In “Inside the Episode,” the writers and directors reflect on the making of their Emmy-winning episodes.
Clear eyes. Full hearts…
It took a lot of tears, both on and off-screen, but “Friday Night Lights,” the small-town high school football drama that was about so much more than small-town high school football, finally won two Primetime Emmy Awards in its final season. At the 2011 ceremony, one award went to lead actor Kyle Chandler as coach and (sometimes de facto) patriarch Eric Taylor. The other went to “FNL’s” behind-the-scenes father figure, showrunner Jason Katims, who wrote the drama series finale, “Always.”
“FNL” was loved because it had the magical ability to be set in the lives of high school students and their parents (Coach Taylor was nothing without his wife, Tami (played by 2011 Emmy nominee Connie Britton)), but not necessarily feel Like a soap opera for teenagers.
“It’s funny, when I first started talking to journalists and critics about the show, they would ask me, ‘How does it compare to other teen shows?’” said Katims, who wrote for “My So-Called Life” and created “Roswell.” “Until someone mentioned it as a possible teen genre show, I literally had never thought of it that way… I thought of it as a story of this town, a story of these people.”
He speculates that perhaps this was because “even though these people are teenagers, they are dealing with very adult things and issues.”
Namely: The series finale isn't just about the football team making it to the state tournament, but also about love, marriage and relationships. Just as Eric and Tami argue over their teenage daughter Julie's (Aimee Teegarden) engagement to on-again, off-again boyfriend Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), they have their own marital conflict as they decide whether Eric should sign a new contract for a coaching job that will keep them in town or if Tami should have her time and pursue her career out of state.
Meanwhile, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) has big plans to stay put in his Dillon, Texas, home forever while his ex-girlfriend Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki) explores new opportunities in college. Aspiring football coach Jess Merriweather (Jurnee Smollett) moves to Dallas while her boyfriend, star player Vince Howard (Michael B. Jordan), begins his own journey. And, with his football career derailed after an injury, Luke Cafferty (Matt Lauria) joins the Army. He and his newly reunited girlfriend Becky Sproles (Madison Burge) share an emotional farewell at the bus stop as he presents her with his championship ring.
More than a decade later, The Times held together long enough to speak with Katims about the events of “Always.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Jason Katims accepts the Emmy for writing a drama series for “Friday Night Lights” in 2011.
(Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)
The show aired on NBC before ending its run on Audience Network. Given those changes and how this would affect cast availability, how far in advance did you begin planning the series finale?
In season four, we didn't know exactly what we were going to do. We had it vaguely in mind. But by season five of the show, we were really planning it from the beginning in the writers' room.
Were there any serious scheduling problems? [with actors who’d already left the show]I'm sure they did, but I think everyone who had been a part of the show felt very committed and very, very, very much a part of it and wanted to be there for the end.
There were actors who really wanted to be a part of it. Scott Porter [who played injured football star Jason Street earlier in the series’ run] He appeared in the last scene, even though it wasn't in the script. It was the scene where they were on Riggins' land and he really wanted to be in that scene. [because those characters were such good friends]. [That scene was cut from the finale.]
The show had some key lines that were also used in the finale. We see Coach Taylor, who moves his family to Philadelphia for Tami's job, trying to teach a new group of football players the inspiring message “clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.” And we see Tim Riggins And his brother Billy (Derek Phillips) clinking their clubs and saying, “Texas forever.” Was there a conversation about who would be able to say those lines?
It was very clear to me that Coach was going to be “in the eye” and that Riggins was going to be “Texas forever.”
Those weren't conversations that happened in the writers' room, they happened when you were writing the script. But the big ideas, like the ball going up in the air at the state championship and then landing in Philadelphia, those weren't my idea, they came from the writers' room.
This team winning the state tournament is like not seeing a dead body in a horror movie. It's never explicitly shown or said.
It's funny because you know who won the game because there were so many things in that final montage that were references to… [them winning]Many people had rings. The championship sign was removed from the stadium. [high school]It was clear that they had won and the reason we didn't see the victory itself was because I felt that that football match was meant to be poetic. There were no more moves to be made at that point in the show, in terms of the drama of the football match. For me, it was more the emotional journey that we had all been on.
I'm really happy with the way the game transitioned into the final cut of the season. The whole episode is about closure. It's not usually written that way. Normally there's tension and then some catharsis, and these days, then another catharsis and then a cliffhanger. But there were five seasons leading up to that episode, and it was all about resolution. There were people declaring their love and all that.
The tensions that ran through him were the questions about what was going to happen with Coach and Tami. That was a serious dilemma. I felt that created the most dramatic tension in the episode.
Obviously, there were other things too. There's that scene with Tyra and [her ex-boyfriend] Tim, where are you talking about the future? I find it so beautiful to see these two people who were so in love and took such different paths.
Why did you decide to call the episode “Always”?
The show is about love. It's a love story. It's about Coach, Tami, Matt, Julie, Vince, Jess, Luke and Becky.
But it was also the permanence of that high school football culture. And there's something poignant to me, and emotional, about that final montage. You see all these people playing in different stadiums, but they're still playing the same game, but, weirdly, that doesn't matter as much.
So much of the identity of this show and its characters is tied to Southern culture and lifestyle, so I always found it interesting that the Taylors moved away from the South.
What we tried to do all season was make this a really difficult choice for Coach. People talked about Coach and Tami as a wonderful marriage. We knew, at a certain point, that we were never going to tell a story about one of them cheating on the other or a divorce. Those stories were out of the question. There was something sacred about that, about them. It's wonderful to see. But as a writer, it's a challenge because we need the conflict.
In their particular marriage, it had always been like this: they went where the coach went. [for work]For me, the key to the whole episode and the whole season was that he walked up to her and said, “It's your turn.”
It is very feminist and progressive of Coach to think this way.
You know, Coach is a very traditional guy. You see it when Matt says [to him that] He wants to marry his daughter. You see this in the dinner scene when they are all together. [and Coach and Tami tell them they’re too young to get married]She's not talking to her daughter, she's talking to Matt.
There's a lot of traditional thinking around Coach Taylor, that's why he makes that decision. [with Tami] It's very dramatic. It shows a man who is really changing.
It seems like Tyra has been through a lot. She's a character who felt like she had to get out, otherwise nothing would change for her.
For Tyra, that's a big deal. In the last episode, when she has that scene with Tim, she talks about wanting her life to be great and going into politics. … She was inspired by a woman like Tami, but she could see that her future should be bigger.
One of the most powerful things about the show is that Dillon, Texas, is a beautiful town and you feel all that community, faith, mutual support, love and all that. But it's also a place where you can get stuck and feel like you have limitations.
It was also very moving to see that last scene with Matt and Julie. [when they move to Chicago and are engaged]My idea about it is that they became Coach and Tami. She was a little bit more like Tami, but she was in her own world. It was a different world, more urban.
