“Friday Night Lights,” the series that we here at the Cowboy Pete TV roundup have made our official series–due entirely to the presence of star Scott Porter who is a genuine, dyed in the wool, convention-attending comic book fan–received a full season pick-up from NBC.
Furthermore, surprising many including me, NBC has also made a full season commitment to “Studio 60.”
Watch these shows, folks. Not that your support matters unless you’re a Nielsen family, of course, but at the very least you’ll be seeing some nifty programs. More detailed comments below:
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: You think everything Bush says or does is held under a microscope? That’s nothing compared to the small-town football coach living in a small, football-crazy town where the citizenry second guesses his every move and winning is the only acceptable option. This week’s episode focused on crippled QB Jason Street (our hero Scott Porter) who accepts the invitation to appear–wheelchair and all–at the homecoming game. When he comes rolling out onto the field, a dead, stunned silence falls upon the crowd before the announcer encourages the crowd to welcome him back, at which point there is thunderous applause.
The really sad thing is that the show’s target audience–football fans–don’t seem to be paying the least bit of attention to the series (at least insofar as my admittedly unscientific poll can determine). I guess they figure there’s no point in watching fictional football when they can watch the real thing. Which is a shame since they’re missing one of the great dramas to air on NBC in recent years.
STUDIO 60: The presence of John Goodman seems to have kickstarted the energy level on the series. Goodman plays a small-town judge who is less-than-impressed at the presence of the high-powered network stars and executives who have wound up in his jurisdiction thanks to some old warrants and some unfortunately placed pot. I almost wish they’d brought Goodman in in another role so that he could be a regular.
I have not seen the most recent episode, although I will as soon as I have a chance to watch the recording of it. However, as energetic as the first half of the two parter was, I didn’t buy the basic premise: That the potential jailing of the show’s lead actor posed a threat to the next episode of the show-within-a-show. I doubt it would. They all work off cue cards: If the actor were not available, someone else could step in and do his skits. And if THAT were not possible for some unknown reason, then they could just drop in a repeat. The notion that the absence of a single performer would entail last minuterewrites or some such…it’s ridiculous.
Giving the series some thought, I believe I’ve figured out what it lacks that previous Sorkin series had: A father figure. Someone with gravitas. “Sportsnight” had the wonderfully acerbic Isaac, while “West Wing” had Bartlet. Indeed, Sorkin quickly realized the necessity of having such a presence necessary after initially thinking that the president would only be an occasionally recurring character. The strongest episode of “Studio 60” remains the pilot, which was due in no small measure to Judd Hirsch. The series either needs to get him back into the mix somehow, or else expand the equally avuncular Ed Asner who thus far was limited to a cameo. Matt Perry and Bradley Whitford are both wonderful comic actors, but they’re simply not old enough to be the father figure a Sorkin series in general, and this one in particular, needs to be at its best. Someone whose very presence would both lend weight to what they’re trying to do, while at the same time having the age and sense to be able to say, “We’re just making a television show here; calm down.”
PAD
• 
“I have not seen the most recent episode, although I will as soon as I have a chance to watch the recording of it. However, as energetic as the first half of the two parter was, I didn’t buy the basic premise: That the potential jailing of the show’s lead actor posed a threat to the next episode of the show-within-a-show. I doubt it would. They all work off cue cards: If the actor were not available, someone else could step in and do his skits. And if THAT were not possible for some unknown reason, then they could just drop in a repeat. The notion that the absence of a single performer would entail last minuterewrites or some such…it’s ridiculous.”
***************
Even in working off of cue cards, if you have 3 major pieces missing from the show (the director and the show’s 2 main male leads), it does make things more difficult for the remaining cast members.
By the way, Steven Weber probably had the best and funniest tirade towards the end of the show. I was wondering how long it would take for him to blow. This is a great show. I’m glad it’s been given a full season’s commitment.
Agreed that S60 is great, and quite pleased that NBC has picked it up for a full season. And, as Kevin stated, by the time it got to wanting to rewrite the show, it was just Tom missing…it was Tom, Simon (which put two of “The Big Three,” one of which was also the co-anchor of the “News 60” segment, out of action) and Danny.
