No FNL movie, Peter Berg's 50th birthday

Connie Britton, Peter Berg, Kyle Chandler and Aimee Teegarden

Our clear eyes got a little misty and our full hearts deflated a bit when we heard that the long-rumored "Friday Night Lights" movie is probably never happening. Kyle Chandler has said he thinks the show ended perfectly as it is, and executive producer Peter Berg (Happy 50th birthday!) recently declared the project dead. Though Jason Katims did write a script for a possible "FNL" movie, he doesn't think it will happen, either: "It's a matter of getting everybody onboard and everybody available, so at this point, unfortunately, it doesn't look likely. I was hoping to do it."

We were hoping to watch it, too. But then again, we have to agree with Chandler: The "Friday Night Lights" series finale (which earned Katims an Emmy in 2011 for drama series writing) wrapped up the show's storylines so elegantly that we almost want that to be the last time we ever see Coach and Tami and the Dillon gang. So since we'll probably never see it, Katims wouldn't mind telling us what was in that script he wrote, right? We couldn't get him to divulge many details, but he did reveal to us that the main plot "was going to be the next chapter in Coach's life, the next coaching chapter in his life."

Remember, last we saw Coach and Tami, he was coaching a new high school football team in Philadelphia while she settled in as dean of admissions at a nearby college. So would that mean no Dillon, Texas? Or would Coach's team end up in some kind of playoff game that brings him and his family back to their old stomping grounds? We really shouldn't torture ourselves like this, should we? Source: tv.yahoo.com

'Friday Night Lights' was a great movie, and the TV show. After five shots at it, five seasons, as it went on, it got smaller and smaller and smaller, and it almost got canceled. We were up against 'American Idol' the first year and it got moved,” Chandler said. "[Producers] Jason Katims and Pete Berg and those guys kept it alive, kept the material so fresh, and ended the thing so perfectly. I think that's a tribute to those guys. I like the ending of the show as much as I like the whole thing in the sense that it was just done so classy, it was just done so well. Hats off to those guys." -Kyle Chandler

"The coaches were aware of the gripes, but the bottom line was that Boobie had the talent and they did not. Like it or not he was the franchise, unless, for some reason, they did not need him anymore The negotiations became more and more tense, and the Carter contingent changed its mind. Forget the thought of ever playing in Texas Stadium in the white suburb of Irving. Think now about playing in the Cotton Bowl, deep in the heart of Dallas. The Permian side was momentarily stunned. Of all the places Permian wanted to play the Carter Cowboys, the Cotton Bowl was the last. Its location, a little east of downtown Dallas, made it a magnet for the city’s black community. The two sides finally agreed to play the game at a neutral site in Austin at Memorial Stadium of the University of Texas.

The coaches gave their pre-game speeches in the locker room. 'I knew at that moment I’d given everything I had to give, total commitment. Not holding back anything. Like being truly clean and truly free as far as maximum effort. It’s an emotional feeling, an emotional high that is basically unparalleled.' That was their great cutting edge. That’s what made them different. And they would not give it up, not against the Carter Cowboys with their 4.4 flyboys and their All-American hotshots and the wild-eyed fervor of their fans fueled by all those Kafkaesque court battles to stay in the playoffs, not against anyone." -"Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" (2000) by H.G. Bissinger