned his attention
to adapting the story for television.Berg expressed in various
interviews following the film how he regretted having to jettison
many of the interpersonal topics covered in the book because of the
time constraints of a feature film. Creating a TV series,
particularly one based on fictional characters, allowed many of
those elements to be brought back and addressed in-depth.
The show chose not to use Odessa as the setting and instead used it
as inspiration for the fictionalized town of Dillon, Texas. The
football team did, however, retain the Panthers name. Berg made a
number of conscious choices in carrying elements from the film to
the series and as such, much of the work that went into the
creation of the pilot was duplication of the work that was done on
the movie. Another of these choices included casting Connie Britton
to play Head Coach Eric Taylor's wife and Brad Leland to play
football booster Buddy Garrity, in similar roles to the ones they
played in the movie. Furthermore, Berg used
Explosions in the Sky, a band that
wrote most of the
film's soundtrack, for some
situational music. Though many people have assumed that the show's
theme song is also by Explosions in the Sky, it is actually the
work of noted TV music composer
W.G.
Snuffy Walden and Bennett Salvay.
With this
conception in hand, filming for the show's Austin, Texas
-based pilot began in February 2006. Berg
described filming the pilot and eventually the show in Texas as "a
deal breaker" for his weekly participation in the project. Even so,
the show features a number of homages to its Texas heritage. In
filming the pilot, Berg ensured this homage by featuring Texas
Longhorn coach Mack Brown as a Dillon booster and having a caller
to the fictional “Panther Radio” compare Panthers' coach Eric
Taylor to Brown. The pilot also incorporated much of the
surrounding area. Football scenes for the pilot were filmed at
Pflugerville High School's Kuempel Stadium and at the RRISD
Complex. The Dillon Panther football and coaches' uniforms were
based heavily on the uniforms of the real life Pflugerville
Panthers.
In addition to physical locations, characters in the show were
inspired by Berg’s observation of local high schools students while
preparing for filming the movie. For example, Jason Street, the
character whose promising football career is ended by a spinal
injury in the pilot, was inspired by a real-life incident in which
David
Edwards, a player from San Antonio’s Madison High, was
paralyzed during a November 2003 game. Phillip Hughes, a player of
Westbury High School in Houston, Texas plays the coach in the
opposing team in this episode. Berg was at the game when the
incident took place and it had a profound effect on him, leading
him to base the pilot around a similar incident.
Performances
The show’s producers decided at the outset to allow their
performers leeway in what they say and do on the show. Though
scripted like any hour-long television drama, performers are given
great leeway in the delivery of their lines and the
blocking of each scene. If actors feel that
something is not true to their character or a mode of delivery
doesn’t work, they are free to change it provided they still hit
the vital plot points.
The freedom that producers have extended to the performers is
complemented by the fact that the show is taped without rehearsal
and without extensive blocking. Camera operators are trained to
follow the actors rather than actors standing in one place and
having cameras fixed around them. This allows performers to not
only feel free to make changes but to feel safe in making those
changes because the infrastructure will work around them. Executive
producer Jeffrey Reiner described this method as “no rehearsal, no
blocking, just three cameras and we shoot.”
Working in this fashion has had a profound influence on everyone
involved with the show, with series star Kyle Chandler going so far
as to say “When I look back at my life, I'm going to say, "Wow,
[executive producer] Peter Berg really changed my life."” Executive
producer and head writer
Jason Katims
echoes this sentiment saying “When I first came on [the ‘FNL’] set,
I thought, it’s interesting — this is what I imagined filmmaking
would be, before I saw what filmmaking was.”
Filming
The first
2 seasons of Friday Night Lights have been filmed in
Austin, Pflugerville
and Del Valle, Texas
, despite discussions at the close of the first
season about a possible move to New Mexico or Arizona.
Representing roughly $33 million a year in revenue for the area in
which its filmed, both were aggressive in courting the production
company following Texas not paying all of the rebates they promised
the show's producers. The show remained in Austin, however, as a
result of Texas passing legislation to match the offers of other
states and the production company having a preference to stay in
the Austin area.
Friday Night Lights is unusual in its use of actual
locations as opposed to prefabricated stage sets and its lack of
any sound stage for filming. This, along with the production team
using hundreds of locals as extras, gives the series an authentic
look.
