Kyle Chandler NOT leaving "FNL" ... false alarm

Some of you have written in expressing concern that Kyle Chandler's character was leaving "Friday Night Lights," as mentioned in a news item linked to in the TV Barn Ticker. I am happy to report that this was an error. The Ticker is compiled by contributors, and goofs are rare, and usually somebody catches them quickly. That didn't happen. Obviously this is the other shoe dropping after Coach Taylor announced he was taking a job out of town. For how long, no one knows — but in the meanwhile someone's got to coach the Panthers, and that someone is played by one of my favorite character actors, Chris Mulkey (anyone else remember "Any Day Now"?).

Above is a photo from last month's press tour as proof that Chandler is still on the show (and here's my writeup, if you missed it).

In actual "FNL" news, I have in my hands the DVD of the first season of Friday Night Lights, and I should caution hardcore fans that it should not be considered a substitute for the NBC companion website. Yes, the deleted scenes made it to the box set, as did a 22-minute "making of" featurette that appears to be new because there's a sequence in it from the final episode of the season (it's actually relevant to this post: Connie Britton gets on the phone with showrunner Jason Katims and debates whether Kyle's character would really stay behind in Dillon because his wife is pregnant; after all, this is Texas and he is a football coach). But there are a couple dozen extras on the website that I don't see here. More disappointingly, there are no audio commentaries on the DVD.

And here is the promotional sheet that fell out of the DVD. More proof that Kyle is front and center even when he's not in town.