Katims says he views his latest show, Rise, as the third part in a trilogy of NBC dramas launched by Friday Night Lights and Parenthood.
But it was Friday Night Lights, which premiered in 2006 and ran for five seasons, that cemented Katims’ success and became perhaps his defining work.
It’s why shows like Parenthood and Friday Night Lights, or even My So-Called Life, which premiered in 1994, still hold up today.
“With Friday Night Lights, one of the things I really loved most about working on that show was the feeling of authenticity, that feeling of, oh, you are in this small town in Texas and you really feel the culture of that world.