As we head into the holiday weekend, why not take a sharp left turn and waste your weekend catching up on three interesting shows that center around the wide world of sports?

The Modern Choice: Friday Night Lights 2006-Present

When movies attempt to turn into TV shows it’s hardly a smooth transition; but in the case of Peter Berg‘s Friday Night Lights, the middle America suburban drama has managed to create and hold onto a very strong fan base. Friday Night Lights centers around the small (fictional) Texas town of Dillon where football, above anything else, means the most to the community. At the heart of the show is the relationships and the characters living in Dillon that go beyond the football field, but the show is really carried by the strong performance of Kyle Chandler‘s coach Eric Taylor.

Friday Night Lights has found success in using the Taylor family as the grape vine throughout the entire series. Friday Night Lights takes a humanizing look into the pressures of being an amateur athlete in a small town by touching on serious issues like steroid abuse, college recruitment and the crippling effect of politics within high school sports.

The Nostalgic Choice: Coach, 1989-1997

For me, Craig T. Nelson will forever be coach Hayden Fox of the Minnesota State Screaming Eagles. The half-hour sitcom Coach followed the life of Hayden as he and his coaching staff of Luther and Dauber guide a fictional college football team to the national championship. Under normal circumstances sports and comedy generally work well in the beginning, and then taper off once the initial parallels between sports and drama have been made; but Coach, and ABC for that matter, centered the show around the developing personality of a character rather than a team. In fact, throughout the entire series, audiences are hardly given a glimpse of coach Fox actually coaching. Coach was a strong sitcom because the characters grew. From the initial seasons that focus on Hayden dealing with his daughter growing up, to his marriage to TV anchor Christine Armstrong and eventually graduating to a fictional NFL team, Coach gave a chuckling glimpse into the lives of the people working the sidelines. Coach also nabbed a couple of Emmys and to this day remains one of the better sitcoms of the 1990′s.

The Lesser Known Choice: Sports Night, 1998 – 2000

Aaron Sorkin has a particular style. He showed it in The West Wing and he showed it in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, but for a lot of people, Sorkin first exposed his dry humor and constant movement with dialogue with a little known show called Sports Night. Airing for just two full seasons on ABC, Sports Night gave viewers a glimpse into the world of sports news. Headlined by Peter Krause and Josh Charles as hosts Casey and Dan, the half-hour comedy-drama was like a behind the scenes look into ESPN’s Sportscenter. The show followed the lives of the producers, directors and editors as they experienced real-life relationship issues. Although the show had immense potential both with cast and story, ABC decided not to renew Sports Night in 2000. Sorkin could have easily transitioned the show over to a network like HBO, but at the time he was in the middle of his hit drama The West Wing where he was getting the network support that Sports Night never did.