A Friday Night Lights Superfan Understands the Arc of a Tim Riggins Girl to an Eric Taylor Woman

As Michael B. Jordan walked off stage after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor earlier this year for his work in Sinners, he pointed to fellow celebrated actor Jesse Plemons, who proudly beamed and pointed back at him. It was the highlight of my night because, to me, that’s Vince Howard and Landry Clark from Dillon, Texas!

My two all-time favorite television shows, the ones I will RIDE and DIE for, are Mad Men and Friday Night Lights. (Can you tell I’m a Gemini?)

A decade ago, I trekked down I-35 for the 10th anniversary of Friday Night Lights (“FNL” to the real ones) during the ATX TV Festival. I called it “The Pilgrimage” because I visited all the important stops, from the Riggins’ house to the Dairy Queen that doubled as The Alamo Freeze. For the celebration, the ATX TV Festival hosted a cast reunion and screening of a favorite episode, “The Son,” on the very field where they filmed the show’s football games. It felt like a big tailgate, with a “State Champs” banner on the goalpost and fans decked out in merch for both the Dillon Panthers and East Dillon Lions. Peeking in the abandoned locker room, I saw a paw print and “Texas Forever” written on the Panther blue walls. Plemons performed with fictional Christian heavy metal band Crucifictorious. Connie Britton’s cascading amber hair was even more glorious in person.

Texas Forever

Somehow, another decade passed, and the cast (including Hollywood heavy hitters Kyle Chandler, Britton, and Plemons) recently celebrated the perfect five-season show’s 20th anniversary with a reunion at ATX TV Festival. As a diehard fan, never have I ever experienced such FOMO. The national response showcased that WE THE PEOPLE WANT MORE!, so ATX TV and Plex teamed up for a five-city roadshow in celebration of the milestone. Luckily for me, Dallas was the first stop.

At the Cedars location of Alamo Drafthouse, a sold-out crowd arrived to screen an episode of Friday Night Lights (“Underdogs”), followed by a cast panel featuring Adrianne Palicki (Tyra Collette), Stacey Oristano (Mindy Riggins), Derek Phillips (Billy Riggins), Louanne Stephens (Grandma Saracen), Brad Leland (Buddy Garrity), and Liz Mikel (Corrina Williams).

Dallas Morning News reporter Sarah Hepola, a friend and colleague whom I sat next to at my one and only World Cup game, moderated the panel and spoke a universal truth for the Millennial women in attendance. “I used to be a Tim Riggins Girl,” she said. “Now, 20 years later, I’m a Coach Eric Taylor Woman.” And that’s on GROWTH.

Amongst the cast in attendance, the Dallas roots run deep, of course. Mikel is a beloved stage actress and member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company at Dallas Theater Center. Leland, who played Buddy Garrity, was a high school football player at Plano Senior High School. Each spoke with such fervor for Friday Night Lights, reminiscing on the experience with a deep-rooted gratitude and nostalgia.

Inside the Locker Room

Some highlights:

• Stephens, who played the beloved Grandma Saracen, recently rewatched the entire series. “I laughed, I cried. It was better than I remembered. I was blown away. Each person seemed like the only person who could have played that role.”
• Leland emphasized that the show was never really about Texas or high school football. “That’s just the backdrop. It’s about community, and that’s why it will live on.”
• All the cast members praised creator Pete Berg’s unique style of shooting the show, where cameras were often hidden (so actors wouldn’t know where they were), and actors were encouraged to improvise beyond the script. The actors called the camera guys “snipers,” and the camera guys called the filming style “the dance.” Leland said, “Sometimes we followed the script, and other times we just threw it away.”
• Unlike today, when cell phones often act as characters in a show or movie and drive the plot forward, cell phones weren’t part of Friday Night Lights. These were characters who still showed up at each other’s houses, and that established the sense of community.
• When Mikel’s house tragically burned down and she lost everything, the wardrobe team sent boxes of her character’s clothes.

Hepola ended the Q&A by asking each actor what they took from the set when the show ended. Stephens took some of Grandma’s ceramic cats. Palicki took Tyra’s “bras and boots!”

Lastly, Oristano took the framed photos from the Riggins’ house and later gifted Friday Night Lights super fan Mae Whitman one of the photos of Tim Riggins.

Hey, the heart wants what the heart wants. #33