As for FNL…sorry, PAD. About 95% of the time, our tastes in TV coincide. But, since I don’t give a rip about football (pro, college, or high school) and went to high school in the Texas “football is the be-all, end-all of school” school system, I’ve just got sub-zero interest in it. I hear it’s great, but then I also hear that Chili’s Awesome Blossom is great, too…but I just don’t like onions. 🙂
I would love to watch Studio 60, but the reason I don’t is that it’s in a bad time slot for me. I’m a teacher, and I have to be up for work at 5 AM. I’m lucky if I make it through Heroes or Veronica Mars sometimes. There’s just no way I can stay awake through 11 to watch Studio 60. If only NBC would move Studio 60 to a 9 PM slot, I would gladly watch it. Of course, they can’t move it to Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday night because I already watch Heroes, Veronica Mars, and Lost.
In a perfect world, NBC would dump that stupid Deal or No Deal Mondays at 8, move Heroes to 8 and put Studio 60 on at 9. I know that’s not going to happen, but oh well.
BTW, before anyone says any, yes, I do own a VCR. No, I don’t tape shows because I never end up watching them, and no, I don’t own a TIVO.
Many years ago Andrew Dice Clay was the host of SNL, causing one of the actresses and the musical guest to refuse to do the show. The show went on, but there were enough problems that there was a visible effect.
Also, Studio 60 didn’t really make it out like missing those actors was the big problem. Like you said, PAD, they can swap out other actors, and make minor rewrites, and that’s what they were shown to be doing. Matt was freaking out because people were expecting him to do producer type stuff that he didn’t usually do.
There was a lot more drama from the possibility of losing the China deal than from having to rework that one episode. I doubt Steven Weber would have been flying out personally if the businessman’s daughter hadn’t wanted to meet Nate Cordry’s character.
I think they resolved some of your problems with the first half of these 2 episodes in the second well enough. Anxious to hear your thoughts about it.
“By the way, Steven Weber probably had the best and funniest tirade towards the end of the show. I was wondering how long it would take for him to blow. This is a great show. I’m glad it’s been given a full season’s commitment.”
Ditto!
Don’t watch Friday Night Lights because 1 I don’t care for football. 2 I still remember the soap opera that was my high school team and I didn’t like those idiots then, and don’t care to see it again.
Studio 60.
>I doubt Steven Weber would have been flying out personally if the businessman’s daughter hadn’t wanted to meet Nate Cordry’s character.
Of course he wouldn’t have been in Pahrump if it wasn’t for the China dealings. He’d have been screaming at Jordan in her office instead and blaming her for the whole thing.
I believe Webber could be the father figure that PAD is looking for if he was set up as the antagonist.
They really need to find some way to bring Goodman on in a regular position. I don’t care if Hiero jumps show, does his squeeze and changes his history, no matter how outrageous that would be. These past two episodes for me drove home the fact that the whole cast, who are excellent to begin with were fully out done by Goodman who dominated when on screen.
Obviously they are setting up Amanda’s real life pregnancy, which I heard was being written into the show. How better to save your public image that has been tainted by “I hate mothers” than to become one. Now the question is as Shatner said on the last new episode of Boston Legal “who’s your daddy”. My money is it will be Danny.
Falling under the catagory of irony at its finest: Pahrump is in the news today.
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/town-bans-foreign-flags-flying-alone/20061116071009990022?ncid=NWS00010000000001
“I still remember the soap opera that was my high school team and I didn’t like those idiots then, and don’t care to see it again.”
Which I suspect is holding others back from the show. That and the fact it true football fans suspect it’s too much like the OC.
I watched the first ep and liked it, I just haven’t kept up with it …
Tastes vary. Caught about half of one episode of 60 – the one with the cast party? – and it simply couldn’t hold interest. Maybe I just don’t know enough about the world of tv production?
As for the other, count me in with those who never had the slightest interest in football. I realize it’s just the backdrop for the stories, but I think I’ll go back and rewatch the season set of LANCE ET COMPTE! (HE SHOOTS HE SCORES!) about a fictional NHL hockey club in Québec city instead.
Mr Peter David,
I’m sorry to write this to you like this, but I can’t find your email address and I wanted you to know about this. I made a possible discovery that, if the right people can verify it as a possibility, might make a great idea for a novel. I want you to have the idea if it can be done, because I cannot write with other peoples’ characters.
