Glee (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox
in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club
New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues. The initial main cast encompassed club director and Spanish teacher Will Schuester
(Matthew Morrison
), cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester
(Jane Lynch
), guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury
(Jayma Mays
), Will's wife Terri
(Jessalyn Gilsig
), and eight club members played by Dianna Agron
, Chris Colfer
, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele
, Cory Monteith
, Amber Riley
, Mark Salling and Jenna Ushkowitz. For the second season, formerly recurring cast members Mike O'Malley
, Heather Morris and Naya Rivera
were promoted to the main cast. For the third season, Harry Shum, Jr.
and Darren Criss
were promoted from recurring to the main cast, and both Gilsig and O'Malley were removed from star billing, though the latter will again be in the recurring guest cast.
The series was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk
and Ian Brennan
, who first conceived Glee as a film. The three write all of the show's episodes and Murphy and Falchuk serve as the show's main directors. The pilot episode
was broadcast on May 19, 2009, and the first season
aired from September 9, 2009 to June 8, 2010. The second season
aired from September 21, 2010 to May 24, 2011, and the third season
began airing on September 20, 2011. Glee features on-screen performance-based musical numbers that are selected by Murphy, who aims to maintain a balance between show tunes and chart hits, and produced by Adam Anders
. Songs covered in the show are released through the iTunes Store
during the week of broadcast, and a series of Glee albums have been released by Columbia Records
. The music of Glee has been a commercial success, with over thirty-six million digital single sales and eleven million album sales worldwide through October 2011. The series' merchandise also includes DVD and Blu-ray releases, a young adult book series, an iPad application, and a karaoke game for the Wii
.
During its first season, Glee received generally favorable reviews from critics, with Metacritic's
weighted average based on the impression of 18 critical reviews of 77 percent. The season was nominated for nineteen Emmy Award
s, four Golden Globe Awards, six Satellite Awards
and fifty-seven other awards, with wins including the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, and Emmy awards for Jane Lynch, guest-star Neil Patrick Harris
and Murphy's direction of the pilot episode
. In 2011, the show once again won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer won Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectively; Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele also received nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. The show was also chosen by Fox to fill the coveted timeslot that followed the network's coverage of Super Bowl XLV
in 2011. On July 14, 2011, Glee was nominated for twelve Primetime Emmys.
Murphy and Fox have produced a concert film
, Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
, featuring performance and backstage footage from the 2011 Glee Live! In Concert!
tour. The film was directed by Kevin Tancharoen
, and began its two-week limited release in the United States on August 12, 2011.
conceived Glee based on his own experience as a member of the Prospect High School
show choir in Mount Prospect, Illinois
. He initially envisioned Glee as a film, rather than a television series, and wrote the first draft in August 2005 with the aid of Screenwriting for Dummies. He completed the script in 2005, but could not generate interest in the project for several years. Mike Novick, a television producer and a friend of Brennan's from Los Angeles, was a member of the same gym as Ryan Murphy, and gave him a copy of Brennan's script. Murphy had been in a show choir in college, and felt he could relate to the script. Murphy and his Nip/Tuck
colleague Brad Falchuk suggested that Glee be produced as a television show. The script was entirely rewritten, and was picked up by Fox
within 15 hours of being received. Murphy attributed that, in part, to the network's success with American Idol
. "It made sense for the network with the biggest hit in TV, which is a musical, to do something in that vein", he said. Murphy and Falchuk became the show's executive producers and showrunners, Brennan became a co-executive producer and Novick a producer. Brennan, Falchuk and Murphy started by writing "all the episodes".
Glee is set at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio
. Murphy chose a Midwest setting as he himself grew up in Indiana
, and recalled childhood visits to Ohio to the Kings Island
theme park. Although set in Lima, the show is filmed at Paramount Studios
in Hollywood. Murphy has said that he has never seen a High School Musical
film, to which Glee has been compared, and that his interest lay in creating a "postmodern musical," rather than "doing a show where people burst into song," drawing more heavily on the format of Chicago
. Murphy intended the show to be a form of escapism. "There's so much on the air right now about people with guns, or sci-fi, or lawyers running around. This is a different genre, there's nothing like it on the air at the networks and cable. Everything's so dark in the world right now, that's why Idol worked. It's pure escapism," he said. Murphy intended to make a family show to appeal to adults as well as children, with adult characters starring equally alongside the teenage leads, and as of October 2009 he had already mapped out plans for the series covering three years of broadcast.
Starting with season three, a writing staff of six was hired: Ali Adler
, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
, Marti Noxon
, Michael Hitchcock
, Matt Hodgson and Ross Maxwell. The season's fourth episode, "Pot o' Gold
", was written by Adler, the first not credited to the show's three creators.
sung onscreen by the characters. Ryan Murphy is responsible for selecting all of the songs used, and has said that he strives to maintain a balance between chart hits and show tunes: "I want there to be something for everybody in every episode. That's a tricky mix, but that's very important — the balancing of that." According to Murphy, the song choices are integral to script development, "Each episode has a theme at its core. After I write the script, I will choose songs that help to move the story along." In a 2010 interview with Allison Kugel
, Chris Colfer
noted that "there have been a couple of times when I have gone to Ryan Murphy (Glee creator) and told him a couple of things that have happened to me, and then he writes it into the show. Or he’ll ask me what song I would want to sing, in this situation or in that situation. I don’t think any of us directly try to give input on the character or on the storyline, but they definitely steal things from us." For the second season, a shift toward using more Top 40 songs was seen, in an effort to appeal more to the 18–49 demographic.
Murphy was surprised at the ease with which use of songs was approved by the record labels approached, and explained: "I think the key to it is they loved the tone of it. They loved that this show was about optimism and young kids, for the most part, reinterpreting their classics for a new audience." A minority of those approached refused to allow their music to be used, including Bryan Adams
, Guns N' Roses
and Coldplay
; however, in June 2010, Coldplay reversed their decision, allowing Glee the rights to their catalog. Adams posted on his Twitter account that the producers of Glee had never requested permission from him and urged them to "pick up the phone". Composer and musician Billy Joel
offered many of his songs for use on the show, and other artists have offered use of their songs for free. A series of Glee soundtrack albums have been released through Columbia Records
. Songs featured on the show are available for digital download
through iTunes up to two weeks before new episodes air, and through other digital outlets and mobile carriers a week later. Glee music producer Adam Anders
has begun to add original music to the show, including two original songs, "Loser Like Me
" and "Get It Right
", on the March 15, 2011 episode.
Glee is choreographed by Zach Woodlee and features four to eight production numbers per episode. Once Murphy selects a song, rights are cleared with its publishers by music supervisor P. J. Bloom, and music producer Adam Anders rearranges it for the Glee cast. Numbers are pre-recorded by the cast, while Woodlee constructs the accompanying dance moves, which are then taught to the cast and filmed. Studio recordings of tracks are then made. The process begins six to eight weeks before each episode is filmed, and can end as late as the day before filming begins. Each episode costs at least $3 million to produce, and can take up to ten days to film as a result of the elaborate choreography. In late 2010, Bloom reported the process has been even shorter; "as quick as a few weeks". For the second season, the creators were offered listens of upcoming songs in advance by publishers and record labels, with production occurring even before song rights are cleared.
stores across the nation. The cast sang the U.S. national anthem
at the third game of the 2009 World Series
. They were invited by Macy's
to perform at the 2009 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
, but host broadcaster NBC
rejected the plan due to Glee airing on a rival network. Murphy commented on the cast's exclusion: "I completely understand NBC's position, and look forward to seeing a Jay Leno
float."
Due to the success of the show, the cast went on a concert tour following the first season wrap up—Glee Live! In Concert!
—visiting Phoenix
, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. In addition, the cast recorded a cover of Wham!
's "Last Christmas
", which was released as a single in late 2009, but didn't appear in the show until "A Very Glee Christmas
" on December 10, 2010. Morrison, Lynch, Michele, Monteith and Colfer reprised their roles as Will, Sue, Rachel, Finn and Kurt respectively for a cameo appearance in an episode of The Cleveland Show
that aired January 16, 2011. Michele, Monteith and Riley appeared as campers in the twenty-second
season premiere
of The Simpsons
.
Lynch, Colfer, Monteith and Riley appeared at the 2010 MTV VMAs on September 12, 2010. When Agron, Michele and Monteith posed for a set of risqué photos for the November 2010 edition of GQ magazine, the show was criticized by the Parents Television Council
(PTC). PTC president Tim Winter commented that Glee has many young fans, and that "by authorizing this kind of near-pornographic display, the creators of the program have established their intentions on the show’s direction. And it isn't good for families."
The promotional posters for the first season have the stars of the show using their right hands to make an "L" to fill in the L of the word Glee. The promotional posters for the second season have the stars of the show in pairs throwing slushies at the camera. The promotional posters for the third season have the stars of the show getting dodgeballs thrown at them by Sue Sylvester. While the cast concert tour, Glee Live! In Concert!, began on May 15, 2010, and presented concerts in four cities in the US for the remainder of the month, the second edition, with an almost entirely new set list, toured for four weeks in the US and Canada from May 21 through June 18, 2011, and followed that with twelve days in England and Ireland, from June 22 through July 3, 2011. The cast also performed on the seventh season of The X Factor
on December 5, 2010.
In casting Glee, Murphy sought out actors who could identify with the rush of starring in theatrical roles. Instead of using traditional network casting calls, he spent three months on Broadway, where he found Matthew Morrison
, who had previously starred on stage in Hairspray
and The Light in the Piazza; Lea Michele
, who starred in Spring Awakening
; and Jenna Ushkowitz, who had been in the Broadway revival of The King and I
.
Actors with no theatrical experience who auditioned were required to prove they could sing and dance as well as act. Chris Colfer
had no previous professional experience, but Murphy wrote in the character Kurt Hummel for him to play. Jayma Mays
auditioned with the song "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me
" from The Rocky Horror Show
, while Cory Monteith
initially submitted a tape of himself acting only, and was requested to submit a second, musical tape, in which he sang "a cheesy, '80s music-video-style version" of REO Speedwagon
's "Can't Fight This Feeling
". Kevin McHale came from a boy-band background, having previously been part of the group Not Like Them
. He explained that the diversity of the cast's backgrounds reflects the range of different musical styles within the show itself: "It's a mix of everything: classic rock, current stuff, R&B. Even the musical theatre stuff is switched up. You won't always recognize it." Jane Lynch
was originally supposed to have a recurring role in the show, but was made a series regular when a Damon Wayans
pilot she was working on for ABC fell through. The cast is contracted for a potential three Glee films, with their contract stating that "[The actor] hereby grants Fox three exclusive, irrevocable options to engage [the actor] in up to, respectively, three feature length motion pictures." Murphy said in December 2010 that he wasn't interested in doing a Glee movie "as a story", and added, "I might do it as a live concert thing." Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
, filmed during the 2011 Glee Live! In Concert!
tour, was released on August 12, 2011.
