Sports Guy Sez Save Friday Night Lights

Fibby passed this along and it's so darn good that I'm going to reprint it here in its entirety. Please visit ESPN's website and patronize their advertisers so they don't sue me for copyright infringement, etc.

I recognize that at this point, all ten of my friends who read this blog have either 1) watched FNL and are already addicted or 2) decided not to watch it just on principle. I am unlikely to change any more minds on the show directly, but maybe you all have other friends to whom you can spread the FNL gospel.

Editor's note: This column appears in the September 24 issue of ESPN The Magazine.

If last year's memorable TV phrase was "Save the cheerleader, save the world," I'm declaring this year's to be "Save the show." NBC is damned close to burying Friday Night Lights, which would be a shame on a number of levels, but none more serious than this one: It's the greatest sports-related show ever made. Returning for a second season on Oct. 5, it's a fair bet that FNL will be canceled by Christmas. And when it is, it's going to be because of people like you.

If you're reading this, then you should be watching Friday Night Lights.

Now, I know only about a thousand people, not counting the anonymous folks in my Barely Legal chat rooms. Since almost two million people subscribe to this magazine, there's an overwhelming chance we don't know each other. That said, I feel confident about making the following three generalizations:

No. 1: You're reading this magazine because you like sports.

Okay, maybe you're killing time in a doctor's office, or maybe you stumbled across this issue in an airplane seat pouch, sandwiched between a barf bag and a catalog that sells night-vision goggles. But I'm going with the odds: If you're reading ESPN The Mag right now, there's a 96% chance you like sports, a 3% chance you're killing time -- and a 1% chance you're stoned and think you're reading Rolling Stone.

No. 2: If you like to watch TV, you wouldn't knowingly turn your back on a great show.

I know, I know, that sounds like a quote from Joe Theismann. But most rational TV fans will cave once a show generates enough buzz, either because their curiosity is piqued or because it's on cable with an "N" or an "SSC" in the ratings. Hey, I've been there myself: I held out on The Sopranos and The Wire. I don't like being told what to watch; this dates back to when a fellow fourth-grader made me feel dumb because I wasn't watching Doctor Who reruns, and we ended up fighting to a draw at recess. But when the buzz passed a certain tipping point, I gave in and gave both HBO icons a fair chance. Before long, I realized they're the two most important TV shows of all time, narrowly edging out Beavis and Butt-Head. Point is, you can never know for sure until you watch.

(I know that in certain cases you ignore the buzz simply because you don't give a crap about the subject matter. I feel this way about tennis, a sport I once loved, before it became too fast and impersonal for its own good. You could pull a Biff Tannen and guarantee that Roger Federer and Andy Roddick were about to play the greatest match ever, and I wouldn't tune in. But who doesn't want to get hooked on a good TV show? Well, except those who are homeschooled.)

No. 3: If Nos. 1 and 2 are true, there's an overwhelming chance you'd love FNL -- and a decent chance you aren't watching it. And if that's the case, don't you owe it to yourself to rent Season 1, Disc 1, and try the first four episodes? Look, if FNL doesn't make it, we're just going to get more Grey's Anatomy spin-offs, a CSI for every city and 20 Deal or No Deal clones. Hollywood doesn't like to take chances, and it doesn't like to fail; it figures out what works, bleeds it to death, then flips the corpse and bleeds it some more. Execs don't care that a few million faithful treasure a show, singing its praises like religious fanatics. They care only that 15 to 20 million kinda-sorta-maybe like it. And it doesn't matter who those viewers are or how dumb they might be, either, as long as they keep coming back for more.

Despite what I might have said in the past about jumping on team bandwagons, you shouldn't feel guilty about jumping on this one. I watched the pilot when it originally aired, but I didn't love it: too much puke-cam (the camera stopped moving so much in later episodes) and an unspeakable sports inconsistency (Dillon High completes a game-winning Hail Mary that could have happened only on a 140-yard field). Once the abysmal ratings were announced, I assumed the show was doomed and opted not to waste my time with Episode 2. Networks pull the plug so quickly these days, you can be burned by getting hooked on something no one else is watching. Ask my wife, who's still complaining about never having learned the identity of the murderer on FOX's Reunion.

