fnl: if it ain’t broken…
i appreciate that large bottle of alcohol // nbc promotional photo
Yesterday, E! Online’s Watch with Kristin posted an interview with show runner Jason Katims (he of Lauren Graham courting) about the future of Friday Night Lights. Of course, the headline was “Friday Night Lights Boss Spills About Tension Between Tami and Eric Taylor in Season Four,” which led me to believe that the Best Couple Ever, Coach and Mrs. Coach, was headed toward a serious rough patch. More after the jump.
But here’s what Katims said, in reference to Coach Taylor moving to East Dillon while Tami remains the West Dillon principal:
The split definitely creates some tense moments between them. The thing that I love so much about Coach and Tami, as they’ve been realized by Kyle and Connie, is what a beautiful relationship they have and how well they overcome obstacles. What’s fun for us as writers is try to throw as many things at them to watch them emerge with their marriage intact. We try to find new things to throw at them. We knew Coach was moving to this new school, so we decided to keep Tami at West Dillon and to have that be a story point throughout the season for these two people who are in these two very different worlds now and at certain times those worlds very directly collide.
Definitely not breaking up material. In fact, the quote contains the phrase, “how well they overcome obstacles.” These two are an excellent example of a television couples whose fidelity to each other is unquestioned, whose love for each other is unquestioned, whose commitment to each other is unquestioned–and yet who still face very real, interesting, good-TV challenges. The difference between them and the typical television romance is that they face these challenges together, whether it’s an unexpected baby daughter, painful layoffs, or the terror of raising Julie Taylor. It’ll be interesting to watch them at professional odds for a while–because unlike some of their counterparts, we know they’ll never really be in trouble at home.
