Tag: Friday Night Lights

Producer/director/actor Peter Berg, who brought Friday Night Lights to television and will direct the big-screen continuation of the series, says he will reprise his role as real estate mogul – and Tami Taylor’s ex-boyfriend – Mo McArnold. Berg told Digital Spy that the character, who appeared in the second-season episode “May the Best Man Win,” will be “madder and richer than ever.” The Berg-directed Battleship, the big-budget action film based on the popular board game, hits theaters May 18. The film also stars FNL alum Taylor Kitsch. Fans of the series still have an opportunity to own a piece of Friday Night Lights by bidding on wardrobe items worn on-screen by the cast. Current auctions include wardrobe items from Kyle Chandler (who plays Coach Taylor), Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor), Jesse Plemons (who pays Landry Clarke) and many more! Click here to see all of the Friday Night Lights auctions and place your bid today!

Taylor Kitsch’s mega-budget Mars spectacle John Carter may not have rocked the box office like a Tim Riggins hit rocks opposing quarterbacks, but Friday Night Lights fans don’t have to worry about the breakout star’s burgeoning film career. Kitsch returns to theaters this summer for another major action release – Battleship (pictured above) – in which he re-teams with Friday Night Lights executive producer Peter Berg, who directs the high-seas thriller. After that, Kitsch stars in the Oliver Stone drama Savages, opposite Hollywood heavyweights John Travolta and Benicio Del Toro. In other words, like Johnny Depp, Robin Williams and George Clooney, Kitsch remains on the verge of becoming a major film star, and fans still have an opportunity to own a piece of the show that started it all! A shirt worn on-screen by Kitsch in the series is available now at the Friday Night Lights page at VIP Fan Auctions. You’ll also find screen-worn wardrobe items from other cast members, including Connie Britton (Tami Taylor) and Minka Kelly (Lyla Garrity) and more! Check out all the Friday Night Lights auctions by clicking here – and place your bid today before it’s too late!

Everybody loves a wedding episode, but there was so much turmoil during the Friday Night Lights third-season finale “Tomorrow Blues” that the marriage of Billy and Mindy was just one part of the story. In fact, the biggest moment for fans came during the wedding – and it wasn’t when the groom kissed the bride. The wedding is where Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) learns that he would no longer be coaching the Dillon Panthers. For fans of the series, VIP Fan Auctions has an amazing opportunity to make you feel as if you were on the FNL set when you heard that Wade Aikman was taking over the coach’s job – the site is offering one of the screen-worn cowboy groomsman suits featured in the episode. The suit is the genuine article – and certain to create a stir if you decide to wear it out for a night on the town. Check out the details by clicking here and place your bid on this piece of Friday Night Lights history today!

And don’t miss out on the chance to bid on a number of additional FNL screen-worn wardrobe items at the Friday Night Lights page at VIP Fan Auctions.

“We’re not done with Friday Night Lights,” executive producer Peter Berg told MTV News earlier this month. He explained that the script for a new Friday Night Lights film by FNL executive producer Jason Katims is nearly complete, and Berg (who will direct the film) indicated that one storyline would see Coach Eric Taylor (played by Kyle Chandler) mirror the headline-grabbing story of former Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach.

“[Katims] has come up with a really great storyline that parallels what happened to Mike Leach, one of my heroes, a coach at Texas Tech who was unjustly fired and unjustly accused of mistreating a player with a concussion, which was proven to not have been the case. He’s now at Washington State getting ready for what I think will be a great redemption story,” Berg told MTV. “It would be critical that we get Kyle (Chandler) and Connie (Britton) [onboard for the film] — we anchored the show around them — and then bring in Riggins, Tyra, Lyla and all other characters as we could get them. But the idea is to really revolve it around the coach.”

Leach appeared in a 2009 FNL episode “After the Fall,” in which he delivered a pep talk to Coach Taylor.

As fans eagerly await the FNL film, there are a number of wardrobe items from the series currently available at the Friday night Lights page at VIP Fan Auctions. Each item was worn on-screen – including a robe worn by Kyle Chandler, a sweater worn by Minka Kelly (who played Lyla Garrity), a shirt worn by Connie Britton (who played Tami Taylor). There is also plenty of Dillon Panthers gear available. Check out all of the FNL auctions by clicking here – and place your bid today!

