Well kids, last night was the season finale of Friday Night Lights and as you would expect, the Dillon Panthers got the knickers beaten off of them 52-0. Kidding. Really though, did anyone actually think they were going to lose? If they lose, you can’t have a big parade back in town the next day, and they still had a minute-forty two to fill.

Several weeks ago, there was an open casting call in these here parts to fill up Texas Stadium for the big episode…and CU and I thought about going out there just for the experience. But then…then we read something about possibly needing to sit around for 16 hours and we said…um…no.

I really did love the scene though, when the team walks into Texas Stadium…with all of the awe and amazement we haven’t seen since Hickory’s basketball team made it to State.

My one concern about the direction the show might be heading if/when it comes back next Fall…and I guess they had to do this to keep Coach and Mrs. Coach in the apparent social Utopia that is Dillon…Mrs. Coach is pregnant. Don’t get me wrong…if I could have my choice of two people to repopulate the Earth, it would be Tami and Eric Taylor.

However. I thought mid-life pregnancies, especially when you already have a thriving 15-year old daughter (not to mention a schoolful of kids in dire need of her help, about whom Mrs. Coach made an impassioned speech just last week and were willing to separate from your husband during the week to help), were reserved for shark-jumping seasons of shows like Family Ties, Growing Pains and Murphy Brown.

Seems like sort of a cliché for a show which is, thematically, about teenagers and adults…but I guess when you have a group of high school seniors on the cusp of going out into the Big World…you solve that obvious casting problem by bringing in the little ones. After all, you can’t follow Smash to college with the spin-off series, Thursday Night Parties.

As a bit of trivia…does anyone locally know where they filmed the “hotel lobby” scenes when the team was sitting around…when Voodoo showed up? I thought it might be the Anatole. And, Coach and Mrs. Coach scored the best 2-double-beds room ever, with a patio that appeared to be about the size of my bedroom.

I did read that NBC has requested six new scripts, hinting it might be back next season, so I lookd at last night’s ep with a different set of eyes. If this was all I had of the show, would the season (series?) finale answer enough questions for me? The answer was a resounding, “HELL NO.”

But…I guess it would come as close as it could. Jason Street seems to have come to terms with what he’s Supposed To Do, and his parents are proud. Tyra and Lyla have buried the hatchet…thankfully not into each other. Saracen’s grandma was lucid for an entire episode, Buddy Garrity saw his precious Panthers Go To State, Katrina Voodoo received his comeuppance…and I got to see a news clip for fictional Dallas Metro News 12. Zoiks. I hope the folks in the Fort Worth half of the DFW metroplex didn’t see that.

Oh, and Coach and Mrs. Taylor are sticking around Dillon…or not?