Glee features fifteen main roles with star billing. Morrison plays Will Schuester
, McKinley High's Spanish teacher who becomes director of the glee club, hoping to restore it to its former glory. Lynch plays Sue Sylvester
, head coach of the "Cheerios" cheerleading squad, and the Glee Club's arch-nemesis. Mays appears as Emma Pillsbury
, the school's mysophobic
guidance counselor who has feelings for Will, and Jessalyn Gilsig
plays Terri Schuester
, Will's wife whom he eventually divorces after five years of marriage—they separate when he discovers she has faked being pregnant. Lea Michele
plays Rachel Berry, talented star of the glee club who is often bullied by the Cheerios and football players. Monteith plays Finn Hudson
, star quarterback of the school's football team who risks alienation by his friends after joining the glee club. Also in the club are Amber Riley
as Mercedes Jones
, a fashion-conscious diva who initially resents having to sing back-up; Colfer as Kurt Hummel
, a gay male countertenor
; McHale as Artie Abrams
, a guitar player and paraplegic; and Ushkowitz as Tina Cohen-Chang
, an Asian American student with a fake speech impediment. Dianna Agron
plays Quinn Fabray
, Finn's cheerleader girlfriend, who later joins the glee club to keep an eye on him. Mark Salling plays Noah "Puck" Puckerman
, a good friend of Finn's on the football team who at first disapproves of Finn joining the glee club, but later joins the glee club himself. Naya Rivera
and Heather Morris, who portray Cheerios and glee club vocalists Santana Lopez
and Brittany Pierce
respectively, were originally recurring actors, but starting in the second season were promoted to series regulars. Mike O'Malley
, who plays Kurt's father Burt Hummel
, also became a series regular on season two. Gilsig and O'Malley no longer appear on the list of starring actors at the beginning of the third season, though O'Malley will be appearing as a recurring guest star in at least six episodes during the season. Two actors were promoted to series regulars at the same time: Harry Shum, Jr.
as football player and glee club member Mike Chang
and Darren Criss
as former Dalton Academy Warbler and new club member Blaine Anderson
, both of whom started as recurring actors, Shum in the first season and Criss in the second.
Murphy has stated that many of the original characters will graduate from McKinley High at the end of the third season. "We didn't want to have a show where they were in high school for eight years. We really wanted to be true to that experience." Adult characters played by Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch will remain to provide continuity to the series, though according to Falchuk, some students—Rachel, Finn and Kurt in particular—will likely remain on the show after they graduate.
of Glee consists of 22 episodes. The pilot episode
was broadcast on May 19, 2009. The series returned on September 9, 2009, airing an additional twelve episodes on Wednesdays in the 9:00 pm timeslot until December 9, 2009, for a total of thirteen episodes. On September 21, 2009, nine more episodes were ordered for the first season by Fox
, and the first of these episodes was broadcast on April 13, 2010. These episodes aired on Tuesday evenings at 9:00 pm. On January 11, 2010, it was announced that Fox had commissioned a second season of the show. The second season began production in June 2010. Season two
began on September 21, 2010, airing in the 8:00 pm time slot on Tuesdays, and consists of 22 episodes. The show was chosen by Fox to fill the coveted timeslot that followed the network's coverage of Super Bowl XLV
in 2011, and the network originally planned to move the show to the 9:00 pm time slot on Wednesdays following the post–Super Bowl broadcast. However, Fox later revised its schedule, leaving Glee on Tuesdays in order to concentrate on building up its weaker Wednesday and Thursday line-ups. A third season was ordered by Fox on May 23, 2010, before the end of the first season. The early renewal of the show allowed the production team to cut costs and to plan ahead when writing scripts. The third season broadcasts are scheduled to remain in the show's Tuesday 8:00 pm time slot, and began airing on September 20, 2011.
Glee has been syndicated for broadcast in many countries worldwide, including Australia, where cast members visited to promote the show prior to its September 2009 debut on Network Ten
. It also airs in Canada, New Zealand, and Fiji. It is broadcast in South Africa, where Fox beams the episodes directly to the M-Net
broadcast center in Johannesburg
rather than delivering the tapes. In addition, it airs in the United Kingdom, where E4 broadcast the first two seasons, showing episodes months after they were first aired in the US. Sky1 will broadcast the series from starting with the third season, airing episodes two days after their US broadcast. The series also airs in Italy—a week later than the US broadcast, and dubbed into Italian—and in Lithuania. In Ireland, most episodes premiere 20 hours after their US broadcast, making it the European Premiere. Asian countries that broadcast Glee include the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Singapore Indonesia and Japan. The show began airing in Brazil on July 2, 2011, on the Rede Globo
network.
, Glee: The Music, Volume 2
and Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers
. Two extended play
s (EP) accompanied the episodes "The Power of Madonna
" and "Journey to Regionals": Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna
and Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals
respectively. Glee: The Music, The Complete Season One, a compilation album
featuring all 100 studio recordings from the first season, was released exclusively to the iTunes Store
. Five soundtrack albums were released to accompany Glee second season: Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album
, featuring Christmas-themed songs, and Glee: The Music, Volume 4, were both released in November 2010; Glee: The Music, Volume 5, Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers
, and Glee: The Music, Volume 6 were 2011 releases, in March, April, and May, respectively. An EP entitled Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show
was released to accompany the Halloween episode, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show
". Two EPs were released exclusively at the Target
discount chain: Glee: The Music, Love Songs in the last week of 2010, and Glee: The Music, Dance Party in early September 2011.
Glee has been released on several DVD and Blu-ray box-sets. Glee – Pilot Episode: Director's Cut features the pilot episode and a preview of the second episode, "Showmance
". Glee – Volume 1: Road to Sectionals contains the first thirteen episodes of season one, and Glee – Volume 2: Road to Regionals contains the final nine episodes of the first season. Glee – The Complete First Season was released on September 13, 2010. Three boxed sets were released for the second season: Glee Season 2: Volume 1 containing the first ten episodes on January 25, 2011, and both Glee Season 2: Volume 2 with the final twelve episode and Glee: The Complete Second Season with all twenty-two on September 13, 2011. All three were released on DVD; only the complete season is available on Blu-Ray.
Little, Brown Books
is in the process of publishing five Glee–related young adult novels, which are being developed in collaboration with the show's producers and writers. The first three novels have been written by Sophia Lowell; the first, Glee: The Beginning, was released in August 2010 and serves as a prequel to the events of the television series. Subsequent novels include Glee: Foreign Exchange, released in February 2011, and Glee: Summer Break, released in July 2011. Separate to the young adult series, it was planned that Sue Sylvester would write her autobiography in the second season; Murphy also planned for it to be released as a real book, with Lynch going on an accompanying book tour in character as Sue. The book was not mentioned on the program during the second season, nor has it been scheduled for publication.
Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products have plans for a line of Glee–related merchandise including games, electrical products, greeting cards, apparel and stationery. Macy's
carry a line of Glee–related clothing, and Claire's
stock accessories.
score of 77 out of 100, based on 18 critic reviews. It was praised by critics in several round-up reviews of 2009 in television
. James Poniewozik of Time ranked it the eighth best television show of the year, commenting: "when Glee works—which is often—it is transcendent, tear-jerking and thrilling like nothing else on TV." Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker ranked it ninth, calling it "Hands down the year's most novel show [and] also its least likely success", Lisa Respers France of CNN
wrote that while ordinarily Glee premise would have been "a recipe for disaster", the show has "such quirky charm and bravado that it is impossible not to get swept up".
After the episode "Showmance", the Parents Television Council named Glee the 'Worst Show of the Week', calling it "an edgy, sexually-charged adult series that is inappropriate for teenagers". Nancy Gibbs of Time magazine wrote that she had heard the series described as "anti-Christian" by a youth minister, and commented:
Variety
Brian Lowry was critical of the show's early episodes, highlighting acting and characterization issues and deeming the adult cast "over-the-top buffoons", with the exception of Mays' Emma, who he felt offered "modest redemption". Though he praised Colfer and Michele's performances, Lowry wrote that the show's talent was squandered by its "jokey, cartoonish, wildly uneven tone", deeming the series a "one-hit wonder". Following the show's mid-season finale, Lowry wrote that while Glee "remains a frustrating mess at times", its "vibrant musical numbers and talented cast have consistently kept it on [his] TiVo must list" conceding that "even with its flaws, TV would be poorer without Glee."
As Glee initial success pulled in a large audience, John Doyle of the Globe & Mail wrote that the early shows "felt fresh, mainly because the motley crew of kids had a kind of square naïveté." Doyle notes that the early success took Glee away from its original characters and plot, focusing more on celebrity guests. 'The gaiety is gone from Glee. You should have set it in its prime, mere months ago".
, the most by any artist since The Beatles
had 31 songs in the chart in 1964; in 2010, it placed 80 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, far outstripping the previous record. In February 2011, Glee surpassed Elvis as the artist with the most songs placed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, though fewer than one-fourth of them have charted for more than one week. The cast performance of "Don't Stop Believin'
" was certified gold
on October 13, 2009, achieving over 500,000 digital sales, and on March 16, 2011, received platinum certification for having sales of over a million. The series' cover versions had a positive effect on sales of Rihanna
's "Take a Bow
" increasing by 189 percent after the song was covered in the Glee episode "Showmance".
However, there has also been critical condemnation of the cast performances, with Jon Dolan for Rolling Stone commenting that Matthew Morrison
"couldn't rap his way out of a 98°
rehearsal", and Allmusic's Andrew Leahey opining that Cory Monteith
and Dianna Agron
"can't sing nearly as well as their co-stars". E! Online's Joal Ryan criticized the show for its "overproduced soundtrack", in particular, complaining that many songs rely too heavily on the pitch correcting software Auto-Tune
, noting: "For every too-brief moment of Lea Michele
sounding raw—and lovely—on a "What a Girl Wants
," or Monteith singing a perfectly credible REO Speedwagon
in the shower, there's Michele and Monteith sounding like 1990s-era Cher
on "No Air
," or Monteith sounding like the Monteith XRZ-200 on the out-of-the-shower version of "Can't Fight This Feeling
".
During the second season, Rob Sheffield
for Rolling Stone
noted the Britney Spears
and Rocky Horror
tribute episodes as examples when he lauded Glee and its choice of music. He praised Murphy for his selection and resurrection of "forgotten" pop songs and compared the show's uniqueness to "MTV in its prime" as the embodiment of popular culture
.
