A quick note for those who STILL have not bothered to check out the best show nobody cares about, but NBC clearly values, having just given in a two-season pickup.
From executive producers Peter Berg (The Kingdom) and Brian Grazer (The Da Vinci Code), the third season of the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning series Friday Night Lights, currently airing on NBC, is coming to DVD on May 19.
Inspired by the best-selling book and theatrical film of the same name, the show features a great ensemble cast led by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton and provides a heartfelt look at life, love and football in the small West Texas town of Dillon.
All 13 episodes of Season Three of Friday Night Lights will be featured on the four-disc set along with bonus features. Seasons Four and Five (2009-2010 and 2010-2011) will each contain 13 episodes as well, airing on DirecTV in the fall and NBC in spring.
CLICK HERE to download Full Episodes of Season 3 Friday Night Lights
NBC is not cancelling Friday Night Lights, as many fans had been fearing. It appears that the partnership with DirecTV, which has the show premiering on the satellite service first and costs shared by both parties, has made the show fiscally possible. Probably not all that profitable, but along with the tax incentives of shooting in Austin the show has garnered enough attention to warrant a purchase of two more seasons.
Technically the order is for just a little over a normal single season at 26 episodes, but they’ll be split into two 13 episode seasons. Similar to the way ABC stretched Lost out a little more, only this time it’s being done to help justify costs while still giving fans more of the show they love. We have no idea whether the new partnership with DirecTV will allow the series to live on after this. But now that the show will hit the syndication marker of 76 episodes you can expect to see a lot more of Friday Night Lights floating around the TV landscape.
Angela Bromstad, president of scripted programming at NBC, stated, “it was important to keep this beloved, quality show alive because, while we need a bigger and broader audience, it’s hopefully an indication of the type of shows we want to do at NBC.” With this kind of attitude NBC could bounce back in the coming seasons.
Friday Night Lights is officially a go for two more 13-episode seasons, airing first on DirecTV and later on NBC, reports Variety’s Cynthia Littleton. (Whee!)
Star Connie Britton recently told us about the possibility of a pickup for the perpetually on-the-bubble drama, “I am feeling optimistic about it and really hopeful. As much as you feel like, ‘OK, it’s time to move on,’ the reality is that to have the opportunity to create something new with [this show] every day is just the greatest gift. It would be great if we had another season.”
And Kyle Chandler spilled a little about the shape of the seasons to come (although you should skip this part if you haven’t finishing watching season three on NBC yet!)
Kyle says, “Coach has been moved into the poor part of town, and we have no pool to draw from for a football team. I think it opens up [the show] to be far more representative, having more Hispanics in the show, blacks in the show. And then also just being the underdogs going up against my old show where my wife is still principal.”
Any chance Tami Taylor will follow Coach to the wrong side of the tracks in seasons four and five? Connie Britton has her theories! “I think it would be interesting if she did, but it may be too difficult to depict in the show. It could also be interesting if I also go over there, and we’re both struggling at this school that is just falling apart.”
Mind you none of this is set in stone, as Connie is quick to point out, “We generally leave that stuff to the writers because their ideas are going to be 10 times better than anything I’d have an idea for!” Pshaw!
Sadly, most of the current castmembers, include Taylor Kitsch’s Riggins, Minka Kelly’s Lyla, Zach Gilford’s Matt Saracen and Adrianne Palicki’s Tyra, play graduating seniors who are likely to eventually exit and move on with their lives on and offscreen.
Says Kyle of the rotation, “They told us that that was going to be the case when we started the show—that people weren’t going to stay on the show for seven years and be freshmen. People who have gone off the show, they knew what was going on. It does give a chance for new people to come on and for the show to be far more organic in that way, although some of the folks who are leaving I really wish they weren’t,
obviously.”
Tell us this isn’t the best news you’ve heard all day? No, seriously, tell us in the comments, and we expect you to prove, with facts and stuff, that something else better happened!
Season three of Friday Night Lights is now airing Fridays at 9 p.m. on NBC.
Download “Friday Night Lights” Episodes Free
It’s touchdown TV!