The drive towards authenticity continues in the show's documentary
style filming technique, which employs three cameras for each shoot
and shoots entire scenes in one take. Most productions film scenes
from each angle, repeating a typical scene several times and
readjusting lighting to accommodate each shot. The show is mostly
improvised, and the scenes that air are usually the first takes. By
filming a scene all at once, the producers have tried to create an
environment for the actors that is more organic and allows for the
best performances.
This desire for authenticity in the production extends to the
football games as well, with the series making heavy use of the
uniforms, cheerleaders, fans, and the stadium of the real-life
Pflugerville Panthers. Producers even shoot Pflugerville games and
use them as game footage in the show. Added to that are real life
University of Southern California football announcers
Peter Arbogast and
Paul McDonald who provide
off-screen commentary during the football game sequences.
The
facilities, colors, and bobcat logos of Texas State
University
in San Marcos, Texas serve as the setting and
creative inspiration for the fictional Texas Methodist
University. The field's name on the show is Herrmann Field,
named after George Herrmann, the head coach of the Pflugerville
Panthers.
Marketing
Initial marketing of the show was targeted at the youth market and
focused heavily on the football element. NBC teamed with social
networking site
Bebo to create a site that
allowed students to upload video and photos, as well as create
blogs about their local football teams. Students who participated
were eligible for one of ten $5,000 scholarships. The focus of this
promotion was a deal that would provide NBC and the show promotion
on Bebo’s network of youth oriented sites including
Piczo,
Hi5,
Tickle, Ringo and
FastWeb.
Promotional Website with Toyota.
To complement this promotion, NBC sent out “School Spirit” kits to
1,000 high schools around the country. These kits included posters,
pom-poms, mini-footballs and disposable
cameras all bearing the show’s logo. The kits also contained copies
of the show’s Pilot episode on DVD. This promotional trick is
something the network would return to for its second season
promotion when it teamed with HouseParty.com to send out 1,000
"Party Kits" which contained advance copies of the Season 2 opener
along with other promotional material.
In addition to the Bebo.com partnership, NBC paired with Toyota to
create what they called the “Hometown Sweepstakes,” in which
students could earn cash grants of up to $50,000 for their school’s
athletic program. This contest was open to high-school students
ages 14 to 18 and was designed to draw people to the show’s
official web site, where they could download AOL Instant Messenger
Icons, screensavers, and desktop wallpaper. In addition, students
that registered could download free movie theatre passes to special
early screenings of the pilot episode. These movie theatre
screenings took place in 50 cities nationwide and ran until a week
before the show premiered on NBC.
This early strategy caused several marketing problems for the long
term, the most notable of which was the lack of women viewers. The
early marketing campaign created an audience of almost exclusively
young men and all but repelled women with its football heavy slant.
This in turn deprived the show of a large audience who would enjoy
the more character-driven soap elements.
Given this dilemma, NBC chose to aggressively switch course and
pursue the female demographic in the later part of the season. The
network designed a strategy based around accentuating the personal
elements of the show, even going so far as to rechristen the show
with the tagline “It’s about life.” NBC Marketing President Vince
Manze stresses that their goal was to let people know it was not
just about football but about family and relationships as
well.
The network again took their case to movie theatres by running
30-second spots featuring cast members and fans being interviewed
about the show.
Distribution
Online episodes
NBC has been aggressive in its online promotion of
Friday Night
Lights. Streaming videos such as cast interviews and the full
episode from the previous week have been available on NBC.com since
the series’ inception. In December 2006, NBC expanded this
selection to include every episode of the season. The move to offer
every episode was made for only a few select shows and represents a
marketing push on NBC's part. Beyond NBC.com it was announced on
March 14, 2007 that the show would be part of an expanded lineup
available via
MobiTV.
In addition to the free ad-support offerings, every episode of
Friday Night Lights became available for download on the
iTunes Store on February 10, 2007 for
$1.99 per episode. As a special promotion, the pilot was initially
offered as a free download.The first 2 seasons are now on Zune
Marketplace.
Repeat schedule
In an attempt to bolster series ratings, NBC repositioned reruns of
the show to air on its sister network
Bravo during the weeks leading up to
the season one finale on NBC. These episodes aired on a schedule of
one hour every Friday and three hours every Saturday.
Bravo is known to have an audience that is upscale and largely
female, which is in line with NBC's then-President
Kevin Reilly’s (now at FOX) new strategy for
selling the show. When questioned about this strategy, he admitted
to regrets over initially marketing the show incorrectly saying
“It’s been so clear to me that [the marketing for] the show ended
up confusing people in terms of what [the public thought] it was
supposed to be”. He said that he felt the show is, at its core, a
“women’s show” and his wish is that the marketing had reflected
that to a greater extent.
