'Friday Night' Favorite Adrianne Palicki, Dressing Up Her Act A Little In 'Lone Star'

Oof. I just had a massive '80s flashback.

As Linda mentioned in her Lone Star review earlier today, tonight's All Things Considered will feature an interview with Adrianne Palicki, who plays the daughter of a Texas oil baron on the new Fox drama. (Also she's the wife of series protagonist Bob Allen, the self-made man who's made good at her dad's company, but who's not entirely what he seems.)

The music they're introducing that conversation with? The theme from Dallas. Which: Oh, man, did that noise conjure some vivid memories of big hair and braces. Not good memories, either: The big hair and the braces were both mine.

It was an apt cue, though. There's been a lot of talk about how Lone Star is basically "Dallas without the suds." Like Linda, I've watched the pilot (and enjoyed it), and I can report that's that's a pretty fair shorthand. But beyond that headline, there's a bit more to the show.  As Palicki tells NPR's David Greene, it offers a look, through the parallel stories of Bob Allen's double life, at a part of Texas that's not awash in oil money:

"Lindsay, his other lady ... represents the childhood he never had. ... [I]t's just down home, barbecues. And she's adorable, and, you know, they have keg parties, whatever. And then you have the other side, which is the side that he would love to get to, which is that socialite world. So you get to see the two sides of Texas, but you also get to see it in a very — a beautiful way, because they're both very strong, very smart, very sweet women."

That less glamorous Texas is a territory Palicki knows something about from her years on Friday Night Lights, a show you may have heard a little something about, here on this blog. (Though not from me: Like Glen Weldon, I've got a big Pop Culture Blind Spot where shows involving Texas football are concerned. Because: again with the '80s flashbacks. <shudder>)

Palicki, who's 27, tells ATC that her new Lone Star character is a little closer to her own personality than 16-year-old Tyra Collette was — but that landing the Friday Night Lights part changed her life.

"[B]eing a tall, blond actress, it's hard to find really solid roles. And, [Tyra] showed that I had the acting chops, and I wasn't just somebody who was going to be in a bikini every show on WB or whatever. It was something that really gave me a platform to act, to perform. ... I've never loved a character more, and cared about a character more."

Other interview highlights? Well, Greene and Palicki both rag on Houston a little bit. (In jest! Merely in jest! Don't send hate mail!) Palicki talks about her favorite FNL scene. (It involves her character's mom and a glass coffee table.) And Greene plays a clip of Palicki's Lone Star character delivering a withering put-down at a crowded Houston cocktail party.

She starts by pointing out a guy across the room: "That guy is an idiot. He tried to build a resort in a swamp. Now he just does construction on his wife."

The payoff line? Well, you'll want to listen to the interview for that. Just look for the player at the top of this post.