Football, Fans and Family

"Some things have been resolved," Chandler said, "but I think there will be as many obstacles" this season for the characters.

Britton and Chandler said they enjoy the show's production style, which is an unusual form for a TV series. Filmed in Austin, the program is shot like a documentary, with multiple cameras simultaneously recording different angles of the same scenes.

"It's a very intimate way of shooting, making the audience feel you are right there," Britton said. "We don't rehearse. We may do a bunch of takes, but it saves time. We don't have a soundstage or a studio. We go into a real neighborhood, an actual house" that was purchased for the show.

Chandler said the style of shooting allows the actors to be more creative, "but you also know there is the responsibility to take it almost anywhere. You have to be open for the director to say, 'Do a backflip,' and you do it."

To research his role, Chandler talked with young coaches and tapped his own memories of playing high school football in Georgia.

"The first year I was short and fat, and the second time I was tall and skinny, " he said. "I wasn't a good athlete."

For a coach, Chandler said, the game is about love for the kids. "Football is life lessons, to be learned on that field," he said.

And off the field, the show's central focus is the relationship between the coach and his wife, said executive producer Jason Katims.

"With Connie and Kyle, you can give them any kind of conflict, have them act stupidly or be short with each other, and you never lose them because they so honor and protect this marriage in the show," Katims said.

The program's challenge this season, he said, is to continue to feel real. "Not just in capturing Texas football, but showing how people are living their lives, trying to be a little bit better, making their families work. Those are the concerns of the characters . . . but they're also the concerns of those who will find this a very watchable show."

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Season 2 premiere

Friday

9 p.m.

NBC

'Friday Night Lights' on DVD

Season 1: Universal Studios, five-disc DVD $29.98, available now.