After FNL garnered its critical groundswell, I decided to wait for the late-summer DVD release to dive back in. My buddy Connor, a man who knows how to get things, refused to accept this, mailing me the Japanese import in June. That's right, I have a friend who loves FNL so much, he actually couldn't deal with my being willing to wait two more months to see it. So he called in some connections and possibly violated U.S.-Japan trade agreements so I could catch up. As he predicted, the Sports Gal and I ripped through all 22 episodes in a week, learning the Japanese words for "play," "stop" and "pause" in the process. Quite simply, FNL is the best date show ever, an improbable cross between The O.C. and every sports show you ever wanted Hollywood to make. It's the first show my wife and I have loved equally, but for different reasons. What can be better than that?

On Aug. 28, NBC released the American DVDs with a "satisfaction guaranteed" gimmick. Now if you continue to ignore FNL, it's only because you're trying to hurt me. If you do give it a shot, let me recommend the impeccable acting, the lively football scenes (although they tend to go overboard on exciting finishes), the risky story lines and especially Coach Taylor's family, the most authentic household in recent TV history. Every nuance is nailed, every hug seems genuine, every fight makes sense, every sarcastic barb and flustered reaction ring true. If there are better TV actors than Kyle Chandler (Coach) and Connie Britton (Mrs. Coach), I haven't TiVoed them. Pay particular attention to the astonishing two-parter in which an older assistant sets off a racial powder keg before a big playoff game. If FNL were Michael Jordan, Lyla Garrity's slam-page episode would be the 63-point game in Boston (the coming-out party), and the two-parter would be the 1991 Finals (the moment considerable potential is realized).

Look, I'm the biggest White Shadow fan on the planet ... and even I concede that FNL is the greatest sports show ever. Shadow died prematurely because the story line called for it to graduate too many key characters at once. I can live with that. FNL is going to die prematurely because five times as many Americans would rather watch an acerbic British guy belittle dreadful singers on a reality show. I can't live with that.

So please, please help me and every other FNL fanatic. Watch the show. Spread the gospel. You won't save the world as they did in Heroes, and you probably won't prevail in the end, but as Coach Taylor once told his team, "Every man at some point in his life is going to lose a battle. He's going to fight, and he's going to lose. But what makes him a man is that in the midst of that battle, he does not lose himself."

I pray we're not sticking that quote on his TV tombstone in two months.

Bill Simmons is a columnist for Page 2 and ESPN The Magazine. His book "Now I Can Die In Peace" is available in paperback.

Dunnest

It's official. I passed.

The bad news: now I can be liable for malpractice.

First Look: Gossip Girl

I downloaded the pilot for Gossip Girl from iTunes on this rainy evening. It's an amusing romp through some sort of cross between The O.C. and 90210. They're going to need to spice up the quippyness of its dialogue a bit, but I think that could happen with Josh Schwartz at the helm. If it does, this could be a good solid WB/CW-style viewing option.

Penn Badgley (right) particularly stole the show in the pilot. He was also great on the short-lived Bedford Diaries, so it's nice to see him back. Kristen Bell's voice-overs were also excellent -- I was never a loyal Veronica Mars fan but I have seen enough episodes to appreciate why many people were. Here, the unseen Kristen adds a bit of star-appeal to the show with her commentaries as Gossip Girl herself.

I look forward to watching this one unfold. Hopefully the CW will stick with it long enough to let it find its voice (and audience).

The Back to School Post

For the last 29 years or so, my life has been lived on a school calendar. Every year since I was about two, I've either begun a new school year or a new job (usually at a school) in late August or early September. At some point, I suppose this will change. At some point, I will have a job that doesn't change schedules and begin a markedly new year in August or September. But, as my one-year clerkship has just begun, it will be a couple more years before that happens.

