'Friday Night Lights': Jason Katims on Season 3, the show's future

This post is in two parts. Up top is a spoiler-free article highlighting a recent interview with "Friday Night Lights" showrunner Jason Katims. For those who have been following the series on DirecTV, a complete transcript of the conversation -- with spoilers -- can be found in the extended section of this post.

"Friday Night Lights," the critically acclaimed show about high school football in small-town America, can claim a rare distinction -- it may be the first in television history to end a season before it begins.

For an estimated 600,000 viewers, the third season of "Friday Night Lights" came to an end this week on DirecTV. But because of a groundbreaking business deal, the show will also open its third season tonight  (Jan. 16) on NBC.

"This was an arrangement made in the eleventh hour for one season," said show runner Jason Katims, whose program averaged a lowly 6.2 million viewers in its second season on NBC. "This was an experiment. There really hasn't been any specific discussions about going further . . . But if our numbers are solid, and stay somewhere within the range of where we were with previous seasons, then I think we'll be fine."

But he added: "The ball is in NBC's court."

In an unprecedented agreement announced early last year, the subscription satellite provider scored dibs on airing a commercial-free 13-episode run of "Friday Night Lights" in exchange for absorbing some of the series' costs. In addition to offsetting expenses, the arrangement allowed NBC to keep a critical darling on its prime-time lineup.

The first half of the experiment has gone well, said Katims. "This is the truth: I feel positive about this show continuing," he said. "I feel like the show is building momentum. I'm noticing a lot of people mentioning that they found the show on DVD."

Although early reports placed the show's audience on the satellite provider at around 400,000 viewers, officials with DirecTV put the viewership between 600,000 and 800,000 when factoring in all four of its weekly airings. The company has more than 17 million subscribers.

The show's fans, however, received a recent scare when principal actor Aimee Teegarden agreed to appear on the CW's "90210." But the actress is booked for only two or three episodes, according to a "90210" spokesperson. "We love Aimee, and we love [her] character, and she would definitely still be a part of the show, should we come back," Katims said.

Those tuning into the drama on NBC will find a third season that harks back to its first. A strike-shortened second season resulted in a host of cliffhangers, many of which are resolved in the first 10 minutes of this year's premiere.

Additionally, by fast-forwarding to the beginning of a new school year, "Friday Night Lights" gives news fans an easy access point, although Katims admitted that it might be a jolt to some longtime viewers.

Inspired by the nonfiction book of the same name by H.G. Bissinger, "Friday Night Lights" presents a broader, more complex look at small-town life than most teen-centric dramas. Two separate story arcs of Season 3, for instance, delve into what Katims described as "the uncomfortable politics that surround a football program in a Texas high school," asking questions about academic and athletic funding.

But plenty of time is devoted to high school's extracurricular activities -- the non-sporting kind. NBC promos have been hyping the "Friday Night Lights" cast as the sexiest on television.

"The show has an air about it, about being important or noble or something," Katims said. "I think there might be some subliminal feeling that watching the show is like taking medicine . . . I'm glad to see they're doing ads that don't just list critical acclaim. We need to get the word out."

A complete transcript of the interview with Katims is below.

One more to go. "Friday Night Lights" fans have been through this before. As the third season of "Friday Night Lights" comes to an end, the season finale faces the distinct possibility of being the final send-off for the series. And with many of this year's principal characters going off to college, this seems, perhaps, a fine time to call it a day.

But after viewing Episodes 12 and 13 of this shortened, 13-episode season of "Friday Night Lights," which wraps Jan. 14 on DirecTV and premieres two days later on NBC, "Friday Night Lights" has put forth its most compelling argument yet that it deserves a fourth season.

Episode 12 is nearly all football, giving us a detailed state championship in which the show expertly highlights the games within the game. And next's week season finale offers a challenging plot twist that provides a tantalizing opportunity to rewrite the series.

But that's jumping ahead.

Season 3 of "Friday Night Lights" got off to a fast start. The show's principals of Eric and Tami Taylor, portrayed by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, opened the season having to adjust to a new power dynamic, and "Friday Night Lights" handled it with its expected grace. The season's first four episodes, in particular, were strong, with Eric having to reinstate some confidence in the departing Brian "Smash" Williams (Gaius Charles), and Tami taking on all of Dillon, Texas, in a battle over academic and athletic funding.

There were some weak spots that followed. The continued downfall of Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) makes him TV's most lovable villain, but some of the relationship dramas grew tired. Little was done with Buddy's daughter, Lyla (Minka Kelly), especially in comparison with her excellent born-again plot in Season 2, and her on-again/off-again relations with Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) was predictably rocky and lacked any real tension.

"Friday Night Lights" welcomed a terrific newcomer in the lesbian indie rocker Devin (Stephanie Hunt) — a character who absolutely needs her own story arc if "Friday Night Lights" continues after this season — but the McCoy boys were Season 3's most prominent newbies. It's a shame that it wasn't until Episode 12 that freshman quarterback J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter) and evil rich pops Joe (D.W. Moffett) started to show some real life.

Before the holiday, "Friday Night Lights" ended with Joe punching his son. This week's episode opened with Tami being urged to report the child abuse to the state. Her initial hesitation seemed off — she's the principal, and she's always been by the book — but the call was made, and the fictional town of Dillon may never be the same again.

At one point in the third season of "Friday Night Lights," Kyle Chandler's coach, Eric Taylor, gets kicked out of a football game, forcing his character to watch the remainder of the contest in a bar. But when Chandler rants at a referee, odds are he's not screaming at another actor.

"Friday Night Lights," which will wrap its 13-episode run on DirecTV on Jan. 14 -- two days before it debuts on NBC -- puts an emphasis on realism. When the series premiered in 2006, it featured a cameo from University of Texas coach Mack Brown, and as the series has progressed, it has continued to employ real high school and college football referees as it has filmed in Austin, Texas.

Chandler relies on them. "It’s nice," he says. "If I’m in a scene, I can go up to these guys. I can say, 'Here’s the situation, but in your experience, how does this really happen? What are some of the things, sir, that high school coaches have yelled at you that made you kick them off the field?’ I can steal that stuff and use it."

But advising how to chew out a ref is easy. Most of the tests Chandler's Taylor faces in Season 3 aren't as simple. In the season premiere, Taylor is still adjusting to his wife's new role as principal of Dillon High. But as the season progresses, he'll weigh buying a new house and fend off constant threats to his coaching job, having to live in a town where "for sale" signs suddenly appear on his lawn after a loss.

Speaking to Show Tracker prior to filming the final two episodes of the season -- and perhaps the series -- Chandler says the best way to prepare is to be surprised. He found out how the season concludes, but wishes he hadn't.

"It’s not usually something I want to know," Chandler says. "It’s nice to be surprised by what’s going to be going on with your character. If I know exactly what’s going to happen, I will aim what I want to do in a certain direction, and that might not benefit me."

Too much planning, Chandler seems to believe, distracts from the naturalism "Friday Night Lights" is striving for. He points to a moment, which was cut, from this season's 12th episode in which his Taylor was having a discussion with his wife, Tami, played by Connie Britton. To hear Chandler describe it, it was a seemingly simple instance -- a slice of exasperated improvisation -- but it was key to adding life to the couple's marriage, which has been the cornerstone and main constant in a series dealing with high school life.

During a pivotal football game that much of the season's 12th episode is devoted to, a delicate drama unfolds between the Taylor family and the new freshman quarterback at Dillon High. As the season progresses to its final episode, it's a situation that slowly -- and surprisingly -- evolves into one that can permanently alter the landscape of the fictional town of Dillon, Texas.

"It was at the very end of the scene," Chandler says. "I look at Connie, and she’s looking at me. I took maybe three or four seconds of just staring at her, and I said, ‘I’m tired.’ I think that moment alone -- that’s what makes our scenes really pop. There’s a bit of a relationship when two people are like that. Those moments right there are really spectacular. We’re allowed to create those, and we’re given the room to maneuver as actors to share those moments. Sometimes they get cut out. They don’t always work, but the very fact that we’re allowed to have them, they keep us much more in the moment, much more alive."

