“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” was the motto for Thursday night’s (Aug. 1) episode of Watch What Happens Live, where host Andy Cohen briefly teleported Friday Night Lights star Zach Gilford back to Dillon, Texas for the latest installment of “Clubhouse Playhouse.”
Cohen, a Friday Night Lights superfan, put on Coach Eric Taylor’s (Kyle Chandler) iconic Dillon Panthers jacket and hat as he and Gilford made their way to the green screen.
“You and I are going to reenact Season 2, Episode 14 of Friday Night Lights,” Cohen explained. “You will play the beloved Matt Saracen. I will be reprising my role as Coach Taylor from over 10 years ago.”
He added, “OK, Zach. Break a leg, but not your football leg. You’re the quarterback.”
The two men expertly reenacted the emotional scene in which Coach Taylor tosses a drunk and heartbroken Saracen into a shower with all of his clothes on. As Coach Taylor scolds his player for making poor decisions, Saracen fires back that everyone in his life — the coach, included — had left him behind for something better.
“I love that. Thank you for doing that,” Cohen told Gilford after they wrapped the scene. “That was really for me that you did that. I really appreciate it. It’s my favorite show. I really love it, thank you.”
It was a bold move on Cohen’s part to choose a scene from the infamously bad second season, which featured a bizarre murder storyline involving Jesse Plemons‘ character Landry Clark.
Even Gilford said, “We don’t talk about Season 2. The ongoing joke after Season 2 was we’d be on set and we’d be like, ‘Hey, hey. Hey, Landry, remember when you murdered that guy? Oh, sorry. We don’t talk about that.’”
Despite Season 2 getting raked over the coals, the teen drama went on to release five seasons. While Gilford didn’t take too much from the set since he said he’s “not sentimental,” he did reveal some of the memorabilia he took when the show ended.
“I basically gave it to other people. Literally, my publicist, who’s here, I gave him a helmet,” he said. “I still have my jeans. There was a pair of Abercrombie jeans that I wore in every episode.”
As for whether there will ever be a Friday Night Lights reboot, the actor said, “I don’t know. If it was authentic. So probably not.”
Watch What Happens Live airs Sunday through Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.
