Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 20
Sunday, July 20, 2008
‘Friday Night Lights’ returns to Austin on Aug. 6
Got DirecTV? If so, you’ll see the third-season premiere of “Friday Night Lights” on Oct. 1.
If not, you’ll have to wait until February. But will loyal fans be willing to wait four months for more Dillon drama?
Probably not. Hard-core “FNL” fans (and, really, is there any other kind?) are likely to steal the episodes off the Internet. We live in a viral video world after all. And if that happens, who will be left for the NBC run?
“Go ahead and download, but out of good conscience, wait and see them on NBC,” offered Zach Gilford, aka Panther quarterback Matt Saracen.
Nobody seems to know how this strange new arrangement will work for “FNL.” On the brink of being canceled due to low ratings, the Austin-based show was saved in the spring when satellite company DirecTV stepped up to the plate to help finance the new season in exchange for an exclusive first-run in the fall.
Executive producer Jason Katims told TV critics at lunch Sunday that the 13 new episodes may be slightly different from the ones that will air on NBC. Without some of the content restrictions of broadcast TV, the stories may have racier content and dialogue, and they could run longer.
Presumably NBC would then have to whittle and edit them for the February premiere. Nobody seems to know exactly how it’s going to work.
“FNL” begins shooting in Austin on Aug. 6, so we can expect to see most of the cast back in town at their usual hangouts. Many of them live in South Austin, and South Congress Avenue is a frequent destination during downtime. Be sure to wave and say hi.
Gilford and Jesse Plemons (Landry) insist they’re not worried about shooting Panther football scenes in 100-degree heat. They say they’re looking forward to getting back to Austin.
As reported earlier, two cast members will be part-timers in the new season. Last year’s seniors Smash Williams, played by Gaius Charles, and Jason Street, played by Scott Porter, will have graduated and moved on to new lives. But both actors will have recurring roles.
And what about Tyra, Lyla and Riggins, who seem to be the same age as those graduates? They’re still at Dillon High.
“We blurred the lines a little bit,” Katims said. But if the show continues beyond the third season, another wave of seniors will graduate, and new kids will arrive at Dillon High.
Kyle Chandler, who stars as Coach Taylor, provided a few plot teases:
“I’ll continue to have marital problems and problems with my teenage daughter,” Chandler said, prompting Connie Britton, who plays his wife, to roll her eyes and mutter, “Yeah, that’s for sure.” (These two may have the most genuine chemistry of any married couple in TV history.)
Plemons said he hopes Landry doesn’t commit any more murders but joked that maybe he and Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) should “start robbing stuff.” And Minka Kelly, who plays Lyla, says her character’s born-again Christian phase is over, and she and Riggins (played by Taylor Kitsch) will be “out” as boyfriend-girlfriend.
“FNL” has lived on the brink of cancellation almost since its debut, in spite of glowing reviews and a devoted (but small) fan base. When the writers’ strike prematurely ended their second season in December, after only 15 episodes out of 22 were finished, the end seemed certain.
But then DirecTV tossed NBC a lifeline. You’d think all the stops and starts would be devastating to morale of this close-knit group, but they just keep plugging along.
“Maybe it’s the advantage of shooting in Austin,” said Connie Britton, who plays Tami Taylor, “because once we’re there and filming, we don’t pay attention to what’s going on. We’re just down there in our little Texas heaven and not worried about the future.”
Welcome home, Panthers. We can’t wait to see you.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment Categories: Holloway in Hollywood
TV Awards: Starry, starry night
The 24th Annual Television Critics Association Awards last night turned out to be a starry, starry affair.
If you missed the first blog with all the TCA Award winners, check it out here.
But that was posted before the actual ceremony happened, so I thought maybe you’d like some details. We don’t televise our awards - the few times we let E! carry it live, we were all mortified by how terrible it was. We are 200-plus print grubbies who WRITE about TV. We’re definitely not TV-ready.
Anyway, the Smothers Brothers opened the show with a look back at the anti-Vietnam War and anti-Nixon cracks that got them yanked off CBS back in 1969. The mixture of sibling silliness (Tom is the goofy guitar player, Dick is the smart, patient bass-player) and political folk music earned them a sustained standing ovation.
Among those cheering the loudest were Tom Hanks and Lorne Michaels.
Hanks, one of the nicest most level-headed guys in show biz, came rather unexpectedly (we invited him, but with TV folks turned movie moguls, you never know) as a representative of the HBO miniseries “John Adams,” which received multiple nominations and actually won best miniseries. Hanks executive produced the project and began pestering HBO to take it on about a decade ago.
One of his goals for “John Adams,” Hanks cracked, was to promote “the senseless and unnecessary use of walking canes.” And he said he was surprised and gratified that viewers actually came to “John Adams,” which featured a mind-boggling performance by Paul Giamatti as the former prez, “probably because ‘American Idol’ is only on three nights a week. That left a few nights for us, mostly on the weekends.”
Good guy Hanks could not have been nicer, hanging out with us grubbies after the ceremony and happily recalling his time on the ABC sitcom “Bosom Buddies.” At the post-party, when reporters stop reporting for a minute or two to shove brownies and coffee down our throats, Hanks seemed to enjoy himself immensely.
Other TCA Awards starlights:
Paul Giamatti, who won for “John Adams,” was so excited and hyper that he nearly knocked over the podium. He explained that he quit smoking two days ago after starting during filming of the miniseries because the role was “such a (bleeping) nut-buster.”
Tina Fey, “Saturday Night Live” alum and current creator/star of “30 Rock,” said she was seriously considering changing the name of her NBC show to “Ratings-Challenged 30 Rock.”
“We’re the most popular show on cable,” she added, “which, if we were on cable, would be like being in vaudeville in the 1960s.”
Fey, who won an individual award and one for her show, said the rest of the “30 Rock” cast was unable to attend “because NBC is broke.”
Finally, silver-haired John Slattery of multiple award-winner “Mad Men,” bounded onto the stage to tell TV critics “how happy I am that the message of smoking, drinking and whoring has registered with the TCA!”
A rocking good time was had by all. But now it’s back to work … Sunday’s going to be a busy day, so check back later.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Holloway in Hollywood