NBC has used this method of ratings-bolstering with limited success
in the past, most notably during the ratings-challenged final
season of
The West
Wing.
Once the 2006-2007 television season ended, NBC planned to air
reruns throughout the summer in the hopes of gaining new viewers
during the summer hiatus. Despite rising ratings for the reruns,
NBC abruptly pulled them from the network's schedule on June 24,
2007. NBC Representatives confirmed that reruns would resume airing
in late August/early September and would be timed to the DVD
release of Season 1.
DirecTV
During the 2007-2008 writers' strike, NBC Universal's decision to
release the season two DVD with only the 15 produced episodes and
comments by NBC chief Ben Silverman led to speculation that the
show would be canceled.
Shortly thereafter, reports began to surface that the show's
producer,
NBC Universal, was marketing
the series to other networks including
The CW Television Network,
TNT, and the owner of
E! and
G4 about
possible arrangements for a third season. Similar deals such as the
one where
NBC shared airing rights for
Law & Order:
Criminal Intent with the
USA
Network were a template for these discussions.
Unconfirmed reports of a third-season renewal surfaced on March 5,
2008 when
Nikki Finke reported on a
possible cost-sharing partnership between NBC and DirecTV. The
alleged agreement would have first-run episodes airing exclusively
on DirecTV and being rerun on NBC at a later date.
TV
Guide's Michael Ausiello confirmed these reports on April 2,
2008. This was later confused when USA Today ran a report that NBC
has confirmed their fall line-up, including Friday Night Lights. On
nbc.com, the page for the show indicates a "2009 Series Return to
NBC" and "returning to NBC with new episodes next season!" that
were visible in early April 2008. Season three premiered
exclusively on DirecTV channel 101, with the episodes replaying on
NBC beginning on January 16, 2009. In March 2009, various outlets
reported that DirecTV and NBC have renewed the show for two more
seasons. It has been confirmed that DirecTV, in a joint venture
with NBC once again, has picked up Friday Night Lights for two more
13-episode seasons. According to the official Friday Night Lights
show site on NBC.com, the header reads "New Season Begins Summer
2010," which contradicts NBC's original plans to air the episodes,
which would have already aired in the fall on DirecTV, midseason,
where it would have had more of a chance to obtain a sizable
audience.
Deleted scenes
As part of their online push for the show, NBC made the rare move
of publishing deleted scenes from each episode on their web site.
Normally, deleted scenes are held until a DVD release, but
NBC/Universal has chosen to make them viewable online for a few
shows that they produce.These scenes often provide information that
is revealed later in the episode or series. An example is a scene
from the episode entitled "
I Think We Should Have
Sex," in which it is established that the character of Walt
Riggins has resumed living in the same house as his son Tim. The
scene, while providing exposition on the relationship, serves only
to establish a living arrangement that is made evident in
subsequent aired scenes.
That said, the exposition given in a deleted scene can often change
the intent of material that aired, such as in a deleted scene from
the episode "
Blinders". In the
episode that aired, the character of Tim Riggins gives some
prejudicial advice in regards to racial tension developing on the
team. Only in the deleted scenes is it revealed that this advice
was actually taken verbatim from advice his father had given to him
and not necessarily what the character would have done had he not
been trying to emulate his father.
DVD Release
| DVD cover |
Season |
Episodes |
Originally aired |
Discs |
DVD release date |
| Region 1 |
Region 2 |
 |
1 |
22 |
2006-2007 |
5 |
U.S./CAN : August 28,
2007 |
UK: October 29, 2007 |
Running Time: 955
minutes
Rating: NR
DVD Special Features:
- 5 single-sided DVDs
- Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
- English Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH
- Running Time: 14 Hours, 7 Minutes
- Deleted Scenes on each disc
- Behind The Lights: Creating The First Season of Friday Night
Lights
- Packaging: Digipak with Slip Sleeve
|
| Price |
$29.98 |
 |
2 |
15 |
2007-2008 |
4 |
U.S./CAN: April 22,
2008 |
UK: N/A, N/A |
Running Time: 685
minutes
Rating: NR
DVD Special Features:
- 4 single-sided DVDs
- Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
- English Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH
- Running Time: N/A
- Deleted Scenes on each disc
- Audio Commentaries : "Last Days of Summer" with Executive
Producer Jason Katims and Co-Executive Producer Jeffrey Reiner,
"Are you ready for Friday Night" with stars Connie Britton and
Aimee Teegarden, "There Goes the Neighborhood" with stars Jesse
Plemons and K.J. Duffey.
