Friday Night Lights Insider

Scott Porter Rumored For Brothers & Sisters Role

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:38:53 EST

Friday Night Lights' Scott Porter has been rumored for a new role on ABC's Brothers & Sisters. Since he's being phased out of Friday Night Lights, we can think of nothing better. Here are five reasons why:

1. The character of Ryan - the long-lost Walker child - is an all-American JFK Jr. type. In other words, a Scott Porter type.

2. Friday Night Lights' decision to sideline Porter after four episodes this season leaves the leading man free to tackle another role.

3. There's nothing Scott Porter can't do. Drama? Comedy? Done and done.

4. There's nothing that Porter can't do well. Brilliantly, in fact. You can almost forgive him for being so impossibly handsome. (I said almost.)

5. On top of it all, Porter's one of the good guys - not just a class act but also a bona fide sweetheart. What more can we say?

We understand that his character has to leave Friday Night Lights at some point. But for a new show, how can you not hire this man!?

Zach Roerig to Guest Star on Friday Night Lights

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:57:25 EST

Landry Clarke is about to have some new competition, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello.

Friday Night Lights has tapped former As the World Turns troublemaker Zach Roerig to join the cast of the critically acclaimed show as Cash, a local rodeo star who does his best to lasso Adrianne Palicki's Tyra Collette.

As executive producer Jason Katims teased back in July, Cash will appear just as Tyra's romance with Landry is cooling off.

"Tyra in the past eight months has [realized] that, while she loves Landry, she kind of feels like he's not really The Guy," he said.

"So it becomes a story about 'Are they going to be able to be friends? And will Landry be able to accept that?'"

D.W. Moffett Blogs About Friday Night Lights

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:47:25 EST

The newest addition to the Friday Night Lights roster, D.W. Moffett talks about his role and his few days of filming in his TVGuide blog ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Long time no blog but thought I'd come over here and talk to you about a little show called Friday Night Lights. Heard of it? Yeah. I thought so.

I've been cast for a multi-episode story arc in Season 3 of this show and I'm really excited about it. Couldn't be happier. The show has a lot going for it. Critics love it. Fans are nearly as awesome as the best fans in the world (Go Bears!) and the storylines are off the charts. Really well done.

So yes. I'm here in Austin, Texas, and I'm filming the opening episodes and it's been great. You can't always say that when you walk onto a film or television set you know, but here it's true. Everyone on the cast is really nice and welcoming and I've had a lot of fun already.

Now I'm playing a guy who has just moved his wife (Janine Turner) and son (Jeremy Sumpter) from the big city of Dallas to Dillon so that he can play with the Dillon Panthers. He's a freshman but he's already a really solid quarterback and he may just give some of the old regulars on the team a run for their money. You'll have to wait and see how that turns out.

It's a lot of fun here. Austin's a great town with a lot of personality and everyone at Friday Night Lights is really nice and you know - can you get a better looking cast together in one place?! Austin's hot enough in the Summer heat - throw all of those people in one place and you could melt the sidewalk.

So I'll keep letting you know what I'm allowed to let you know as I know it (follow that?) and you keep reading and watch Friday Night Lights when it premieres in October! Sound good? Good!

Take care,
D.W.

Friday Night Lights Spoiler: Matt's Mom Appears

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:35:36 EST

There's something Friday Night Lights' Matt Saracen wants. Bad. To get it, he'll have to go through the woman who brought him into the world.

And playing the long-estranged mom of Matt (Zach Gilford) will be Kim Dickens, a.k.a. Deadwood's Joanie Stubbs, TV Guide reveals.

To date, not much has been revealed about Matt's never-seen mom.

He's led folks to believe she was far removed from his world, the truth is that she's been much closer — geographically — than thought.

That alone speaks volumes about the tension between the two when Matt Saracen finally comes knocking on her door - with a purpose.

Dickens — who will also be familiar to Lost fans from her role as Sawyer's "long con," Cassidy Phillips — first appears as Shelby Saracen in episode two of Season 3, which kicks off October 1 on DirecTV.