Here I go: The other day I stumbled on a picture of a member of the First Race from an episode of Star Trek: TNG. They were the first ever sentient race and it was discovered that they found themselves alone in the galaxy and seeded a lot of sentient life in it. On looking at the picture, I was amazed to see that they looked almost exactly like The Founders from Star Trek: DS9. The only difference is skin tone, which is a very slight difference, and that the First Race were apparently bald. (Or at least, that one individual was.)
I’d always assumed that the Founders took that form out of respect for Odo, who can’t do faces well. But what if that’s their original form? They admitted in at least one episode to having once been Solids, and evolved into changelings.
Thanks for your time!
—Tristan Arts
I don’t think the problem with Studio 60 is the lack of a father figure. I think the problem with it is the lack of any engaging characters at all. Everyone in my household has given up on it for being an uninteresting, clumsily written bore.
I think the show would require rewrites because like SNL – the actors have characters. If Chris Katan was absent, then a Mango skit would have to be cut – etc…
And off topic – finally got Fallen #10 (my shop was shorted) as well as What If The Other and 1602 #5.
It was a very PAD week for me – all good stuff. 🙂 ( I kinda wanna see a sequel to the What If story line )
I once watched a show about the prep that goes into making SNL. There are generally skits be readied that don’t make it into the final broadcast for a variety of reasons (test audience reactions/time pressure/logistical problems like costume changes/how the skits mix together, etc.). Losing two of the more popular cast members would have been a real problem, but not an insurmountable one…which is just what S60 was protraying it as. It even focused on the News segment which was the single segment that absolutely could not have been cut. Fortunately, most of the episode focused on the cast that went to Nevada which was the more interesting part in my opinion.
“while at the same time having the age and sense to be able to say, “We’re just making a television show here; calm down.””
Of all the things PAD said about Studio 60, this is the one that I agree with the most. These people are so serious! I can believe that they take their jobs seriously, they’d have to, it’s a hard job. But they take themselves *way* too seriously. I can’t believe they don’t all have ulcers.
There should be a little sense of fun here and there. The people who do these kinds of shows usually do them because they love the work, not because they’re the highest paying jobs in show business. I’d really like to see *why* these people are willing to put up with all this drama, to see the actual enjoyment that makes all this worth it.
Have to go along with the folk who aren’t watching FNL due to having lived in that environment in high school (OK, western NC, not Texas. A bit less fanatic, but not by much). I didn’t like it then, and either the show’s getting it right which wouldn’t appeal to me, or it’s getting it wrong, in which case I’d know it wasn’t right and be annoyed by that.
I did manage to make some bucks off the football team my senior year. For the first time in a decade, they’d managed to beat both the other two strong conference teams, meaning they’d be going to playoffs. The last three games were against conference doormats. I was the only person willing to take bets on the other teams…and so was able to get 50 points. Including from some of the team.
And it played out exactly as I thought it would; my school goes up by 21 points, the entire first team is taken out to prevent injury. Go up by 35, the entire second team goes out. Etc. If they ever actually hit a 50 point lead, it’d be with a (non-invulnerable)_cheerleader at QB and random people from the stands as the offensive line.
Was amusing having to listen to the game over the radio, broadcast in the supermarket where I worked (and was the one employee who had no problem working Friday nights in fall)…they were pulling one player from the game (first team defense, second team offense) right after he’d scored a touchdown, and he was arguing with the coach. Reason was that he had a bet with me, but of course couldn’t say so. Of course, if he had, the coaches disliked me enough that they might very well have played for a 50 point lead. 🙂
Another of the cast of FNL also reads comics. Adrianne Palicki was also a guest at Wizard World Texas last weekend.
http://imdb.com/name/nm1597316/
They all work off cue cards: If the actor were not available, someone else could step in and do his skits.
I’m going to have to disagree here. If this is SNL, then a lot of the material is written specifically to the individual cast members, playing off of their strengths. You couldn’t just have Garret Morris doing Samurai Dry Cleaner, or have Laraine Newman sell the Bassomatic. You couldn’t have Darrel Hammond doing Jimmy Fallon’s “Zasu!” character, nor could Fallon do a recognizable Ðìçk Cheney. There is far more to these performances than getting the lines right and not falling over the furniture.