From the very first episode of Friday Night Lights, fans knew the series was going to be special – thanks to stellar writing, a timeless story and a phenomenal cast. One of the many breakout stars from the series is Connie Britton (who played Coach Taylor’s wife, Tami), and VIP Fan Auctions is offering an opportunity to hold on to a piece of her debut. Right now, a complete outfit Britton wore on-screen in the series premiere – including her jeans, tank top, v-neck, purse and necklace – is available to the highest bidder. Click here to place your bid – or to see close-up images of each wardrobe item. Go Panthers! And Lions!

In a series retrospective, Sports Illustrated/CNN’s Bryan Armen Graham contributed his list of 10 Greatest Moments in 5 seasons of ‘FNL’. The following is an excerpt…

FNL was more than a high school soap opera about a football team from the fictional town of Dillon, Texas. It was an unflinching look at a town where sports touches everything, offering a tableau of Middle America with a realism and introspection seldom seen on network TV.
Shot in Austin in real-life locations rather than antiseptic soundstages, often with hundreds of locals populating the fringes as extras, the show benefited from a rare authenticity. Untraditional methods reigned: Three cameras tracked each take, with actors free to alter their lines. The result was an organic experience that consistently elevated the show throughout its five-year run.

Football quickly became the least interesting part of the show — almost a MacGuffin — thanks to a steady diet of compelling story arcs and well-drawn characters inhabited by one of the deepest benches of acting talent in the business. An arsenal of simple but powerful storytelling elements — like sports talk radio jock Slammin’ Sammy Meade and the play-by-play announcers who oversee the action like a Greek chorus — gave FNL a timeless yet modern feel.

Choosing a list of the best moments from the series is a thankless assignment, but here are 10 of our favorites:

“We will be tested.” (Season 1, Episode 1)
The last eight minutes of the pilot deliver a cascade of indelible images, all expertly cross-cut into a tapestry of pain and wonder: the buzzsaw cutting open Jason Street’s helmet in the ER, second-string quarterback Matt Saracen leading a fourth-quarter comeback, cheer captain Lyla Garrity crying in the hospital corridor, the Smash Williams-led prayer circle dovetailing into Coach Eric Taylor’s powerful speech: “It is this pain that allows us to look inside ourselves.” The unforgettable closing sequence set the stage for one of the best self-contained seasons of television ever produced.

“Champions don’t complain.” (Season 1, Episode 3)
With selfishness and excuse-making pervading the Panthers in the wake of an upset loss, Coach Taylor buses his players to a remote location in the middle of the night and makes them run wind sprints uphill in a driving rainstorm. Lather, rinse, repeat … until Smash invokes the team’s motto — “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!” — in a galvanizing moment that saves the team from disarray. It’s one of the most memorable and symbolic scenes of the series.

“Why don’t you take your Members Only jacket off and hang it on the coat rack?” (Season 1, Episode 9)
The entire sequence of Saracen’s first date with Julie Taylor is one of the show’s best, capped by the poignant scene of Saracen getting called home prematurely to lure his grandmother out of a locked bathroom by imitating his grandfather singing Mr. Sandman. (“It was the first time I got to see the real Matt Saracen,” recounts Julie in a post-date debriefing with Tami.) But it’s the moment when Chandler opens the door for Matt and prods his jacket, with a blend of incredulity and thinly veiled anger, that captures the disarming, wrong-footing humor that made Coach Taylor such an unforgettable character.

“There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s nothing wrong with you at all.” (Season 2, Episode 14)
Spurned by Julie, seemingly forgotten by his father abroad and wasting away on the Panthers’ bench, Saracen shows up to school directionless and drunk. When Coach grabs the quarterback and tosses him into the shower, Gilford delivers a scene of raw catharsis, asking why everybody in his life abandons him. It’s an emotionally stripped-down scene that helped restore faith in the series after an uncharacteristic sophomore slump early in a season abbreviated by the Writers Guild of America strike.