Before we get into Friday Night Lights and why I implore you to start watching it immediately, let me tell you a little story about my relationship with another critically praised television show that people, or at least female people, of which I am one, actually watched: Sex and the City. Wait! Don’t go!!
When Sex and the City was at the height of its popularity, I couldn’t have been more turned off by what I wrongly assumed to be the show’s premise: four chicks whoring their way around New York City via taxicab and buying shoes. Although I am female, the few times I’ve worn any kind of shoe with heels or a strap, I was made to against my will by a family member who shall go unnamed, let’s just call her “mom.” As for dating stockbrockers, lawyers and investment bankers, unless I met them at a Sleater-Kinney concert, it’s unlikely they’re my type…
So I think you get the point that despite my age and gender, I was decidely not part of that demographic of female handbag fetishists who enjoy weekend nights out giggling over cosmopolitans at establishments where the music is provided by a D.J. and there’s nary a jukebox in the joint. I generally don’t read books with pink covers or bring my lunch to work in a Tiffany’s shopping bag - and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that portion of the female populace, of which there is a high percentage here in the New York metropolitan area. I’m not just part of it.
However, when faced with a rainy weekend indoors, I decided that maybe there was something to all this fuss over shoe shopping and sexcapades, so I picked up the first season of SOTC on DVD…and watched it straight through. It was the funniest, smartest, most entertaining twelve hours of television I’d seen in a very long time. You know that feeling you get when you discover a band, a book, or in this case, a TV series that just rocks your world? That was Sex and the City for me. I also learned a lot about assorted fashion designers, male/female relationship dynamics, great New York restaurants and of course shoes and handbags.
Still with me? What does this have to do with Friday Night Lights? Here it is: the only thing I find more unappealing than the idea of watching women shop for shoes is watching football. That might come as a surprise considering the picture I’ve painted of myself thus far, but yea, never really got into football. And this is where it really all comes together. Sex and the City and Friday Night Lights have several things in common, aside from a cast of very attractive people (do not hate on SJP!). Both shows are rich with great characters who are well written and equally well portrayed by their respective casts. And both shows find a way to make following otherwise mundane, slice of life events like having brunch with the girls at Le Bistro or talking over the big game at Applebees, completely riveting. Oh yea, that’s one thing about Friday Night Lights you should know, especially if product placement is an issue for you, almost every social outting takes place at Applebees. While I don’t like designer handbags or football, I do enjoy a frozen margarita and some chicken fried chicken on occasion, so it’s not a problem for me, personally.
As I mentioned before, the cast of FNL is loaded with attractive teenagers, which these days usually means they also come complete with a massive bank account or fangs. I know what you’re going to say: “No! They come with footballs!” Yes some of them do. They also come with the kind of stories, brimming with personal struggle, triumph and loss, that dig into your heart like cleets in turfgrass. Tim Riggins, the ridiculously good looking full back and possibly the most talented player on the team, is also one of the show’s darkest characters. I could feel my heart sink each time we were reminded of the very strong possibility that Riggins’ ostensibly bright future as a football all-star would most likely devolve into a lifelong hangover.
And then there’s Coach Taylor. This man is so good at what he does he makes me wanna suit up and learn how to throw the perfect spiral. Remember when I said I hated football? Coach Taylor has given me a new appreciation for the game. As he forges the hearts, minds and spirits of a group of young men, some with over inflated egos, others a total lack of self-confidence, his manner isn’t that of a gruff, win-at-all-costs, tyrant. To be sure, he can strike fear into the hearts of his players. But it isn’t the fear of losing, it’s the fear of losing heart.
I should also mention that Coach Taylor’s wife Tammy Taylor (played by Connie Britton), a very dynamic and intriguing character with her own evolving storyline is also a stone-cold, straight up MILF. As I touched on before, there’s enough eye candy on this show to put a cavity in your retna. But you’ll find that’s the least compelling part of FNL. These people’s stories are what will keep you coming back to the fifty-yard line each week.