One of the great thing about living life on the school calendar is seeing all your friends again and making a bunch of new ones when school starts back up again in the fall. Sometimes, you can even manage to arrange things so that the people who made you feel uncomfortable last year aren't around any more or aren't too close by in the new school year. And, inevitably, every year you end up missing a few people who have moved on and don't sit next to you in class anymore.

TV is like this too. (You knew this post was going to get back to TV at some point, didn't you?) Every fall, the some old friends return, a bunch of new ones arrive, and some others go their separate ways. Sure, you have a few friends from summer camp (like the boys and girls from Army Wives, Side Order of Life, Saving Grace, and Mad Men this summer), but you miss your school year friends by the time August rolls around.

This year, I'm looking forward to spending some school nights with the folks from Dillon, Texas, the McHotties at Seattle Grace Hospital, and the Walkers from SoCal. Heck, I'll even be glad to see Denny Crane and Alan Shore and Tony Gates and Neela Rasgotra back on my TiVo again. But in general, this is going to be a year for making new friends. With Star's Hollow closed to tourists, Orange County destroyed by an earthquake, and Studio 60 canceled due to ratings, there are several slots available in my back-to-school social calendar.

Part of the fun of a new school year is the unexpected joy in meeting a really amazing new friend, like last year's Panthers. It's too early at this point to guess at who might play that role this year. Gossip Girl, Chuck and Private Practice will get an audition on my TiVo merely because of their impressive pedigrees. (Gossip Girl and Chuck are from O.C.-creator Josh Schwartz and Private Practice is, of course, the long-awaited Kate Walsh-headed Grey's Anatomy spin-off from Shonda Rhimes.) Pushing Daisies will also get an audition, largely because of the overwhelmingly positive reviews it's getting. I will be minding the buzz and adding a few other try-outs into the TiVo To-Do list as the need arises.

And I promise to post more often once the new school (TV) year begins in a couple weeks. There's just only so many times a girl can post about how good Army Wives is before she decides to just go dark until the school year starts again. In the meantime, I will reiterate my spring posts by reminding my reticent readers that the first season of Friday Night Lights may be streamed for free on-line, Netflix'd, or purchased. You really ought to do that before the October 5th premiere. Really. Even if you hate football.

Ah, to be back in Star's Hollow...

In tiny Brooklin, Maine, just up the road from WoodenBoat Harbor (where the magazine and school of the same name live), there is an inn that will make any faithful Legally Blonde reader have a sad little smile on her face. I bring you: The Dragonflye Inn. Lorelai herself would feel right at home. And Luke would have a place to finally launch his boat. I suppose that Friday night dinners could have been held in Northeast Harbor (near where Martha Stewart's summer home is) so that the senior Gilmores had a tony-enough enclave to call their own. It's not Cape Cod or the Hamptons, but it's darn close. (In this parallel Star's Hollow universe, Richard is already retired, of course.) Maybe Rory would have gone to Bowdoin, which, with a little Hollywood movie magic, could be conveniently relocated to be within a 40 minute drive of both her mother and her grandparents. And while Bowdoin isn't really the same as Yale, Rory certainly could have picked up the likes of Logan (and we do likes Logan, don't we?) there quite easily, secret society and all, I'm guessing. What do you think? Should I send my proposal to Amy Sherman-Palladino and see if she's up for a second go-round, relocated to coastal Maine?

Dunner

Remember a while back when I announced I was done? Well, back then, I lied. Tonight, it is no longer a lie. I am finally not only done, but also dunner. I will not know until October whether I passed. At that point, assuming things do not go horribly wrong, I suppose I will announce that I am dunnest.

A blog redesign is in the works and the tv commentary will recommence after these brief messages (or a two-week sail). In the meantime, go watch Army Wives on Lifetime. No really. Go watch it. Remember when I told you that Friday Night Lights was good? Well Army Wives is officially that kind of good. Go TiVo it for god's sake. Oh, and if, like Craftosaurus, you don't have cable and a tivo box, go get one for god's sake. You graduated from law school and now you have a paycheck. Use it to bring happiness to your living room.