And then there are the practical matters of a live show, when skits have to be arranged so that performers have enough time to switch costumes and makeup. A show that is precisely arranged for a certain set of cast can get garbled if you’re trying to run with fewer cast members.
But I’m gonna agree with you on Friday Night Lights – and for you non-football fans out there, I’m a guy who watches two game a year max. More importantly, if you’re against school football culture… frankly, so is this show, and not subtly. If football fans aren’t watching it, I’m not surprised (although if I recall correctly, it’s doing well with teen males.) It’s a classily-made show. And it’s really about people.
I don’t find FNL against high school football at all. In fact it embraces it warts and all.
But that’s the problem. Not enough people are realizing this is how it is out in the southern states and not embarrassed enough by it.
I keep waiting for people to realize this stuff is real and then try to actually put some sort of cap on it if possible.
You just want to scream at all these parents to get lives.
I like the show, but I swear I watch it just to yell at their stupidity.
As to NBC picking up shows that are Less Than Roaring Successes because they think they are Quality and deserve a chance to find their audience – remember, this is the network that nursed “Hill Street Blues” along when its ratings were lousy the first season.
As to NBC picking up shows that are Less Than Roaring Successes because they think they are Quality and deserve a chance to find their audience – remember, this is the network that nursed “Hill Street Blues” along when its ratings were lousy the first season.
“As to NBC picking up shows that are Less Than Roaring Successes because they think they are Quality and deserve a chance to find their audience – remember, this is the network that nursed “Hill Street Blues” along when its ratings were lousy the first season.”
AND the network that nursed Homicide: Life on the Street (best cop show ever) along for seven seasons and let it reach its natural conclusion, despite lousy ratings pretty much from start to finish. NBC has always had my respect. ABC and CBS have pretty much never had it.
“Hill Street Blues,” and “Seinfeld” (which had, if I recall correctly just about the worst test scores of any tested TV series ever) and “Cheers.”
PAD
First of all, this is the wrong audience to whom you could pitch a football show. We’re geeks. They’re jocks. They pounded on us in school, when they weren’t pounding on other teams.
Second, football fans probably won’t watch the show, not because it’s not accurate, but because it might be too accurate. Sports fans, it seems, invest a lot into their passion for their teams. More so than a young kid who suicided because “Battlestar Galactica” was cancelled. Fans riot when their team wins a championship.
Sports fans can accept some degree of satire about their mania (“da Bears!”) but cut any deeper and they’re distinctly uncomfortable. I don’t think a lot of football fans would appreciate “That Championship Season” as a movie lead-in to their favorite game.
PAD,
It was actually “The Chronicles of Seinfeld” that bombed. They went back, made changes, and the viewing public got “Seinfeld”.
“Hill Street Blues,” and “Seinfeld” (which had, if I recall correctly just about the worst test scores of any tested TV series ever) and “Cheers.”
OK, *NOW* you’ve got me worried about NBC’s support of S60, PAD. Of those three shows, I only cared for Hill Street Blues.
Oddly enough, though…even though I couldn’t stand Cheers, I loved Frasier. I did, however, tend to skip any episodes with Cheers guest stars (aside from Lilith, that is).
I’ll bet “Firefly” would have gone past 14 episodes if it had been on NBC.
“First of all, this is the wrong audience to whom you could pitch a football show. We’re geeks. They’re jocks. They pounded on us in school, when they weren’t pounding on other teams.”
Okay, so let’s forget the jock aspect of it and watch it (like the drooling geeks we are – lol) for the adorable Minka Kelly. Now *that’s* the TV cheerleader that I’d like to save.
Seriously, the show isn’t really about football per se but about the small town characters whose lives are caught up in the ritual of the game. I’ve only caught a few episodes of the series, but was incredibly impressed by it. The writing, acting, and directing is superb. It all feels so dámņ real. I urge everyone to give it a shot even if football isn’t your thing.
“”Seinfeld” (which had, if I recall correctly just about the worst test scores of any tested TV series ever)”
I’m not surprised. The first season was awful, especially the pilot. It wasn’t until the second season that they finally found their rhythm, and their purpose.
Hill Street Blues…I’d have to say that it’s my all time favorite cop show. Good characters, enough mix of seriousness and silliness to keep it from getting TOO dark, and characters that I could care what happened to them.
