Queen sent me a link to an awesome article about Friday Night Lights that was in the Chicago Tribune. You have to register to read it. So I did. It's three pages long so I'm just going to post some of the highlights here.

"The Best TV Show You're Not Watching"
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"When I first came on [the `FNL'] set, I thought, it's interesting -- this is what I imagined filmmaking would be, before I saw what filmmaking was," says executive producer Jason Katims, the show's head writer and a veteran of beloved cult series such as "Roswell" and "My So-Called Life."
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There are no fancy lighting setups. Actors are not only allowed but encouraged to improvise their lines. Every single scene is shot in real locations, unlike most TV series, which use prefabricated sets. And with inspiration from what director of photography David Boyd calls "gonzo documentary guys" such as D.A. Pennebaker and David and Albert Maysles, three cameras simultaneously record the action, capturing nuances and moments that many other shows ignore in their forced march to the next plot point.
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Shooting in real locations in Texas has given the show an authentic feel that it would never have had in Los Angeles, says Chandler, who was raised in a small town in Georgia.

"When you live in this town, you are from Texas. You're experiencing and feeling it. Austin is a great place. It's not hard to get ideas for your character when you just go to breakfast across the street.”
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But the tone is also set by the unique, documentary style of the show's three roving cameras. As television drama has matured, many shows, such as "24," "Battlestar Galactica" and "The Shield," have used multiple cameras or documentarystyle shooting to amplify the energy and the emotional impact of their shows. But the constant use of at least three cameras is highly unusual, as is the fact that the actors don't rehearse their scenes ahead of time.
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If "FNL" comes back for a second season, the only major retooling Reilly envisions for it concerns the show's marketing. By focusing on the football aspect of the show, last fall's ads for "FNL" made women feel the show was not for them, when in fact, some weeks there's no football at all, and the Texas drama can be every bit as relationship-driven as anything on ABC's roster.

"At its core, it's a women's show," Reilly says. As Britton says, "It doesn't matter if you're living in a small town in Texas or New York City. We're still talking about a mother-daughter relationship. If you can't stand football but you're passionate about anything, you're going to be able to relate to this."