Some artists, including Slash
, Kings of Leon
, Red Hot Chili Peppers
and Foo Fighters
have declined to have their songs used on the show leaving creator Ryan Murphy unhappy with their decision and often verbally attacking the artists saying they are making a poor decision by not allowing their music on his show.
ran a "Biggest GLEEK" competition, measuring fans' Glee-related activity on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace, and found that the growth of the fanbase outpaced the network's science-fiction shows. The cast's Hot Topic
tour was titled "The Gleek Tour". Glee is one of the most tweeted
-about TV shows. Fans have recreated many of its musical numbers in tribute to the show, sharing them on YouTube. Based on this trend, show producers included instrumental versions of some songs on the show's soundtracks.
Similarly, Glee fans have created portmanteaus of their favourite character couples - a fact referenced in the season two, episode nineteen episode "Rumours
" where the characters sit around and reference several couple names; "Puckelberry" (a combination of Noah Puckerman and Rachel Berry) as an example.
. In 2010, the show won a Golden Globe Award
for "Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy". Morrison, Michele and Lynch also received acting nominations. The series was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Award
s, with screenplays nominated in the "Comedy Series" and "New Series" categories. The Glee cast won the "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series" award at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards
. Paris Barclay
and Ryan Murphy both received nominations for "Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series" at the Directors Guild of America Awards for their work on Glee. In July 2010, Glee received nineteen Emmy Award
nominations, including "Outstanding Comedy Series
", "Outstanding Lead Actor – Comedy Series" for Morrison and "Outstanding Lead Actress – Comedy Series" for Michele; it won four of these, including "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series" for Lynch and "Outstanding Guest Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series" for Neil Patrick Harris
.
In January 16, 2011 the show won a Golden Globe for "Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy" and both Lynch and Colfer won Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series, Miniseries, or TV Film. In July 2011, Glee received twelve Emmy nominations.
The cast was invited to sing at the White House
at the behest of Michelle Obama
in April 2010 for the annual Easter Egg Roll.
The pilot episode of Glee averaged 9.62 million viewers, and the following eleven episodes attained between 6.10 and 7.65 million. The mid-season finale was watched by 8.13 million viewers, with the show returning in April 2010 to a season high of 13.66 million viewers. The following six episodes attained between 11.49 and 12.98 million viewers, falling to 8.99 million for the penultimate episode "Funk". Viewing figures rose to 11.07 million viewers for the season finale, giving Glee the highest finale rating for a new show in the 2009–10 television season. Only the first twenty episodes of the first season were accounted for when calculating the season average due to the final two episodes airing outside the traditional sweeps period. On February 6, 2011, after the Superbowl, Glee received its highest ever ratings, with over 26.8 million tuning in to see the special Superbowl episode, with a peak of 39.5 million.
, a concert film
based on the four-week North American segment of the 2011 Glee Live! In Concert!
tour and featuring the student cast of the series in performance and backstage, was released in the United States on August 12, 2011, for a two-week limited engagement. The film is directed by Kevin Tancharoen.
magazine revealed that the reality show would not go ahead, due to Murphy's desire to concentrate on the main series, and fear that the distraction of the reality show may damage Glee. Adalian reported that the production team would still choose several winners from the entrants and invite them to appear on Glee for at least one episode. In June 2010, it was announced that Oxygen
would host a reality series
set to air in June 2011, featuring performers competing for a spot on Glee. The Glee Project
started airing on June 12, 2011, and the final episode was broadcast on August 21, 2011. The winning prize was a seven-episode guest-starring role in Glee third season, which was awarded to two contestants, with a two-episode role given to two other finalists.
On June 7, 2010, UK broadcaster Channel 4
aired Gleeful: The Real Show Choirs of America on its E4 station. The documentary explored the American show choir
phenomenon which inspired Glee. Narrated by Nick Grimshaw
, it went behind the scenes with real-life glee clubs and detailed celebrity show choir alumni including Lance Bass
, Ashton Kutcher
, Blake Lively
and Anne Hathaway
. It was selected as recommended viewing by The Guardian
, with the comment: "it's a fascinating look at the real-life New Directions, and it's equally as crackers as its TV champion." The newspaper's Lucy Mangan reviewed the documentary positively, writing: "It will, one way or another, fill your heart to bursting", and commenting that: "Glee, it turns out, is not a gloriously ridiculous, highly polished piece of escapism. It is cinéma vérité." It was watched by 411,000 viewers, a 2.3% audience share.
In summer 2010, Channel 5 in the United Kingdom aired Don't Stop Believing
, a reality talent show inspired by Glee success. The series featured live shows in which established and new musical performance groups competed against each other, performing well-known songs in new arrangements, with viewers voting on the winner. Solo singers were also sought to join a group to represent the United Kingdom on the American glee club circuit. Five's controller Richard Woolfe
stated: "There's an explosion in musical performance groups and Don't Stop Believing will tap into that exciting groundswell." The show was hosted by Emma Bunton
, who told The Belfast Telegraph
that she is a "huge fan" of Glee. The show's judges were former EastEnders
actress Tamsin Outhwaite, Blue member Duncan James
, singer Anastacia
and High School Musical
choreographer Charles "Chucky" Klapow
.
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club
Glee club
A glee club is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs—glees—by trios or quartets. In the late 19th Century it was very popular in most schools and was made a tradition...
New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues. The initial main cast encompassed club director and Spanish teacher Will Schuester
Will Schuester
William "Will" Schuester, often referred to as Mr. Schue, is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Matthew Morrison and has appeared in Glee since its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Will was developed by Glee...
(Matthew Morrison
Matthew Morrison
Matthew James "Matt" Morrison is an American actor, director, musician, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for starring in multiple Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including his portrayal of Link Larkin in Hairspray on Broadway, and most notably for his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated...
), cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester
Sue Sylvester
Susan "Sue" Sylvester is a fictional character of the Fox musical comedy-drama series, Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jane Lynch, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Sue was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian...
(Jane Lynch
Jane Lynch
Jane Marie Lynch is an American comedian, actress and singer. She gained fame in Christopher Guest's improv mockumentary pictures such as Best in Show and is currently best known for playing the role of Sue Sylvester in the television series Glee...
), guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury
Emma Pillsbury
Emma Pillsbury is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Portrayed by actress Jayma Mays, Emma has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Emma was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
(Jayma Mays
Jayma Mays
Jayma Suzette Mays is an American television and film actress, and singer. Mays' most prominent roles include that of Emma Pillsbury on the American television series Glee, recurring appearances on Ugly Betty and on Heroes as characters named Charlie.- Life and career :Mays was born Jamia Suzette...
), Will's wife Terri
Terri Schuester
Terri Schuester is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jessalyn Gilsig, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Terri was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian...
(Jessalyn Gilsig
Jessalyn Gilsig
Jessalyn Gilsig is a Canadian actress known for her roles in the television series Boston Public, Nip/Tuck and as Will Schuester's ex-wife Terri Schuester in Glee...
), and eight club members played by Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Quinn Fabray on the television series Glee.-Early life:Dianna Agron was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in San Antonio, Texas and San Francisco, California. She is the daughter of Mary and Ronald S. Agron, a general...
, Chris Colfer
Chris Colfer
Christopher Paul "Chris" Colfer is an American actor and singer known for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television series Glee, for which he won a 2011 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and was also nominated twice for an Emmy...
, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele
Lea Michele
Lea Michele Sarfati , known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress and singer. Michele began working professionally as a child actress on Broadway in productions such as Ragtime and Les Misérables. She originated the role of Wendla in the musical Spring Awakening and currently plays...
, Cory Monteith
Cory Monteith
Cory Allan Monteith is a Canadian actor and musician, best known for his role of Finn Hudson on the Fox television series Glee.-Early life:...
, Amber Riley
Amber Riley
Amber Patrice Riley is an American actress and singer best known for her role on the series Glee as Mercedes Jones.-Early life and career:...
, Mark Salling and Jenna Ushkowitz. For the second season, formerly recurring cast members Mike O'Malley
Mike O'Malley
Michael Edward "Mike" O'Malley is an American actor and playwright who has appeared in films and television series. He hosted Nickelodeon GUTS, and he starred in the CBS comedy Yes, Dear...
, Heather Morris and Naya Rivera
Naya Rivera
Naya Marie Rivera is an American actress and singer known for her role in the musical comedy television series Glee, as cheerleader Santana Lopez.-Early life:...
were promoted to the main cast. For the third season, Harry Shum, Jr.
Harry Shum, Jr.
Harry Shum, Jr. is an American dancer, actor, and choreographer. He is best known for his role as Mike Chang on the FOX television show Glee. He has appeared in dance films such as Stomp the Yard, You Got Served, Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up 3D...
and Darren Criss
Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and a founding member and co-owner of the theater company StarKid Productions. He currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay high school student, on the FOX television series Glee...
were promoted from recurring to the main cast, and both Gilsig and O'Malley were removed from star billing, though the latter will again be in the recurring guest cast.
The series was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk
Brad Falchuk
Brad Falchuk is a television writer, director and producer. He is best known for his work on the television series Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story.-Early life:...
and Ian Brennan
Ian Brennan (writer)
Ian Brennan is a television writer, actor and producer. He is best known for his work on the television show Glee.-Early life:Brennan is the son of John and Charman Brennan. His sister, Sarah Brennan, is one of the founders of in Chicago...
, who first conceived Glee as a film. The three write all of the show's episodes and Murphy and Falchuk serve as the show's main directors. The pilot episode
Pilot (Glee)
"Pilot" is the pilot episode of the television series Glee, which premiered on the Fox network on May 19, 2009. An extended director's cut version aired on September 2, 2009. The show focuses on a high school show choir, also known as a glee club, set within the fictional William McKinley High...
was broadcast on May 19, 2009, and the first season
Glee (season 1)
The first season of the musical comedy-drama television series Glee originally aired on Fox in the United States. The pilot episode was broadcast as an advanced preview of the series on May 19, 2009, with the remainder of the season airing between September 9, 2009 and June 8, 2010...
aired from September 9, 2009 to June 8, 2010. The second season
Glee (season 2)
The second season of the musical comedy-drama television series Glee originally aired between September 21, 2010 and May 24, 2011 on Fox in the United States...
aired from September 21, 2010 to May 24, 2011, and the third season
Glee (season 3)
A third season of the Fox musical comedy-drama television series Glee was commissioned on May 23, 2010 while the first season aired. It premiered on September 20, 2011, and is being produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Ryan Murphy Television, with executive producers Dante Di Loreto and...
began airing on September 20, 2011. Glee features on-screen performance-based musical numbers that are selected by Murphy, who aims to maintain a balance between show tunes and chart hits, and produced by Adam Anders
Adam Anders
Adam Anders is a music producer who has sold more than 60 million albums and developed songs for motion pictures and television programs.Anders’ work has earned him Grammy Award nominations, a People’s Choice Award and two Golden Globe Awards...