Well, that was fun. As the third season of "Friday Night Lights" nears its end on DirecTV -- and beginning on NBC --  writers and producers certainly aren't making it easy on us. With only two more episodes to go before the waiting begins -- the annual "FNL" guessing game as to whether or not the series will nab another season -- things are already getting a bit tearful.

Saying goodbye to graduating friends is easy compared to what went down in the third season's 11th episode. Child abuse and caring for the elderly were just two of the pivotal plots of the episode -- one that also dealt with the end-of-the-world drama that are the modern-day SATs, as well as a father who essentially gambled away his daughter's college dreams.

The rundown follows.

So begins the Jason Street-less era of "Friday Night Lights." And the first episode without Scott Porter's character opened with a bang -- or, more precisely, a crash.

Back from New York, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) arrives in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, to find his car banged up and resting in a tree. The fairy-tale buzz provided by the magic Street touch didn't last too long. As one relationship took off, another, apparently, came to an end. Tim arrives home to find that this brother, Billy (Derek Phillips), is no longer engaged to a stripper.

Meanwhile, we learn that Tyra's (Adrianne Palicki) rodeo boy, Cash Waller (Zach Roerig), may have more weaknesses than infidelity. But can life's daily dramas get in the way of a good playoff run?

As the post-season begins for the Dillon Panthers, "Friday Night Lights" gives us perhaps its most meta episode of the series to date. "Friday Night Lights," a fictional series based on a film that was inspired by a nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger, becomes a bit of a show within a show as it's learned from Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) that the upcoming game will be shown on national television (apparently as part of NBC's high school football offerings).

When Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) breaks the news to her students, the Dillon High lunchroom suddenly turns into spring break, with boys taking off their shirts for the camera crews. As Garrity says, "Are you ready for some football?"   

When "Friday Night Lights" returned this fall for 13 episodes on DirecTV, the first question on the minds of most fans was what happened to Jason Street (Scott Porter)? Last season ended with a cliffhanger, with Jason pleading with Erin (Tamara Jolaine) to keep her baby and let him raise it with her.

Writers and producers kept fans waiting for four full episodes before providing an answer. And this week, the Jason Street storyline was officially wrapped up. As "Friday Night Lights" nears its stretch run (five more episodes to go, after tonight!), Jason Street obsessees were rewarded with a bittersweet 44- minutes.

For this episode was devoted to little other than Street, but alas, it marked the character's send-off.      

"Friday Night Lights" went straight for the awkward this week.

The tone was set from the opening moments, with the thick-skinned Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his no-nonsense wife, Tami (Connie Britton), standing on the steps of the McCoy mansion. And what a mansion it was! Not even the "Batman" films have show a manor this grandiose. It would be over the top even for a superhero.

But in the life-like world of "Friday Night Lights," set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, the absurd quickly turns into some very real human discomfort. Cue some bad adult contemporary music, and on camera comes a meddling parent. Joe McCoy (D.W. Moffett) micromanages his son's life — taking all the fun out of being the star quarterback — and his easygoing, over-friendly way of speaking has perfected the innocuous threat.

When last we saw Joe and his son J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter), Joe was publicly shaming the boy at church for getting drunk at a high school party. Tonight he's telling the coach that the two of them will "make a hell of a team." Whereas Tami seems happy to have a new friend in the obnoxiously nice Katie McCoy (Janine Turner), a woman who appears to always be about two glasses of wine ahead of the rest of the world, the coach sees Joe for what he is: an overprotective parent who wields his money and influence in a way that assures that no one in his life ever says the word "no."

He blatantly ignores the coach's request to stop filling his bourbon glass, and Tami ignores her husband's glare that clearly says It Is Time To Leave — Now. Credit here goes to Kyle Chandler. Even when his Eric Taylor is interacting with Joe in an open field, the coach always seems to be looking for an exit route, his face displaying a subtle hint of panic — the inner-knowledge that something is always just on the verge of going terribly wrong when Mr. McCoy is present.

As "Friday Night Lights" nears its halfway point -- the completion of Episode 6 will mark, for the purposes of this blog, the halfway point of this 13-episode season -- the tension finally eased back a bit.

If the first five episodes of the third season of "Friday Night Lights' were packed with plot, community politics and working-class realities, this week showed viewers that the drama in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is sometimes little more than some freshman hazing, inspirational speeches, drunken silliness and good ol' rock 'n' roll -- the gloriously amateur kind in which teenage love is The End Of The World. But rather than feel mundane, the episode was welcome, painting Dillon as a bit more true, a bit more like the town or city you're probably reading this from -- one that isn't being torn apart day in and day out by debates centered on whether the local high school is spending too much money on athletics.

In a full 22-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" might give us more than one of these. But in this shortened third season, which is airing now on DirecTV and then in early 2009 on NBC, Episode 6 was a breather of sorts. And it was a showcase for Jesse Plemons' Landry Clarke.

There's one constant in "Friday Night Lights." And that's the marriage at the center of the show -- the relationship between Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor and Connie Britton's Tami. For every fan and critic who champions "Friday Night Lights" as a series about something other than football, it's the Taylor family -- the awkward fights, the whisper-yelling and the obvious respect -- that's held up as the cornerstone of show.

Britton's Tami has been elevated in this third season, beginning the year as the principal of Dillon High School. It's a role that puts her in direct opposition to her coaching husband, and "Friday Night Lights" has used the appointment to have Tami take on the football establishment in its first half.

In its shortened 13-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" will hit the midpoint this week after its sixth episode airs on DirecTV (NBC will air the series in early 2009). With only a couple of episodes left to film in Season 3, Britton talked with Show Tracker about her character's promotion and vision for the series.

Your character had quite the leap this year, from counselor to principal.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but have this little sense of pride for Tami. I think she’s so worthy of it. She has so many high aspirations of what she can do. I also thought, character-wise, it would present us with a lot of interesting and complex issues across the board, in the town of Dillon and in my relationship and my home life. I felt like it was another opportunity to really deal with some of the issues that are very palpable to a lot of women. That’s been my goal with this character all along.

Did you sit down with the writers or producers and talk about where you wanted to take Tami with the principal role?

In this town, and in this school, being a principal is certainly a position of power. And quite often [on television], that sort of role is shown in a very specific way. Once you put women in a position of power, you’re dealing with hysteria and anger and bitchiness, and all these kind of tags that people attach to women who are dealing with roles of power. That was something I worked really hard with the writers to resist. Certainly there are some women who behave that way when they’re given a position of power, but that’s not the experience of the women I have known.

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"

'Friday Night Lights': 'This is the game you're going to talk about'

One more to go. "Friday Night Lights" fans have been through this before. As the third season of "Friday Night Lights" comes to an end, the season finale faces the distinct possibility of being the final send-off for the series. And with many of this year's principal characters going off to college, this seems, perhaps, a fine time to call it a day.

But after viewing Episodes 12 and 13 of this shortened, 13-episode season of "Friday Night Lights," which wraps Jan. 14 on DirecTV and premieres two days later on NBC, "Friday Night Lights" has put forth its most compelling argument yet that it deserves a fourth season.

Episode 12 is nearly all football, giving us a detailed state championship in which the show expertly highlights the games within the game. And next's week season finale offers a challenging plot twist that provides a tantalizing opportunity to rewrite the series.

But that's jumping ahead.

Season 3 of "Friday Night Lights" got off to a fast start. The show's principals of Eric and Tami Taylor, portrayed by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, opened the season having to adjust to a new power dynamic, and "Friday Night Lights" handled it with its expected grace. The season's first four episodes, in particular, were strong, with Eric having to reinstate some confidence in the departing Brian "Smash" Williams (Gaius Charles), and Tami taking on all of Dillon, Texas, in a battle over academic and athletic funding.

