‘Friday Night Lights’ gets a welcome reception

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Been jonesing for some “Friday Night Lights”? Here’s a little second-season scoop picked up this afternoon at the NBC panel for the low-rated critical darling:

We will encounter our favorite Dillon high schoolers eight months after we left them. Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) will be in Austin, Texas, coaching college football. His wife, Tami (Connie Britton), is about to give birth in Dillon. Their 16-year-old daughter, Julie (Aimee Teegarden), is raising some serious teenage hell. Jason Street (Scott Porter) has graduated but is coaching for the Dillon Panthers. Something will happen with Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) and Landry (Jesse Plemons) that will tie them more “intimately” together after the man who tried to rape her reappears. Everyone else is still in high school, playing football and hooking up.

Even though NBC has vowed not to promote the show as a “football drama” anymore — even NBC sports honcho Dick Ebersol complained at a session Monday that this is a disservice to the show — the writers will not keep football out of the fold, assured show-runner Jason Katims.

“The show itself as a show — the network has been so supportive of the show since the beginning …we’re not really trying to change the show,” Katims said. “We’re not saying it’s not a show about football. We think it’s a show for everybody. It’s been a challenge for women to know that they would also like the show.”

If you’ve never seen it, the DVD hits stores on Aug. 28. And a soundtrack is coming soon. The second season begins at 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5.

Go Panthers!

-- Maria Elena Fernandez