. Songs covered in the show are released through the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
during the week of broadcast, and a series of Glee albums have been released by Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. The music of Glee has been a commercial success, with over thirty-six million digital single sales and eleven million album sales worldwide through October 2011. The series' merchandise also includes DVD and Blu-ray releases, a young adult book series, an iPad application, and a karaoke game for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
.
During its first season, Glee received generally favorable reviews from critics, with Metacritic's
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
weighted average based on the impression of 18 critical reviews of 77 percent. The season was nominated for nineteen Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s, four Golden Globe Awards, six Satellite Awards
Satellite Awards
The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards.- Film :*Best Actor – Drama*Best Actor – Musical or Comedy*Best Actress – Drama...
and fifty-seven other awards, with wins including the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, and Emmy awards for Jane Lynch, guest-star Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
and Murphy's direction of the pilot episode
Pilot (Glee)
"Pilot" is the pilot episode of the television series Glee, which premiered on the Fox network on May 19, 2009. An extended director's cut version aired on September 2, 2009. The show focuses on a high school show choir, also known as a glee club, set within the fictional William McKinley High...
. In 2011, the show once again won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer won Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor respectively; Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele also received nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. The show was also chosen by Fox to fill the coveted timeslot that followed the network's coverage of Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League champion for the 2010 season. The game was held at Cowboys Stadium in...
in 2011. On July 14, 2011, Glee was nominated for twelve Primetime Emmys.
Murphy and Fox have produced a concert film
Concert film
A concert movie, or concert film, is a type of documentary film, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by a musician ....
, Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie is a 2011 American 3-D concert film directed by Kevin Tancharoen. It is based on the Fox television series Glee and features the cast performing during the Glee Live! In Concert! tour.-Synopsis:...
, featuring performance and backstage footage from the 2011 Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert! is a concert tour performed in character by members of the cast of the popular television series, Glee. The tour, created by series creator Ryan Murphy was designed due to the overwhelming response to the series. The show reached North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland...
tour. The film was directed by Kevin Tancharoen
Kevin Tancharoen
Kevin Harwick Tancharoen is an American dancer, choreographer, television producer and film director. On September 29, 2011 New Line/Warner Bros have announced that Kevin Tancharoen, will helm a big-screen adaptation of Mortal Kombat to be released sometime in 2013.-Life and career:Tancharoen was...
, and began its two-week limited release in the United States on August 12, 2011.
Conception
Ian BrennanIan Brennan (writer)
Ian Brennan is a television writer, actor and producer. He is best known for his work on the television show Glee.-Early life:Brennan is the son of John and Charman Brennan. His sister, Sarah Brennan, is one of the founders of in Chicago...
conceived Glee based on his own experience as a member of the Prospect High School
Prospect High School (Illinois)
Prospect High School, or Prospect, is a public four-year high school located in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 214, which also includes Buffalo Grove High School, Elk Grove High School, John Hersey...
show choir in Mount Prospect, Illinois
Mount Prospect, Illinois
Mount Prospect is a village in Elk Grove and Wheeling Townships in Cook County, Illinois, about northwest of downtown Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the village had a total population of 54,167.-Geography:...
. He initially envisioned Glee as a film, rather than a television series, and wrote the first draft in August 2005 with the aid of Screenwriting for Dummies. He completed the script in 2005, but could not generate interest in the project for several years. Mike Novick, a television producer and a friend of Brennan's from Los Angeles, was a member of the same gym as Ryan Murphy, and gave him a copy of Brennan's script. Murphy had been in a show choir in college, and felt he could relate to the script. Murphy and his Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck is an American drama series created by Ryan Murphy, which aired on FX in the United States. The series focuses on McNamara/Troy, a plastic surgery practice, and follows its founders, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy...
colleague Brad Falchuk suggested that Glee be produced as a television show. The script was entirely rewritten, and was picked up by Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
within 15 hours of being received. Murphy attributed that, in part, to the network's success with American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
. "It made sense for the network with the biggest hit in TV, which is a musical, to do something in that vein", he said. Murphy and Falchuk became the show's executive producers and showrunners, Brennan became a co-executive producer and Novick a producer. Brennan, Falchuk and Murphy started by writing "all the episodes".
Glee is set at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio
Lima, Ohio
Lima is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northwestern Ohio along Interstate 75 approximately north of Dayton and south-southwest of Toledo....
. Murphy chose a Midwest setting as he himself grew up in Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, and recalled childhood visits to Ohio to the Kings Island
Kings Island
Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio. Opened in 1972 by Taft Broadcasting Company and now owned by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, Kings Island is the most visited seasonal amusement park in the U.S...
theme park. Although set in Lima, the show is filmed at Paramount Studios
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
in Hollywood. Murphy has said that he has never seen a High School Musical
High School Musical (film series)
The High School Musical film series consists of three Disney musical films directed by Kenny Ortega and created by Peter Barsocchini. It stars Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, and Monique Coleman. The original film was released simply as a Disney Channel...
film, to which Glee has been compared, and that his interest lay in creating a "postmodern musical," rather than "doing a show where people burst into song," drawing more heavily on the format of Chicago
Chicago (2002 film)
Chicago is a 2002 musical film adapted from the satirical stage musical of the same name, exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Jazz-age Chicago....
. Murphy intended the show to be a form of escapism. "There's so much on the air right now about people with guns, or sci-fi, or lawyers running around. This is a different genre, there's nothing like it on the air at the networks and cable. Everything's so dark in the world right now, that's why Idol worked. It's pure escapism," he said. Murphy intended to make a family show to appeal to adults as well as children, with adult characters starring equally alongside the teenage leads, and as of October 2009 he had already mapped out plans for the series covering three years of broadcast.
Writing
The three co-creators—Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennan—plan the stories together. For the first two seasons, they were the only writers, and after taking joint credit for the pilot episode and the episode that opened the fall 2009 season, they began rotating taking a single auctorial credit, based in large part on the person "who’s taken the lead in story breaking or who wrote a draft". Brennan noted that the writing process is "fast and loose, with the emphasis on fast", and quotes Murphy as having said, in terms of their roles in episode creation, "I'm sort of the brain. Brad's sort of the heart. Ian's sort of the funny bone", which Brennan says "is true in a lot of ways". Some of the characters are written more by one writer than by the others. Brennan writes most of Sue's material, and Falchuk frequently writes the scenes between Kurt and Burt Hummel, though Murphy contributes a great deal to Kurt.Starting with season three, a writing staff of six was hired: Ali Adler
Allison Adler
Allison Beth Adler is an American producer and writer for television. She is from California.-Career:Adler has worked on television series including Still Standing and Family Guy. She worked on the TV series Chuck, but she left in May 2010 to work on the ABC series No Ordinary Family...
, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is an American playwright, screenwriter and comic-book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for the HBO drama series Big Love.-Biography:...
, Marti Noxon
Marti Noxon
Martha Mills "Marti" Noxon is an American television and film writer first known for writing and producing Buffy the Vampire Slayer.- Production :...
, Michael Hitchcock
Michael Hitchcock
Michael Hitchcock is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and television producer.In 2011, Hitchcock became a writer and consulting producer for season 3 of the FOX television series Glee, where he had guest starred in season 1 as rival glee club director Dalton Rumba.As an actor, he has...
, Matt Hodgson and Ross Maxwell. The season's fourth episode, "Pot o' Gold
Pot o' Gold (Glee)
"Pot o' Gold" is the fourth episode of the third season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 48th overall. Written by Ali Adler and directed by Adam Shankman, the episode was first broadcast on November 1, 2011 on Fox in the United States...
", was written by Adler, the first not credited to the show's three creators.
Music and choreography
The series features numerous song coversCover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
sung onscreen by the characters. Ryan Murphy is responsible for selecting all of the songs used, and has said that he strives to maintain a balance between chart hits and show tunes: "I want there to be something for everybody in every episode. That's a tricky mix, but that's very important — the balancing of that." According to Murphy, the song choices are integral to script development, "Each episode has a theme at its core. After I write the script, I will choose songs that help to move the story along." In a 2010 interview with Allison Kugel
Allison Kugel
Allison Kugel is an American journalist, editor, and entrepreneur. In 2001 Kugel founded two online enterprises which led to her being featured in Entrepreneur Magazine in 2004. She manages her own public relations firm, and serves as a freelance writer...
, Chris Colfer
Chris Colfer
Christopher Paul "Chris" Colfer is an American actor and singer known for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television series Glee, for which he won a 2011 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and was also nominated twice for an Emmy...
noted that "there have been a couple of times when I have gone to Ryan Murphy (Glee creator) and told him a couple of things that have happened to me, and then he writes it into the show. Or he’ll ask me what song I would want to sing, in this situation or in that situation. I don’t think any of us directly try to give input on the character or on the storyline, but they definitely steal things from us." For the second season, a shift toward using more Top 40 songs was seen, in an effort to appeal more to the 18–49 demographic.
Murphy was surprised at the ease with which use of songs was approved by the record labels approached, and explained: "I think the key to it is they loved the tone of it. They loved that this show was about optimism and young kids, for the most part, reinterpreting their classics for a new audience." A minority of those approached refused to allow their music to be used, including Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
, Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
and Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
; however, in June 2010, Coldplay reversed their decision, allowing Glee the rights to their catalog. Adams posted on his Twitter account that the producers of Glee had never requested permission from him and urged them to "pick up the phone". Composer and musician Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
offered many of his songs for use on the show, and other artists have offered use of their songs for free. A series of Glee soundtrack albums have been released through Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. Songs featured on the show are available for digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
through iTunes up to two weeks before new episodes air, and through other digital outlets and mobile carriers a week later. Glee music producer Adam Anders
Adam Anders
Adam Anders is a music producer who has sold more than 60 million albums and developed songs for motion pictures and television programs.Anders’ work has earned him Grammy Award nominations, a People’s Choice Award and two Golden Globe Awards...
has begun to add original music to the show, including two original songs, "Loser Like Me
Loser Like Me
"Loser Like Me" is a song performed by the cast of American television series Glee, taken from their sixth soundtrack album, Glee: The Music, Volume 5. The song was written by the series' music producer Adam Anders, Swedish pop music producer Max Martin, and Peer Åström, Savan Kotecha, and Johan...
" and "Get It Right
Get It Right (Glee Cast song)
"Get It Right" is a song performed by the cast of American television series Glee, taken from their sixth soundtrack album, Glee: The Music, Volume 5. It is sung by Lea Michele who portrays the series' lead character, Rachel Berry. The song was written by the series' music producer Adam Anders, who...
", on the March 15, 2011 episode.