Friday Night Lights Guest Star News

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:31:33 EST

Friday Night Lights will feature a pair of new faces when it returns in the fall: Janine Turner (Northern Exposure) and D.W. Moffett (Life Is Wild, Hidden Palms) have been cast in recurring roles of Katie and Joe McCoy.

The affluent McCoys move to Dillon from Dallas, with their (as-yet-uncast) teen son in tow. The kid is a high school freshman with major football skills who will be fancied by many as the new Jason Street.

That, as you can imagine, will put even more pressure on Dillon's current QB-1 Matt Saracen. Poor Matt Saracen. His life is never far from mucho drama, be it with the ladies, his family, or football.

Katie and Joe will be introduced in the first two episodes of the third season, which premieres October 1 on DirecTV. NBC then unspools new Friday Night Lights episodes starting in early 2009.

Kyle Chandler: Eric Taylor is Role of a Lifetime

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:18:28 EST

Kyle Chandler was once the star of Early Edition.

For those who don't recall, it was about a guy who, for reasons completely unknown, gets tomorrow's newspaper on his doorstep today. So he's got 24 hours to try and prevent whatever disaster he reads about.

When the L.A. Daily News spoke with Chandler - now the star of Friday Night Lights - the subject of Early Edition came up as well.

"That was a fun show," he said. "I've been very fortunate, no doubt about that. I went four years on that."

Kyle Chandler is hopeful that the critically acclaimed but low-rated Friday Night Lights runs at least that long.

As Eric Taylor, coach of the high school football team in fictional Dillon, Texas, he heads a show that's about a lot more than football and uses its small-town backdrop to dramatize issues facing Middle America.

It was in danger of being axed after each of its two seasons but managed to weather so-so ratings and a writers strike to return in the fall - first on DirectTV, then rebroadcast on NBC in early 2009.

"To have this opportunity with the third season, I'm very excited for it," Chandler said. "I think the show will be as strong as ever. I think it's a new opportunity. As long as they keep it on the air."

"Everyone is excited. I'm working with some very intelligent people who are very creative. It's the best working atmosphere that I could ever imagine and I think a lot of that shows in the episodes. It all fits together."

This is the first year the show will air on DirectTV first in a deal that helped ensure Friday Night Lights' survival on broadcast TV, where shows routinely get dumped before given time to prove themselves.

Kyle Chandler is so confident about the show's quality that he believes if people sample it once or twice, they will never stop watching.

"I think the people that don't watch it are the people that haven't seen it," he said. "A lot of people that I know who have seen it who initially thought they wouldn't be watching it for whatever reason ended up finding out that it was a lot different than they ever had anticipated. We have a lot of very strong followers of the show. I expect that to continue and I expect a whole new audience with 17 million subscribers to DirectTV having a shot at it. It's really exciting. We've got a real chance of showing more people what we have."

TV viewers first got to know Chandler, 42, from roles on the well-regarded television series Homefront and the final season of Tour of Duty, followed by roles in the short-lived Joan Cusack sitcom What About Joan.

He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his memorable four-episode gig on Grey's Anatomy and has appeared in films as the Peter Jackson-directed vehicle King Kong, The Kingdom and Mulholland Falls.

But the leading role of Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights is the one he's been waiting for his entire career.

"I really like him a lot," Kyle said of his TV alter-ego. "I was unsure about him at first but I like everything about him."

Friday Night Lights Spoiler Watch: Tyra & Landry, Lyla & Tim

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:27:24 EST

What's coming up in Friday Night Lights' Season Three? We've already discussed this in great detail - but more spoilers are emerging.

Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly has some some interesting, new pieces of information on the Friday Night Lights spoiler front ...

Q: Is Lyla's father still a part of Friday Night Lights?

A: Yep, Buddy's back, and, as you might expect, he's none too pleased that Lyla and Tim are officially boyfriend and girlfriend.

Q: I heard we're going to meet Matt's mother on Friday Night Lights. Do you know anything else about that?

A: She's a lot closer to Matt Saracen than we were led to believe, at least geographically. She works as a hairdresser in a nearby town!

Q: Is Friday Night Lights really splitting Tyra and Landry up?

A: If it's any comfort, Jesse Plemons said at a recent press event that he doesn't think the breakup will hold:

"If I know the writers, they'll end up together at some point... I think they're just adding some drama. This is Friday Night Lights."

