September 2007 News Archive

Can the best family show on the tube find a family audience? The Cincinnati Post, which has been taking a look at each night of the new TV season, sure hopes so.

Finally, NBC moved Friday Night Lights to Friday in a no-brainer.

NBC previously switched the show from Tuesday to Wednesday last fall, clueless that it already came branded as perfect Friday night family viewing.

A touching, wonderfully acted small-town family drama, centered on a high school football team, FNL was rudely ignored by the Emmy Awards and has found a similar fate among viewers.

Just looking at the ratings, NBC would not have been blamed for axing the show.

But it's good... so good that even a cold hearted, network realized it was hard to kill off this kind of quality... at least without giving it another chance.

It's time for those who complain about the lack of solid family dramas on TV to give Friday Night Lights a chance.

Last year it used its microcosm of small-town life to poignantly explore family dynamics, teen sexuality and drinking, marital infidelity, racism and, of course (but only peripherally), the allure and pressures of high school football.

It did so with incredible sensitivity, using a small town's passion for football as a metaphor for a number of very real issues facing American families.

Kyle Chandler's Coach Taylor and Connie Britton's mom make for the sanest and most compassionate parents on TV, not to mention a role model marriage.

NBC has released promotional photos of the Friday Night Lights cast in advance of Season Two, which premieres October 5. We've got them all here!

Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen)

Follow the jump for the rest of these great Friday Night Lights cast pics ...

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In anticipation of Season Two of Friday Night Lights (just under two weeks away), we're taking a look at each of its 10 terrific cast members to help the show's fans learn a little more about them.

Earlier this week, we profiled Jesse Plemons, who plays hilarious outcast Landry Clarke. Today, we'll tell you about the actress who plays Landry's unlikely love interest - the lovely Adrianne Palicki.

Adrianne was born May 6, 1983, in Toledo, Ohio. She graduated from Whitmer High, and never considered acting until she appeared in a play as a sophomore at Whitmer. She was also the school's runner-up for homecoming queen.

She's not just a beauty, though. In high school, Palicki played basketball and ran track. She tried cheerleading but quit that early in life. Her parents, Nancy and Jeff, still live in West Toledo. Adrianne has one older brother, Eric.

After high school, Adrianne skipped college and headed to N.Y. for a modeling and talent competition. Her first projects where short films "Rewrite" and "Getting Rachel Back," where she used her childhood nickname, Annie Palicki.

She officially began going by Adrianne Palicki again in 2003, when she moved to California. Adrianne worked at Togo's as a sandwich maker when she first got to L.A., paying the bills as she tried to break into the business.

Prior to being cast on Friday Night Lights, Palicki appeared in an Aquaman-based WB pilot Mercy Reef as an evil siren, but the pilot was not picked up by The CW.

Other TV credits of hers include Smallville as Kara in the Season Three finale, and Supernatural, where she played Jessica Moore, Sam Winchester's doomed girlfriend, killed by a demon, in its pilot. The character reappears in a Season Two episode, "What is and What Never Should Be."

A blonde beauty, who has blue eyes and strikingly stands at 5'11", Adrianne Palicki ranked #79 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2007 list.

No one has ever accused NBC of resting on its laurels - even when it comes to using its own personnel to help construct multiple series.

First, Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims (pictured) was brought on board to help produce the network's remake of Bionic Woman.

Now, sources say Friday Night Lights director Jonas Pate has reportedly been taken off FNL to help out Bionic Woman at NBC's behest as well.

Says Michael Ausiello of TV Guide:

"You already know that Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims was summoned by NBC to help run Bionic Woman.

Well, at the Emmy Awards last week, Friday Night Lights' Scott Porter revealed that one of the hit drama's directors, Jonas Pate, was recently pulled off the show - in the middle of an episode - to go work on Bionic Woman.

At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if by sometime next week Adrianne Palicki is getting fitted for mechanized limbs. For the record an NBC rep confirms that Pate is now working on BW, but denies he was "pulled off" FNL."

Unemployment didn't last long for Austin Nichols, the Austin-based actor who starred as the surfing savant in HBO's short-lived "John From Cincinnati." He will be appearing on the Austin-filmed Friday Night Lights this fall!

Nichols, who also appeared in HBO's "Deadwood," has come home for a guest role in the Austin-based NBC series about high school football and teenagers growing up in an often turbulent small town environment.

Austin will not appear in the October 5 Season 2 opener, "Last Days of Summer," but his multiple-episode story arc will begin soon after.

Friday Night Lights executive producer Sarah Aubrey will reveal few details but confirms that Nichols will play a teacher at Dillon High.

Best known in Central Texas as a water skiing champ, like his mother Kay Nichols, Nichols grew up on Lake Austin, attended Casis Elementary and McCallum High School in Austin before heading to the University of Southern California where he earned a degree in creative writing in 2002.

Less than two weeks to go. Here is NBC's latest promotional ad for Season Two. It's a pretty quality ad that will get you fired up for the premiere ... we like the way it's put together. As we've heard, it looks like some interesting things happen with our favorite characters in the opener of Friday Night Lights October 5.

Friday Night Lights Insider has gotten ahold of 13 still photos from the premiere of Season Two, "Last Days of Summer," which airs Friday, October 5 at 9 p.m.

While most of these photos are fairly nondescript, such as this shot of Matt and Landry relaxing in the pool, some of them might give away more than fans who oppose spoilers would care for. So follow our link to the image gallery for "Last Days of Summer" at your own risk ...

Three lovely ladies, three great hairstyles.

InStyle magazine calls its feature "Friday Night Hair" and profiles the trademark styles of Friday Night Lights stars Minka Kelly (who makes waves with her hair and her acting, below), Adrianne Palicki and Connie Britton.

Special thanks to Corrine, one of our readers, for scanning and emailing these photos from the magazine! Follow the jump for the rest ...

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The stars of NBC's Friday Night Lights were out in full force Saturday as the cast celebrated the premier of the show's sophomore season in a lively gathering outside the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.

A critically acclaimed series based on the book and movie of the same name, Friday Night Lights has been filmed in and around Austin since it began.

The talented cast members hope the success of the show continues in Season Two to extend the series, as well as to bring more projects to Texas.

"With all the new incentives from the Texas Film Commission that are coming up now, I hope that a lot more projects come in and we can steal them back from Louisiana and New Mexico. This is the place to film. A lot of projects have been filmed here. I think it's gonna be great," said a source close to the series.

Season two starts October 5. You can watch it Fridays at 9 p.m.

In these funny clips from "Crossing the Line," Landry talks Matt's ear off - first as he prepares for his first date, then after a dejected Matt hangs his head after he thinks he blew his big chance. Jesse Plemons (Landry) reportedly ad-libbed much of the Salvation Army store scene, which is hilarious!

Check out our Friday Night Lights video section to view more great clips from the show, fan-made videos and promotional footage. Leave us a comment or use our Contact Us form to send us the link to any videos you think we should add!