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."

'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.

'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?"   

'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': 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.

'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.

'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.

'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!"

'Friday Night Lights': Smash's last stand

And just like that, Smash is gone. It was no secret that Gaius Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams would be leaving "Friday Night Lights" four episodes into Season 3. The writing team even weaned viewers off him, announcing two episodes ago that Smash had a walk-on tryout at Texas A&M this very week .

And that tryout was grand, a tension-filled scene loaded with respect and fear. When "Friday Night Lights" began two years ago, Smash strutted around like high school was nothing but an annoyance, a necessity standing between him and his "Cribs"-worthy mansion. His transformation has been a joy to watch, as Smash has been dealt numerous blows over the past 40 or so episodes.

He survived a bevy of attacks from the racist, mostly white, fictional town of Dillon, Texas, and its surroundings. He lost the respect of Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) by experimenting with steroids, and gradually won it back with a strong work ethic, good ol' family values and the slow realization that the coach is right far more often than the Smash is wrong.

Smash thought about doubting Taylor in this episode. With the help of Landry's (Jesse Plemons) Wi-Fi, he discovered the coach had arranged a tryout at Texas A&M not with the head coach or an offensive coordinator, but with the "director of group sales."

But getting Smash on the field was all  Taylor really had in mind. The brief showdown between Taylor and the head coach of Texas A&M was a delight. Kept waiting an hour, Taylor and Smash were told to come back next week. Instead, Taylor marched to the 50-yard line. The coach knew that making sure the boy stood up straight and ran his plays would be enough to get him out of fast food joint the Alamo Freeze for good, and it was. 

And here's the beauty of "Friday Night Lights," and what makes it so hard to criticize a slightly flawed episode (and this one had it flaws). The character who made the biggest impact on the tryout scene was neither the coach nor Smash, but the coach's wife, Tami Taylor (Connie Britton).

Gaius Charles talks about leaving 'Friday Night Lights'

With a few more weeks of filming before the third season wraps, the "Friday Night Lights" cast is still hunkered down in Austin, Texas. Gaius Charles, however, is in Los Angeles, knee-deep in filming a movie with Hayden Christensen, Paul Walker and Chris Brown.

There is life after graduation.

For those with DirecTV, Charles' Brian "Smash" Williams will move on to Texas A&M Wednesday night, bringing with him some of the show's more ambitious story lines. Once a self-absorbed high school junior who experimented with steroids, "Friday Night Lights" producers threw the best of what they had at Smash, as he's most often referred to on the series, over the last two and a half seasons. Through Smash, "Friday Night Light" explored issues of race, mental illness, class and the hawkish practices of college recruiters.

"When we first came in and did the pilot, it would have been very easy for Smash to be a one-dimensional, cocky running back, a caricature," said Williams last week, an hour before he was due to report to the set of "Bone Deep." "But [developer] Peter Berg and [producer] Jason Katims and everyone on the creative side was adamant on making this guy three-dimensional. It’s very rare that we see African American male characters in this setting, in a complete picture. Sometimes, these story lines are so streamlined and so commercialized that you get all the spectacle and none of the heart."

In Season 3, there's been very little flashiness surrounding the Smash character. Humbled by a knee injury that saw Smash losing the second of his two scholarships — the first when Smash was painted as violent for striking back at a racist buffoon — Smash was hanging around the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, by doing time at a fast-food joint. It's a last-minute, walk-on tryout with Texas A&M that saves the character from what surely would have been a life in near-poverty.

It brings one of the first major story arcs of Season 3 to a close, and sees, perhaps, the final "Friday Night Lights" appearance from one of the show's marquee players. Charles took a few minutes last week to reflect on "Friday Night Lights," and talk about his character's future.