There were some weak spots that followed. The continued downfall of Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) makes him TV's most lovable villain, but some of the relationship dramas grew tired. Little was done with Buddy's daughter, Lyla (Minka Kelly), especially in comparison with her excellent born-again plot in Season 2, and her on-again/off-again relations with Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) was predictably rocky and lacked any real tension.

"Friday Night Lights" welcomed a terrific newcomer in the lesbian indie rocker Devin (Stephanie Hunt) — a character who absolutely needs her own story arc if "Friday Night Lights" continues after this season — but the McCoy boys were Season 3's most prominent newbies. It's a shame that it wasn't until Episode 12 that freshman quarterback J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter) and evil rich pops Joe (D.W. Moffett) started to show some real life.

Before the holiday, "Friday Night Lights" ended with Joe punching his son. This week's episode opened with Tami being urged to report the child abuse to the state. Her initial hesitation seemed off — she's the principal, and she's always been by the book — but the call was made, and the fictional town of Dillon may never be the same again.

At one point in the third season of "Friday Night Lights," Kyle Chandler's coach, Eric Taylor, gets kicked out of a football game, forcing his character to watch the remainder of the contest in a bar. But when Chandler rants at a referee, odds are he's not screaming at another actor.

"Friday Night Lights," which will wrap its 13-episode run on DirecTV on Jan. 14 -- two days before it debuts on NBC -- puts an emphasis on realism. When the series premiered in 2006, it featured a cameo from University of Texas coach Mack Brown, and as the series has progressed, it has continued to employ real high school and college football referees as it has filmed in Austin, Texas.

Chandler relies on them. "It’s nice," he says. "If I’m in a scene, I can go up to these guys. I can say, 'Here’s the situation, but in your experience, how does this really happen? What are some of the things, sir, that high school coaches have yelled at you that made you kick them off the field?’ I can steal that stuff and use it."

But advising how to chew out a ref is easy. Most of the tests Chandler's Taylor faces in Season 3 aren't as simple. In the season premiere, Taylor is still adjusting to his wife's new role as principal of Dillon High. But as the season progresses, he'll weigh buying a new house and fend off constant threats to his coaching job, having to live in a town where "for sale" signs suddenly appear on his lawn after a loss.

Speaking to Show Tracker prior to filming the final two episodes of the season -- and perhaps the series -- Chandler says the best way to prepare is to be surprised. He found out how the season concludes, but wishes he hadn't.

"It’s not usually something I want to know," Chandler says. "It’s nice to be surprised by what’s going to be going on with your character. If I know exactly what’s going to happen, I will aim what I want to do in a certain direction, and that might not benefit me."

Too much planning, Chandler seems to believe, distracts from the naturalism "Friday Night Lights" is striving for. He points to a moment, which was cut, from this season's 12th episode in which his Taylor was having a discussion with his wife, Tami, played by Connie Britton. To hear Chandler describe it, it was a seemingly simple instance -- a slice of exasperated improvisation -- but it was key to adding life to the couple's marriage, which has been the cornerstone and main constant in a series dealing with high school life.

During a pivotal football game that much of the season's 12th episode is devoted to, a delicate drama unfolds between the Taylor family and the new freshman quarterback at Dillon High. As the season progresses to its final episode, it's a situation that slowly -- and surprisingly -- evolves into one that can permanently alter the landscape of the fictional town of Dillon, Texas.

"It was at the very end of the scene," Chandler says. "I look at Connie, and she’s looking at me. I took maybe three or four seconds of just staring at her, and I said, ‘I’m tired.’ I think that moment alone -- that’s what makes our scenes really pop. There’s a bit of a relationship when two people are like that. Those moments right there are really spectacular. We’re allowed to create those, and we’re given the room to maneuver as actors to share those moments. Sometimes they get cut out. They don’t always work, but the very fact that we’re allowed to have them, they keep us much more in the moment, much more alive."

Well, that was fun. As the third season of "Friday Night Lights" nears its end on DirecTV -- and beginning on NBC --  writers and producers certainly aren't making it easy on us. With only two more episodes to go before the waiting begins -- the annual "FNL" guessing game as to whether or not the series will nab another season -- things are already getting a bit tearful.

Saying goodbye to graduating friends is easy compared to what went down in the third season's 11th episode. Child abuse and caring for the elderly were just two of the pivotal plots of the episode -- one that also dealt with the end-of-the-world drama that are the modern-day SATs, as well as a father who essentially gambled away his daughter's college dreams.

The rundown follows.

So begins the Jason Street-less era of "Friday Night Lights." And the first episode without Scott Porter's character opened with a bang -- or, more precisely, a crash.

Back from New York, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) arrives in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, to find his car banged up and resting in a tree. The fairy-tale buzz provided by the magic Street touch didn't last too long. As one relationship took off, another, apparently, came to an end. Tim arrives home to find that this brother, Billy (Derek Phillips), is no longer engaged to a stripper.

Meanwhile, we learn that Tyra's (Adrianne Palicki) rodeo boy, Cash Waller (Zach Roerig), may have more weaknesses than infidelity. But can life's daily dramas get in the way of a good playoff run?

As the post-season begins for the Dillon Panthers, "Friday Night Lights" gives us perhaps its most meta episode of the series to date. "Friday Night Lights," a fictional series based on a film that was inspired by a nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger, becomes a bit of a show within a show as it's learned from Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) that the upcoming game will be shown on national television (apparently as part of NBC's high school football offerings).

When Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) breaks the news to her students, the Dillon High lunchroom suddenly turns into spring break, with boys taking off their shirts for the camera crews. As Garrity says, "Are you ready for some football?"   

When "Friday Night Lights" returned this fall for 13 episodes on DirecTV, the first question on the minds of most fans was what happened to Jason Street (Scott Porter)? Last season ended with a cliffhanger, with Jason pleading with Erin (Tamara Jolaine) to keep her baby and let him raise it with her.

Writers and producers kept fans waiting for four full episodes before providing an answer. And this week, the Jason Street storyline was officially wrapped up. As "Friday Night Lights" nears its stretch run (five more episodes to go, after tonight!), Jason Street obsessees were rewarded with a bittersweet 44- minutes.

For this episode was devoted to little other than Street, but alas, it marked the character's send-off.      

"Friday Night Lights" went straight for the awkward this week.

The tone was set from the opening moments, with the thick-skinned Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his no-nonsense wife, Tami (Connie Britton), standing on the steps of the McCoy mansion. And what a mansion it was! Not even the "Batman" films have show a manor this grandiose. It would be over the top even for a superhero.

But in the life-like world of "Friday Night Lights," set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, the absurd quickly turns into some very real human discomfort. Cue some bad adult contemporary music, and on camera comes a meddling parent. Joe McCoy (D.W. Moffett) micromanages his son's life — taking all the fun out of being the star quarterback — and his easygoing, over-friendly way of speaking has perfected the innocuous threat.

When last we saw Joe and his son J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter), Joe was publicly shaming the boy at church for getting drunk at a high school party. Tonight he's telling the coach that the two of them will "make a hell of a team." Whereas Tami seems happy to have a new friend in the obnoxiously nice Katie McCoy (Janine Turner), a woman who appears to always be about two glasses of wine ahead of the rest of the world, the coach sees Joe for what he is: an overprotective parent who wields his money and influence in a way that assures that no one in his life ever says the word "no."

He blatantly ignores the coach's request to stop filling his bourbon glass, and Tami ignores her husband's glare that clearly says It Is Time To Leave — Now. Credit here goes to Kyle Chandler. Even when his Eric Taylor is interacting with Joe in an open field, the coach always seems to be looking for an exit route, his face displaying a subtle hint of panic — the inner-knowledge that something is always just on the verge of going terribly wrong when Mr. McCoy is present.

As "Friday Night Lights" nears its halfway point -- the completion of Episode 6 will mark, for the purposes of this blog, the halfway point of this 13-episode season -- the tension finally eased back a bit.

