NBC is now airing the fifth and final season of the critically acclaimed, but largely ignored, television series, Friday Night Lights. I am a huge TV fan and in my humble opinion, Friday Night Lights is one of the greatest programs in network television history. This brilliant show is the most realistic ever produced. Its writing is always top notch and the acting is truly unparalleled.
As one could expect of the worst network on television, NBC has never appreciated what they have in FNL. Even from the start, NBC has never marketed the show properly. Yes, it is based on the football movie by the same name but this show is about so much more than football. Football is merely the backdrop as the show explores the trials and tribulations of the people whose lives are involved in small town, Texas, high school football. While just about every episode has at least one scene that involves football, most episodes spend very little time on the field, especially after the first season. Friday Night Lights is most definitely less about football and more about life in a small Texas town. Naming the show after the movie has actually been a disservice to the program. I’m sure NBC thought the name would draw in fans of the movie but then NBC scheduled the show on Friday nights, when a huge chunk of the possible audience would be actually attending high school football games. Nice decision, NBC. I think what actually happened is that too many people thought this program was just about the football. People said, “Look, I saw the movie. It was good, but what else is there to tell?”
NBC just never got it. It was aired on the wrong night. It was maybe not titled correctly, and it was most certainly not marketed very well. I have never talked to anyone who watched FNL who didn’t love it. In fact, I know girls who are not big sports fans who consider this show one of their favorites. The problem is that a lot of people don’t even know the show exists, let alone what it is really about or when it’s on. NBC actually would have aired only two seasons. Luckily for all of us fans, Direct TV stepped in and helped with production in exchange for the right to air the program first, with NBC airing the show as an after thought in the late spring. This arrangement went on for three years, with 2011 being the last season. I feel fortunate to have gotten those extra three seasons.
This not the first time NBC executives have made bad decisions. In 1995, NBC aired a show called JAG. NBC cancelled this program in the spring without airing all of the episodes. The next season, CBS picked it up, produced over 200 more episodes, and has generated a highly successful spin-off, NCIS, which has produced a highly rated spin-off of its own. The franchise is still going strong fifteen years after NBC cancelled JAG. In 1999, Paul Feig came up with a terrific coming of age program taking place in the early 80s. Freaks and Geeks starred such future stars as Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Jason Segel, among others, and featured a young Judd Apatow as a writer and director. NBC only aired 12 episodes originally but aired 3 more in July of 2000 after an outcry by fans. Three more episodes were aired in syndication. In 2007, Time magazine named it one of its top 100 programs of all time and in 2008 Entertainment Weekly named Freaks and Geeks the 13th best show in the last 25 years. Finally, in the spring of 2009, NBC had a show titled Southland, which debuted with seven episodes. This intense cop drama was renewed for the following season but had its fall 2009 premier pushed back at the last minute, then cancelled before airing anymore episodes. Luckily, TNT picked up Southland and it is still on the air. These examples show that NBC executives do not know what they are doing and they haven’t for a very long time. It is no surprise they are the last place network.
Let me get back to the show itself. Friday Night Lights focuses on the lives of people in a small town in Texas where high school football carries way too much importance. The series revolves around coach Eric Taylor and his wife Tami, played brilliantly by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton. These two portray the most realistic marriage in TV history. They act like real married people act. They argue realistically about real issues and deal with family and career topics as real people do every day. The show also delves into the lives of students and football players as they deal with real life issues and the desperation of escaping a bleak, small town existence. Yes, football is an important theme but it is much more about life and topics we can all relate to. In my opinion, there has never been a bad episode and in four plus seasons that have aired, only one story line wasn’t very good and it was wrapped up pretty quickly. After each episode, I cannot hardly wait for the next one. It is that good.
Although it has won some awards, including a Peabody, a Humanitus, and a Television Critics Association nod, FNL has been criminally ignored by the Emmys. Chandler and Britton were each given a nomination but so many great performances have been overlooked, or never seen, by those in control on the Emmys. Just like Freaks and Geeks, Friday Night Lights has been a starting point for several promising careers. Formerly unknown stars of the show are starting to appear in movies and other television series. Actors such as Zach Gilford, Taylor Kitsch, Scott Porter, Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki, Michael B. Jordan, Matt Lauria, Jurnee Smollett, and Aldis Hodge are all making a name for themselves. These actors were given brilliant scripts and produced performances that did justice to the words on the page. I cannot tell you how terrific I think the acting is on this show. It is so realistic. These are real people in real situations and they react in real ways.
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