// “”Seinfeld” (which had, if I recall correctly just about the worst test scores of any tested TV series ever)”
I’m not surprised. The first season was awful, especially the pilot. It wasn’t until the second season that they finally found their rhythm, and their purpose. //
Well to be fair, the first season was only four episodes,
// It was actually “The Chronicles of Seinfeld” that bombed. They went back, made changes, and the viewing public got “Seinfeld”. //
The changes were realitivly minor all things considered, Kramer changed his name, (he was originally called Kessler), and he lost his pet dog, also they ditched a waitress character at the coffee shop George and Jerry hang out in and added Eliane, (which granted, added a lot to the show). I think they also changed the theme music. Compared to the changes between the first and second Star Trek pilots that was hardly any change at all. Other changes reguarding the personalities of George and Kramer happened slowly over the first two seasons, (Kramer was originally a shut in, which was abandoned pretty quickly and George was much more Woody Allen-esq in the early days). The overall tone of the show between pilot and series didn’t change that much, the writing and performing just got better over time.
Apparently the original Seinfeld pilot was a show I would’ve liked. I couldn’t stand Elaine(I know too many women and would-be women like that) and George…what to say about George. It was as if someone took the Born Loser off the comics page, put him in an egg cream cup with a dash of sour cream, pureed them together, and thought that was enough of a joke for the entire series.
Regarding “Friday Night Lights”: I heard some people say once that the effectiveness, appeal, and popularity of a sport can be inversely correlated with the type of show/movie made about it. IE, lots of great baseball movies, not so great baseball in reality(in these people’s opinion.) Friday Night Lights appears to blow this theory out of the water. Again.
Hill Street Blues…I’d have to say that it’s my all time favorite cop show. Good characters, enough mix of seriousness and silliness to keep it from getting TOO dark, and characters that I could care what happened to them.
Loved that show, though it lasted a season or two longer than it should have. Like ER, by the time it ended the writers seemed to have run out of any ideas other than killing off a lot of what had made the show so great.
Posted by Bill Mulligan
Loved [Hill Street Blkues
Well, you have to remember that the last couple seasons of HSB were after the network had a rush of ego to the head (or other, antipodeal, anatomical portions) and pushed Bochco and his immediate team out and started making chnages to “freshen” the show.
I break it down to three separate peroods in my head –
1981 to 1984 or so – the ones with Mike Conrad as Sgt. Esterhaus. (Talk abut a trouper – his last few episodes, he had to do his sides standing behind the briefing podium to hold on for support, or sitting down – but he was working right up till the end, and if you didn’t know how sick he was, you probably didn’t notice.)
The Really Good Years – when everyone’s ášš was up for grabs every episode, or so it seemed – watching the pilot, with Hill and Renko bantering and bickering like old partners do and then – BANG burned down by some totally unknown character… I was hooked.
84/85 (roughly) – Prosky couldn’t possibly replace Conrad, but he wasn’t bad.
Did anyone but me notice that the Norm Buntz storyline was amazingly like the original Gordon/Bullock storyline in the Batman titles? The Chief (or maybe he was Mayor by then, or am i misremembering?) puts an apparently Bad Cop in to annoy and harrass and impede Furillo, and Buntz winds up turning to be a pretty good cop who just needed the right place and becomes Furillo’s ally…
86/87 (roughly) – When the network suits decided thay knew better than the show’s creator how it shouldbe, and started tinkering with the format.
Less said the better.
Piece of trivia: The precinct house in Chicago used for the Hill exteriors was, in the Good Old Days when my Dad was something of a teenage hood in Chicago known as the most corrupt precinct in the country.
The cops there were so completely on the take that when the bagman showed up every week, he just handed every uniformed cop he saw $25 or so; cops from other houses heard about this and began showing up on bag days and just standing around.
Which ticked the Captain off so thoroughly that he gave the bagman his personnel roster and told him these were the only guys entitled to any grease at his station…
I really wished Cowboy Pete had talked at least a little about last Monday’s “Heroes.”
******OKAY, potential spoilers ahead!******
Ol’ Hornrims seemed to have genuine feelings for his daughter. Note that I said “seemed.” He hasn’t really proven how he feels, and yes, what he told the artist could have been a lie. But he made me think he actually cared for her.