- Friday Night Lights Cast and Producers at the Paley Festival in
L.A.
|
| Price |
$29.99 |
 |
3 |
13 |
2008-2009 |
4 |
U.S./CAN: May 19,
2009 |
UK: N/A, N/A |
Running Time: 540
minutes
Rating: NR
DVD Special Features:
- 4 single-sided DVDs
- Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
- English Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH
- Running Time: 540 minutes
- Deleted Scenes on each disc (Please note that DirecTV
originally aired these episodes in longer formats, but NBC has
decided to cut a few scenes due to time for commercials. Deleted
scenes are presented separately per episode in non-anamorphic
video. Some of the music has been also changed. )
- 13 Minutes of a lost storyline from the emotionally charged
climactic finale.
- Audio commentary on the season finale with executive producer
Jason Katims and co-executive producer/director Jeffrey
Reiner.
|
| Price |
$29.98 |
Region 4September 30th 2009
Plot
Characters
As a show about the community of Dillon, Texas and how the football
team affects the town as a whole,
Friday Night Lights has
an
ensemble cast. While screen time of
characters varies from episode to episode, the show is most focused
on Panthers' football coach
Eric Taylor (
Kyle Chandler), who strives to balance his
emphasis on family, his status in a sometimes confrontational
community, and his personal ambitions. His family of wife Tami
Taylor (
Connie Britton), a guidance
counselor turned principal at Dillon High, and teenage daughter
Julie Taylor (
Aimee Teegarden) also
are in the center of the show. When Tami becomes pregnant and gives
birth to Gracie Taylor, tensions within the family increase and
Julie becomes more rebellious.
Outside of the Taylor family, the show focuses on the respective
lives of the Dillon's high school football players. In the series'
first episode, star quarterback
Jason
Street (
Scott Porter) suffers an
injury that leads to an end to his football career and a wheel
chair-bound life which Jason resists and learns to cope with
throughout the series. Lyla Garrity (
Minka
Kelly), who at the time of Jason's injury was his girlfriend,
parallels his story, as she goes from a Panther cheerleader to a
Christian youth leader.
As a result of Jason's injury, shy and nervous
Matt Saracen (
Zach
Gilford) becomes the Panthers' starting quarterback and
eventually dates Julie. It is also revealed that Matt's father is
serving in Iraq and that he must therefore care for his grandmother
Lorraine Saracen (Louanne Stephens) by himself, with help only from
his best friend Landry Clarke (
Jesse
Plemons), and eventual live-in nurse and love interest Carlotta
Alonso (
Daniella Alonso). Brash star
running-back
Brian Smash Williams's
(
Gaius Charles) quest for a
college-football scholarship and full-back Tim Riggins' (
Taylor Kitsch) tale of on-and-off
alcoholism and party-life are told as well. Tyra
Collette (
Adrianne Palicki) also
stars as a town vixen who goes from Tim's occasional girlfriend to
Landry's lover following Landry's defense of her from a
rapist.
Story
Season One
Season one revolves around two main events: the ascension of coach
Eric Taylor to the position of
head coach
and the
paralysis of star quarterback
Jason Street. These two events set off a chain reaction that leads
the series through its first season.
Coach Taylor's career depends on his ability to get the Dillon
Panthers to the state championship. If the team suffers a losing
streak, he knows his family, which includes daughter Julie, will no
longer be welcome in Dillon.
Meanwhile, Tami Taylor lands a job as a counselor at the local high
school. Over the course of the season, she becomes a support and a
mentor to many of the students and her position plays a pivotal
role in the season finale, which leaves viewers wondering whether
Eric will leave Dillon to accept a coveted coaching job with a
university.
Matt Saracen and Jason Street must struggle against seemingly
insurmountable odds. Street must learn to live without the use of
his legs in a town that seems to be moving on without him, while
Saracen must rise to be worthy of the position he has inherited. As
Street's friendship with Herc, his rehab roommate and wheelchair
rugby teammate, grows stronger, so does his will and independence.