The man makes a point.

Friday Night Lights Season Three Spoilers

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:56:13 EST

NBC and DirecTV hosted a luncheon with the cast of TV's best drama, Friday Night Lights, in which executive producer Jason Katims huddled up with a few journalists - such as Entertainment Weekly star Michael Ausiello - and basically outlined plans for the entire third season.

Warning: Major Friday Night Lights spoilers below!

If you're having a tough time coping with the impending loss of Gaius Charles' Smash and Scott Porter's Jason, wait until next year:

Tim (Taylor Kitsch), Matt (Zach Gilford), Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) and Lyla (Minka Kelly) are all entering their senior years this season.

The knowledge that this may be their final year in Dillon will "add an urgency to [their] stories, but also a nostalgia." "It will be sad to leave," says Adrianne Palicki, "but I think we were all kind of prepared for that on some level."

When the new season starts, eight months will have passed since the Season 2 finale, placing the action at the start of a new school year. Among the major developments: Tim and Lyla are now in a serious relationship.

"We think it'll be a tremendously fun storyline, which could ultimately become very moving," Katims says.

"It's one thing to have this passionate, secret relationship, but once they're in a real relationship, they see how different they are. They're completely an odd couple... Also, they're both seniors now, so it's really a question of, Where are they going now? Where are they headed? Lyla really tries to get Tim to be the best version of himself. (She wants him to) get into college, get a scholarship... But the question is whether these two are destined to have very different lives."

The hiatus has not been nearly as kind to another Dillon super-couple: Tyra and Landry. "Tyra in the past eight months has [realized] that, while she loves Landry, she kind of feels like he's not really The Guy," says Katims.

"So it becomes a story about, Are they going to be able to be friends? And will Landry be able to accept that?" Probably not when he meets the new Guy in her life, but more on that below.

Matt and Julie will try and put the past behind them and become friends.

As previously reported, Tami will be appointed the principal of Dillon High. "From the beginning, we wanted to find ways to get (Connie Britton) driving story as much as possible, and not just be the coach's wife," says Katims, adding that the new gig will lead to some serious tension at home. "Suddenly she (and Coach Taylor) may find (themselves) on opposite sides of some issues."

Katims concedes that it was not easy placing the calls to Charles and Porter informing them that their runs on the show were coming to an end.

"It was very hard to break the news to them," he admits. Smash and Jason, however, will be going out with "two of the most powerful storylines" this season. "We are not doing this in any unceremonious way. And, also, we want to very much leave the door open for both of them to come back to the show."

A handful of new characters will be introduced, including a freshman named J.D. McCoy. "He's a phenomenal quarterback," Katims explains.

"In the first arc of the season, there's a controversy over who will be the first-string quarterback for the Panthers." Additionally, an old friend of Billy Riggins' will make a play for Tyra. "He's a local rodeo star, so he's right in Tyra's wheelhouse. So Landry is not going to be (happy)."

Matt Czuchry (Chris) and Benny Ciaramello (Santiago) will not be back.

A renewed focus will be placed on the Landry/Matt friendship, a relationship Katims says got sidelined last season in the wake of the Landry/Tyra murder plot.

"With that intense, secret thing between Landry and Tyra, we lost a little bit of Landry as Matt's buddy/sidekick/friend, and we're going to have that back."

Aimee Teegarden Speaks on Julie's Future

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:22:20 EST

Body art? Working at Applebee's with Tyra? A new boyfriend (who's also her old boyfriend)? That's just some of what Aimee Teegarden says is in store for her Friday Night Lights alter ego, Julie Taylor, in Season 3.

Click on the photo below for an interview Aimee Teegarden did with TV Guide in which she discusses her character as well as living in Austin...

Minka Kelly Fashion: Hit or Miss?

steve@iscribelimited.com (pantherpride4lyfe) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:27:30 EST

You can't have too many Minka Kelly sightings. Opting for boho chic, the always fashionable Friday Night Lights star looks California cool in a long floral-printed maxi with a sexy slit for an NBC party in Beverly Hills.

What do you think of Minka Kelly's outfit: Hit or miss?