I already suspect that he’s lied to both the artist and his assistant. I think he filled the syringe with something besides heroin. Remember, at this point, the artist’s addiction is psychological, not physical. And maybe he respected the artist’s dedication enough not to send him back into the hëll of addiction.
Or maybe he is the bášŧárd we all suspected he was.
Maybe Cowboy Pete will be willing to toss his lariat the Heroes way next week?
Seriously, the show isn’t really about football per se but about the small town characters whose lives are caught up in the ritual of the game.
And, for me, that’s still part of what makes me pass the show by. See, in Texas, it’s not just “small town characters” who get overly caught up in high school football. I attended high school in a Dallas suburb that’s considered to be fairly affluent (even if all of us going there weren’t). And football is still the be-all, end-all of the high school culture there, for most parents and students alike. I mean, at least three of the local news shows break down their Sunday night broacast time like this: 15 minutes for news/weather; then a 15-20 minute “sports special” yammering on and on about pro sports; then another 20 minute “sports special” in which they yammer on about high school sports.
As a student who didn’t give a large contented rodent’s rear about sports at all, and wanted to – y’know – increase my knowledge at school (what a notion, eh?), I couldn’t stand that environment, and, as a result, have no interest in a show that at least chronicles and at worst glorifies that mindset.
Reminds me of an episode of Criminal Minds a couple weeks ago that took place during homecoming week in one of these small towns. A missing girl had a full ride soccer scholarship but still resents her brother, the quarterback. Once she goes missing, the mom finally snaps at the dad, saying essentially, how can you blame her, when she’s the one with the scholarship, but this whole town does everything it can, especially this week, to tell her she’s not as important as her brother.
-Rex Hondo-
Nytwyng said:
“As a student who didn’t give a large contented rodent’s rear about sports at all, and wanted to – y’know – increase my knowledge at school (what a notion, eh?), I couldn’t stand that environment, and, as a result, have no interest in a show that at least chronicles and at worst glorifies that mindset.”
Well, it definitely doesn’t glorify that mindset – Buddy Garrity, the epitome of that sort of thing on the show, is mostly a pain in the coach’s butt.
It’s generally presented as one of the things that the coach has to deal with as a part of his job. For much of the first arc of the season, the team wasn’t doing too well, and both the coach and the backup QB (a social outsider) caught a lot of flak from the booster-types. And one of the other main characters, Tyra, pretty much just wants to get out of town.
Didn’t care about football in high shool (I was amongst the “freaks & geeks” crowd), but I really dig the show – the character moments, like the scenes between the coach and his wife, you just don’t see stuff like that on network television these days (or at least, not done that well). It’s almost like, if “Homicide” was about a small-town Texas football team instead of the Baltimore homicide squad, this’d be the show.
On the other hand, I’ve tried to get a buddy from Texas into it, and he found it so accurate he (almost) doesn’t want to watch it. There are things he said he liked about it, though, so, who knows, maybe you’d like it, maybe not.
I’m from Texas and my son played High School Ball and there is a lot on the show that is very true. I’m loving the show. In fact Tuesdays has turned into family night at the Jackson household, we watch friday night lights and then Veronica Mars (My wife, my son and I). It’s one of the few times that we all 3 watch the same shows.
I agree with you Peter, it’s a great family drama and easily one of the best new shows on TV this fall. Looking forward to the rest of the season.
One last note, my Son and I were watching the High School Varsity Playoff game on Friday night. The game was down to 2 minutes left and his team was driving down the field behind 6 points (36 to 30 was the score). We looked at each other and said, “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t lose). Didn’t help the team, they ended up turning the ball over on downs at the 11 yard line and losing. But it was a great game and we felt we had lived a “Friday Night Lights” moment.
Appreciate the recommendation, Stew, but I’ll just have to take your word for it. 🙂
A couple of minor points, though–
the backup QB (a social outsider)
In the real, flesh-and-blood Texas high school football world, this would seem to be a contradiction in terms (as is the idea – if I understood you correctly – of a football coach who doesn’t feed the – unwarranted? – self-importance of the players). So, it would seem that while most reports indicate that FNL is fairly accurate in its portrayal of the Texas high school “cult of football,” they are also taking some dramatic liberties. 😉
It’s almost like, if “Homicide” was about a small-town Texas football team instead of the Baltimore homicide squad, this’d be the show.
