This is it for the gang from Dillon, Texas, as the clock has run out on NBC's critically acclaimed and little-watched "Friday Night Lights."
The 90-minute series finale runs at 7 p.m. on Channel 4.
It's always been a shame that as well-crafted a show as "FNL" was, it never gained enough of audience to make it a network success.
It took an innovative deal with DirecTV to keep it going this long (five seasons), with shorter seasons, by network standards, airing first on the satellite TV system, and then running in mid-season on NBC.
And I'm not going to say it's the perfect show. I've always thought some of the kids were too bleak, and the emotions ran a bit too high.
Still, it was among the best written and best acted programs on cable or network television. The characters were complex and incredibly human. The setting felt as real as any on television.
Then there was the choreographed football action. It was as exciting – if not more exciting – than any real game.
I'm glad it's ending at the height of its quality. It's time to move on and we'll just have to hope there's another show like it on the horizon, maybe this time on cable.
Here's a spoiler, of some final moments from the show (don't watch if you want to be surprised by tonight's finale).
Some "FNL" tidbits: There's Twitter talk of a movie spinning off tonight's series finale. But "FNL" fans shouldn't get too excited. There's always movie talk about a show like this, with a dedicated audience.
Here, by the way, is an interesting oral history of "Friday Night Lights."
The entire series comes out in a 19-DVD package in October.
And, the show picked up Emmy nominations for its two stars, Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler, and as best drama series, among others announced Thursday. Here's a complete list of Emmy nominees.
A new program director for WTMJ-AM: Assistant Program Director Joe Scialfa has dropped the "assistant" from his title at news/talker WTMJ-AM (620) and been upped to program director.
On TV: There's early word that Jim and Pam will have baby number two on the coming season of NBC's "The Office," working in Jenna Fischer's real-life pregnancy.
- ABC has ordered a third season of Canadian import "Rookie Blues," now in its second season.
- Next season will be the last one for at least three major "Glee" performers: Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer. It seems they'll actually graduate from high school.
- Oprah Winfrey has taken on the title of chief executive officer of her less-than-successful Oprah Winfrey Network. She's got her work cut out for her.
- MTV's "Teen Wolf" remake has been picked up for a second season.
- NBC's "Biggest Loser" isn't coming to Milwaukee for its next round of auditions, but the show will be in Chicago on Saturday, Aug. 20, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Chicago Home Fitness, 2070 N. Clybourn Ave. You have to be 18 and a legal U.S. resident. Bring a non-returnable photo.
Listen to Nora: Talented young Nora Collins is an in-studio guest on Wisconsin Public Radio's "Simply Folk," playing live and talking to host host Stephanie Elkins at 5 p.m. Sunday on WHAD-FM (90.7).
In the meantime, here's a sample of her recent Summerfest performance:
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
