Paley Festival: 'Friday Night Lights' holds onto hope

"This NBC/DirectTV deal better go through," says TV Guide writer Michael Ausiello at Wednesday's PaleyFest panel for Friday Night Lights. The audience members, with their clear eyes and full hearts, can't lose their show. Can they? Unfortunately, there's still no word if the critically acclaimed series will return for a third season.

The night kicks off with a clip from Room 222 featuring the late Paul Winfield as a has-been football player who recruits an up-and-comer to his university on scholarship, even though actually graduating is an unlikely prospect. It's a rather heavy clip, but as in Friday Night Lights, the young man being courted has hard decisions to make, values to weigh.

This genuine quality is why FNL has such a passionate, dedicated fan base -- as small as it is. This is also why NBC, who can't ignore the low numbers, is trying to see if they can partner with someone to offset the cost of the show. In the proposal, DirecTV will get the new episodes first, with NBC airing them later.

"There's no deal yet for the show but we remain incredibly optimistic that it will happen, and it will happen soon," says executive producer Jason Katims. "[The fans and network] are working really hard to keep the show going ... DirecTV is not the only one -- other people have expressed interest in the show. The answer would be pretty soon -- two or three weeks away from knowing what's going to happen."

It's not exactly the good news fans wanted to hear, but they're used to living in limbo when it comes to the fate of their favorite show. Every extension has been a victory -- the lack of cancellation, the pickup of the back nine episodes the first season, the 15-episode order for the second season. And then the writers went on strike, making the networks look harder at the show's lackluster ratings.

But all that doom and gloom aside, what could fans expect if the show is picked up for another season?

"My instinct would be that we'd start with the next year and use what happened at the end of this season as backstory," says Katims, mourning that the Smash storyline wouldn't play out completely. "To me, it was one of the most compelling storylines of the season ... [So we'd need to see] how to give that its due.

"In the second season we did decide to deemphasize football a little bit," he adds. "Should we come back, we want to focus more on football for the third season."

Even if FNL does return for many more seasons, there's no guarantee that the same young cast will be around since their characters will have to graduate someday, leaving the life of a Panther behind.

Scott Porter, who plays paralyzed Jason Street, relates, "[During the shooting of the pilot, creator Peter Berg] sat us down and said, 'I don't know how long you're going to be around. You're high school students, and we're aiming to be very genuine.' So we're prepared for that."

While the evening has a degree of seriousness given the uncertain nature of the show's future, it's still an entertaining night, given that Porter also has the chutzpah to reprise the dance from his film Music & Lyrics that star Hugh Grant had choreographed. As the crowd cheers, Porter gamely exhibits his skill to perform the "motorcycle with hip thrust" move before waggling his butt to the audience and taking his seat.

Other revelations for the night:

Aimee Teegarden on her character's brattiness: "[Julie] definitely has a lot of issues, but I kind of understand her a little bit. She's used to having her parents there all the time, abut no there's this thing that cuter and smaller and more adorable than you. Not that I'm not adorable. What was the question?"

Connie Britton on her chemistry with Kyle Chandler: "We shared the same idea of how we wanted to establish the marriage. Kyle and I share similar values and senses of humor ... [It's based on the characters trusting each other.] We decided that neither of [our characters] should have an affair. That's not the reality that we are playing."

Zach Gilford notes that many of the guest actors have been Texas locals with no acting experience. But he was in for a surprise when he talked to the woman who played the lap dancer at the strip club. "I was like, 'So what do you do?' She had, like, an MFA in acting."

Britton: "Taylor [Kitsch] can't keep a straight face in the scene. He's such a goof all the time."

Adrianne Palicki's fears about the Tyra murder storyline: "I was at first a little nervous, at the same time I care about Tyra. This guy tried to rape her. Let's put him in the ground ... Ultimately I'm thankful for it because I got to work with Jesse, who's an amazing actor."

Katims also defends the unpopular plotline: "[People objected] because it felt like it wasn't the show, as if it were corrupted or deranged. That [reaction] honors the show ... and it does pay off. We had to get there."

The Friday Night Lights panel will soon be available to view on the Paley Center for Media website.

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