10 Behind The Scenes Facts About Friday Night Lights You Never Knew

10 Behind The Scenes Facts About Friday Night Lights You Never Knew

Friday Night Lights was as beloved a football show as you’ll ever find. These backstage tidbits are things you were probably unaware of.

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Fans of the iconic and critically acclaimed 2000s series remember Friday Night Lights for its authentic, hard-hitting storytelling and likable band of nuanced characters who were relatable in both their failures and successes. Through five seasons of the series, Friday Night Lights never had particularly high viewership, but those who did tune in became die-hard fans and the series won an Emmy Award during its run. In 2013, Friday Night Lights was ranked 22nd in the Writers Guild Of America’s list of the ‘101 Best Written Television Series Of All Time’.

The series remains a popular nostalgic show to this day. For audiences still pumping their fist to the motto “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,” here are 10 behind-the-scenes facts about Friday Night Lights you never knew.

10 Zach Gilford Couldn’t Keep A Straight Face While Filming

Fans immediately fell in love with the banter-filled friendship between Matt Saracen and Landry Clarke, but they may be surprised to know that during the filming of season one, almost all of the takes between the two were spoiled by Zach Gilford laughing at Jesse Plemons’ jokes.

Because Gilford couldn’t stop cracking up, many scenes starring the two had Gilford’s face cut off altogether for continuity purposes.

9 Lindsay Lohan Almost Played Tyra Collette

The role of Tyra Collette was originally slated to go to Lindsay Lohan, in large part because she was fresh off Herbie: Fully Loaded and had a recognizable star image. After Lohan turned down the role, there was a brief moment when Minka Kelly was teed up to take on the job, having first auditioned for Tyra instead of Lyla.

Instead, casting deemed Kelly better suited for the sweeter Lyla Garrity, and things fell into their rightful place after Adrianne Palicki was cast as Tyra.

8 Jason Street Was Based On A Real Person

Scott Porter’s Jason Street was actually based on a real Texas high school football player who became paralyzed after an injury similar to Street’s hit in the series. David Edwards – the real-life Street – unfortunately died while the series was filming, which only made Porter believe that his portrayal of Edwards be in the best light was even more important.

Edwards had given Peter Berg his blessing before his passing to have the Street storyline be based off his spinal injury experience as long as Berg gave it an uplifting twist.

7 Kyle Chandler And Connie Britton Road Tripped To Set

In order to bond for their roles as loving husband and wife, Chandler and Britton – who was reprising her role as Tami Taylor from the 2004 film – decided to road trip together from Los Angeles to Texas to film the show’s first season. The duo believed that doing so would allow them to forge a real connection that would translate to screen.

While Peter Berg worried “they would be having a torrid affair by the time they reached Santa Fe,” only a friendship materialized between them.

6 Many Of The Cast Members Were Unknowns

Most of the beloved main actors were unknowns working other jobs before being cast in Friday Night Lights. Zach Gilford worked at a sporting goods store before landing the part of Matt Saracen, and Minka Kelly was doing shifts as a nurse at a plastic surgery clinic. Taylor Kitsch was a part-time model who was homeless on-and-off before he moved out to Los Angeles and booked his breakout role.

Needless to say, Friday Night Lights was transformative for all its young stars.

5 The Series Was Filmed On Location

Peter Berg was adamant from the get-go that the series needed to be filmed on location in Texas, due to the fact he felt there was a cultural flare in Texas that could not be replicated on a soundstage of secondary location. Aside from a locker room that the crew built from scratch, the entire series was filmed on location with local background talent hired whenever the series shot in restaurants or public venues.

This run-and-gun style helped capture the authenticity of the fanatic football town that audiences came to adore throughout the series.

4 Taylor Kitsch Got Sick From The Riggins House

While Berg’s desire to keep everything real and on-location made for an indisputably authentic setting, things became unsafe for Taylor Kitsch when he got sick from mold in the house Riggins lived in during Season One.

The set eventually became so toxic for Kitsch that a doctor advised the crew to stop filming in the house due to the abundance of mold, which was hazardous to the entire crews’ wellbeing.

3 There Were No Rehearsals

The actors never rehearsed any of their scenes before shooting, and unlike traditional network shows, there were no fancy lighting set-ups or marks for the actors to hit. Executive Producer Jeffrey Reiner described their approach as a “you surprise me” style, where authenticity was the number one concern and cinematography was handheld and loose.

Perhaps this style was what audiences connected with most and what made Friday Night Lights a critical and Emmy Awards darling. It was never canned, and it never felt staged.

2 Taylor Kitsch Coined The Nickname “Six”

It was Taylor Kitsch who came up with Jason Street’s infamous nickname, “Six.” The nickname was not written into the script prior to shooting the hospital scene where Riggins first addresses Street as such. Instead, it came out from Kitsch improvising during some of the takes while filming.

After that moment, the nickname immediately caught on and stuck around for the remainder of the series. He even called other players by their numbers.

1 The Source Material Had Be Used Before

Before the series audiences know and love came to be, Friday Night Lights had a life of its own on the small and big screen. Based on the 1990 book of the same name by Buzz Bissinger, Friday Night Lights was originally optioned for a film and thus – as a workaround – NBC green-lit a loosely adapted series in 1993 starring a fresh-faced Ben Affleck called Against The Grain.

The series sputtered and only lasted eight episodes, but was followed in 2004 by the Friday Night Lights film before NBC revamped the then-available IP for primetime.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/friday-night-lights-unknown-backstage-tidbits/

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