Sibling catchup! On Friday, June 5, the Collette siblings reunited with the Riggins siblings via video chat for the ATX TV Festival and gave Friday Night Lights fans the updates they’ve been wanting.
Adrianne Palicki, Stacey Oristano, Taylor Kitsch and Derek Phillips kicked off the festival’s virtual ATX TV…from the Couch! event and began chatting about where the characters that they played would be in today.
“Obviously Tyra and Tim are married with children [and] divorced, like twice,” Palicki, 37, who portrayed Tyra Collette in the drama that aired from 2006 to 2001, said. “Tyra’s a counselor giving kids advice. … You’re coaching the football team.”
Kitsch, 39, who played Tim Riggins, was caught off guard by that. “Tim? That’s a lot of responsibility,” he said. “He definitely would be back with Tyra on the ranch, maybe give Billy the sh–ty guest house with no electricity or A.C. There’d be a makeshift pool that would be, like, dugout. They didn’t really do any research, they just dig it out and filled it with water. A lot of pickup trucks up there.”
However, the Waco alum added that while he’d have fun bossing around kids, Tim probably wouldn’t be coaching. “I don’t know man, that’s tough,” he said. “I just don’t think he likes authority so to be, like, in a school system would be tough to see.”
Oristano, 41, and Phillips, 44, also revealed where their characters, Mindy Collette and Billy Riggins, would be today, after marrying in the show.
“I’m guessing Billy did something to piss Mindy off so she’s living with you guys right now and I keep showing up,” the Them: Covenant star said, with Oristano noting that with three children, they’d be struggling through the quarantine.
“I think [Billy’s] still doing illegal s–t to get by. He’s always trying to learn. It’s like one step forward, two steps back,” Phillips said. “I bet during the pandemic, he’s probably running an underground poker game somewhere or something — something illegal just to keep the lights on.”
Palicki then asked if Mindy would return to the strip club and the Grey’s Anatomy alum couldn’t say no.
“I think she would have to because Billy doesn’t make any money,” she said, making the group cast laugh.
The Jason Katims football drama, which also starred Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler, Scott Porter and Minka Kelly, took home two Emmy Awards during its run. Although it’s currently a time of reboots in the industry, the cast has revealed over the years that they’re happy with the way it ended.
“There’s a lot of shows that end too early and the fanbase and those involved never get the closure that they really need,” Porter, 40, told Us Weekly exclusively in 2018. “I think a lot of us from Friday Night Lights all got the closure because it ended so well.”
ATX TV…From the Couch! is airing from June 5 to June 7.