“I’m goin’ to college, Momma.” (Season 2, Episode 15)
As FNL progressed from year to year, the producers did an excellent job of integrating new characters as old ones graduated and moved on. When Smash’s fate is jeopardized after he loses his scholarship to the prestigious TMU because of a race-related fight in a movie theater, a deus ex machina comes in the form of an unlikely scholarship offer from Whitmore College, an HBCU whose coach has scouted Smash since middle school. Smash’s tearful exchange of the news with his mother is one of the series’ most satisfying payoffs.

“It’s not that I think I’m going to get all these things, I just want the possibility of getting them.” (Season 3, Episode 13)
When Tyra Collette reads the college admissions essay to the University of Texas she worked on with Landry Clarke during the drive up to Austin for the state championship game, it offers a pleasing farewell to one of the series’ most beloved characters. The entire episode — written as a series finale during one of the show’s multiple cancellation scares — is golden, capped by a powerful speech from Coach Taylor after a Saracen-led rally (following freshman phenom J.D. McCoy’s halftime benching) comes up short.

“I’m just having a moment here.” (Season 4, Episode 5)
Saracen’s pent-up grief over the recent death of his father in Iraq bubbles throughout this powerful episode, climaxing when he breaks into a funeral home to see the face of his father, gruesomely disfigured by an IED and hidden within a closed casket. The compulsively reserved Saracen finally breaks down during a dinner at the Taylor house, confessing that he hates his father and wishes he could say so to his father’s face — only he doesn’t have one. Critics everywhere hailed it as the consistently strong Gilford’s finest work.

“I did it. I did it all. You did not do anything.” (Season 4, Episode 13)
From the moment we’re introduced to a half-drunk Tim Riggins at the Dillon Panthers’ media day in the pilot, we know we’re dealing with one of TV’s all-time great self-defeating antiheroes, whose days and nights of heroic drinking uncannily never affected his conditioning. By agreeing to take the fall for his brother’s chop shop to ensure Billy’s unborn son won’t grow up fatherless, a character dogged by a state of arrested development manages to achieve manhood on his own difficult terms.

“We’re getting there. Slowly but surely, we’re getting there.” (Season 5, Episode 5)
When the Lions set off for a rematch of a game they forfeited early in Season 4, it’s a scene from the hotel on the night before the game that shows how far these East Dillon outcasts thrown together by circumstance have come. Luke Cafferty joins Vince Howard on his hotel balcony, and they’re soon joined by Dallas Tinker and Hastings Ruckle for a late-night bull session about porn and fried food, memories and hopes. All the while, Coach Taylor sits in the shadows eavesdropping from his own patio — listening with satisfaction as a palpable camaraderie forms between these boys who would be a team. The touching, understated moment is among the high points of the East Dillon years.

“Eighteen years…” (Season 5, Episode 12)
The Taylor marriage was always the heart of FNL, particularly the brilliantly wrought arguments and discussions that captured the depth of their friendship. At no point was that more evident than in the finale, when Tami is weighing an offer to be Dean of Admissions at Philadelphia’s Braemore College while Eric contemplates the future. “I have been a coach’s wife for 18 years,” Tami says. “I don’t see why we can’t look at something else beyond football.”

Used with permission. Copyright 2011 Sports Illustrated/CNN.

Bid on props and wardrobe from all five Friday Night Lights seasons at vipfanauctions.com

This week’s auctions provide an absolutely unbelieveable opportunity for fans of ‘Friday Night Lights’ looking to own a piece of the show’s history. Auctions close somewhere around midday (check your local time zone) Tuesday, August 2nd.

On the block this week are two items that I’m shocked aren’t attracting more attention.

The Dillon Panthers state championship shadowbox was auctioned once before. The buyer had second thoughts and sent it back. The familiar white #1 Panthers jersey is mounted in a large wood-framed shadow box along with a special oversized game ticket. Coach Taylor, Tim Riggins, Smash Williams and Matt Saracen won the state championship in a year when the team watched their highly recruited starting quarterback Jason Street laying paralyzed on the field in the season’s first game. This is truly a one-of-a-kind momento and it’s an absolute steal right now.