The new role of QB1 is an unenviable task for the timid Matt, as he
also must care for his ill grandmother while his father is fighting
in Iraq. Causing further headaches, Matt falls in love with Coach
Taylor's daughter, Julie, who loathes Texas life and dislikes
football. She nevertheless falls for Matt because of his bumbling
awkwardness and, above all, his modest decency. Their relationship
slowly blossoms over the course of the season,
Also explored is the pressure on the cocky, driven Brian "Smash"
Williams. Easily the most promising player on the Panthers' roster,
he works hard to achieve excellence and sees his future career as
instrumental in providing his family a better life. Life has been
hard for Williams' family since his father was killed in a car
accident, and financial constraints have led his mother Corrine to
take multiple jobs just to get the family by. At one point, he
decides that he's willing to risk his health by using performance
enhancing drugs to make sure he gets a college football
scholarship.
Tim Riggins is an unfocused alcoholic with absentee parents and no
prospects beyond high school. However, he is shown to be a loyal
friend with a good heart. Unfortunately, his good intentions seem
to be repeatedly derailed by his own missteps.
Tyra Collette, like many of the other characters, comes from a
broken home, where her mom falls in and out of abusive
relationships. Tyra begins the season as Tim’s girlfriend, but as
Season One progresses, thanks to Landry Clark — the school math
geek and Saracen’s best friend — she starts to see the faintest
glimmer of hope that she might get out of Dillon and discontinue
the cycle that her mother and her sister (a stripper) seem destined
to continue.
Meanwhile, Lyla goes through some of the biggest changes as she
begins the season as a bubbly, optimistic, sweet-natured girl.
Faced with the heartbreaking reality of Jason's injury, Lyla sleeps
with Jason's best friend Tim Riggins. Though Jason and Lyla
reconcile, Jason begins growing closer to another woman and at the
same time Lyla learns about her father's many adulterous affairs.
It is at this point that Lyla moves past her dependence on other
men to grow into a more independent woman.
Season Two
Season two
begins with Coach Taylor in Austin with a new
college-coaching job at fictional TMU, while Tami is in Dillon with
their newborn baby. However, as the Panthers experience
internal difficulties with a new coach, and as Tami forges a new
relationship with her replacement counselor at the school, Eric
decides to return to Dillon. Even with his return, his daughter
Julie begins to frustrate her mother, as she ends her romantic
relationship with Matt and begins one with an older man. This trend
continues as she begins a friendship with a teacher that her mother
feels is inappropriate.
Meanwhile, Taylor begins to attempt to win games with the Panthers
but faces a number of issues. Tim is banned from the team as a
result of missing a game to convince Jason to not have stem-cell
surgery in Mexico. This leads to difficulties for Tim, who
eventually ends up homeless before being taken back onto the team
and returning to live with his brother. At the same time, Smash is
courted by a number of college recruiters, leading to tension
between him and his mother. Smash accepts a scholarship to the
prestigious TMU. However, Smash punches a white teenager who
sexually harasses his sister when they're at the movies. This turns
into a blown-out-of-proportion racial incident, and Smash is deemed
someone to have "character issues". His scholarship to TMU is
revoked. He later commits to Whitmore University, a very small
local school with a coach who has a strong relationship with
Eric.
Matt, on the other hand, begins a relationship with a cheerleader
before leaving her for his grandmother's new live-in nurse.
Additionally, the early season follows an arc where Landry kills
and hides the body of a man who attempted to rape Tyra, leading to
a romance between the two. Eventually, guilt builds within Landry
and he confesses. Charges are not pressed, although tension between
him and Tyra remains.
Jason Street impregnates a woman in what was supposed to be a
one-night stand at the end of season two. The season ends on a
cliffhanger as Jason pleads with the woman to keep the child and
promises to take care of the two.
Season Three
The season began with Coach Taylor having failed to lead the
Panthers to another State championship the year before, meaning the
pressure was on for him, in a town where many clearly had a "What
have you done for me lately?" outlook. Quarterback Matt Saracen's
position is threatened by the arrival of Freshman J.D. McCoy, an
amazing natural talent who comes from a rich family with an
overbearing father, Joe. Matt moves to wide receiver after Coach
Taylor names J.D McCoy the starting quarterback, but Matt is pushed
back into his former role in the playoffs. He and Julie reconcile
and rekindle their romance.
