General: Does 90210 Casting Mean FNL is Doomed?
Posted by Hider on 2008-12-02 16:15:33 PST
Watch With Kristen :: Kristin Dos Santos :: December 2, 2008Look who's running away from Dillon, Texas, to the home of Dylan McKay! Sources tell me exclusively that Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor), of the ultra talented Friday Night Lights cast, has just been cast on the CW's 90210. The CW confirms that Aimee will be playing Rhonda, a West Beverly High student who will cross paths with one of the other characters. Now, clearly, Aimee is an integral part of the FNL cast, so does her move to Beverly Hills mean Friday Night Lights may once again be in danger? According to NBC, Friday Night Lights will not produce more than 13 episodes for the current third season, and they have just wrapped production for the year. Still, this does not mean that Friday Night Lights has been canceled--at least not yet. A decision on FNL's fate is expected to come after the third season begins airing on NBC on Jan. 16. If NBC renews it for a fourth season (as it should), the cast would go back into production in the summer of 2009. "It's more like a cable schedule, since cable shows usually shoot 13," FNL's Connie Britton explained to me. "It's kind of great in a way because it's a finite amount of work to do. The writers have a 13-episode arc. They know that they're going to end at 13 and they don't have to wait and see if maybe we'll get picked up." The difference is that unlike previous years, the actors have been informed there will not be a pickup of additional episodes this season, so they have been cleared to work on other projects. I'm told the hope is that during this extended hiatus, some of the FNL stars can book projects that will expand their profile and draw more attention to the show. (It worked for Steve Carell and The Office.) Says Connie, "We still, of course, hope that we're going to get a season four!" The third season of Friday Night Lights is now airing Wednesday nights on DirecTV's 101 Network (there are four episodes left). Season three will start over again on NBC on Jan. 16, airing on Friday nights through the spring. Anyone else hoping FNL sticks around? And are you excited to see Aimee on 90210? Post below...
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General: Season 1 Caps ; Season 3 Promos ; New Media
Posted by Hider on 2008-11-25 19:31:29 PST
Since there's no episode this week, I've added some older stuff to the gallery. Screen captures from the first two episodes of season one have been added to the gallery in high quality. I've also added smaller caps from two different promos that DirecTV aired to promote the show. The 'Countdown to FNL' ones are in their own album and so are the caps from the various 'Devil Town' promos (the caps of which are varying quality). You can check out all of this below.
And while you're at it, the media archive is now open! It only has a couple Aimee-related videos up for download so far but I'm working on the rest and hopefully will be able to add episode clips as soon as I find a clipping program that will work with a Mac system.
    • 182 MQ caps from 101: Pilot• 187 MQ caps from 102: Eyes Wide Open• 004 MQ caps from DirecTV's 'Countdown to Season Three' Promo• 018 MQ caps from DirecTV's 'Devil Town' Promos
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Press Archive: Friday Night Lights Back on NBC Sooner Than Planned?
Posted by Hider on 2008-11-12 17:17:38 PST
The Futon Critic :: November 12, 2008LOS ANGELES -- NBC has canceled "My Own Worst Enemy" and "Lipstick Jungle." Production on the former will wrap after the show's ninth installment while "Jungle" has already finished filming on its 13-episode order. A network source has confirmed that despite said decision, both Universal Media Studios-produced series will finish out their runs on Mondays at 10:00/9:00c and Fridays at 10:00/9:00c, respectively. That puts "Enemy's" swan song at December 15, the same date as the "fall finale" of lead-in "Heroes." A permanent replacement is expected to be announced by the end of the week. The show posted a third place 1.8 rating among adults 18-49 in its most recent airing, literally half its "Heroes" lead-in (3.6 rating). Jason Smilovic created the series and executive produced alongside David Semel and John Eisendrath. As for "Jungle," the show's eighth installment airs this week. It's believed "Friday Night Lights" will take over for "Jungle" in January."Jungle" drew an invisible 1.2 rating in the key demographic last week, but still managed to build off its lead-in "Crusoe" (1.0 rating). Candace Bushnell, Timothy Busfield and Oliver Goldstick were the executive producers of the series.
