clear eyes, full hearts

[jaina]

On Wednesday, sirrogue and I got to go to the PaleyFest Friday Night Lights panel. It was AWESOME.

We left home around 12:45 pm so we wouldn't have to deal with nasty traffic, and so I could take Rogue to the FIDM museum to see the Stardust costumes (and all the other costumes too, of course). We were able to get to the Cinerama Dome, where the event was taking place, by 4:30, and stake out spots in line so we could get good seats. There were maybe a dozen people ahead of us in the general admission line. And we did get excellent seats-- seventh row, center, directly behind the super-expensive tickets. Ha! All those years of movie line-waiting have really paid off.

I'd never been to a PaleyFest event before, and I really had no idea what to expect. I definitely didn't know we were going to watch an episode! But we did, the second-to-last one of this season, where Matt has his meltdown and TMU revokes Smash's scholarship and Tami forgets to take Julie to the DMV, and Tyra asks everyone for advice about Landry. And towers over little geek-girl Jean. It's always fun to watch an episode of a show with a ton of fans-- lots of laughter and clapping and cheers and other vocal reactions.

So after that, Michael Ausiello from TVGuide came out and talked awhile, since he was moderating the panel. He's exactly as smug IRL as he is online, but he was overall a decent moderator and made sure everyone got to answer at least one good question, so I'll give him a pass. The panel, in order across the stage:

Jason Katims (exec producer/writer)
Jeffrey Reiner (exec producer/writer)
Connie Britton (Mrs Coach)
Scott Porter (Jason Street)
Minka Kelly (Lyla Garrity)
Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor)
Zach Gilford (OH MATT SARACEN)
Adrianne Palicki (Tyra Collette)

Not on the panel was Kyle Chandler (Coach), even though he was supposed to be there. They said he was shooting a movie in Vancouver and it went longer than expected. Sadness. :(

I didn't take very detailed notes, and I'm sure there are full transcripts elsewhere. But here are my random memories and thoughts from the evening:

- You know how sometimes you go to a panel, and you can hardly recognize some of the actors? Not here. Everyone looked *exactly* the same as they do on the show. Not really surprising, just-- kinda cool.

- On that note, either Zach Gilford came in character, or he *is* Matt Saracen. I'm betting on the latter. It's *adorable.* Just look at how he's sitting in his chair. He sat like that the whole time. The contrast with Scott Porter was especially strong-- Scott looks all "hello, fellow citizens!" and Zach looks all "oh god why are all these people looking at me?" He was so shy and modest and, well, adorable. And he had most of the best quotes of the night:

• Asked how it was to shoot the shower scene (after Coach takes Matt and Grandma home from the hospital, and throws him in the shower and yells at him):
  "It was cold."
  
• On the reasons why that scene was so amazing:
  "They shot it at good angles, and Kyle was really good."
  
• On the "culture shock" returning to Hollywood after shooting in Texas for so long:
  "It's like when you go to the Peace Corps, and then you come back...maybe that's just me. That was a really bad analogy."
  
• Discussing how sometimes they have "real people" playing the characters rather than actors:
  "In the strip club scene, I was like, 'So...is this what you do?'...found out later she has an MFA in acting."
  
• On the hotness of Taylor Kitsch (a question that was asked to the ladies):
  "It's actually kind of distracting."
  
• On the show not getting any Emmy love:
  "Pssht."

- They all *love* shooting in Texas. They love Austin.

- Connie and Kyle really are that close. They really do care that much about Coach and Mrs. Coach. They have coffee together in the mornings. ("Not hard liquor," Connie assured us.)

- Taylor (Riggins) is apparently a *huge* goofball, always cracking up in scenes and stuff. And he has a high-pitched "hee-hee" laugh that all the girls took great glee in imitating for us.

- At Ausiello's prompting, Scott did a bit of the "Pop Goes My Heart" dance for us. And then told us that Taylor likes to make him do the dance.

- Scott's mike fell off early on, and he kept trying to reattach it. This cracked Minka up. Finally the mike guy came to fix it, and Scott put on his best "dude" voice and said, "I flexed, and my mike fell off."

- They (writers/producers) know the murder storyline was not great. They are very, very sorry and promise to never do it again if we'll stop bringing it up. They wanted to find a way to bring Landry and Tyra together.

- The episodes we didn't get were going to be more football-heavy and really focused on Smash. I WANT THOSE EPISODES. BOO.

- Sometimes the actors get the scripts and have the same reactions we initially might. They're very protective of their characters. But usually by the end they feel like it really did work. Minka, Scott, and Taylor were terrified of the scene in the bar at the end of the Mexico arc.

- ETA: Still no news on next season. They all "remain optimistic" but nothing is for sure yet. They wish they had some news as much as we do.

Here are some pictures we took.

I am sad beyond words that I probably will never get to see anything like this for FNL again. Why don't regular shows have cons like genre shows do? Why can't FNL have a token alien or ghost or psychic or something, so they could have a panel at Comic-Con?