If the first five episodes of the third season of "Friday Night Lights' were packed with plot, community politics and working-class realities, this week showed viewers that the drama in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is sometimes little more than some freshman hazing, inspirational speeches, drunken silliness and good ol' rock 'n' roll -- the gloriously amateur kind in which teenage love is The End Of The World. But rather than feel mundane, the episode was welcome, painting Dillon as a bit more true, a bit more like the town or city you're probably reading this from -- one that isn't being torn apart day in and day out by debates centered on whether the local high school is spending too much money on athletics.

In a full 22-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" might give us more than one of these. But in this shortened third season, which is airing now on DirecTV and then in early 2009 on NBC, Episode 6 was a breather of sorts. And it was a showcase for Jesse Plemons' Landry Clarke.

There's one constant in "Friday Night Lights." And that's the marriage at the center of the show -- the relationship between Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor and Connie Britton's Tami. For every fan and critic who champions "Friday Night Lights" as a series about something other than football, it's the Taylor family -- the awkward fights, the whisper-yelling and the obvious respect -- that's held up as the cornerstone of show.

Britton's Tami has been elevated in this third season, beginning the year as the principal of Dillon High School. It's a role that puts her in direct opposition to her coaching husband, and "Friday Night Lights" has used the appointment to have Tami take on the football establishment in its first half.

In its shortened 13-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" will hit the midpoint this week after its sixth episode airs on DirecTV (NBC will air the series in early 2009). With only a couple of episodes left to film in Season 3, Britton talked with Show Tracker about her character's promotion and vision for the series.

Your character had quite the leap this year, from counselor to principal.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but have this little sense of pride for Tami. I think she’s so worthy of it. She has so many high aspirations of what she can do. I also thought, character-wise, it would present us with a lot of interesting and complex issues across the board, in the town of Dillon and in my relationship and my home life. I felt like it was another opportunity to really deal with some of the issues that are very palpable to a lot of women. That’s been my goal with this character all along.

Did you sit down with the writers or producers and talk about where you wanted to take Tami with the principal role?

In this town, and in this school, being a principal is certainly a position of power. And quite often [on television], that sort of role is shown in a very specific way. Once you put women in a position of power, you’re dealing with hysteria and anger and bitchiness, and all these kind of tags that people attach to women who are dealing with roles of power. That was something I worked really hard with the writers to resist. Certainly there are some women who behave that way when they’re given a position of power, but that’s not the experience of the women I have known.

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"

With freedom comes anxiety: Kyle Chandler on 'Friday Night Lights'

At one point in the third season of "Friday Night Lights," Kyle Chandler's coach, Eric Taylor, gets kicked out of a football game, forcing his character to watch the remainder of the contest in a bar. But when Chandler rants at a referee, odds are he's not screaming at another actor.

"Friday Night Lights," which will wrap its 13-episode run on DirecTV on Jan. 14 -- two days before it debuts on NBC -- puts an emphasis on realism. When the series premiered in 2006, it featured a cameo from University of Texas coach Mack Brown, and as the series has progressed, it has continued to employ real high school and college football referees as it has filmed in Austin, Texas.

Chandler relies on them. "It’s nice," he says. "If I’m in a scene, I can go up to these guys. I can say, 'Here’s the situation, but in your experience, how does this really happen? What are some of the things, sir, that high school coaches have yelled at you that made you kick them off the field?’ I can steal that stuff and use it."

But advising how to chew out a ref is easy. Most of the tests Chandler's Taylor faces in Season 3 aren't as simple. In the season premiere, Taylor is still adjusting to his wife's new role as principal of Dillon High. But as the season progresses, he'll weigh buying a new house and fend off constant threats to his coaching job, having to live in a town where "for sale" signs suddenly appear on his lawn after a loss.

Speaking to Show Tracker prior to filming the final two episodes of the season -- and perhaps the series -- Chandler says the best way to prepare is to be surprised. He found out how the season concludes, but wishes he hadn't.

"It’s not usually something I want to know," Chandler says. "It’s nice to be surprised by what’s going to be going on with your character. If I know exactly what’s going to happen, I will aim what I want to do in a certain direction, and that might not benefit me."

Too much planning, Chandler seems to believe, distracts from the naturalism "Friday Night Lights" is striving for. He points to a moment, which was cut, from this season's 12th episode in which his Taylor was having a discussion with his wife, Tami, played by Connie Britton. To hear Chandler describe it, it was a seemingly simple instance -- a slice of exasperated improvisation -- but it was key to adding life to the couple's marriage, which has been the cornerstone and main constant in a series dealing with high school life.

During a pivotal football game that much of the season's 12th episode is devoted to, a delicate drama unfolds between the Taylor family and the new freshman quarterback at Dillon High. As the season progresses to its final episode, it's a situation that slowly -- and surprisingly -- evolves into one that can permanently alter the landscape of the fictional town of Dillon, Texas.

"It was at the very end of the scene," Chandler says. "I look at Connie, and she’s looking at me. I took maybe three or four seconds of just staring at her, and I said, ‘I’m tired.’ I think that moment alone -- that’s what makes our scenes really pop. There’s a bit of a relationship when two people are like that. Those moments right there are really spectacular. We’re allowed to create those, and we’re given the room to maneuver as actors to share those moments. Sometimes they get cut out. They don’t always work, but the very fact that we’re allowed to have them, they keep us much more in the moment, much more alive."

Well, that was fun. As the third season of "Friday Night Lights" nears its end on DirecTV -- and beginning on NBC --  writers and producers certainly aren't making it easy on us. With only two more episodes to go before the waiting begins -- the annual "FNL" guessing game as to whether or not the series will nab another season -- things are already getting a bit tearful.

Saying goodbye to graduating friends is easy compared to what went down in the third season's 11th episode. Child abuse and caring for the elderly were just two of the pivotal plots of the episode -- one that also dealt with the end-of-the-world drama that are the modern-day SATs, as well as a father who essentially gambled away his daughter's college dreams.

The rundown follows.

So begins the Jason Street-less era of "Friday Night Lights." And the first episode without Scott Porter's character opened with a bang -- or, more precisely, a crash.

Back from New York, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) arrives in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, to find his car banged up and resting in a tree. The fairy-tale buzz provided by the magic Street touch didn't last too long. As one relationship took off, another, apparently, came to an end. Tim arrives home to find that this brother, Billy (Derek Phillips), is no longer engaged to a stripper.

Meanwhile, we learn that Tyra's (Adrianne Palicki) rodeo boy, Cash Waller (Zach Roerig), may have more weaknesses than infidelity. But can life's daily dramas get in the way of a good playoff run?

As the post-season begins for the Dillon Panthers, "Friday Night Lights" gives us perhaps its most meta episode of the series to date. "Friday Night Lights," a fictional series based on a film that was inspired by a nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger, becomes a bit of a show within a show as it's learned from Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) that the upcoming game will be shown on national television (apparently as part of NBC's high school football offerings).

When Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) breaks the news to her students, the Dillon High lunchroom suddenly turns into spring break, with boys taking off their shirts for the camera crews. As Garrity says, "Are you ready for some football?"   

When "Friday Night Lights" returned this fall for 13 episodes on DirecTV, the first question on the minds of most fans was what happened to Jason Street (Scott Porter)? Last season ended with a cliffhanger, with Jason pleading with Erin (Tamara Jolaine) to keep her baby and let him raise it with her.

Writers and producers kept fans waiting for four full episodes before providing an answer. And this week, the Jason Street storyline was officially wrapped up. As "Friday Night Lights" nears its stretch run (five more episodes to go, after tonight!), Jason Street obsessees were rewarded with a bittersweet 44- minutes.

For this episode was devoted to little other than Street, but alas, it marked the character's send-off.      

"Friday Night Lights" went straight for the awkward this week.

The tone was set from the opening moments, with the thick-skinned Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his no-nonsense wife, Tami (Connie Britton), standing on the steps of the McCoy mansion. And what a mansion it was! Not even the "Batman" films have show a manor this grandiose. It would be over the top even for a superhero.

