Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.Friday Night Lights, 20 years ago, kicked off with a pretty perfect pep talk from Coach (Kyle Chandler). The show became just as beloved as that saying, and TV Insider had to honor just that when the cast reunited at ATX TV Festival at the end of May in Austin, Texas. In addition to posing for portraits in our studio on-site, stars Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor), Scott Porter (Jason Street), Brad Leland (Buddy Garrity), and Stacey Oristano (Mindy Riggins), executive producer Jason Katims, director/executive producer Jeffrey Reiner, and writer/producer Kerry Ehrinsat down with us to reflect on the series.
Teegarden, Porter, Leland, and Oristano reflected on where their characters would be now, and we have to say, we love the ideas.
Teegarden sees Julie “living her best life somewhere,” quickly adding that includes with Matt (Zach Gilford); they ended the series engaged.
Porter recalled his character’s journey, specifically near the end of Season 1 when, while on the football field, watching the sunrise, “they chose to shoot Jason in that episode from low angles constantly in a very heroic light. After a very arduous, isolating season, [it] just showed me that this guy really can get it back. And by the end of Season 3, when he left, he had,” he explained. “So I think he’s successful doing his thing in New York, maybe even has his own company.”
Matt Sayles
Leland knows “Buddy is on the golf course, wherever he goes, and he’s going everywhere. He’s going to the mountains and he’s going to the beaches and he’s going to be playing golf.”
Oristano loved Mindy’s arc and sees her and Billy (Derek Phillips) “[trying] their best to follow Coach and Tami [Connie Britton] after they leave. She probably isn’t going to become a school counselor, let’s be honest, but like teach dance or something with kids maybe.”
For five seasons — and surviving almost being canceled more than once —Friday Night Lights was must-see TV. Just like West Dillon dropped everything for Panther football games, so did fans to watch the lives of the players, coaches, and townspeople. And in doing so, it highlighted rural America in a way that wasn’t prevalent across television.
“That’s one of the things that I love most about the show. And at the time, and this is 20 years ago that we did it, it didn’t exist on network television, really going and the fact that we were able to come here and shoot here,” Katims said. “We never built a set. Every place that we shot was real. We went into the houses and schools and fields and all that stuff. It was this authentic kind of window into this world. You felt like you were dropped down into this world.”
He continued, “I think why it resonates still to this day. It feels like you watch the show and the situation that everybody’s in, you’re watching not just about football, but the families and relationships and friendships, they all feel very visceral and alive.”
Reiner agrees. “The first time Jason and I met, I connected to the social class, the economic class. I remember telling Jason, ‘I know what these people eat for dinner on a Tuesday night.’ People kept on saying, ‘Well, here’s like downtown San Marcos, a beautiful…’ And I never wanted to see that. I never wanted to make it this idolized, beautiful downtown because so much suburbia doesn’t have that,” he said.
Looking back, Ehrin admitted, “I always was wanting to push humor. …I think I always thought the show was funny.”
Watch the full video interview above for much more from Aimee Teegarden, Scott Porter, Brad Leland, and Stacey Oristano, executive producer Jason Katims, director/executive producer Jeffrey Reiner, and writer/producer Kerry Ehrin.
Friday Night Lights, Streaming Now, Paramount+
—Reporting by Avery Thompson