Peter Berg may be the big winner in tonight’s debate — as both President Obama and Governor Romney perhaps unwittingly made reference to the director’s work.
When President Obama attacked Romney for calling Russia the biggest geopolitical threat, Romney responded with part of his favorite campaign slogan, cribbed from Berg’s Friday Night Lights. READ FULL STORY »
Ann Romney is a big fan of Modern Family — but it seems like her husband’s more of a Friday Night Lights kind of guy. The former governor of Massachusetts quoted the TV series’ Coach Taylor in a speech today, though he didn’t single out Kyle Chandler’s character by name.
After telling an audience about a cancer-stricken boy named David Oparowski, Romney slipped in the money quote: “I saw some years later a phrase that seemed to capture my memory of David Oparowski: Clear eyes, full heart, can’t lose.” (On the show, the “hearts” were generally plural.)
And Romney didn’t stop there: “This is something that we share in this country,” he continued. “Men and women of clear eyes, full hearts, and America can’t lose.” Check out the video below:
Image Credit: Vivian Zink/NBC
If you missed the premiere of NBC’s new comedy Bent last night — and judging by the ratings, many of you did — you can read Ken Tucker’s review here. What I want to discuss is whether the show lost whatever cool points it got for making “Riggins” the last name of contractor Pete (David Walton) by choosing “Screwsie” as the name for the wild younger sister (Margo Harshman) of his new client Alex (Amanda Peet).
Riggins was the last name of Taylor Kitsch’s character on Friday Night Lights, and since Bent cast FNL‘s Jesse Plemons (i.e. Landry) as one of Pete’s crew, it’s safe to assume the shoutout was intentional. Riggins fits Pete. He’s a laid-back bad boy who could have any woman he wants for a night except good girl Alex, a newly single mom with a new rich doctor boyfriend. She’d need Pete to be a better, more responsible man before she’d sleep with him. I assume Screwsie is a clever nickname for a promiscuous screwup actually named Susie, and the fact that Alex loves her sister is supposed to give us hope that she could love Pete. But Screwsie? Really? Or am I the only one it annoyed?
Read more:
NBC’s ‘Bent’ premiere ratings out of shape
‘Bent’ premiere review: Does this good sitcom deserve better treatment from its network?
John Carter star Taylor Kitsch stopped by the Late Show With David Letterman last night and entertained Dave with a story about getting stopped by customs at an airport in the Philippines when his passport had no room left for a stamp. He was informed he was going to be sent back on the next plane to Japan, where he just flew in from, but Kitsch, who had a work visa to film the upcoming Oliver Stone film Savages, told the agent he was an actor — which the man didn’t believe. With the airport’s computers down, and the man not familiar with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Kitsch pulled out his iPhone and played him the John Carter trailer. “He’s like, ‘That’s not you.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘You have short hair.’ And I’m like, ‘Mate, I cut it. It grows. It’s me,’” Kitsch says. Luckily, the guy liked the trailer and Kitsch got to stay. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Paul Drinkwater/NBC
If you’ve been on Twitter in the last week, odds are your feed had multiple people tweeting about the TV shows they were self-marathoning. With repeats filling the current TV schedule, vacation days to burn, and a need for a break from relatives, it seems an ideal time to catch up on shows you missed or revisit ones you loved. Because we forecast this trend to continue through Jan. 2, let’s just get go ahead and get it all out here, folks. Spot Inspection: What TV show are you marathoning?
I know I wasn’t the only one hitting Friday Night Lights last week. (Thank you, Netflix.) After seeing back-to-back Taylor Kitsch trailers for John Carter and Battleship in theaters, I decided I needed to properly mourn the cutting of Kitsch’s hair for the latter. I also needed to come to terms with the fact that the FNL character I most resembled in high school was not a leading lady but Julie’s friend Lois, the one who, after Julie recounts how Kitsch’s Tim Riggins shielded her during a tornado in season 2, asks, “Tim Riggins was, like, holding you? … What does he smell like?”*
Your turn.
*If you follow me on Twitter, you already knew that.
Image Credit: Ray Mickshaw/Fox
Welcome to the fold, X Factor! In a list just released by Nielsen, Simon Cowell’s latest endeavor was the only newbie to rank among 2011′s top 10 shows in terms of product placement tie-ins. Then again, it’s no surprise since Cowell’s former stomping grounds American Idol ranked first, with an egregious 577 advertiser-friendly placements over the course of season 10 — and that’s even without Cowell.
Interestingly, Fox wasn’t the most product-laden network. That dubious honor went to NBC, where The Biggest Loser, The Celebrity Apprentice, America’s Got Talent, and even beloved drama Friday Night Lights (the only non-reality show on the list) all found a place in the top 10. Which other shows shamelessly pimped their advertisers’ merch this year? Read on… READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: NBC As 2011 comes to a close, EW.com wanted to honor some of the hardworking names and faces from behind the scenes for their outstanding achievements. Here, Emmy-winning writer and executive producer
As told by: Jason Katims
We knew it was the final season and we really wanted to do a great story for Coach and Tami. As writers, we were trying to figure out what to do that was different from what we had done before. When we came up with the notion that she gets offered this job that would relocate them, we thought that was really interesting. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Paul Drinkwater
Okay, so it certainly would have been nice if the demand for the exceptionally talented cast of Friday Night Lights had been this high while the show was actually, you know, on the air, as opposed to after the show’s run. But, as any true blue FNL fan can attest, we’ll take more Riggins, Coach, Mrs. Coach, and the other attractive, complex, football-loving citizens of Dillon, Texas where we can get them. (Except for you, Epyck. Everyone but you.)
Image Credit: Donna Ward/Getty Images
It’s hard to say, “Poor Minka Kelly!” (I mean, come on… seriously!) But, as any avid fan of Friday Night Lights can attest, we tend to keep an eye out for our beloved Dillon natives. (In case you were wondering what all that excessive gawking at Taylor Kitsch was about. Just keepin’ tabs on Timmy Riggins, is all.)
Still, it was hard not to feel a little bad for “poor Minka Kelly” when it was announced today that her new series, ABC’s remake of Charlie’s Angels, has been canceled. And just a few weeks after her split from longtime boyfriend Derek Jeter, no less. But, let’s not feel too sorry for Lyla Garrity for too long (because, seriously, come on). Because I’m pretty sure the Bravermans would still love to have Kelly back as Max’s behavioral aide Gaby over on Parenthood. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Justin Stephens/NBC
Hey, ya’ll, did you hear the news that a Friday Night Lights movie is in the works? Peter Berg, the executive producer of the recently departed (sigh!), Emmy-nominated (woo hoo!) series, told reporters at the TCAs that FNL would be heading (back) to the big screen. And exec producer Jason Katims told EW that the script process is “still very early — I’m just beginning to plot out the story for the script — but it’s something that we’re all excited about.”
For any fan of FNL, this is bound to bring up some conflicting feelings. READ FULL STORY »