Glee is choreographed by Zach Woodlee and features four to eight production numbers per episode. Once Murphy selects a song, rights are cleared with its publishers by music supervisor P. J. Bloom, and music producer Adam Anders rearranges it for the Glee cast. Numbers are pre-recorded by the cast, while Woodlee constructs the accompanying dance moves, which are then taught to the cast and filmed. Studio recordings of tracks are then made. The process begins six to eight weeks before each episode is filmed, and can end as late as the day before filming begins. Each episode costs at least $3 million to produce, and can take up to ten days to film as a result of the elaborate choreography. In late 2010, Bloom reported the process has been even shorter; "as quick as a few weeks". For the second season, the creators were offered listens of upcoming songs in advance by publishers and record labels, with production occurring even before song rights are cleared.
Promotion
Prior to the premiere of the second episode, the cast of Glee went on tour at several Hot TopicHot Topic
Hot Topic is an American retail chain specializing in music and pop culture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music on CD. The majority of the stores are located in regional shopping malls. The first Hot Topic store was opened in 1988 by Orv Madden, who retired as CEO in 2000...
stores across the nation. The cast sang the U.S. national anthem
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
at the third game of the 2009 World Series
2009 World Series
The 2009 World Series was the 105th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series. The best-of-seven playoff was contested between the Philadelphia Phillies, champions of the National League and defending World Series champions, and the New York Yankees, champions of the American League...
. They were invited by Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
to perform at the 2009 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, often shortened to Macy's Day Parade, is an annual parade presented by Macy's. The tradition started in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States along with America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit, and four years younger than...
, but host broadcaster NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
rejected the plan due to Glee airing on a rival network. Murphy commented on the cast's exclusion: "I completely understand NBC's position, and look forward to seeing a Jay Leno
Jay Leno
James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...
float."
Due to the success of the show, the cast went on a concert tour following the first season wrap up—Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert! is a concert tour performed in character by members of the cast of the popular television series, Glee. The tour, created by series creator Ryan Murphy was designed due to the overwhelming response to the series. The show reached North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland...
—visiting Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. In addition, the cast recorded a cover of Wham!
WHAM!
Wham! were a short-lived British musical duo formed by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in the early 1980s. They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band....
's "Last Christmas
Last Christmas
"Last Christmas" is a song by British pop duo Wham!, released on Epic Records in 1984, on a double A-side with "Everything She Wants". It was written by George Michael, one half of the duo...
", which was released as a single in late 2009, but didn't appear in the show until "A Very Glee Christmas
A Very Glee Christmas
"A Very Glee Christmas" is the tenth episode of the second season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 32nd episode overall. It was written by series co-creator Ian Brennan, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and premiered on Fox on December 7, 2010...
" on December 10, 2010. Morrison, Lynch, Michele, Monteith and Colfer reprised their roles as Will, Sue, Rachel, Finn and Kurt respectively for a cameo appearance in an episode of The Cleveland Show
The Cleveland Show
The Cleveland Show is an American animated television series that premiered on September 27, 2009, as a part of the "Animation Domination" lineup on Fox in the United States...
that aired January 16, 2011. Michele, Monteith and Riley appeared as campers in the twenty-second
The Simpsons (season 22)
The Simpsons twenty-second season began airing on Fox on September 26, 2010 and ended on May 22, 2011. The Simpsons was renewed for at least two additional seasons during the twentieth season leading up to this season. The cast is currently signed through the 25th season. On November 11, 2010, the...
season premiere
Elementary School Musical (The Simpsons)
"Elementary School Musical" is the season premiere of The Simpsons twenty-second season. It aired on the Fox Network in the United States on September 26, 2010...
of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
.
Lynch, Colfer, Monteith and Riley appeared at the 2010 MTV VMAs on September 12, 2010. When Agron, Michele and Monteith posed for a set of risqué photos for the November 2010 edition of GQ magazine, the show was criticized by the Parents Television Council
Parents Television Council
The Parents Television Council is a U.S. based advocacy group founded by conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995 using the National Legion of Decency as a model...
(PTC). PTC president Tim Winter commented that Glee has many young fans, and that "by authorizing this kind of near-pornographic display, the creators of the program have established their intentions on the show’s direction. And it isn't good for families."
The promotional posters for the first season have the stars of the show using their right hands to make an "L" to fill in the L of the word Glee. The promotional posters for the second season have the stars of the show in pairs throwing slushies at the camera. The promotional posters for the third season have the stars of the show getting dodgeballs thrown at them by Sue Sylvester. While the cast concert tour, Glee Live! In Concert!, began on May 15, 2010, and presented concerts in four cities in the US for the remainder of the month, the second edition, with an almost entirely new set list, toured for four weeks in the US and Canada from May 21 through June 18, 2011, and followed that with twelve days in England and Ireland, from June 22 through July 3, 2011. The cast also performed on the seventh season of The X Factor
The X Factor (UK series 7)
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent; the winner of which receives a £1 million recording contract with the Syco Music record label. The seventh series started on ITV on 21 August 2010 and ended on 12 December 2010. The winner was Matt Cardle and...
on December 5, 2010.
Cast and characters
Matthew Morrison
Matthew James "Matt" Morrison is an American actor, director, musician, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for starring in multiple Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including his portrayal of Link Larkin in Hairspray on Broadway, and most notably for his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated...
, who had previously starred on stage in Hairspray
Hairspray (musical)
Hairspray is a musical with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues...
and The Light in the Piazza; Lea Michele
Lea Michele
Lea Michele Sarfati , known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress and singer. Michele began working professionally as a child actress on Broadway in productions such as Ragtime and Les Misérables. She originated the role of Wendla in the musical Spring Awakening and currently plays...
, who starred in Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening is a rock musical adaptation of the controversial 1892 German play of the same title by Frank Wedekind. It features music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Set in late-19th century Germany, it concerns teenagers who are discovering the inner and outer tumult of...
; and Jenna Ushkowitz, who had been in the Broadway revival of The King and I
The King and I
The King and I is a stage musical, the fifth by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The work is based on the 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and derives from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, who became governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in...
.
Actors with no theatrical experience who auditioned were required to prove they could sing and dance as well as act. Chris Colfer
Chris Colfer
Christopher Paul "Chris" Colfer is an American actor and singer known for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television series Glee, for which he won a 2011 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and was also nominated twice for an Emmy...
had no previous professional experience, but Murphy wrote in the character Kurt Hummel for him to play. Jayma Mays
Jayma Mays
Jayma Suzette Mays is an American television and film actress, and singer. Mays' most prominent roles include that of Emma Pillsbury on the American television series Glee, recurring appearances on Ugly Betty and on Heroes as characters named Charlie.- Life and career :Mays was born Jamia Suzette...
auditioned with the song "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me
Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me
"Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" is the eleventh song in The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. It is sung by Janet and features one-liners from Rocky, Brad, Frank'n'Furter, Magenta, Riff Raff and Columbia.-Origin:...
" from The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
, while Cory Monteith
Cory Monteith
Cory Allan Monteith is a Canadian actor and musician, best known for his role of Finn Hudson on the Fox television series Glee.-Early life:...
initially submitted a tape of himself acting only, and was requested to submit a second, musical tape, in which he sang "a cheesy, '80s music-video-style version" of REO Speedwagon
REO Speedwagon
REO Speedwagon is an American rock band. Formed in 1967, the band grew in popularity during the 1970s and peaked in the early 1980s. Hi Infidelity is the group's most commercially successful album, selling over ten million copies and charting four Top 40 hits in the US...
's "Can't Fight This Feeling
Can't Fight This Feeling
"Can't Fight This Feeling" is a number-one power ballad from REO Speedwagon about a man falling in love with a girl with whom he has been friends for a long time....
". Kevin McHale came from a boy-band background, having previously been part of the group Not Like Them
NLT (band)
NLT was an American boy band whose members were Travis Michael Garland, Kevin McHale, Justin Joseph "JJ" Thorne, and Vahe "V" Sevani. They were discovered by Chris Stokes, who signed them to his TUG Entertainment label in 2006.-History:On March 13, 2007, they released their debut single, "That Girl"...
. He explained that the diversity of the cast's backgrounds reflects the range of different musical styles within the show itself: "It's a mix of everything: classic rock, current stuff, R&B. Even the musical theatre stuff is switched up. You won't always recognize it." Jane Lynch
Jane Lynch
Jane Marie Lynch is an American comedian, actress and singer. She gained fame in Christopher Guest's improv mockumentary pictures such as Best in Show and is currently best known for playing the role of Sue Sylvester in the television series Glee...
was originally supposed to have a recurring role in the show, but was made a series regular when a Damon Wayans
Damon Wayans
Damon Kyle Wayans is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor, one of the Wayans brothers.-Early life:Wayans was born in New York City, New York, the son of Elvira, a homemaker and social worker, and Howell Wayans, a supermarket manager...
pilot she was working on for ABC fell through. The cast is contracted for a potential three Glee films, with their contract stating that "[The actor] hereby grants Fox three exclusive, irrevocable options to engage [the actor] in up to, respectively, three feature length motion pictures." Murphy said in December 2010 that he wasn't interested in doing a Glee movie "as a story", and added, "I might do it as a live concert thing." Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie is a 2011 American 3-D concert film directed by Kevin Tancharoen. It is based on the Fox television series Glee and features the cast performing during the Glee Live! In Concert! tour.-Synopsis:...
, filmed during the 2011 Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert! is a concert tour performed in character by members of the cast of the popular television series, Glee. The tour, created by series creator Ryan Murphy was designed due to the overwhelming response to the series. The show reached North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland...
tour, was released on August 12, 2011.
Glee features fifteen main roles with star billing. Morrison plays Will Schuester
Will Schuester
William "Will" Schuester, often referred to as Mr. Schue, is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Matthew Morrison and has appeared in Glee since its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Will was developed by Glee...
, McKinley High's Spanish teacher who becomes director of the glee club, hoping to restore it to its former glory. Lynch plays Sue Sylvester
Sue Sylvester
Susan "Sue" Sylvester is a fictional character of the Fox musical comedy-drama series, Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jane Lynch, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Sue was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian...
, head coach of the "Cheerios" cheerleading squad, and the Glee Club's arch-nemesis. Mays appears as Emma Pillsbury
Emma Pillsbury
Emma Pillsbury is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Portrayed by actress Jayma Mays, Emma has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Emma was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
, the school's mysophobic
Mysophobia
Mysophobia is a term used to describe a pathological fear of contamination and germs. Someone who has such a fear is referred to as a mysophobe. The term was introduced by Dr. William Alexander Hammond in 1879 when describing a case of obsessive-compulsive disorder exhibited in repeatedly washing...
guidance counselor who has feelings for Will, and Jessalyn Gilsig
Jessalyn Gilsig
Jessalyn Gilsig is a Canadian actress known for her roles in the television series Boston Public, Nip/Tuck and as Will Schuester's ex-wife Terri Schuester in Glee...
plays Terri Schuester
Terri Schuester
Terri Schuester is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jessalyn Gilsig, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Terri was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian...