But in the life-like world of "Friday Night Lights," set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, the absurd quickly turns into some very real human discomfort. Cue some bad adult contemporary music, and on camera comes a meddling parent. Joe McCoy (D.W. Moffett) micromanages his son's life — taking all the fun out of being the star quarterback — and his easygoing, over-friendly way of speaking has perfected the innocuous threat.

When last we saw Joe and his son J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter), Joe was publicly shaming the boy at church for getting drunk at a high school party. Tonight he's telling the coach that the two of them will "make a hell of a team." Whereas Tami seems happy to have a new friend in the obnoxiously nice Katie McCoy (Janine Turner), a woman who appears to always be about two glasses of wine ahead of the rest of the world, the coach sees Joe for what he is: an overprotective parent who wields his money and influence in a way that assures that no one in his life ever says the word "no."

He blatantly ignores the coach's request to stop filling his bourbon glass, and Tami ignores her husband's glare that clearly says It Is Time To Leave — Now. Credit here goes to Kyle Chandler. Even when his Eric Taylor is interacting with Joe in an open field, the coach always seems to be looking for an exit route, his face displaying a subtle hint of panic — the inner-knowledge that something is always just on the verge of going terribly wrong when Mr. McCoy is present.

As "Friday Night Lights" nears its halfway point -- the completion of Episode 6 will mark, for the purposes of this blog, the halfway point of this 13-episode season -- the tension finally eased back a bit.

If the first five episodes of the third season of "Friday Night Lights' were packed with plot, community politics and working-class realities, this week showed viewers that the drama in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is sometimes little more than some freshman hazing, inspirational speeches, drunken silliness and good ol' rock 'n' roll -- the gloriously amateur kind in which teenage love is The End Of The World. But rather than feel mundane, the episode was welcome, painting Dillon as a bit more true, a bit more like the town or city you're probably reading this from -- one that isn't being torn apart day in and day out by debates centered on whether the local high school is spending too much money on athletics.

In a full 22-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" might give us more than one of these. But in this shortened third season, which is airing now on DirecTV and then in early 2009 on NBC, Episode 6 was a breather of sorts. And it was a showcase for Jesse Plemons' Landry Clarke.

There's one constant in "Friday Night Lights." And that's the marriage at the center of the show -- the relationship between Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor and Connie Britton's Tami. For every fan and critic who champions "Friday Night Lights" as a series about something other than football, it's the Taylor family -- the awkward fights, the whisper-yelling and the obvious respect -- that's held up as the cornerstone of show.

Britton's Tami has been elevated in this third season, beginning the year as the principal of Dillon High School. It's a role that puts her in direct opposition to her coaching husband, and "Friday Night Lights" has used the appointment to have Tami take on the football establishment in its first half.

In its shortened 13-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" will hit the midpoint this week after its sixth episode airs on DirecTV (NBC will air the series in early 2009). With only a couple of episodes left to film in Season 3, Britton talked with Show Tracker about her character's promotion and vision for the series.

Your character had quite the leap this year, from counselor to principal.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but have this little sense of pride for Tami. I think she’s so worthy of it. She has so many high aspirations of what she can do. I also thought, character-wise, it would present us with a lot of interesting and complex issues across the board, in the town of Dillon and in my relationship and my home life. I felt like it was another opportunity to really deal with some of the issues that are very palpable to a lot of women. That’s been my goal with this character all along.

Did you sit down with the writers or producers and talk about where you wanted to take Tami with the principal role?

In this town, and in this school, being a principal is certainly a position of power. And quite often [on television], that sort of role is shown in a very specific way. Once you put women in a position of power, you’re dealing with hysteria and anger and bitchiness, and all these kind of tags that people attach to women who are dealing with roles of power. That was something I worked really hard with the writers to resist. Certainly there are some women who behave that way when they’re given a position of power, but that’s not the experience of the women I have known.

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"

'Friday Night Lights': Welcome the East Dillon Giraffes?

Well, that was fun. As the third season of "Friday Night Lights" nears its end on DirecTV -- and beginning on NBC --  writers and producers certainly aren't making it easy on us. With only two more episodes to go before the waiting begins -- the annual "FNL" guessing game as to whether or not the series will nab another season -- things are already getting a bit tearful.

Saying goodbye to graduating friends is easy compared to what went down in the third season's 11th episode. Child abuse and caring for the elderly were just two of the pivotal plots of the episode -- one that also dealt with the end-of-the-world drama that are the modern-day SATs, as well as a father who essentially gambled away his daughter's college dreams.

The rundown follows.

So begins the Jason Street-less era of "Friday Night Lights." And the first episode without Scott Porter's character opened with a bang -- or, more precisely, a crash.

Back from New York, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) arrives in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, to find his car banged up and resting in a tree. The fairy-tale buzz provided by the magic Street touch didn't last too long. As one relationship took off, another, apparently, came to an end. Tim arrives home to find that this brother, Billy (Derek Phillips), is no longer engaged to a stripper.

Meanwhile, we learn that Tyra's (Adrianne Palicki) rodeo boy, Cash Waller (Zach Roerig), may have more weaknesses than infidelity. But can life's daily dramas get in the way of a good playoff run?

As the post-season begins for the Dillon Panthers, "Friday Night Lights" gives us perhaps its most meta episode of the series to date. "Friday Night Lights," a fictional series based on a film that was inspired by a nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger, becomes a bit of a show within a show as it's learned from Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) that the upcoming game will be shown on national television (apparently as part of NBC's high school football offerings).

When Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) breaks the news to her students, the Dillon High lunchroom suddenly turns into spring break, with boys taking off their shirts for the camera crews. As Garrity says, "Are you ready for some football?"   

When "Friday Night Lights" returned this fall for 13 episodes on DirecTV, the first question on the minds of most fans was what happened to Jason Street (Scott Porter)? Last season ended with a cliffhanger, with Jason pleading with Erin (Tamara Jolaine) to keep her baby and let him raise it with her.

Writers and producers kept fans waiting for four full episodes before providing an answer. And this week, the Jason Street storyline was officially wrapped up. As "Friday Night Lights" nears its stretch run (five more episodes to go, after tonight!), Jason Street obsessees were rewarded with a bittersweet 44- minutes.

For this episode was devoted to little other than Street, but alas, it marked the character's send-off.      

"Friday Night Lights" went straight for the awkward this week.

The tone was set from the opening moments, with the thick-skinned Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his no-nonsense wife, Tami (Connie Britton), standing on the steps of the McCoy mansion. And what a mansion it was! Not even the "Batman" films have show a manor this grandiose. It would be over the top even for a superhero.

But in the life-like world of "Friday Night Lights," set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, the absurd quickly turns into some very real human discomfort. Cue some bad adult contemporary music, and on camera comes a meddling parent. Joe McCoy (D.W. Moffett) micromanages his son's life — taking all the fun out of being the star quarterback — and his easygoing, over-friendly way of speaking has perfected the innocuous threat.

When last we saw Joe and his son J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter), Joe was publicly shaming the boy at church for getting drunk at a high school party. Tonight he's telling the coach that the two of them will "make a hell of a team." Whereas Tami seems happy to have a new friend in the obnoxiously nice Katie McCoy (Janine Turner), a woman who appears to always be about two glasses of wine ahead of the rest of the world, the coach sees Joe for what he is: an overprotective parent who wields his money and influence in a way that assures that no one in his life ever says the word "no."

He blatantly ignores the coach's request to stop filling his bourbon glass, and Tami ignores her husband's glare that clearly says It Is Time To Leave — Now. Credit here goes to Kyle Chandler. Even when his Eric Taylor is interacting with Joe in an open field, the coach always seems to be looking for an exit route, his face displaying a subtle hint of panic — the inner-knowledge that something is always just on the verge of going terribly wrong when Mr. McCoy is present.

As "Friday Night Lights" nears its halfway point -- the completion of Episode 6 will mark, for the purposes of this blog, the halfway point of this 13-episode season -- the tension finally eased back a bit.

