In “Inside the Episode,” writers and directors reflect on the making of their Emmy-winning episodes. Clear eyes. Full hearts .
.. It took a lot of tears, both on- and offscreen, but “Friday Night Lights,” the drama about small-town high school football that was about way more than just small-town high school football, finally won two Primetime Emmys in its final season.
At the 2011 ceremony, one award went to lead actor Kyle Chandler as the coach and (sometimes de facto) patriarch Eric Taylor. The other went to “FNL’s” behind-the-scenes father figure, showrunner Jason Katims, who wrote the drama’s series finale, “Always.” “FNL” was beloved because it had the magical ability to be set around the lives of high schoolers and their parents — Coach Taylor was nothing without his wife, Tami (played by 2011 Emmy nominee Connie Britton) — but to not necessarily feel like a teen soap.
“It’s funny, when I first started talking to reporters and critics about it, they would ask, ‘How does this compare to other teen shows?’” said Katims, who wrote for “My So-Called Life” and created “Roswell.” “Until somebody mentioned it as a possible teen genre kind of show, I literally never even thought of it that way. .
.. I thought of it as a story of this town, a story of these people.
” He speculates that perhaps this was because “even though those people are teens, they’re dealing with such adult things and themes.” To wit: The series finale is.