, Will's wife whom he eventually divorces after five years of marriage—they separate when he discovers she has faked being pregnant. Lea Michele
Lea Michele
Lea Michele Sarfati , known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress and singer. Michele began working professionally as a child actress on Broadway in productions such as Ragtime and Les Misérables. She originated the role of Wendla in the musical Spring Awakening and currently plays...
plays Rachel Berry, talented star of the glee club who is often bullied by the Cheerios and football players. Monteith plays Finn Hudson
Finn Hudson
Finn Hudson is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Cory Monteith, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Finn was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
, star quarterback of the school's football team who risks alienation by his friends after joining the glee club. Also in the club are Amber Riley
Amber Riley
Amber Patrice Riley is an American actress and singer best known for her role on the series Glee as Mercedes Jones.-Early life and career:...
as Mercedes Jones
Mercedes Jones
Mercedes Jones is a fictional character from the Fox popular musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Amber Riley, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Mercedes was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and...
, a fashion-conscious diva who initially resents having to sing back-up; Colfer as Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan initially conceived of him as a fashionable gay countertenor who is routinely bullied at school...
, a gay male countertenor
Countertenor
A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...
; McHale as Artie Abrams
Artie Abrams
Artie Abrams is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Kevin McHale, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Artie was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
, a guitar player and paraplegic; and Ushkowitz as Tina Cohen-Chang
Tina Cohen-Chang
Tina Cohen-Chang is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jenna Ushkowitz, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Tina was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian...
, an Asian American student with a fake speech impediment. Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Quinn Fabray on the television series Glee.-Early life:Dianna Agron was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in San Antonio, Texas and San Francisco, California. She is the daughter of Mary and Ronald S. Agron, a general...
plays Quinn Fabray
Quinn Fabray
Quinn Fabray is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Dianna Agron, and has appeared in Glee since its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. She is a former cheerleader at the fictional William McKinley High School in...
, Finn's cheerleader girlfriend, who later joins the glee club to keep an eye on him. Mark Salling plays Noah "Puck" Puckerman
Puck (Glee)
Noah "Puck" Puckerman is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Mark Salling, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Puck was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian...
, a good friend of Finn's on the football team who at first disapproves of Finn joining the glee club, but later joins the glee club himself. Naya Rivera
Naya Rivera
Naya Marie Rivera is an American actress and singer known for her role in the musical comedy television series Glee, as cheerleader Santana Lopez.-Early life:...
and Heather Morris, who portray Cheerios and glee club vocalists Santana Lopez
Santana Lopez
Santana Lopez is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Naya Rivera, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Santana was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
and Brittany Pierce
Brittany Pierce
Brittany Susan Pierce is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Heather Morris, and has appeared in Glee from its second episode, "Showmance", first broadcast on September 9, 2009. Brittany was developed by Glee creators Ryan...
respectively, were originally recurring actors, but starting in the second season were promoted to series regulars. Mike O'Malley
Mike O'Malley
Michael Edward "Mike" O'Malley is an American actor and playwright who has appeared in films and television series. He hosted Nickelodeon GUTS, and he starred in the CBS comedy Yes, Dear...
, who plays Kurt's father Burt Hummel
Burt Hummel
Burt Hummel is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Mike O'Malley, and first appeared on Glee in the fourth episode of the first season, "Preggers". Burt was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
, also became a series regular on season two. Gilsig and O'Malley no longer appear on the list of starring actors at the beginning of the third season, though O'Malley will be appearing as a recurring guest star in at least six episodes during the season. Two actors were promoted to series regulars at the same time: Harry Shum, Jr.
Harry Shum, Jr.
Harry Shum, Jr. is an American dancer, actor, and choreographer. He is best known for his role as Mike Chang on the FOX television show Glee. He has appeared in dance films such as Stomp the Yard, You Got Served, Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up 3D...
as football player and glee club member Mike Chang
Mike Chang
Michael "Mike" Chang, Jr. is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor and dancer Harry Shum, Jr., and has appeared on Glee since the fourth episode in the first season, "Preggers", first broadcast on September 23, 2009...
and Darren Criss
Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and a founding member and co-owner of the theater company StarKid Productions. He currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay high school student, on the FOX television series Glee...
as former Dalton Academy Warbler and new club member Blaine Anderson
Blaine Anderson
Blaine Anderson is a fictional character from the American musical comedy-drama television series Glee. Played by Darren Criss, Blaine was introduced in the sixth episode of the second season as the openly gay lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers, a rival show choir to New Directions, the...
, both of whom started as recurring actors, Shum in the first season and Criss in the second.
Murphy has stated that many of the original characters will graduate from McKinley High at the end of the third season. "We didn't want to have a show where they were in high school for eight years. We really wanted to be true to that experience." Adult characters played by Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch will remain to provide continuity to the series, though according to Falchuk, some students—Rachel, Finn and Kurt in particular—will likely remain on the show after they graduate.
Broadcast
The first seasonGlee (season 1)
The first season of the musical comedy-drama television series Glee originally aired on Fox in the United States. The pilot episode was broadcast as an advanced preview of the series on May 19, 2009, with the remainder of the season airing between September 9, 2009 and June 8, 2010...
of Glee consists of 22 episodes. The pilot episode
Pilot (Glee)
"Pilot" is the pilot episode of the television series Glee, which premiered on the Fox network on May 19, 2009. An extended director's cut version aired on September 2, 2009. The show focuses on a high school show choir, also known as a glee club, set within the fictional William McKinley High...
was broadcast on May 19, 2009. The series returned on September 9, 2009, airing an additional twelve episodes on Wednesdays in the 9:00 pm timeslot until December 9, 2009, for a total of thirteen episodes. On September 21, 2009, nine more episodes were ordered for the first season by Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, and the first of these episodes was broadcast on April 13, 2010. These episodes aired on Tuesday evenings at 9:00 pm. On January 11, 2010, it was announced that Fox had commissioned a second season of the show. The second season began production in June 2010. Season two
Glee (season 2)
The second season of the musical comedy-drama television series Glee originally aired between September 21, 2010 and May 24, 2011 on Fox in the United States...
began on September 21, 2010, airing in the 8:00 pm time slot on Tuesdays, and consists of 22 episodes. The show was chosen by Fox to fill the coveted timeslot that followed the network's coverage of Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV
Super Bowl XLV was an American football game between the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League champion for the 2010 season. The game was held at Cowboys Stadium in...
in 2011, and the network originally planned to move the show to the 9:00 pm time slot on Wednesdays following the post–Super Bowl broadcast. However, Fox later revised its schedule, leaving Glee on Tuesdays in order to concentrate on building up its weaker Wednesday and Thursday line-ups. A third season was ordered by Fox on May 23, 2010, before the end of the first season. The early renewal of the show allowed the production team to cut costs and to plan ahead when writing scripts. The third season broadcasts are scheduled to remain in the show's Tuesday 8:00 pm time slot, and began airing on September 20, 2011.
Glee has been syndicated for broadcast in many countries worldwide, including Australia, where cast members visited to promote the show prior to its September 2009 debut on Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
. It also airs in Canada, New Zealand, and Fiji. It is broadcast in South Africa, where Fox beams the episodes directly to the M-Net
M-Net
M-Net is a subscription-funded television channel in South Africa, established in 1986 by Naspers....
broadcast center in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
rather than delivering the tapes. In addition, it airs in the United Kingdom, where E4 broadcast the first two seasons, showing episodes months after they were first aired in the US. Sky1 will broadcast the series from starting with the third season, airing episodes two days after their US broadcast. The series also airs in Italy—a week later than the US broadcast, and dubbed into Italian—and in Lithuania. In Ireland, most episodes premiere 20 hours after their US broadcast, making it the European Premiere. Asian countries that broadcast Glee include the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Singapore Indonesia and Japan. The show began airing in Brazil on July 2, 2011, on the Rede Globo
Rede Globo
Rede Globo , or simply Globo, is a Brazilian television network, launched by media mogul Roberto Marinho on April 26, 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Organizações Globo, being by far the largest of its holdings...
network.
Merchandise
Three soundtrack albums were released to accompany Glee first season: Glee: The Music, Volume 1Glee: The Music, Volume 1
Glee: The Music, Volume 1 is the debut soundtrack album by the cast of the musical television series Glee, which airs on Fox in the United States. It features cover versions from the first nine episodes of the first season and was released on November 2, 2009 by Columbia Records and 20th...
, Glee: The Music, Volume 2
Glee: The Music, Volume 2
Glee: The Music, Volume 2 is the second soundtrack album by the cast of the American musical television series Glee, featuring songs from episodes nine to thirteen of the show's first season. It was first released on December 4, 2009 in Australia by Columbia Records...
and Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers
Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers
-Sales and chart performance:The album debuted at number one on the American, Australian, Canadian, and Irish charts. It sold 136,000 copies in its first and 63,000 in its second week of release in the US, and saw the Glee cast beat the record previously set by The Beatles in 1966, for shortest...
. Two extended play
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
s (EP) accompanied the episodes "The Power of Madonna
The Power of Madonna
"The Power of Madonna" is the 15th episode of the American television series Glee. The episode premiered on the Fox network on April 20, 2010...
" and "Journey to Regionals": Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna
Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna
Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna is the first extended play by the cast of the musical television series Glee. It contains eight songs from the season one Glee episode, "The Power of Madonna", which was a tribute episode dedicated to American recording artist Madonna...
and Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals
Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals
Glee: The Music, Journey to Regionals is the second extended play by the cast of musical television series Glee. Containing six songs from the season one finale "Journey to Regionals", it was released on June 8, 2010, the same day the episode aired. Half of the tracks are cover versions of...
respectively. Glee: The Music, The Complete Season One, a compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
featuring all 100 studio recordings from the first season, was released exclusively to the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
. Five soundtrack albums were released to accompany Glee second season: Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album
Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album
Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album is the fourth soundtrack album by the cast of the American musical television series Glee. The album was released on November 9, 2010 and accompanies the season two Christmas episode "A Very Glee Christmas", aired December 7, 2010. Dante Di Loreto and Brad...
, featuring Christmas-themed songs, and Glee: The Music, Volume 4, were both released in November 2010; Glee: The Music, Volume 5, Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers
Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers
Glee: The Music Presents the Warblers is the seventh soundtrack album by the cast of Glee, a musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States. Released through Columbia Records on April 19, 2011, it contains thirteen covers: eleven accompanying performances from the...