There’s been a lot of talk about the future of the show, which like so many other great series, is a critical winner but a ratings loser. It’s looking highly likely that FNL will be getting at least two more seasons thanks to DirecTV, which means it’s worth the time investment if you’re looking for a new show to get excited about. I’m also pretty sure you can catch past episodes on Hulu. Those of you coming off the end of Battlestar Galactica with a little bit of post-series finale depression, switch it up a little. Heck, as I’ve said before, Pyramid Ball isn’t too far off from what they like to play down in Dillon, Texas….
Download “Friday Night Lights” Episodes Free
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Yes, it’s true, Friday Night Lights is up for renewal. An inside source at DirecTV whispers, “Nothing is set yet, but they are talking about at least two seasons of 13 episodes each. I can’t see it not happening.”
(DirecTV struck a deal with NBC last year to have first-run rights to the current season.)
And the official verdict is due soon. Kyle Chandler tells us that he and his fellow castmembers hope to hear, “Anytime. That’s what we’ve been hearing for a month now, anytime…It’s 50 percent solid that we’re coming back. I think [the show] will be back. My wife and I would like to hear for firm.”
As for his TV wife, the magical Connie Britton, she says, “I am feeling optimistic about it and really hopeful. As much as you feel like, ‘OK, it’s time to move on,’ the reality is that to have the opportunity to create something new with [this show] every day is just the greatest gift. It would be great if we had another season.”
Now, what would season four look like? Who would stay and who would go? The castmembers spill what they know…
The bad news is that not everyone will be returning for more. Just as Gaius Charles and Scott Porter grew up and graduated this year, other Dillon student-athletes will be moving on to bigger and better things.
Says Kyle of the rotation, “They told us that that was going to be the case when we started the show—that people weren’t going to stay on the show for seven years and be freshmen. People who have gone off the show, they knew what was going on. It does give a chance for new people to come on and for the show to be far more organic in that way, although some of the folks who are leaving I really wish they weren’t, obviously.”
Connie agrees that while castmember departures may be necessary for the authenticity of the show, “That’s going to be the hardest part. We are such a close-knit group. We all went to Austin together and have been doing this for three years, so that’s going to be really hard. I do believe that as we say goodbye to characters, they’ll deal with it in a really good way.” Of course they will! It’s Friday Night Lights!
One of the possible departures? Zach Gilford’s Matt Saracen is supposed to be going off to college. But what will that mean for the ladies in his life, including grandma Lorraine and girlfriend Julie? According to onscreen love Aimee Teegarden, “Julie feels like it’s her first love that’s finally leaving her, but she feels like her relationship is very strong and they can make it through anything.” Holler!
Want to know more about Coach’s future at East Dillon and whether or not Tami will join him across town? Check back Monday for Friday Night Lights scoop in the chat!
Do you think Friday Night Lights deserves more time on the air? If you believe in the show, please post in the comments. FNL needs all the support it can get from us fans!
Download “Friday Night Lights” Episodes
Season: 3
Episode: 13
First Aired: 1/14/2009
Prod Code: 313
In the third season finale, Eric and his contract are up for discussion. Lyla and Tim talk about their future together. Mindy and Billy’s wedding day has finally come. Tyra waits for some hopefully happy news about her waiting list status.
Watch Friday Night Lights: Tomorrow Blues
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Season: 3
Episode: 8
First Aired: 11/19/2008
Prod Code: 308
Tim is worried when Jason talks about leaving Dillon. Money troubles cause a riff between Tami and Eric. Tyra leans on Cash when things get tough, while Julie talks to her dad about Matt’s idea. Jason’s plan to leave Dillon worries Tim; Tami and Eric butt heads over financial matters; Julie champions Matt’s idea to her dad; and Tyra turns to Cash during a difficult time.
Main Cast
- Kyle Chandler
- Connie Britton
- Zach Gilford
- Aimee Teegarden
- Jesse Plemons
- Adrianne Palicki
- Taylor Kitsch
- Scott Porter
- Minka Kelly
- Gaius Charles
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Season: 3
Episode: 7
First Aired: 11/12/2008
Prod Code: 307
Eric and Tami try to calm Jamarca’s angry parents; Matt plans a surprise for Julie; Billy helps Tim pursue a scholarship; and Jason, Herc and the Riggins brothers receive good news.
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