Coach Taylor has been a success coaching every team at every level. Seasons 1-3, he led the Dillon Panthers. In Seasons 4 and 5, he led the upstart East Dillon Lions from, literally nowhere, to a Texas High School state championship. At the end of Season 5, we see Coach in eastern Pennsylvania heading up the program at Pemberton High School. We’ve assembled a collection of playbooks from each of Eric Taylor’s coaching stops…one three ring binder from each school. No one will have all three…together…in one collection…except one, single, lucky fan.
Bid now at vipfanauctions.com for auctions closing Tuesday, August 2nd.

Friday Night Lights fans…here is an opportunity to pick up a truly unique collectible package from one of television’s greatest dramas.

Up this week at vipfanauctions.com is a set of tickets to Coach Eric Taylor’s (KYLE CHANDLER) two state championship games. The first, as coach of the Dillon Panthers came in Season 1. Tim Riggins (TAYLOR KITSCH), Matt Saracen (ZACH GILFORD), Smash Williams (GAIUS CHARLES) and the Panthers defeated the West Cambria Mustangs on the game’s final play. Then, in Season 5, Taylor led the East Dillon Lions to victory over the Hudgins Hawks, also on the game’s final play.

This package includes one ticket to each game. Framed and with the certificate of authenticity, this collection is not only rare, but it guaranteed to get a reaction from visitors to your man cave.

At the time of this post, 24 hours remain in this auction and this incredibly iconic collection has just 10 bidders. The price stands at about a hundred bucks. Wow! Own a piece of television history…these rare tickets “bookend” FNL’s five glorious seasons…and they can be yours. Join the bidding now at vipfanauctions.com

And the nominees are…

Congrats to Friday Night Lights. The drama, whose final episode airs Friday July 15, was nominated for Outstanding Drama, along with ‘Boardwalk Empire’, ‘The Good Wife’, ‘Mad Men’, ‘Dexter’ and ‘Game of Thrones’. For ‘FNL’, this is the show’s 10th Emmy nomination overall. It’s only win was for Outstanding Casting in 2007.

Also nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series are Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton as Eric and Tami Taylor.

Chandler, who plays East Dillon High School football Coach Eric Taylor, is up against Michael C. Hall of ‘Dexter’, Steve Buscemi of ‘Boardwalk Empire’, Jon Hamm of ‘Mad Men’, Hugh Laurie of ‘House’ and Timothy Olyphant of ‘Justified’. This is Chandler’s third nomination.

Britton faces some formidable competition, as well. Elisabeth Moss of ‘Mad Men’, Mariska Hargitay of ‘Law and Order SVU’, Mireille Enos of ‘The Killing’ and Julianna Margulies in ‘The Good Wife’ round out the nominees. This is Britton’s second nomination.

Overall, ‘Mad Men’ led with 19 nominations, followed closely by ‘Boardwalk Empire’ with 18. ‘Modern Family’ led sitcoms with 17.

The Emmy’s air Sunday, September 18th on FOX.

Find one-of-a-kind screen-used collectibles from Friday Night Lights and dozens of other shows at vipfanauctions.com

FNL fans… remember the story arc back in season 3 when the brooding Dillon Panthers fullback Tim Riggins (TAYLOR KITSCH) was trying to earn a college scholarship? No one who knew “33” took him too seriously…the dozen or so beers a night probably put a kink in the homework plan…except brother Billy, who kept prodding  his little brother to do better. At the time, it was a rare bit of inspiration from Billy (DEREK PHILLIPS), whose drinking exploits, too, were legendary and who spent as much time at “The Landing Strip” as he did at home.

Well, Billy helped Tim’s chances of going to college, eventually landing at San Antonio State, by making a DVD which they mailed to colleges and universities throughout…uh…West Texas…”Texas Forever”, right? As it turned out, college wasn’t for Riggins…or Riggins wasn’t for college…one or the other. But, we can hang on to our memories just by laying eyes on this item…kinda flying under the radar this week…it’s the DVD case featuring the West Texas version of Brad Pitt’s “Tristan” in LEGENDS OF THE FALL.  It’s Taylor Kitsch in all of his rugged glory…

Auctions close Tuesday…check them out at vipfanauctions.com