, and Glee: The Music, Volume 6 were 2011 releases, in March, April, and May, respectively. An EP entitled Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show
Glee: The Music, The Rocky Horror Glee Show
-Credits and personnel:Persons responsible for the project are as follows.*Adam Anders – arranger; engineer; producer; soundtrack producer; vocals*Alex Anders – engineer*Nikki Anders – vocals*Peer Åström – arranger; engineer; mixing; producer...
was released to accompany the Halloween episode, "The Rocky Horror Glee Show
The Rocky Horror Glee Show
"The Rocky Horror Glee Show" is the fifth episode of the second season of the American television series Glee, and the 27th episode overall. It was written by Ryan Murphy, from a story by Murphy and Tim Wollaston, directed by Adam Shankman, and premiered on Fox on October 26, 2010...
". Two EPs were released exclusively at the Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
discount chain: Glee: The Music, Love Songs in the last week of 2010, and Glee: The Music, Dance Party in early September 2011.
Glee has been released on several DVD and Blu-ray box-sets. Glee – Pilot Episode: Director's Cut features the pilot episode and a preview of the second episode, "Showmance
Showmance
"Showmance" is the second episode of the American television series Glee. The episode premiered on the Fox network on September 9, 2009. It was written by series co-creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan and directed by Murphy. The episode sees the glee club attempt to recruit new...
". Glee – Volume 1: Road to Sectionals contains the first thirteen episodes of season one, and Glee – Volume 2: Road to Regionals contains the final nine episodes of the first season. Glee – The Complete First Season was released on September 13, 2010. Three boxed sets were released for the second season: Glee Season 2: Volume 1 containing the first ten episodes on January 25, 2011, and both Glee Season 2: Volume 2 with the final twelve episode and Glee: The Complete Second Season with all twenty-two on September 13, 2011. All three were released on DVD; only the complete season is available on Blu-Ray.
Little, Brown Books
Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company is a publishing house established by Charles Coffin Little and his partner, James Brown. Since 2006 it has been a constituent unit of Hachette Book Group USA.-19th century:...
is in the process of publishing five Glee–related young adult novels, which are being developed in collaboration with the show's producers and writers. The first three novels have been written by Sophia Lowell; the first, Glee: The Beginning, was released in August 2010 and serves as a prequel to the events of the television series. Subsequent novels include Glee: Foreign Exchange, released in February 2011, and Glee: Summer Break, released in July 2011. Separate to the young adult series, it was planned that Sue Sylvester would write her autobiography in the second season; Murphy also planned for it to be released as a real book, with Lynch going on an accompanying book tour in character as Sue. The book was not mentioned on the program during the second season, nor has it been scheduled for publication.
Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products have plans for a line of Glee–related merchandise including games, electrical products, greeting cards, apparel and stationery. Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
carry a line of Glee–related clothing, and Claire's
Claire's
Claire's is a retailer of accessories and jewelry to girls and young women. Claire's has over 3,000 locations worldwide: their stores are in 95% of all U.S. shopping malls, and in 33 countries...
stock accessories.
Critical reception
Glee received a MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
score of 77 out of 100, based on 18 critic reviews. It was praised by critics in several round-up reviews of 2009 in television
2009 in television
The following is a list of events affecting American television in 2009. Events listed include television show debuts, finales, cancellations, and new channel launches.-January:-February:-March:-April:-May:-June:-July:-August:...
. James Poniewozik of Time ranked it the eighth best television show of the year, commenting: "when Glee works—which is often—it is transcendent, tear-jerking and thrilling like nothing else on TV." Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker ranked it ninth, calling it "Hands down the year's most novel show [and] also its least likely success", Lisa Respers France of CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
wrote that while ordinarily Glee premise would have been "a recipe for disaster", the show has "such quirky charm and bravado that it is impossible not to get swept up".
After the episode "Showmance", the Parents Television Council named Glee the 'Worst Show of the Week', calling it "an edgy, sexually-charged adult series that is inappropriate for teenagers". Nancy Gibbs of Time magazine wrote that she had heard the series described as "anti-Christian" by a youth minister, and commented:
It is easy to see his point, if you look at the specifics. [...] The students lie, they cheat, they steal, they lust, they lace the bake-sale cupcakes with pot in order to give the student body a severe case of the munchies. Nearly all the Ten CommandmentsTen CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
get violated at point or another, while the audience is invited to laugh at people's pain and folly and humiliation. ... It insults kids to suggest that simply watching Characters Behaving Badly onscreen means they'll take that as permission to do the same themselves. [...] And it's set in high school, meaning it's about a journey not just to college and career but to identity and conviction, the price of popularity, the compromises we must make between what we want and what we need."
Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
Brian Lowry was critical of the show's early episodes, highlighting acting and characterization issues and deeming the adult cast "over-the-top buffoons", with the exception of Mays' Emma, who he felt offered "modest redemption". Though he praised Colfer and Michele's performances, Lowry wrote that the show's talent was squandered by its "jokey, cartoonish, wildly uneven tone", deeming the series a "one-hit wonder". Following the show's mid-season finale, Lowry wrote that while Glee "remains a frustrating mess at times", its "vibrant musical numbers and talented cast have consistently kept it on [his] TiVo must list" conceding that "even with its flaws, TV would be poorer without Glee."
As Glee initial success pulled in a large audience, John Doyle of the Globe & Mail wrote that the early shows "felt fresh, mainly because the motley crew of kids had a kind of square naïveté." Doyle notes that the early success took Glee away from its original characters and plot, focusing more on celebrity guests. 'The gaiety is gone from Glee. You should have set it in its prime, mere months ago".
Music
The show's musical performances have been a commercial success, with over thirty-six million copies of Glee cast single releases purchased digitally, and over eleven million albums purchased worldwide through October 2011. In 2009, the Glee cast had 25 singles chart on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, the most by any artist since The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
had 31 songs in the chart in 1964; in 2010, it placed 80 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, far outstripping the previous record. In February 2011, Glee surpassed Elvis as the artist with the most songs placed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, though fewer than one-fourth of them have charted for more than one week. The cast performance of "Don't Stop Believin'
Don't Stop Believin'
"Don't Stop Believin is a popular song by the American rock band Journey, originally released as a single from their 1981 album Escape, which became a #9 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on its original release. It re-entered the UK Singles Chart in 2009 as a result of increased prominence of digital...
" was certified gold
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
on October 13, 2009, achieving over 500,000 digital sales, and on March 16, 2011, received platinum certification for having sales of over a million. The series' cover versions had a positive effect on sales of Rihanna
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
's "Take a Bow
Take a Bow (Rihanna song)
"Take a Bow" is a song by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna, taken from the re-release, Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded , of her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad . The song was written and produced by Tor Erik Hermansen, Mikkel Eriksen and Shaffer Smith, under their stage names Stargate and Ne-Yo...
" increasing by 189 percent after the song was covered in the Glee episode "Showmance".
However, there has also been critical condemnation of the cast performances, with Jon Dolan for Rolling Stone commenting that Matthew Morrison
Matthew Morrison
Matthew James "Matt" Morrison is an American actor, director, musician, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for starring in multiple Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including his portrayal of Link Larkin in Hairspray on Broadway, and most notably for his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated...
"couldn't rap his way out of a 98°
98 Degrees
98 Degrees is an American adult contemporary boy band consisting of four vocalists: brothers Nick and Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, and Jeff Timmons. The group was formed by Timmons in Los Angeles, California....
rehearsal", and Allmusic's Andrew Leahey opining that Cory Monteith
Cory Monteith
Cory Allan Monteith is a Canadian actor and musician, best known for his role of Finn Hudson on the Fox television series Glee.-Early life:...
and Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Quinn Fabray on the television series Glee.-Early life:Dianna Agron was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in San Antonio, Texas and San Francisco, California. She is the daughter of Mary and Ronald S. Agron, a general...
"can't sing nearly as well as their co-stars". E! Online's Joal Ryan criticized the show for its "overproduced soundtrack", in particular, complaining that many songs rely too heavily on the pitch correcting software Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform apparently perfectly tuned vocal...
, noting: "For every too-brief moment of Lea Michele
Lea Michele
Lea Michele Sarfati , known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress and singer. Michele began working professionally as a child actress on Broadway in productions such as Ragtime and Les Misérables. She originated the role of Wendla in the musical Spring Awakening and currently plays...
sounding raw—and lovely—on a "What a Girl Wants
What a Girl Wants (song)
"What a Girl Wants" is the second single performed by Christina Aguilera from her self-titled debut album. The song was released on November 28, 1999, which was ten days after Aguilera's nineteenth birthday. The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 15, 2000 for two weeks,...
," or Monteith singing a perfectly credible REO Speedwagon
REO Speedwagon
REO Speedwagon is an American rock band. Formed in 1967, the band grew in popularity during the 1970s and peaked in the early 1980s. Hi Infidelity is the group's most commercially successful album, selling over ten million copies and charting four Top 40 hits in the US...
in the shower, there's Michele and Monteith sounding like 1990s-era Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
on "No Air
No Air
"No Air" is a song by American recording artist Jordin Sparks featuring American R&B singer Chris Brown. The song was written by James Fauntleroy II, Eric Griggs, Michael Scala, Harvey Mason, Jr., Damon Thomas and Steve Russell...
," or Monteith sounding like the Monteith XRZ-200 on the out-of-the-shower version of "Can't Fight This Feeling
Can't Fight This Feeling
"Can't Fight This Feeling" is a number-one power ballad from REO Speedwagon about a man falling in love with a girl with whom he has been friends for a long time....
".
During the second season, Rob Sheffield
Rob Sheffield
Rob Sheffield is an American music journalist and author. He is currently a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, writing music reviews and essays on pop culture. Prior to that, he was a contributing editor at Blender before the print version of the magazine folded in 2009, and at Spin...
for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
noted the Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
and Rocky Horror
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
tribute episodes as examples when he lauded Glee and its choice of music. He praised Murphy for his selection and resurrection of "forgotten" pop songs and compared the show's uniqueness to "MTV in its prime" as the embodiment of popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
.
Some artists, including Slash
Slash (musician)
Saul Hudson , known by his stage name Slash, is a British-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During his later years with Guns N'...
, Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion, Oklahoma but formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Anthony Caleb Followill , Ivan Nathan Followill and Michael Jared Followill Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion,...
, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
and Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
have declined to have their songs used on the show leaving creator Ryan Murphy unhappy with their decision and often verbally attacking the artists saying they are making a poor decision by not allowing their music on his show.