I Take It All Back

A few months ago, I reported the demise of Studio 60 as expected and acceptable. But I'd like to take it all back.

Not every episode was great. But all of them were better than most of the tv shows being produced for next year. And the great ones were truly fantastic. Leave it to Aaron Sorkin to write one of the most satisfying and engrossing series finales I've ever seen. It was a happy ending for everyone, but didn't descend into cheesy montage. The acting was superb (which means the writing was too). Even Sarah Paulson's performance as Harry ceased to grate on me in these past few episodes.

I would like the show back. I know it's not coming back. But I would like it back.

Barring that: please give me another series written by Sorkin and starring Timothy Busfield, Matthew Perry, and Bradley Whitford... oh, and maybe Allison Janney too. Maybe Rob Lowe and Mary-Louise Parker could even drop in from time to time. Would that really be too much to ask? (Perhaps I should just occupy my TiVo by recording reruns of the West Wing...)

Aurora Borealis: A Truly Terrible Movie

In addition to watching the handful of new shows I posted about here, I've been using my Netflix queue a fair bit lately. One of the themes in my queue is Josh Jackson. I've been working my way through his back catalog, not because it's excellent but because I simply enjoy watching him on screen. Americano was surprisingly good, with Dennis Hopper playing an intriguing and more than a little crazy ex-pat who Josh's character meets when he goes to Spain to run with the bulls. Shadows in the Sun matched up Josh's character with a reclusive ex-pat writer played by the ever-brilliant Harvey Keitel. And then, last night I watched Aurora Borealis in which Donald Sutherland played Josh's ailing grandfather (who was a bit of a recluse, though not an ex-pat). Yes, there seems to be a theme here. Put Josh on screen with a talented, distinguished actor and the two of them have a nice time growing Josh's character up for 2 hours. But in each of these movies there also has to be a love interest for Josh's character (of course) who also helps him grow up. In Americano and Shadows, the women were delightful, believable if unremarkable actresses who seemed to have a little chemistry with Josh. Last night, the woman was Juliette Lewis and I thought she was awful! I don't know if it was her voice or something about her mannerisms, but I thought she was the most annoying "leading lady" I've seen on screen in ages. And there was absolutely no chemistry between Josh and Juliette. During the scenes with Donald Sutherland and the talented Louise Fletcher (who played Josh's grandmother), I cared about the characters and enjoyed watching. Whenever Juliette showed up on screen, I thought about turning the darn thing off (and I have a very high tolerance for annoying TV).

The writing was excellent and the story was compelling and I kept thinking how one terrible casting decision could spoil a whole movie. The words were coming out of Juliette's mouth, and they sounded like she was reading the lines that were actually designed for someone else! (I think Keri Russell or Rachel McAdams would have been my choice for the recast, but any number of women would have worked...)

Anyway, this is one you can leave off the Netflix queue!

What I'm Watching this Summer

With almost all my regular appointment viewing on hiatus for the summer (or canceled forever, R.I.P. Star's Hollow), whatever shall I watch? Well, it actually hasn't been too hard to sprinkle my TiVo To Do List with a few summer flings, some of which may actually be good enough to watch during the winter months too (if they're allowed to stick around that long)!

Hidden Palms: Ok, so this little summer fling by Kevin Williamson (Dawson's, Scream) is not the classiest show that ever was. It's not quite as sharp and quippy as the first season of The O.C. But it has a neat undercurrent of mystery that Dawson's and the O.C. never had, so it's got enough that's new to keep me interested. I'm hoping the writing will sharpen a little once we get to know the characters and can deal with a bit less exposition. Only 8 episodes on this one though. And I'll be surprised if the CW picks it up (although they definitely need SOMETHING for their schedule, having canceled Gilmore and Veronica Mars).

Falcon Beach: This is one of the shows I probably should just not admit I'm watching. It's terrible. No really, it's terrible. And I watch it every week during the summer. It's in its second season (Why and how? No idea. But I'm still watching...)

