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KXAN’s Jim Spencer: Tornado warning on “Friday Night Lights”
A tornado is bearing down on Dillon, and the intense, worried-looking weatherman on TV in the background looks and sounds mighty familiar.
Yep, that’s KXAN’s Jim Spencer, forecaster of Central Texas weather for nearly two decades, on tonight’s episode of “Friday Night Lights.” In the opening scene (at 8 p.m.), Spencer, who referees high-school football in real life and is a devoted fan of the show, warns the residents of fictional Dillon and the nearby (also fictional) Laribee to take cover from the twister.
“I’m trying to downplay expectations, because I’m on for a very, very small amount of time,” said Spencer, 44, whose acting experience comes from drama class at Oklahoma’s East Central University.
Producers of the NBC show called KXAN and said they wanted to do a tornado scene with realistic-looking warnings on TV. The crew came to the station’s studio with a script and told Spencer how the storm was going to move, so he could conjure up radar on a fake map pinpointing Dillon and Laribee. The whole shoot took about 45 minutes.
“Really, we’ve never fabricated a tornado until now,” Spencer insisted with a chuckle.
Look for KXAN sports anchor Roger Wallace to pop up on “Lights,” too, in a few weeks as a reporter investigating improprieties by the Dillon Panthers.
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By Winchester
January 7, 2008 8:15 AM | Link to this
FNL also featured my old neighborhoods grocery, Crestview MiniMax.
By Juan
January 5, 2008 10:45 PM | Link to this
A Waco station on cable in Pflugerville! Hooray!! Now I when I travel to visit family in Pflugerville, I can watch a different city's news and still catch Austin news on the other stations. Cable TV to me should include broadcast stations from a variety of cities, like they had back in the 80's (WWOR, WGN, WPIX, ETC). Time Warner here in Laredo carries both Laredo and San Antonio's network affiliates. KXAN...you won't be missed!
By FNL Fan
January 4, 2008 5:59 PM | Link to this
Hooray, I'd rather watch FNL over basketball any day!
By john
January 4, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this
What's funny is, this episode is not on at 8 tonight. It seems in their wisdom, the elders at KXAN feel basketball is more important than showing a program written and shot in our very home town. I wonder how hard it was to get the NBC affiliate from Temple on cable in Georgetown, Round Rock and Pflugerville. Hey Time Warner...you listening?
HOLLOWAY CORRECTS: Nope, KXAN definitely IS carrying "Friday Night Lights" tonight at 8. The original plan was to preempt the show for the Spurs game, but saner heads prevailed, and the Spurs are shifting to KNVA.
Diane
By Winchester
January 4, 2008 4:23 PM | Link to this
It does take two to bargin, problem is it looks like LIN is the one not bargaining. Just look at the nationwide track record of LIN.