If the first five episodes of the third season of "Friday Night Lights' were packed with plot, community politics and working-class realities, this week showed viewers that the drama in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is sometimes little more than some freshman hazing, inspirational speeches, drunken silliness and good ol' rock 'n' roll -- the gloriously amateur kind in which teenage love is The End Of The World. But rather than feel mundane, the episode was welcome, painting Dillon as a bit more true, a bit more like the town or city you're probably reading this from -- one that isn't being torn apart day in and day out by debates centered on whether the local high school is spending too much money on athletics.

In a full 22-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" might give us more than one of these. But in this shortened third season, which is airing now on DirecTV and then in early 2009 on NBC, Episode 6 was a breather of sorts. And it was a showcase for Jesse Plemons' Landry Clarke.

There's one constant in "Friday Night Lights." And that's the marriage at the center of the show -- the relationship between Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor and Connie Britton's Tami. For every fan and critic who champions "Friday Night Lights" as a series about something other than football, it's the Taylor family -- the awkward fights, the whisper-yelling and the obvious respect -- that's held up as the cornerstone of show.

Britton's Tami has been elevated in this third season, beginning the year as the principal of Dillon High School. It's a role that puts her in direct opposition to her coaching husband, and "Friday Night Lights" has used the appointment to have Tami take on the football establishment in its first half.

In its shortened 13-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" will hit the midpoint this week after its sixth episode airs on DirecTV (NBC will air the series in early 2009). With only a couple of episodes left to film in Season 3, Britton talked with Show Tracker about her character's promotion and vision for the series.

Your character had quite the leap this year, from counselor to principal.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but have this little sense of pride for Tami. I think she’s so worthy of it. She has so many high aspirations of what she can do. I also thought, character-wise, it would present us with a lot of interesting and complex issues across the board, in the town of Dillon and in my relationship and my home life. I felt like it was another opportunity to really deal with some of the issues that are very palpable to a lot of women. That’s been my goal with this character all along.

Did you sit down with the writers or producers and talk about where you wanted to take Tami with the principal role?

In this town, and in this school, being a principal is certainly a position of power. And quite often [on television], that sort of role is shown in a very specific way. Once you put women in a position of power, you’re dealing with hysteria and anger and bitchiness, and all these kind of tags that people attach to women who are dealing with roles of power. That was something I worked really hard with the writers to resist. Certainly there are some women who behave that way when they’re given a position of power, but that’s not the experience of the women I have known.

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"

'Friday Night Lights': College and broken hearts, but first the playoffs

So begins the Jason Street-less era of "Friday Night Lights." And the first episode without Scott Porter's character opened with a bang -- or, more precisely, a crash.

Back from New York, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) arrives in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, to find his car banged up and resting in a tree. The fairy-tale buzz provided by the magic Street touch didn't last too long. As one relationship took off, another, apparently, came to an end. Tim arrives home to find that this brother, Billy (Derek Phillips), is no longer engaged to a stripper.

Meanwhile, we learn that Tyra's (Adrianne Palicki) rodeo boy, Cash Waller (Zach Roerig), may have more weaknesses than infidelity. But can life's daily dramas get in the way of a good playoff run?

As the post-season begins for the Dillon Panthers, "Friday Night Lights" gives us perhaps its most meta episode of the series to date. "Friday Night Lights," a fictional series based on a film that was inspired by a nonfiction book by H.G. Bissinger, becomes a bit of a show within a show as it's learned from Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) that the upcoming game will be shown on national television (apparently as part of NBC's high school football offerings).

When Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) breaks the news to her students, the Dillon High lunchroom suddenly turns into spring break, with boys taking off their shirts for the camera crews. As Garrity says, "Are you ready for some football?"   

When "Friday Night Lights" returned this fall for 13 episodes on DirecTV, the first question on the minds of most fans was what happened to Jason Street (Scott Porter)? Last season ended with a cliffhanger, with Jason pleading with Erin (Tamara Jolaine) to keep her baby and let him raise it with her.

Writers and producers kept fans waiting for four full episodes before providing an answer. And this week, the Jason Street storyline was officially wrapped up. As "Friday Night Lights" nears its stretch run (five more episodes to go, after tonight!), Jason Street obsessees were rewarded with a bittersweet 44- minutes.

For this episode was devoted to little other than Street, but alas, it marked the character's send-off.      

"Friday Night Lights" went straight for the awkward this week.

The tone was set from the opening moments, with the thick-skinned Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his no-nonsense wife, Tami (Connie Britton), standing on the steps of the McCoy mansion. And what a mansion it was! Not even the "Batman" films have show a manor this grandiose. It would be over the top even for a superhero.

But in the life-like world of "Friday Night Lights," set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, the absurd quickly turns into some very real human discomfort. Cue some bad adult contemporary music, and on camera comes a meddling parent. Joe McCoy (D.W. Moffett) micromanages his son's life — taking all the fun out of being the star quarterback — and his easygoing, over-friendly way of speaking has perfected the innocuous threat.

When last we saw Joe and his son J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter), Joe was publicly shaming the boy at church for getting drunk at a high school party. Tonight he's telling the coach that the two of them will "make a hell of a team." Whereas Tami seems happy to have a new friend in the obnoxiously nice Katie McCoy (Janine Turner), a woman who appears to always be about two glasses of wine ahead of the rest of the world, the coach sees Joe for what he is: an overprotective parent who wields his money and influence in a way that assures that no one in his life ever says the word "no."

He blatantly ignores the coach's request to stop filling his bourbon glass, and Tami ignores her husband's glare that clearly says It Is Time To Leave — Now. Credit here goes to Kyle Chandler. Even when his Eric Taylor is interacting with Joe in an open field, the coach always seems to be looking for an exit route, his face displaying a subtle hint of panic — the inner-knowledge that something is always just on the verge of going terribly wrong when Mr. McCoy is present.

As "Friday Night Lights" nears its halfway point -- the completion of Episode 6 will mark, for the purposes of this blog, the halfway point of this 13-episode season -- the tension finally eased back a bit.

If the first five episodes of the third season of "Friday Night Lights' were packed with plot, community politics and working-class realities, this week showed viewers that the drama in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is sometimes little more than some freshman hazing, inspirational speeches, drunken silliness and good ol' rock 'n' roll -- the gloriously amateur kind in which teenage love is The End Of The World. But rather than feel mundane, the episode was welcome, painting Dillon as a bit more true, a bit more like the town or city you're probably reading this from -- one that isn't being torn apart day in and day out by debates centered on whether the local high school is spending too much money on athletics.

In a full 22-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" might give us more than one of these. But in this shortened third season, which is airing now on DirecTV and then in early 2009 on NBC, Episode 6 was a breather of sorts. And it was a showcase for Jesse Plemons' Landry Clarke.

There's one constant in "Friday Night Lights." And that's the marriage at the center of the show -- the relationship between Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor and Connie Britton's Tami. For every fan and critic who champions "Friday Night Lights" as a series about something other than football, it's the Taylor family -- the awkward fights, the whisper-yelling and the obvious respect -- that's held up as the cornerstone of show.

Britton's Tami has been elevated in this third season, beginning the year as the principal of Dillon High School. It's a role that puts her in direct opposition to her coaching husband, and "Friday Night Lights" has used the appointment to have Tami take on the football establishment in its first half.

In its shortened 13-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" will hit the midpoint this week after its sixth episode airs on DirecTV (NBC will air the series in early 2009). With only a couple of episodes left to film in Season 3, Britton talked with Show Tracker about her character's promotion and vision for the series.

Your character had quite the leap this year, from counselor to principal.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but have this little sense of pride for Tami. I think she’s so worthy of it. She has so many high aspirations of what she can do. I also thought, character-wise, it would present us with a lot of interesting and complex issues across the board, in the town of Dillon and in my relationship and my home life. I felt like it was another opportunity to really deal with some of the issues that are very palpable to a lot of women. That’s been my goal with this character all along.

