Kyle Chandler News

Actor Kyle Chandler sure knows how to make an entrance.

On the riveting Febuary 15 episode of Grey's Anatomy, "Drowing On Dry Land," Dr. Meredith Grey woke up in what appeared to be the afterlife.

She immediately spotted two of Seattle Grace Hospital's most famous former patients: Izzie's dead fiancé, Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Dylan (Kyle Chandler), the bomb-squad captain who a year ago exploded into "pink mist."

An hour or two before the highly rated February 22 episode of Grey's Anatomy ("Some Kind of Miracle") finished off its surprising Denny-Dylan story line, a helmeted figure roared up to the set of the new NBC drama Friday Night Lights on a motorcycle.

Tucked into the biker's black leather jacket was an adorable white-and-tan terrier. Even before the motorcycle guy took off his helmet, he had already scored major coolness points.

It was Kyle Chandler, arriving for a night shoot outside Austin, Texas, for the show, on which he stars as Coach Eric Taylor.

Taylor and Friday Night Lights may be the darling of the TV press these days - the Chicago Tribune, from which this story is taken, calls it one of the best network dramas.

But Chandler said in an interview the next day that despite his great love for Friday Night Lights ("It's the best experience of my life by far in television," the actor said), the handsome, brave Dylan Young is still is the character that garners him the most recognition.

"That show's got so many viewers - it was interesting, even after the first episode [on February 15], where I just said, 'Hey' at the very end of it, I had more people coming up to me, going `You're back, you're back'" he said.

Or, according to the actor, they'd just say, as Dylan did, "Hey."

Before that episode aired, news leaked that Denny would be back on Grey's Anatomy in some capacity. But Kyle Chandler's appearance on the show took viewers by surprise - you could almost hear the collective gasp when he reappeared in the closing moments of the hit medical drama.

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In the pilot episode of NBC's Friday Night Lights, the retired coach of a winning high school football team warns his young replacement:

"With expectations like this, the only place you can go is down. That's the problem with being this good."

It is a line of dialogue that has proved haunting to the show's star, Kyle Chandler, who plays that inexperienced coach.

Chandler, who won many accolades for his performance as bomb squad captain Dylan Young on the two-part, post-Super Bowl episode of Grey's Anatomy last season, has had to fight to keep his spirits up in the face of low ratings, despite Friday Night Lights' critical praise.

Although the show's numbers were up last week -- 6.6 million viewers from 5.9 million the week before -- it still got brutally tackled by CBS' NCIS (15.9 million) and ABC's Dancing With the Stars (21.3 million). Lights' fourth episode (of nine filmed so far) airs tonight.

Chandler, using a football metaphor, is hopeful.

"I know we got a damn good team and can make it through the season," says one of Grey's Anatomy's most memorable guest stars in his Georgian drawl, which has become more pronounced while shooting Lights in Austin. "We're slowly moving the ball down the field. That's why I'll do anything to keep this show on the air."

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