Football, Fans and Family
'Lights' Looks to Broaden Its Appeal to All Corners

By Kathy Blumenstock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 30, 2007

Although Kyle Chandler plays a high school football coach, he insisted his series "Friday Night Lights" is more than a gridiron drama.

"Football is the backdrop, and sports is a perfect ground for storytelling, but it is not just a show about football," he said of the program, which follows the fate of a big-time high school football team in small-town Texas.

Chandler, who portrays coach Eric Taylor, said the show's appeal is "in the storytelling, the moments between the lines of the material" that are reflective of real life.

"People tell me they've lived those moments," Chandler said.

Connie Britton, who plays Eric's wife, Tami, agreed. Britton, who also appeared in the theatrical film that inspired the series, said she has no interest in football.

"When we shot the [movie] football sequences, I said, 'Tell me where to look, and am I happy or sad?'" she said. But after having shot a year of the series, she said, "I am not a person who loves football. But I like our show and I look forward to the football scenes, when I do get emotional."

She cited the drama's portrayal of "the high level of impact that such a strong passion has on a community. It has more to do with people coming together for a common goal. With small-town life, if you can paint a good picture of it, you reach a broad spectrum of people."

For the fictitious town of Dillon, the Panthers' weekly games are bright spots, with residents freely second-guessing the young head coach and longing for the glory of a state championship.

But off the football field, bittersweet slices of life reveal the everyday events, secrets and personalities of the players, their families and friends. The coach and his wife, a guidance counselor at the school, display the lively give-and-take of a comfortably married couple, sometimes clashing over petty issues or major choices. The team's paralyzed former quarterback, his cheerleader girlfriend and a player who experiments with steroids are among the other characters who come into focus via interwoven plotlines.

The series, which has garnered critical praise and awards while barely cracking the prime-time Top 100 last season, moves from Wednesdays to Fridays -- more appropriate, perhaps, given that the center of the show's action takes place on Friday nights. But Chandler said he has mixed feelings about the show's new time slot.

"I know it's finally on on Friday nights, but that's also when a lot of the audience might be out at their own high school football games," he said.

Still, Chandler said he hopes the new time slot will generate more attention for the program. The series wrapped last season with several story lines dangling, including the coach's decision to join a university team in another city and the unexpected pregnancy of his wife, who has decided she'll stay in Dillon with the baby and their teenage daughter, enduring a commuter marriage.

"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.