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Interviews: Zach: Zach Gilford on the future of Matt Saracen
Posted by Hider on 2008-10-14 17:08:13 PDT
LA Times :: Todd Martens :: October 14, 2008After having a starring role for two seasons on Friday Night Lights, Zach Gilford has grown accustomed to being on a television series that doesn’t exactly promise job security. But now, even if Friday Night Lights is able to score another season, Gilford may have an even longer wait to find out if he still has a spot on the roster. His character, the shy, hardworking, midlevel talent Matt Saracen, is a senior. In its third season, and first as a partnership between DirecTV and NBC, Friday Night Lights has started to transition some of its gradating class off the show. Former high school star Brian “Smash” Williams (Gaius Charles) only has a couple of episodes left. Jason Street (Scott Porter), the once can’t-miss quarterback who became paralyzed in the series opener, has yet to be seen in Season 3. But if this, the shortened 13-episode season of Friday Night Lights, ends up being Gilford’s last with a major role -- Gilford says he hasn’t gotten a straight answer from the show's producers -- it’s at least one that’s giving his Saracen prominent placement. One of this year’s key story lines, in which a freshman quarterback wins the hearts of the fictional Texas town of Dillon, subsequently stealing a bit of Saracen’s confidence, gets some much-needed tension in the this year’s third episode. Gilford’s character, thrust into the spotlight when Street was injured, gradually became the coach’s pet. But all the coddling in the world doesn’t mean a thing when the entire town starts demanding that Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) give the untested natural, J.D. McCoy (Jeremy Sumpter), the starting role. Although this is one of the show’s more football-focused subplots, “Friday Night Lights” manages to bring in larger issues of class. McCoy comes from an obscenely rich family, one that hires him a personal quarterback tutor, whereas Saracen is scraping by. Saracen rapidly has to become a parent to his grandmother, who is drifting into dementia. (And previously on "Friday Night Lights": In this season’s second episode, Saracen was forced to seek out his estranged mother to get a signature granting him emancipation.) One might also be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of the series than Gilford. He’s a tough critic, openly talking about his least-favorite storyline (the one in which Saracen dated his grandmother’s nurse, Carlotta Alonso, played by Daniella Alonso). Yet moments later, the Midwest-born sports fan is also eager to report that Friday Night Lights is no longer all about "murder and sex," and starts comparing his character to the Chicago Bears’ hit-and-miss Kyle Orton. The Evanston, Ill.-native, and Northwestern University grad, took some time last week to chat with Show Tracker about the third season of Friday Night Lights. He offered some hints of what to expect in coming episodes, and a plea for the series, which is being shown now on DirecTV and will air in 2009 on NBC, to be renewed. His argument: The Friday Night Lights average of 6.2 million viewers last season, according to Nielsen Media Research, doesn’t look all that bad in the face of declining television viewership. So a plot question first. We saw your character seek out his estranged mother in the second episode, but that was a rather quick scene. Does Saracen's mother return, or was that it?No, she’s going to be there throughout the season. I sought her out, and later she kind of shows up in town, and we go from there ... She tries to come back and tries to help out a little in my life, but I’m a little hesitant. It’s not like she shows up and I’m like, ‘Hey, I’ve got a mom now.’ I never really quite accept it. That's good to hear. Characters have a way of creeping back in on Friday Night Lights, and that seemed like an odd story line to not revisit.That was something that was kind of interesting. I talked to the directors and the writers about that. We shot that first scene, and I said, ‘So what happens? Why did she leave?’ I didn’t know anything.As the scripts have been coming in, I’ve started to learn a little more what the story was. That’s something that’s difficult with a show like this. It’s not like they have the whole season written. They have ideas in their heads, but they haven’t figured out every little detail. ... When I first saw that script for when I go to see her, I didn’t know how present she was going to be this season. She’s fairly present. She’s in a fair amount of episodes. What about the nurse, Carlotta, do we see her again?She never comes back. At least that I’ve seen. I have to confess -- that was my least favorite Friday Night Lights sub-plot.Yeah, that was totally lame. It was interesting for a minute -- kind of, maybe, for a little. All the shows about high school kids are about who’s having sex with who, and yadda yadda yadda. That’s not very interesting. How did you feel going into this season? Were you worried that so much would be crammed into just 13 episodes?There definitely has been. You worry that you’re not going to be able to flush story lines out as much, where they’ll just kind of happen and you’ll be done with it. With 22 episodes, it gives you a chance to really get into things. But the scripts have been good. I think they’ve been way better than last year. What makes you say that?For a show that prides itself on being very authentic and real life, all it was [last season] was murder and sex, which you can see on pretty much every show on TV. But a lot of the characters are seniors this year, so a huge thought on their mind is college. Then with Mrs. Taylor [Connia Britton] as principal, there’s the issue of having no money for education, but having plenty of money to give the football team a $1-million stadium, and that is a problem in many of these Texas schools. So these are real-life things that actually go on, and I think it makes the show a little better. When you talk about being disappointed in last season, was that something you were aware of while the show was filmed, or something you came to later, after hearing people's reactions?I could tell. I was a big fan of the show the first year. I, ultimately, was disappointed with the story lines last year. Season 1, we were critically acclaimed but we didn’t have the ratings we would have liked, so it seemed like they were trying to make it sexier and flashier and draw in a bigger audience. That didn’t work. Our numbers didn’t change at all. I think they kind of realized that. This season has definitely brought back a focus to football and community issues. One plot point, with you and and J.D. McCoy, hasn't really heated up yet. I imagine there will be more tension there as the season progresses.The thing is, and I think it’s interesting, is that Saracen got the job not because he was the best man for the job, but because Jason Street got hurt. He was the only option. He wasn’t God’s gift to football, but he worked hard and was serviceable. He’s a good quarterback, but he’s not the kind of guy who you think, ‘He’s going to win the game for us.’ I’m from Chicago, so I kind of liken him a bit to Kyle Orten, someone who works hard and probably won’t lose a game for you, but is no Brett Favre. Then we’ve got this new kid who is like that, who is Tom Brady. He’s just this amazing quarterback. So it kind of rattles Saracen a little bit. The whole town is pushing the coach to throw this kid in. With the DirecTV deal, "Friday Night Lights" is kind of an experiment this year. Have you gotten a sense of what will be considered a success with this new deal?I don’t know. ... No one has really explained to me what makes it a good investment for DirecTV, or what we would need to do in the spring for NBC to feel we’re worth keeping around. But NBC is not doing well this year, and all of a sudden one of their biggest shows, Heroes, is coming in third or whatever. That’s a show with a huge budget. We cost them very close to nothing, since we’re an inexpensive show to produce, and we’re splitting the budget with DirecTV. Hopefully our ratings can stay around what they’ve been the past two years. Honestly, if they do, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to bring us back again. And NBC will wait till the shows is rebroadcast on the network in 2009 to decide whether to bring it back.They’re going to wait till May. Every year we find out the week-before upfronts. We’re done the week before Thanksgiving. I’m going to go home and enjoy the holidays with my family, and hopefully get some other work to concentrate on while I wait to find out what’s going on with the show. But even if the show is picked up, will you be back? Your character is a senior.They’ve talked to me very generally about their ideas. I don’t want to say I was worried, but I was curious, with the Street character and the Smash character leaving the show. So does that mean I’m leaving? I’ve never really gotten a straight answer. If nothing else, I’ll hopefully have one of those arcs like they did. But it’s a show about high school football. Once we’re out of high school, it’s going to have to transition somewhere.