Did you sit down with the writers or producers and talk about where you wanted to take Tami with the principal role?

In this town, and in this school, being a principal is certainly a position of power. And quite often [on television], that sort of role is shown in a very specific way. Once you put women in a position of power, you’re dealing with hysteria and anger and bitchiness, and all these kind of tags that people attach to women who are dealing with roles of power. That was something I worked really hard with the writers to resist. Certainly there are some women who behave that way when they’re given a position of power, but that’s not the experience of the women I have known.

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"

'Friday Night Lights:' The Jason Street show

When "Friday Night Lights" returned this fall for 13 episodes on DirecTV, the first question on the minds of most fans was what happened to Jason Street (Scott Porter)? Last season ended with a cliffhanger, with Jason pleading with Erin (Tamara Jolaine) to keep her baby and let him raise it with her.

Writers and producers kept fans waiting for four full episodes before providing an answer. And this week, the Jason Street storyline was officially wrapped up. As "Friday Night Lights" nears its stretch run (five more episodes to go, after tonight!), Jason Street obsessees were rewarded with a bittersweet 44- minutes.

For this episode was devoted to little other than Street, but alas, it marked the character's send-off.      

"Friday Night Lights" went straight for the awkward this week.

The tone was set from the opening moments, with the thick-skinned Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his no-nonsense wife, Tami (Connie Britton), standing on the steps of the McCoy mansion. And what a mansion it was! Not even the "Batman" films have show a manor this grandiose. It would be over the top even for a superhero.

But in the life-like world of "Friday Night Lights," set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, the absurd quickly turns into some very real human discomfort. Cue some bad adult contemporary music, and on camera comes a meddling parent. Joe McCoy (D.W. Moffett) micromanages his son's life — taking all the fun out of being the star quarterback — and his easygoing, over-friendly way of speaking has perfected the innocuous threat.

When last we saw Joe and his son J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter), Joe was publicly shaming the boy at church for getting drunk at a high school party. Tonight he's telling the coach that the two of them will "make a hell of a team." Whereas Tami seems happy to have a new friend in the obnoxiously nice Katie McCoy (Janine Turner), a woman who appears to always be about two glasses of wine ahead of the rest of the world, the coach sees Joe for what he is: an overprotective parent who wields his money and influence in a way that assures that no one in his life ever says the word "no."

He blatantly ignores the coach's request to stop filling his bourbon glass, and Tami ignores her husband's glare that clearly says It Is Time To Leave — Now. Credit here goes to Kyle Chandler. Even when his Eric Taylor is interacting with Joe in an open field, the coach always seems to be looking for an exit route, his face displaying a subtle hint of panic — the inner-knowledge that something is always just on the verge of going terribly wrong when Mr. McCoy is present.

As "Friday Night Lights" nears its halfway point -- the completion of Episode 6 will mark, for the purposes of this blog, the halfway point of this 13-episode season -- the tension finally eased back a bit.

If the first five episodes of the third season of "Friday Night Lights' were packed with plot, community politics and working-class realities, this week showed viewers that the drama in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is sometimes little more than some freshman hazing, inspirational speeches, drunken silliness and good ol' rock 'n' roll -- the gloriously amateur kind in which teenage love is The End Of The World. But rather than feel mundane, the episode was welcome, painting Dillon as a bit more true, a bit more like the town or city you're probably reading this from -- one that isn't being torn apart day in and day out by debates centered on whether the local high school is spending too much money on athletics.

In a full 22-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" might give us more than one of these. But in this shortened third season, which is airing now on DirecTV and then in early 2009 on NBC, Episode 6 was a breather of sorts. And it was a showcase for Jesse Plemons' Landry Clarke.

There's one constant in "Friday Night Lights." And that's the marriage at the center of the show -- the relationship between Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor and Connie Britton's Tami. For every fan and critic who champions "Friday Night Lights" as a series about something other than football, it's the Taylor family -- the awkward fights, the whisper-yelling and the obvious respect -- that's held up as the cornerstone of show.

Britton's Tami has been elevated in this third season, beginning the year as the principal of Dillon High School. It's a role that puts her in direct opposition to her coaching husband, and "Friday Night Lights" has used the appointment to have Tami take on the football establishment in its first half.

In its shortened 13-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" will hit the midpoint this week after its sixth episode airs on DirecTV (NBC will air the series in early 2009). With only a couple of episodes left to film in Season 3, Britton talked with Show Tracker about her character's promotion and vision for the series.

Your character had quite the leap this year, from counselor to principal.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but have this little sense of pride for Tami. I think she’s so worthy of it. She has so many high aspirations of what she can do. I also thought, character-wise, it would present us with a lot of interesting and complex issues across the board, in the town of Dillon and in my relationship and my home life. I felt like it was another opportunity to really deal with some of the issues that are very palpable to a lot of women. That’s been my goal with this character all along.

Did you sit down with the writers or producers and talk about where you wanted to take Tami with the principal role?

In this town, and in this school, being a principal is certainly a position of power. And quite often [on television], that sort of role is shown in a very specific way. Once you put women in a position of power, you’re dealing with hysteria and anger and bitchiness, and all these kind of tags that people attach to women who are dealing with roles of power. That was something I worked really hard with the writers to resist. Certainly there are some women who behave that way when they’re given a position of power, but that’s not the experience of the women I have known.

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"

'Friday Night Lights': J.D.'s new play book and Landry as female repellent

"Friday Night Lights" went straight for the awkward this week.

The tone was set from the opening moments, with the thick-skinned Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his no-nonsense wife, Tami (Connie Britton), standing on the steps of the McCoy mansion. And what a mansion it was! Not even the "Batman" films have show a manor this grandiose. It would be over the top even for a superhero.

But in the life-like world of "Friday Night Lights," set in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, the absurd quickly turns into some very real human discomfort. Cue some bad adult contemporary music, and on camera comes a meddling parent. Joe McCoy (D.W. Moffett) micromanages his son's life — taking all the fun out of being the star quarterback — and his easygoing, over-friendly way of speaking has perfected the innocuous threat.

When last we saw Joe and his son J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter), Joe was publicly shaming the boy at church for getting drunk at a high school party. Tonight he's telling the coach that the two of them will "make a hell of a team." Whereas Tami seems happy to have a new friend in the obnoxiously nice Katie McCoy (Janine Turner), a woman who appears to always be about two glasses of wine ahead of the rest of the world, the coach sees Joe for what he is: an overprotective parent who wields his money and influence in a way that assures that no one in his life ever says the word "no."

He blatantly ignores the coach's request to stop filling his bourbon glass, and Tami ignores her husband's glare that clearly says It Is Time To Leave — Now. Credit here goes to Kyle Chandler. Even when his Eric Taylor is interacting with Joe in an open field, the coach always seems to be looking for an exit route, his face displaying a subtle hint of panic — the inner-knowledge that something is always just on the verge of going terribly wrong when Mr. McCoy is present.

As "Friday Night Lights" nears its halfway point -- the completion of Episode 6 will mark, for the purposes of this blog, the halfway point of this 13-episode season -- the tension finally eased back a bit.

If the first five episodes of the third season of "Friday Night Lights' were packed with plot, community politics and working-class realities, this week showed viewers that the drama in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is sometimes little more than some freshman hazing, inspirational speeches, drunken silliness and good ol' rock 'n' roll -- the gloriously amateur kind in which teenage love is The End Of The World. But rather than feel mundane, the episode was welcome, painting Dillon as a bit more true, a bit more like the town or city you're probably reading this from -- one that isn't being torn apart day in and day out by debates centered on whether the local high school is spending too much money on athletics.

In a full 22-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" might give us more than one of these. But in this shortened third season, which is airing now on DirecTV and then in early 2009 on NBC, Episode 6 was a breather of sorts. And it was a showcase for Jesse Plemons' Landry Clarke.

