'Friday Night Lights': Kyle Chandler turns it on at East Dillon High
Kyle Chandler
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For three seasons, the small-town Texas high-school football drama "Friday Night Lights" -- which comes to NBC on Friday, May 7, for season four after airing on production partner DirecTV -- has been all about the purple.
Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his Dillon Panthers have been the centerpiece of the show, as he led the team to a state championship in season one -- but couldn't quite manage a two-fer. That, and political issues in the town and on the team, cost Taylor his coaching job at the end of season three.
But, he wasn't out of the game, as he was hired to resurrect the football franchise at East Dillon High, reopened after years of being closed.
As season four opens, Dillon erupts in anger as some (now) West Dillon High parents learn their kids are going to East Dillon, widely considered the inferior school. Coach is definitely at a disadvantage, with a dilapidated field, ancient uniforms and hardly any team to speak of -- but he does get former Dillon Panther Landry (Jesse Plemons).
With his wife, Tami (Connie Britton), still at West Dillon High as principal, Coach must build the East Dillon Lions from the bottom up.
Elsewhere, former Panthers Tim Riggins and Matt Saracen (Taylor Kitsch, Zach Gilford) deal with life after schoolboy stardom, and the coach's daughter, Julie (Aimee Teegarden), contemplates college.
With "Friday Night Lights" having to succeed in its new venue on DirecTV, Coach also dealt with his new reality. "The main idea," says executive producer Jason Katims, "of shifting to East Dillon was that, up until this point, Coach Taylor was in a world where he had such huge expectations on him. Everybody expected him to win state and for him to be successful, and that is what the stories were about.
"Now it's shifted to a situation where there are no expectations on him, and there are no resources for him. The players on his team don't have the built-in respect for football and football coaches. It's a completely different world."
Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his Dillon Panthers have been the centerpiece of the show, as he led the team to a state championship in season one -- but couldn't quite manage a two-fer. That, and political issues in the town and on the team, cost Taylor his coaching job at the end of season three.
But, he wasn't out of the game, as he was hired to resurrect the football franchise at East Dillon High, reopened after years of being closed.
As season four opens, Dillon erupts in anger as some (now) West Dillon High parents learn their kids are going to East Dillon, widely considered the inferior school. Coach is definitely at a disadvantage, with a dilapidated field, ancient uniforms and hardly any team to speak of -- but he does get former Dillon Panther Landry (Jesse Plemons).
With his wife, Tami (Connie Britton), still at West Dillon High as principal, Coach must build the East Dillon Lions from the bottom up.
Elsewhere, former Panthers Tim Riggins and Matt Saracen (Taylor Kitsch, Zach Gilford) deal with life after schoolboy stardom, and the coach's daughter, Julie (Aimee Teegarden), contemplates college.
With "Friday Night Lights" having to succeed in its new venue on DirecTV, Coach also dealt with his new reality. "The main idea," says executive producer Jason Katims, "of shifting to East Dillon was that, up until this point, Coach Taylor was in a world where he had such huge expectations on him. Everybody expected him to win state and for him to be successful, and that is what the stories were about.
"Now it's shifted to a situation where there are no expectations on him, and there are no resources for him. The players on his team don't have the built-in respect for football and football coaches. It's a completely different world."
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