Friday Night Lights went off the air last year but it is still one of the most memorable shows in the history of television. It was so popular for many reasons, not the least of which was its plot, story lines and the way the stories were executed. But there are many other aspects of the show that made it even more fascinating and much of it is because of what went on behind the scenes. Here are a few things that made Friday Night Lights great both behind the scenes and on camera.
When filming Friday Night Lights, it wasn’t done the typical way like most TV shows are filmed. Instead of rehearsing each scene several times and then shooting it from different angles, the actors were given a great deal of freedom in the way they delivered their lines and the way they moved around. This gave the scenes more realism.
Friday Night Lights didn’t use sets that were built in most of the scenes. Instead, they used real places around Austin and Pflugerville, Texas when filming the show. Even the football scenes were filmed at Pflugerville High School and the actors wore real uniforms, jerseys and other things for a more authentic appearance.
Kyle Chandler, a.k.a. Coach Eric Taylor, got his start on a show called Early Edition. On this short-lived series, his character would receive a newspaper about something bad that was going to happen the following day and he took the responsibility to try to prevent the tragedy from happening.
Friday Night Lights was consistently rated as one of the best 10 shows on TV each year while it was on by some of the biggest publications in entertainment, including Time magazine, The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. It also received three AFI awards, a Peabody Award and several other prestigious awards. Kyle Chandler also won the Emmy for best actor in a drama series in 2011 after the show concluded its final season.
According to a research study, Friday Night Lights was very popular among affluent viewers, or those viewers who had a median household income of at least $65,000 a year.
These are just a few of the facts that make Friday Night Lights even more interesting than it already is. Of course, most fans probably already knew these facts, especially if you are a hardcore fan. But it’s still fun to explore some of the things that make this a TV series that will undoubtedly stand the test of time.
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