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Press Archive: Friday Night Lights: Even Peyton is a fan
Posted by Hider on 2008-09-23 17:15:24 PDT
ESPN :: Gene Wojciechowski :: September 23, 2008EVANSTON, Ill. -- Zach Gilford, who plays the shy, awkward, coming-of-age quarterback on the best TV show on the planet, Friday Night Lights, angled his Porsche 911 Carrera across two parking spaces, tossed the keys to the restaurant valet and paused to glance at his reflection in the just-polished basalt-black metallic hood of the German sports car. He wore aviator sunglasses, brushed suede pants tucked into his boots (ostrich skin?), no belt, a white Barney's logo T-shirt covered partly by an unbuttoned grey jacket, the Armani label easy to see as he tucked his BlackBerry into the inside pocket. He was 48 minutes late. Zach Gilford plays Matt Saracen on Friday Night Lights. "You Jim?" he said as I met him at the door. "Actually, it's Gene," I said. "From ESPN." "You sure? My publicist said Jim." "Uh, pretty sure. I can show you my company ID and everything." "They said Jim." "If it will help the interview, I can be Jim." Gilford didn't laugh. "Anyway, this is Arianna." I hadn't seen her get out of the car. Arianna was so beautiful my teeth hurt. She shook my hand with practiced indifference. "I've got a table in the corner," I said. "It should be quiet enough." Gilford scanned the restaurant. He was clearly disappointed. "Jim, here's the deal. We're going to have to reschedule." And then he was gone. Arianna's high heels clicked across the tile floor as she ran to catch up. … No, not really. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. It's just that I've always wanted to write one of those Vanity Fair, having-drinks-with-the-TV/movie-star ledes -- you know, in which the writer finds profound meaning in the Cobb salad ordered by the celeb interviewee. Yes, I did interview Gilford. He was back in his hometown -- on his own dime, by the way -- to help out his former Evanston Township High School volleyball coach, who now is the athletic director. ETHS just got stadium lights, so Gilford flew in for the first game and the ceremonial coin toss. His mom also works at the school, which has produced such notable alums as John and Joan Cusack, as well as Jeremy Piven. And yes, we did meet at a neighborhood restaurant -- a cool little place with football helmets from each Big Ten school lined up behind the bar. Gilford pulled up in the same beater he drove in high school, a 14-year-old Chevy SUV with the sides of the tires scraped nearly raw. In fact, he was spending the weekend at his folks' house, in the same attic bedroom in which he grew up, with the same Cindy Crawford poster on the wall. There were no Armani sightings. He wore jeans, a shirt, a pair of Jordans and a yellow LiveStrong wristband. There also were no Ariannas, although Gilford did mention his fashion-design girlfriend was back in L.A., where she works as a model on a TV game show. My first girlfriend worked at Arby's and wore a hairnet. And just so you know, Gilford, 26, got his degree from nearby Northwestern but actually rooted for Michigan. (It's a long story.) He was raised on the North Side but would rather chug phlegm than see the Cubs win a World Series. Gilford is an Ozzie Guillen guy. A Bears guy (he owns an authentic Nathan Vasher Bears jersey). A Bulls guy (a high school friend tattooed "Pip 33" on him in honor of Scottie Pippen, and his dog is named Pippen). Anyway, we were there to talk about him and Friday Night Lights, a television series so achingly well written and well acted that it almost makes you want to go through high school again. Season 3 begins Oct. 1 on DIRECTV and again on NBC starting in February 2009. It isn't a perfect viewing arrangement, but it's better than waving goodbye to the series after Season 2. Peyton Manning is a huge fan of the show, which chronicles the life and times of a small Texas town and its obsession with the high school football program. That's what Manning told Scott Porter, who plays Jason Street, the Dillon High star quarterback whose life is forever changed when he suffers a paralyzing spinal injury. Porter introduced himself to Manning not long after the Indianapolis Colts won Super Bowl XLI. "I don't want to bother you," Porter said. "I just wanted to tell you congratulations on the Super Bowl." "Hey," Manning