Army Wives: This Lifetime original series is really surprisingly good. It's produced by one of the executive producers from Grey's and really well written. It has a great ensemble cast that clicked with me right from the start. (I love Kim Delaney from her role as Rebecca on The O.C.). It portrays a really nice cross-section of army life on one base (different ages, different ranks, different social classes, even different genders and races -- one of the "wives" is a black man whose wife is an officer.)

The Starter Wife: Oh this show is just plain fun. It's billed as a mini-series: 6 or 8 hours I think with no intention of a pick-up, which is too bad. It has a bit of an Ally McBeal sensibility at times because it's funny and has silly dream/fantasy sequences in places. The entire reason this show works is Debra Messing. She's great. She has all the comedic timing she needs, but also has the dramatic, expressive face to pull off this rather melodramatic role without sounding ridiculous.

Deadliest Catch/After the Catch: Ah, the one show I can watch with my boys. We TiVo it and then enjoy it together on the couch before G's bedtime. He's fascinated. After the Catch is a new series to accompany the original; the captains just sit around with host Mike Rowe in a Seattle bar and swap fish stories. And we're fascinated. My dad asked at dinner the other night why anyone watches this. I'm not really sure, but it's just about the best "reality" TV out there. I think it's good because it really seems real. It's just a long documentary, rather than a contrived social experiment or a game show.

Studio 60: I've said my peace about this show. Last night's episode was fantastic. Last week's was not. The week before that it was good. Who knows what the rest of the run will bring, but I'll be watching to find out.

My Boys: The only half-hour comedy on my TiVo season pass list returns in July for a 9 episode run. Can't wait to see what P.J. and the boys are up to!

... and streaming...

The Bachelor: I didn't watch this season. It's not my favorite reality show (because I find it more than a little distasteful to watch this guy "date" multiple women at the same time). But this year's bachelor is hot and ABC posted the last 4 episodes on their website, so I'll watch them and see who "wins."

Six Degrees: This is one of those shows that everyone forgot about. The last 8 episodes never ran on ABC, but they're streaming on the website, so I'll watch them when nothing else is sitting in my TiVo's Now Playing list for me!

All in all, not a bad summer of TV.

S60: K&R ... wow.

Wow. Just wow. I think I get it now. Studio 60 was never supposed to be a funny story about a comedy show. That's 30 Rock. No, S60 was supposed to be about a world where smart people have to try to write some funny lines in the middle of a not very funny world. The sketches weren't supposed to be funny. The show wasn't supposed to be funny. Sure, there are supposed to be amusing moments (back in the day, how many times did we laugh at something C.J. Cregg said or did -- or sang?), but really the tone of the show should have had much more in common with the West Wing from the very start.

Tonight's episode was perfect. Better than the "Disaster Show" episode that I praised a couple weeks ago. It reminded me of the way that the West Wing did drama. There's something big going on in the world -- there's a war in Afghanistan -- but it's connected to the characters' lives in a bunch of different ways, and we get to see how the characters struggle with that and make sense of it (rather than having Aaron Sorkin preach to us about what's right and wrong -- or struggle to make light of it). The vagaries of network politics and ratings just didn't pack enough punch for those of us who live outside of L.A. to make us care, but tonight there was enough there to make me care.

I loved the montage of Harriet and Matt fighting about religion for 8 years, and then the pay-off when Matt says a little prayer, in his own way, for Jordan at the very end of the episode as he and Harry are headed off to the hospital.

I loved that Jordan asked about the cut and clarity of the ring before she said yes, and then teased Danny about the ring size as they wheeled her off to surgery. Not because these lines were funny (though they were) but because they were human and touching and just plain good writing.

And so I wonder what might have been if the network execs and Sorkin's own demons hadn't run this thing off the tracks.

Here's to hoping that the last couple episodes stay this good and then to watching out for Sorkin's next adventure.

TV Squad blogger Jay Black fervently disagrees, although many of the commenters on his blog agree with me.