Smash Williams, who injured his knee during the previous year's
playoffs, rediscovers his love for the game, gets a tryout with a
college, and succeeds in winning a spot on their team. Tyra starts
dating a cowboy named Cash, leading to complications in her
relationship with Landry. Tim and Lyla start dating, and Tim
pursues a college football scholarship. Billy Riggins gets engaged
to Tyra's older sister Mindy. He, Tim, Herc, and Jason decide to
flip Buddy Garrity's house for a profit. Tami Taylor takes on the
Principal role of Dillon High School and fights with Buddy Garrity
about the allocation of funds toward a Jumbotron.
While Coach Taylor and Buddy Garrity were making a visit to a
possible recruit who just moved into town, the coach learns of a
plot to have him replaced as head coach of the Dillon Panthers.
They learn that Joe McCoy wants Taylor replaced with Wade Aikman,
J.D.'s personal coach. After the school's administration meets to
decide who gets the coaching job, Aikman is offered the job at
Dillon High School, while Taylor is offered the job of coaching the
Lions of East Dillon High, which is reopening after years of being
closed.
Season Four
Dillon will live every week like it’s Rivalry Week now that East
Dillon High School has reopened. “The whole idea of this season is
about this town being divided in two because of this new team,”
says Katims. “And over the course of the season, the lines are
literally drawn between these two teams. At times it’s funny but it
eventually gets really ugly.”
• Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) will be challenged as he
assumes the reins of the East Dillon Lions, who aren’t at the top
of their game yet. “He’s got to figure out how to make something
out of nothing,” says Katims. “It’s tougher than he can even
imagine because with all the obstacles he’s had in the past, it
came with a group of football players who all wanted to please this
guy. When he walked into a room, they took a knee. These guys
don’t…. It becomes less about winning a championship [than] winning
a game.”
• Prepare to wave goodbye to Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), the
former QB stud who boldly decided to skip school and stay in Dillon
with his grandmother Lorraine (Louanne Stephens) and girlfriend
Julie (Aimee Teegarden). Alas, now he’ll struggle to find himself.
Sample bummer: Delivering a pizza to current QB stud J.D. McCoy,
played by Jeremy Sumpter. (Gilford, by the way, will appear in the
first six episodes; he’s slated to return for one to two more
episodes later in the season.) “Ultimately it’s a love story,”
hints Katims about the Matt-Julie arc. “It comes down to: What
happens when you find your soulmate too [early] and you realize
that the best thing to nurture the relationship might not the best
thing for yourself and for your future?”
• Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) will try to sort out his life while
working with brother Billy (Derek Phillips) at Riggins Rigs, their
new repair shop. After his bedroom is converted into a nursery for
Billy’s baby, Tim winds up living in a trailer behind the house of
Becky (Madison Burge), an East Dillon student/beauty-queen hopeful
who bonds with him after he has a one-night stand with her cocktail
waitress mother, Cheryl, played by Alicia Witt. (Yes, Tim Riggins
is one Panther who’s not afraid of cougars!) “She has a little bit
of a Lolita vibe,” says Katims of Becky. “She and Riggins develop a
quirky friendship, and later she becomes embroiled in a controversy
that permeates the town, and inadvertently she gets Riggins
involved.” As for Tim’s love interest, Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly),
who left Dillon for Vanderbilt, she’ll appear in two episodes. “An
event that happens to one of the characters in the show is going to
bringing her back,” says Katims, “and she and Riggins will deal
with this relationship that’s been left unfinished.”
• Wanting to enjoy her senior year, Julie (Aimee Teegarden) faces
tension in her relationship with Matt as he’s no longer interested
in attending high school parties. Plus, notes Katims, “her desire
to get into the next phase of her life and become more of an adult
is an ongoing story between her and her mom.” And speaking of mom,
Tami (Connie Britton) tries to “figure out how to balance the fact
that she’d rather be going to the East Dillon games to support her
husband, but as the principal, she has to stand up and cheer for
the Panthers,” says Katims. Later in the season, Tami comes under
fire when she gets enmeshed in a situation with one of the show’s
new characters.
• In addition to the aforementioned Becky, we’ll meet several other
East Dillon students, including the talented but troubled football
player Vince (Michael B. Jordan). “He’s trying to toe that line of
becoming a rising star and at the same time doing whatever he needs
to do to support his family while his father’s in prison,” says
Katims. “And sometimes that puts him in [the position of] doing
very questionable things.” Another new face is Luke (Matt Lauria),
a standout last year on West Dillon’s JV team who is forced to
transfer to East Dillon when it’s discovered that he’s been lying
about his address. “He’s a charming, outspoken, upbeat guy who’s
been put into a very difficult situation,” says Katims, adding: “He
immediately has conflicts with Vince on the team, and these two
guys are like oil and water.” And please welcome Jess (Jurnee
Smollett), the daughter of ex-football player Virgil “Big Mary”
Merriweather (Steve Harris) who’s ”very charismatic, high energy,
and knows more about football than most guys know,” says Katims.
