Problem for Friday Night Lights

Half the cast is about high school kids. That basically means even if
this show is a success it can at most run only 4 years until they
basically have to get an entire new cast or cancel the show. Unlike
90210, The OC, One Tree Hill, and Everwood the show can't follow the
kids to college, since the lead character is the coach.

wdstarr...

I thought the problem was that it was about high school football in
Texas.

(It _is_ Texas, right? One of those bizarre parts of the country
where high school football is a religion, anyway.)

bklyntv...

Well, considering it IS Texas, it wouldn't be strange for the kids to
take 6 or 7 years to complete high school, right?

ANIM8Rfsk...

Is school football not a religion everywhere?

record hunter...

So, you get some new kids every year, as seniors graduate.

Barry Margolin...

Also, time on a series doesn't have to flow at the same rate as time in
the real world. Lost has been on two seasons, but only 2 months have
passed on the show. That 70's Show was in the tail end of the 70's for
8 years. Did anyone ever graduate on Room 222? As long as you don't

ANIM8Rfsk...

You made me google. I was surprised; I didn't think Room 222 had been on
long enough for graduation to be a problem, but it ran 5 seasons? Anyway, a
LOT of the kids didn't make the last season or 2 seasons, so they may well
have graduated, or been presumed to have graduated.

Cutie Judy Strangis was on for the whole run though. Unless they had her
come back as a teacher's aide or something, it seems they may have had a
time warp going for them.

A better example would be HEAD OF THE CLASS; those kids were in a senior
honors program for like 5 years; and had a prom and play and summer vacation
and all the annual events in each of 'em.

It will be interesting to see what they do with the new episodes of Kim
Possible. They ended with them in or approaching their senior year (we saw
them start what must have been their sophomore year, take driver's training,
and be juniors) not to mention they conclusively beat Drakken and Sheego and
were for gosh sakes KISSING!

cast real teenagers, but instead cast adults who can pass for teenagers,
you don't have to worry about them aging out of the roles (Ralph Macchio
was 27 when he filmed Karate Kid III).

Some series do try to make each season equal to a school year, like
Boston Public. It's easier to do it when the show is mostly about the
teachers (I'm not sure if any of the BP students were anything but guest
cast). And if FNL is like the movie, it will be mostly about the coach,
his family, and the town, not about specific students.

cloud dreamer...

The entire cast doesn't necessarily have to be all one age. If they do
it right, the cast consists of kids in all four years, so at the end of
the first year, the seniors move on and new kids enter the picture. That
would be a realistic take on it.