There's one constant in "Friday Night Lights." And that's the marriage at the center of the show -- the relationship between Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor and Connie Britton's Tami. For every fan and critic who champions "Friday Night Lights" as a series about something other than football, it's the Taylor family -- the awkward fights, the whisper-yelling and the obvious respect -- that's held up as the cornerstone of show.

Britton's Tami has been elevated in this third season, beginning the year as the principal of Dillon High School. It's a role that puts her in direct opposition to her coaching husband, and "Friday Night Lights" has used the appointment to have Tami take on the football establishment in its first half.

In its shortened 13-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" will hit the midpoint this week after its sixth episode airs on DirecTV (NBC will air the series in early 2009). With only a couple of episodes left to film in Season 3, Britton talked with Show Tracker about her character's promotion and vision for the series.

Your character had quite the leap this year, from counselor to principal.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but have this little sense of pride for Tami. I think she’s so worthy of it. She has so many high aspirations of what she can do. I also thought, character-wise, it would present us with a lot of interesting and complex issues across the board, in the town of Dillon and in my relationship and my home life. I felt like it was another opportunity to really deal with some of the issues that are very palpable to a lot of women. That’s been my goal with this character all along.

Did you sit down with the writers or producers and talk about where you wanted to take Tami with the principal role?

In this town, and in this school, being a principal is certainly a position of power. And quite often [on television], that sort of role is shown in a very specific way. Once you put women in a position of power, you’re dealing with hysteria and anger and bitchiness, and all these kind of tags that people attach to women who are dealing with roles of power. That was something I worked really hard with the writers to resist. Certainly there are some women who behave that way when they’re given a position of power, but that’s not the experience of the women I have known.

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"

'Friday Night Lights': A little comic relief at halftime

As "Friday Night Lights" nears its halfway point -- the completion of Episode 6 will mark, for the purposes of this blog, the halfway point of this 13-episode season -- the tension finally eased back a bit.

If the first five episodes of the third season of "Friday Night Lights' were packed with plot, community politics and working-class realities, this week showed viewers that the drama in the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, is sometimes little more than some freshman hazing, inspirational speeches, drunken silliness and good ol' rock 'n' roll -- the gloriously amateur kind in which teenage love is The End Of The World. But rather than feel mundane, the episode was welcome, painting Dillon as a bit more true, a bit more like the town or city you're probably reading this from -- one that isn't being torn apart day in and day out by debates centered on whether the local high school is spending too much money on athletics.

In a full 22-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" might give us more than one of these. But in this shortened third season, which is airing now on DirecTV and then in early 2009 on NBC, Episode 6 was a breather of sorts. And it was a showcase for Jesse Plemons' Landry Clarke.

There's one constant in "Friday Night Lights." And that's the marriage at the center of the show -- the relationship between Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor and Connie Britton's Tami. For every fan and critic who champions "Friday Night Lights" as a series about something other than football, it's the Taylor family -- the awkward fights, the whisper-yelling and the obvious respect -- that's held up as the cornerstone of show.

Britton's Tami has been elevated in this third season, beginning the year as the principal of Dillon High School. It's a role that puts her in direct opposition to her coaching husband, and "Friday Night Lights" has used the appointment to have Tami take on the football establishment in its first half.

In its shortened 13-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" will hit the midpoint this week after its sixth episode airs on DirecTV (NBC will air the series in early 2009). With only a couple of episodes left to film in Season 3, Britton talked with Show Tracker about her character's promotion and vision for the series.

Your character had quite the leap this year, from counselor to principal.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but have this little sense of pride for Tami. I think she’s so worthy of it. She has so many high aspirations of what she can do. I also thought, character-wise, it would present us with a lot of interesting and complex issues across the board, in the town of Dillon and in my relationship and my home life. I felt like it was another opportunity to really deal with some of the issues that are very palpable to a lot of women. That’s been my goal with this character all along.

Did you sit down with the writers or producers and talk about where you wanted to take Tami with the principal role?

In this town, and in this school, being a principal is certainly a position of power. And quite often [on television], that sort of role is shown in a very specific way. Once you put women in a position of power, you’re dealing with hysteria and anger and bitchiness, and all these kind of tags that people attach to women who are dealing with roles of power. That was something I worked really hard with the writers to resist. Certainly there are some women who behave that way when they’re given a position of power, but that’s not the experience of the women I have known.

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"

'Friday Night Lights': Connie Britton on taking on the establishment

There's one constant in "Friday Night Lights." And that's the marriage at the center of the show -- the relationship between Kyle Chandler's Eric Taylor and Connie Britton's Tami. For every fan and critic who champions "Friday Night Lights" as a series about something other than football, it's the Taylor family -- the awkward fights, the whisper-yelling and the obvious respect -- that's held up as the cornerstone of show.

Britton's Tami has been elevated in this third season, beginning the year as the principal of Dillon High School. It's a role that puts her in direct opposition to her coaching husband, and "Friday Night Lights" has used the appointment to have Tami take on the football establishment in its first half.

In its shortened 13-episode season, "Friday Night Lights" will hit the midpoint this week after its sixth episode airs on DirecTV (NBC will air the series in early 2009). With only a couple of episodes left to film in Season 3, Britton talked with Show Tracker about her character's promotion and vision for the series.

Your character had quite the leap this year, from counselor to principal.

When I heard that, I couldn’t help but have this little sense of pride for Tami. I think she’s so worthy of it. She has so many high aspirations of what she can do. I also thought, character-wise, it would present us with a lot of interesting and complex issues across the board, in the town of Dillon and in my relationship and my home life. I felt like it was another opportunity to really deal with some of the issues that are very palpable to a lot of women. That’s been my goal with this character all along.

Did you sit down with the writers or producers and talk about where you wanted to take Tami with the principal role?

In this town, and in this school, being a principal is certainly a position of power. And quite often [on television], that sort of role is shown in a very specific way. Once you put women in a position of power, you’re dealing with hysteria and anger and bitchiness, and all these kind of tags that people attach to women who are dealing with roles of power. That was something I worked really hard with the writers to resist. Certainly there are some women who behave that way when they’re given a position of power, but that’s not the experience of the women I have known.

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"

'Friday Night Lights': Of tattoos and babies

Those going through "Smash" withdrawal were rewarded early with this week's "Friday Night Lights." One of last season's biggest cliffhangers was answered, and then some.

Just as Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams was getting out of town, viewers were reminded that Scott Porter's Jason Street was still in Dillon. Not that anyone forgot, as nary an episode goes by without a character in Dillon mentioning the name Jason Street.

The fallen legend, met with a tragic end in the series premiere, went from the town favorite to the town martyr. And despite his sometimes hair-brained schemes, and underlying anger, he can still win a favor just by flashing a smile, or tapping into the glorified nostalgia that Dillon holds for football.

But if Street were looking for a purpose after suffering a spinal injury, he's found one in Erin (Tamara Jolaine). The mother of his son (cliffhanger answered, and there's photographic evidence up above), Street viewed the birth as a miracle, as the doctors told him it wasn't possible. Now if only Erin would corporate.

If "Friday Night Lights" spent its first four episodes dealing with football and community concerns, what with the whole JumboTron saga and Smash's college tryout, Episode 5 goes straight to the heart. And when Street pleads to Erin to move in with him -- if their names are together on a birth certificate, it's only logical they're together on a lease, he argues -- it's a giant bundle of warm, desperate puppy love. One almost feels awkward just watching it, and Street's roommate Herc (Kevin Rankin) is helpless to stop him.

A brief diversion to praise Herc: For those who missed Street, who didn't miss Herc just as much, if not more? At first, Herc seemed a bad influence, dragging Street into some hardcore games of wheelchair rugby. But really, he's done something Street -- and many in Dillon -- have failed to do, and that's learn to laugh of the absurdity that's around them. When Street is frantically trying to clean the apartment for the arrival of the baby, Herc is right behind him, picking up everything Street is throwing aside. And how does he let Street know he's gone too far? By yelling this:"You do not have to hide porn from a baby!"