Juicier still, Jess—who’s had an on-again-off-again relationship
with Vince—becomes “romantically entangled” with Landry (Jesse
Plemons), who is zoned for East Dillon High and ends up playing for
Coach Taylor’s Lions.
Character changes
Revolving around high school football, the series has and will
continue to have a history of character turnover, according to the
creators. Following the switch from NBC to DirecTV, Jason Street
and Brian "Smash" Williams were written off the show in different
forms, partially in a cost cutting move and partially to keep the
flow of the story realistic. In season 4, Lyla Garrity, Tyra
Collette and Matt Saracen are set to have a send off similar to
Jason Street and Brian Williams. Landry Clark will be an upcoming
senior at East Dillon High School.
Episode 1 featured a cameo from Oakland Raiders cornerback Nnamdi
Asomugha.
Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach made an appearance during
episode 2 (Season 4) where he was asking coach Taylor for
directions at gas station.
Public reaction
Critical reception
The series debuted to strong critical reviews. Virginia Heffernan
wrote for the
New York Times
that "if the season is anything like the pilot, this new drama
about high school football could be great — and not just television
great, but great in the way of a poem or painting." The
Washington Post similarly
praised the series as "[e]xtraordinary in just about every
conceivable way."
Bill Simmons, a
former columnist for
ESPN
Magazine implored readers of his column in the September
24, 2007 issue to watch the show, calling it "the greatest
sports-related show ever made." Positive reviews also came from
USA Today, the
San Francisco Chronicle, the
Arizona Republic, and the
Boston Globe and international
sources, with
The Guardian's
Jonathan Bernstien calling the pilot "accomplished and engaging"
and the
Metro awarding it 4
out of 5 stars.
Throughout its inaugural season many online journalists used the
frequency of their medium to heap regular praise on the show. Matt
Roush of
TV Guide dedicated several of his
“Roush Dispatch” columns to the show calling the last episodes of
season one “terrifically entertaining” while Zap2it.com's "TVGal"
asked her readers to "promise to watch [the last 4 episodes of]
Friday Night Lights." TV Guide's
Michael Ausiello called the season one
finale "predictably flawless."
The show's pilot did, however, receive negative reviews as well.
The
Philadelphia
Inquirer's review was particularly harsh, calling the show
a "standard high school sports soap opera." The
Los Angeles Times and the
Texas
Monthly also were critical of the show.
Season two reviews were considerably less positive than for the
first, with the Landry and Tyra murder plot receiving particular
panning by critics. The
Los Angeles Times said that the
show had lost its innocence, while the
Boston Globe said
the event was "out of sync with the real-life tone of the show."
Others were more positive, though, with
Variety saying "faith should be
shown in showrunner/writer Jason Katims" while the
New York
Times said "to hold “Friday Night Lights” to a measure of
realism would be to miss what are its essentially expressionistic
pleasures."
Time magazine's James
Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 Returning Series of 2007,
ranking it at #4.
Young members of the
Friday Night Lights cast
Fan response
Friday Night Lights is a show that has enjoyed what former
NBC President Kevin Reilly dubbed a “passionate and vocal
[fanbase]”. This fan dedication has shown itself in everything from
advertisers expressing their support for the showto news outlets
getting massive amounts of support mail after running positive
pieces about the show.
It has also led to the creation of several websites dedicated
specifically to the show. These include the general information
sites as well as several sites dedicated specifically to securing a
second season for the show. Sites with this goal in mind include
fightforlights.com which has collected positive press clippings
about the show, savefridaynightlights.com which has organized an
online petition for its renewal, and a
MySpace page which includes video, audio and text
about the show.
Fan campaigns
After some statements made by NBC's Entertainment head Ben
Silverman about the future of the show and the fact that everything
seemed to point that
Friday Night Lights wouldn't be back
after the writers' strike, fans put together several campaigns.
Best Week Ever suggested sending lightbulbs to NBC's offices. Save
FNL Campaign raised money to send footballs and
contributions to charity foundations that were related to the
show.