said, "I just heard you got Season 2, so congratulations to you, too. I love that show. The only thing is, we never call the starter, 'QB1.' He's just the quarterback." Here's the thing: Porter didn't tell Manning who he was; Manning just knew. And almost nobody in the cast uses the QB1 phrase anymore. "If Peyton Manning says something about it, we can't do it," Gilford says. There are a thousand reasons to watch Friday Night Lights, and that's one of them -- the attention to detail. Plus, you can relate to the characters. I had a football coach like Kyle Chandler's coach Eric Taylor. I had a teammate like Taylor Kitsch's boozed-up fullback Tim Riggins. And nothing is more universal than the innocence, confusion and cruelty of high school years. "On one show, they have more issues than we might face in three years," says Texas coach Mack Brown, who made a cameo appearance as a booster in Season 1 (he killed, by the way). "But they are real challenges that you can come across in a football program. People see the football each Friday and Saturday, but what they don't see is the life-changing experiences the kids have and the coaches deal with leading up to the game." Gilford broke his leg playing football in eighth grade, and that was that. "I was never going to start on our varsity team," he says. He went to nearby Northwestern, studied drama and education, got his degree, moved to New York, found a job making about $11 an hour selling outdoor clothing and gear, and gave himself two years to make it in acting. The Friday Night Lights gig was a happy accident. Gilford initially read for the Tim Riggins part during a New York audition. During a later audition in L.A., the casting director asked him to read for the Matt Saracen part. Gilford thought he was too old to play Saracen. Plus, the producers were trying to hire another actor for the part. But the other actor had a scheduling problem, and Gilford kept nailing the studio and network screen tests. Weeks later, his agent called close to midnight as Gilford and a buddy were driving to Lake Tahoe for a cheapie ski trip. The part was his. Gilford celebrated by sleeping on a rental cabin floor for three nights. The football is real. There's an A Team of former college football, Arena League and NFL players. "They hit hard, and they're good," Gilford says. And there's a B Team -- the players you see on the sidelines and in the Dillon High locker room. Gilford, who went through a week of football camp before filming Season 1, has taken hits and made throws. His football double is a former college quarterback from Trinity University in San Antonio. And if you remember the episodes involving a character named Voodoo, well, his football double was former Texas quarterback James Brown. Season 2 wasn't as compelling as Season 1. It was good, but it wasn't as good. There were plot twists that lacked authenticity. The Season 3 scripts, Gilford says, are much improved. "It's middle-class America," he says. "That's what our show is. I think we do a great job of not caricaturing people. … The coolest thing is when people come up to me and say, 'I grew up in Texas, and that's exactly what it's like.'" Some fans are smarter than others. Gilford's Saracen often talks in an eyes-down, halting cadence that has caused at least one fan to ask whether he stuttered in real life. Another fan asked whether Porter, whose character becomes a paraplegic in the pilot episode, is actually wheelchair bound. About 30 minutes before kickoff in Evanston, I follow Gilford to the high school. By pure chance, he runs into the same buddy who tattooed "Pip 33" on him. "Dude, I actually saw your show the other night," the friend says. "It's not that bad." Gilford is introduced to the crowd and makes his way to midfield for the coin toss. The Maine West captain calls heads. Gilford's coin lands tails. "Way to go, Zach," the public address announcer says as Gilford walks back to the sideline in a steady drizzle. Gilford poses for cell phone pictures with the cheerleading squad. Three other girls ask him for photo ops. Teachers stop by for hellos and hugs. It's raining harder now, but Gilford sticks it out. He finds his sister Eliza and his parents, Anne and Steve, in the stands and takes a seat on the wet metal bleacher. It's something Matt Saracen would have done.
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