Rah! Rah! Rah!

Watching the first episode of NBC's outstanding new series "Friday Night Lights" left only one big question — what are they going to do on episodes after the football season ends?

And the answer from producers turned out to be perfect — there aren't going to be any episodes after the football seasons ends. "Friday," which debuts tonight at 7 on Ch. 5, follows a Texas high school team from the beginning of the season until the end, so there won't be any episodes about Christmas break or the prom.

This isn't that kind of show, anyway. "Friday Night Lights," like the movie it's based on, almost looks more like a documentary than a TV show. It's about a group of people — a whole town full of people, really — put into high-pressure situations and how they deal with them.

And, even though almost everything that happens in the show is somehow related to football, it isn't really a show about football. You don't have to love football to love "Friday Night Lights."

Kyle Chandler stars as Eric Taylor, the new football coach in rural Dillon, Texas, where life revolves around the team. Eric, his wife (Connie Britton) and daughter (Aimee Teegarden) know that if the team loses, they could be moving to a new town.

The Panthers have a great quarterback (Scott Porter) and high expectations, but the season — and several lives — take a sudden turn in the first game.

Peter Berg, who wrote and directed the film, also wrote and directed the TV series pilot and is an executive producer. Both are based on his cousin, H.G. Bissinger's, best-selling book. And the series will go places the book did but the movie did not.

Whereas the book explores "the culture of athletics ... racism, education, parent-child relationships, celebrity" and other issues, the movie's time constraints limited it to more football and less everything else. And Berg wanted to "go deeper."

That's what should bring audiences back. (Episode 2 is as good as Episode 1 — a very good sign.) There's good writing and an attractive cast that includes Gaius Charles, Taylor Kitsch, Zach Gilford, Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki and Jesse Plemons.

"What we're aspiring to do is exactly what Bissinger did in the book and what I think we were able to do reasonably successfully in the film," Berg said, "and that is to, yes, use football. It's something we love, we believe in. It's at the core of this show, but it is a springboard."

Looks like a springboard to a really fine TV series.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com