With this comparison, you’ve (possibly unintentionally) summed up my major problems with the mindset that bugs me about Texas high school football out here in the world, and the one that the show hinges upon. While, granted, Homicide is just as fictional as FNL or S60 or Friends, or [insert tv show of choice here], it’s about weightier subject matter…life and death stuff, even if fictionalized. Meanwhile, high school football players have it pounded into their heads day in and day out that this mere game is just as important – if not moreso – than such life-and-death matters…that this game is the most important thing around to any and all who are affiliated with the school…that, regardless of academic achievement, those few hours a week in which they engage in modern-day gladiatorial combat is what will determine the course and fate of their school for years to come.
And, sadly, far too many of the players, the other students, the faculty and the parents buy into that notion.
The really sad thing is that the show’s target audience–football fans–don’t seem to be paying the least bit of attention to the series (at least insofar as my admittedly unscientific poll can determine). I guess they figure there’s no point in watching fictional football when they can watch the real thing. Which is a shame since they’re missing one of the great dramas to air on NBC in recent years.
I read in one place that despite the story being set around a football team, it’s not about football. It’s more a drama about smalltown life.
Besides, I just can’t see the wisdom in putting on a show called FRIDAY Night Lights on Tuesday. People who would have probably watched it, looked for it on Friday night, couldn’t find it and by the time they found it, they had something else to watch.
Besides, I just can’t see the wisdom in putting on a show called FRIDAY Night Lights on Tuesday. People who would have probably watched it, looked for it on Friday night, couldn’t find it and by the time they found it, they had something else to watch.
Well, a large segment of what one would assume (I know…I know ) is the target audience isn’t home on Friday nights. They’re in a ruttin’ stadium somewhere, acting the show out.
Hey Nytwyng,
Cool enough. Just a couple of addenda:
When I was making the Homicide comparison, I was also thinking about all the great character scenes, those great dialogues while the detectives where driving to a crime scene, for example. And I was thinking of the fact that FNL, like Homicide, is shot on location (a location other than LA, New York or Canada), and with no built sets, which is pretty cool.
“In the real, flesh-and-blood Texas high school football world, this would seem to be a contradiction in terms (as is the idea – if I understood you correctly – of a football coach who doesn’t feed the – unwarranted? – self-importance of the players). So, it would seem that while most reports indicate that FNL is fairly accurate in its portrayal of the Texas high school “cult of football,” they are also taking some dramatic liberties. ;-)”
Saracen (the backup QB) has been getting folded further into the team’s social group as the show’s gone on, which so far has caused some conflict with his old friends. And it’s clear he’s still trying to figure out how to handle it. So, yeah, dramatic liberty, but at least it’s used to generate drama (if that makes sense).
And the Coach, who’s mentoring Saracen, might be somewhat idealized in the sense you suggest (ala Bartlett as an idealized leader in West Wing), but the waters he’s navigating aren’t always so clear cut (again, if that makes sense). In other word, he’s trying to support his family and be a decent, upright guy in an environment that doesn’t necessarily reward being a decent upright guy. (At least, that’s my reading of the Coach’s storyline series so far.)
Nytwyng:
“Meanwhile, high school football players have it pounded into their heads day in and day out that this mere game is just as important – if not moreso – than such life-and-death matters…that this game is the most important thing around to any and all who are affiliated with the school…that, regardless of academic achievement, those few hours a week in which they engage in modern-day gladiatorial combat is what will determine the course and fate of their school for years to come.
And, sadly, far too many of the players, the other students, the faculty and the parents buy into that notion.”
The divide between that perception and reality is, in part, precisely what the show’s about. Certainly, it’s what the Jason Street/Lyla Garrity storyline, the storyline about the now-paraplegic QB and his formerly starry-eyed cheerleader girlfriend. What you’ve just said has also been voiced (more or less) by one of the main characters.
And actually, I’d say the inevitable collision between adolescent dreams and the realities of life that underlies the stories on FNL is, if not quite as weighty as the matters of life and death on Homicide, certainly as universal, and certainly as worthy of being taken up as the stuff of drama.
But hey, if it’s not for you, I can see where you’re coming from.
Cheers