As of today, the Save
FNL Campaign has raised $15,840 for
18,750 footballs, $2061 for charity, and $924 worth of DVDs for
troops stationed overseas. The first shipment of 50 boxes of
footballs was sent to Ben Silverman at NBC on February 28, and the
second was sent to Jeff Zucker on March 3.
Awards and nominations
- 2006
- American Cinema Editors
- Best Editing on a One Hour Series for Commercial Television - for
the episode "Pilot" (WIN)
- 2007
- Emmy Award - Outstanding Directing
For A Drama Series - Peter Berg for the
episode "Pilot"
- Emmy Award - Outstanding Casting For
A Drama Series - Imagine Television, Film 44, NBC Universal
Television Studio (WIN)
- American Film Institute
- 10 Best TV Programs of 2007
- 2008
- 2009
Television ratings
U.S. ratings
Friday Night Lights has not met with much ratings success, having
consistently placed below 50 in the
Nielsen rankings.
International ratings
According to the
Media Guardian (a UK newspaper) the
show's pilot, which aired on February 21, 2007, was watched by a
mere 26,000 viewers in the UK. This is attributed to the program
airing on
ITV4, the least viewed ITV channel,
and being aired opposite the first leg of the
Barcelona-
Liverpool tie in the first knockout round of
the
2006-07 UEFA Champions League in
soccer.
In Australia,
Network Ten has held onto
broadcast rights since late 2006. In February 2008 it was announced
that it will air exclusively on
Ten HD on
Friday nights at 11.05PM starting March 7 and won't be a part of
Ten's regular programming schedule. Also in Australia from February
2009, Fox 8 will be airing the first season Friday Nights at
9.30pm.
In New Zealand,
C4 is broadcasting
the series from the pilot episode every Friday at 8:30pm from
August 3, 2008.In Greece fnl scored a 3,1% in its premiere and
after 11 episode alter channel removed it from the schedule.
However it was announced that the remaining episodes will return in
2009.It is currently on hiatus.In Germany,
TNT
Serie broadcasts FNL since February 2009.
DVR ratings
On December 29, 2006
Nielsen
Media Research reported the results of having, for the first
time, monitored viewers who use a
Digital Video Recorder to pre-record
shows for later viewing. These ratings, called "live plus seven",
include all viewers who use a DVR to record the show and then watch
it within a week of its initial airing.
According to the Nielsen numbers, DVR viewers increased
Friday
Night Lights ratings by 7.5% overall in December. When Nielsen
monitored viewers again in April 2007 the increase went up to 17%
for the week ending on April 8.
These numbers are up to some debate though with Medialife Magazine
reporting the "live-plus-seven-day" rating for
Friday Night
Lights as 35 percent higher than its live rating in DVR
homes.
Affluent viewers
On March 5, 2007 Media Life Magazine reported that
Friday Night
Lights is one of the most popular shows among "affluent
viewers." This was determined using a report from Magna Global who
in turn used analysis done by Nielsen Media Research. Affluence in
the study was determined by yearly income.
In the study,
Friday Night Lights tied for the 11th most
watched show by affluent viewers. According to the study viewers of
the show have a
median household
income of $65,000 per year.
The Future of Friday Night Lights
In March 2009 NBC and DirecTV announced they had reached an
agreement to produce a fourth and a fifth season, each consisting
of thirteen episodes. It is believed that the new deal will see
DirecTV retain the rights to air each of the new episodes first,
and that the "key" cast members are to continue with the show
.
The fourth season premiered on October 28th on DirecTV.
Notes
- Ausiello on Friday Night Lights |
TVGuide.com
- Friday Night Lights
-
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/37302/friday-night-lights-the-third-season/
-
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Friday-Night-Lights-Season-3/11616
-
'http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/10/21/friday-night-lights-exec-producer-jason-katims-teases-season-4/
- On the Field and Off, Losing Isn’t an
Option, Virginia Heffernan. New York Times,
October 3, 2006.
- "Friday Night" Kicks Off With A Great
Formation, Tom Shales. Washington Post, October 3,
2006.
- {{cite
web|url=http://www.tvguide.com/Ask-Ausiello/070411}|title=AskAusiello
Endorsement|accessdate=2007-04-11}}
- Poniewozik, James; Top 10 New TV Series;
time.com
- Why We Love Friday Night Lights...And Why We Want to Keep
It Around
- Not only are Barça and Liverpool two of the biggest and most
storied clubs in European football (soccer), they were the winners
of the previous two Champions League titles, with Barça winning in
2006 and Liverpool winning
an epic final in
2005.
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