Fandom
Fans of Glee are commonly referred to as "gleeks", a portmanteau of "glee" and "geek". FoxFox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
ran a "Biggest GLEEK" competition, measuring fans' Glee-related activity on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace, and found that the growth of the fanbase outpaced the network's science-fiction shows. The cast's Hot Topic
Hot Topic
Hot Topic is an American retail chain specializing in music and pop culture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music on CD. The majority of the stores are located in regional shopping malls. The first Hot Topic store was opened in 1988 by Orv Madden, who retired as CEO in 2000...
tour was titled "The Gleek Tour". Glee is one of the most tweeted
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
-about TV shows. Fans have recreated many of its musical numbers in tribute to the show, sharing them on YouTube. Based on this trend, show producers included instrumental versions of some songs on the show's soundtracks.
Similarly, Glee fans have created portmanteaus of their favourite character couples - a fact referenced in the season two, episode nineteen episode "Rumours
Rumours (Glee)
"Rumours" is the nineteenth episode of the second season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 41st overall. The episode was written by series co-creator Ryan Murphy, directed by Tim Hunter, first aired on May 3, 2011 on Fox in the United States, and it features the return of...
" where the characters sit around and reference several couple names; "Puckelberry" (a combination of Noah Puckerman and Rachel Berry) as an example.
Accolades
Glee has received a number of awards and nominations. In 2009, the series won five Satellite Awards: "Best Musical or Comedy TV Series", "Best Actor" and "Actress in a Musical or Comedy TV Series" for Morrison and Michele, "Best Supporting Actress" for Lynch and "Special Achievement for Outstanding Guest Star" for Kristin ChenowethKristin Chenoweth
Kristin Chenoweth is an American singer and actress, with credits in musical theatre, film and television. She is best known on Broadway for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown , for which she won a Tony Award, and for originating the role of Glinda in the musical...
. In 2010, the show won a Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
for "Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy". Morrison, Michele and Lynch also received acting nominations. The series was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Award
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
s, with screenplays nominated in the "Comedy Series" and "New Series" categories. The Glee cast won the "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series" award at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards
16th Screen Actors Guild Awards
----Best Cast - Motion Picture: Inglourious Basterds----Best Cast - Drama Series: Mad Men Best Cast - Comedy Series: Glee ...
. Paris Barclay
Paris Barclay
Paris K.C. Barclay is an American television director and producer. He has directed over 100 episodes of television to date, for series including NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, CSI, Lost, The Shield, House M.D., Law & Order, Monk, Numb3rs, City of Angels, Cold Case, and more recently The Mentalist,...
and Ryan Murphy both received nominations for "Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series" at the Directors Guild of America Awards for their work on Glee. In July 2010, Glee received nineteen Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominations, including "Outstanding Comedy Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series is an Emmy given to the best television comedy series of the year.-Winners and nominees:...
", "Outstanding Lead Actor – Comedy Series" for Morrison and "Outstanding Lead Actress – Comedy Series" for Michele; it won four of these, including "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series" for Lynch and "Outstanding Guest Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series" for Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
.
In January 16, 2011 the show won a Golden Globe for "Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy" and both Lynch and Colfer won Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series, Miniseries, or TV Film. In July 2011, Glee received twelve Emmy nominations.
The cast was invited to sing at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
at the behest of Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
in April 2010 for the annual Easter Egg Roll.
Ratings
| Season | Timeslot (ET Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time... ) |
Season premiere | Season finale | TV season | Rank | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Glee (season 1) The first season of the musical comedy-drama television series Glee originally aired on Fox in the United States. The pilot episode was broadcast as an advanced preview of the series on May 19, 2009, with the remainder of the season airing between September 9, 2009 and June 8, 2010... |
Wednesday 9:00 pm (2009) Tuesday 9:00 pm (2010) |
May 19, 2009 | June 8, 2010 | 2009–2010 | No. 33 (overall) | 9.77 |
| 2 Glee (season 2) The second season of the musical comedy-drama television series Glee originally aired between September 21, 2010 and May 24, 2011 on Fox in the United States... |
Tuesday 8:00 pm (2010–2011) Sunday 10:38 pm The Sue Sylvester Shuffle "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle" is the eleventh episode of the second season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 33rd episode overall. It was written by Ian Brennan, directed by Brad Falchuk, and was broadcast immediately following Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011... Tuesday 9:00 pm New York (Glee) "New York" is the twenty-second episode and season finale of the second season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 44th overall. The episode was written and directed by series creator Brad Falchuk, filmed in part on location in New York City, and first aired on May 24, 2011 on... |
September 21, 2010 | May 24, 2011 | 2010–2011 | No. 43 | 10.112 |
| 3 Glee (season 3) A third season of the Fox musical comedy-drama television series Glee was commissioned on May 23, 2010 while the first season aired. It premiered on September 20, 2011, and is being produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Ryan Murphy Television, with executive producers Dante Di Loreto and... |
Tuesday 8:00 pm (2011–2012 2011–12 United States network television schedule The 2011–2012 network television schedule for the five major English commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers primetime hours from September 2011 through May 2012... ) |
September 20, 2011 | TBA | 2011–2012 | TBA | TBA |
The pilot episode of Glee averaged 9.62 million viewers, and the following eleven episodes attained between 6.10 and 7.65 million. The mid-season finale was watched by 8.13 million viewers, with the show returning in April 2010 to a season high of 13.66 million viewers. The following six episodes attained between 11.49 and 12.98 million viewers, falling to 8.99 million for the penultimate episode "Funk". Viewing figures rose to 11.07 million viewers for the season finale, giving Glee the highest finale rating for a new show in the 2009–10 television season. Only the first twenty episodes of the first season were accounted for when calculating the season average due to the final two episodes airing outside the traditional sweeps period. On February 6, 2011, after the Superbowl, Glee received its highest ever ratings, with over 26.8 million tuning in to see the special Superbowl episode, with a peak of 39.5 million.
Film
Glee: The 3D Concert MovieGlee: The 3D Concert Movie
Glee: The 3D Concert Movie is a 2011 American 3-D concert film directed by Kevin Tancharoen. It is based on the Fox television series Glee and features the cast performing during the Glee Live! In Concert! tour.-Synopsis:...
, a concert film
Concert film
A concert movie, or concert film, is a type of documentary film, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by a musician ....
based on the four-week North American segment of the 2011 Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert! is a concert tour performed in character by members of the cast of the popular television series, Glee. The tour, created by series creator Ryan Murphy was designed due to the overwhelming response to the series. The show reached North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland...
tour and featuring the student cast of the series in performance and backstage, was released in the United States on August 12, 2011, for a two-week limited engagement. The film is directed by Kevin Tancharoen.
Related media
In January 2010, it was announced that open auditions would be held for three new roles to be introduced in Glee second season. They were open to amateurs and professionals aged 16 to 26, and were intended to be the subject of a multi-part television special, set to air in the lead-in to the second season premiere in fall 2010, with the new cast members revealed in the first episode. Murphy commented: "Anybody and everybody now has a chance to be on a show about talented underdogs. We want to be the first interactive musical comedy on television." On June 22, 2010, Josef Adalian of New YorkNew York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine revealed that the reality show would not go ahead, due to Murphy's desire to concentrate on the main series, and fear that the distraction of the reality show may damage Glee. Adalian reported that the production team would still choose several winners from the entrants and invite them to appear on Glee for at least one episode. In June 2010, it was announced that Oxygen
Oxygen (TV channel)
Oxygen is an American cable television specialty channel with television programming marketed towards women, with a format similar to Lifetime.- History :...
would host a reality series
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
set to air in June 2011, featuring performers competing for a spot on Glee. The Glee Project
The Glee Project
The Glee Project is an American reality television series from Oxygen. It serves as an audition for the FOX TV series Glee. Although originally planned to begin broadcasting in late May 2011, The Glee Project premiered on June 12, 2011...
started airing on June 12, 2011, and the final episode was broadcast on August 21, 2011. The winning prize was a seven-episode guest-starring role in Glee third season, which was awarded to two contestants, with a two-episode role given to two other finalists.
On June 7, 2010, UK broadcaster Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
aired Gleeful: The Real Show Choirs of America on its E4 station. The documentary explored the American show choir
Show choir
A show choir is a group of people who combine choral singing with dance movements, sometimes within the context of a specific idea or story.-History:...
phenomenon which inspired Glee. Narrated by Nick Grimshaw
Nick Grimshaw
Nicholas Peter "Nick" Grimshaw is a British television and radio presenter. Commonly known as 'Grimmy', he has presented shows for Channel 4, E4, BBC One, BBC Two and Channel 4 youth strand T4...
, it went behind the scenes with real-life glee clubs and detailed celebrity show choir alumni including Lance Bass
Lance Bass
James Lance Bass , best known as Lance Bass, is an American pop singer, dancer, actor, film and television producer, and author. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band 'N Sync. 'N Sync's success led Bass to work in film and television...
, Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher
Christopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...
, Blake Lively
Blake Lively
Blake Christina Lively is an American actress and model who stars as Serena van der Woodsen in the television teen drama series Gossip Girl...
and Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
. It was selected as recommended viewing by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, with the comment: "it's a fascinating look at the real-life New Directions, and it's equally as crackers as its TV champion." The newspaper's Lucy Mangan reviewed the documentary positively, writing: "It will, one way or another, fill your heart to bursting", and commenting that: "Glee, it turns out, is not a gloriously ridiculous, highly polished piece of escapism. It is cinéma vérité." It was watched by 411,000 viewers, a 2.3% audience share.
In summer 2010, Channel 5 in the United Kingdom aired Don't Stop Believing
Don't Stop Believing
Don't Stop Believing is a British television talent show that aired on Channel 5 in summer 2010. It was inspired by the musical comedy-drama Glee, which airs in the United States on the Fox network. The series featured live shows in which musical performance groups competed against each other, with...
, a reality talent show inspired by Glee success. The series featured live shows in which established and new musical performance groups competed against each other, performing well-known songs in new arrangements, with viewers voting on the winner. Solo singers were also sought to join a group to represent the United Kingdom on the American glee club circuit. Five's controller Richard Woolfe
Richard Woolfe
Richard Woolfe is a senior British broadcast figure. Woolfe is currently Creative Director of Prime Focus Productions, the UK arm of Prime Focus Group, a role recently created for him to help spearhead the post-production house's push into TV production, with a focus on high-end drama and...
stated: "There's an explosion in musical performance groups and Don't Stop Believing will tap into that exciting groundswell." The show was hosted by Emma Bunton
Emma Bunton
Emma Lee Bunton is an English pop singer/songwriter and TV and radio presenter. She was a member of the 1990s girl group, the Spice Girls, in which she was known as Baby Spice as she was the youngest member. In 2010, she joined the judging panel on ITV's Dancing on Ice...
, who told The Belfast Telegraph
The Belfast Telegraph
The Belfast Telegraph is a daily evening newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland by Independent News & Media.It was first published as the Belfast Evening Telegraph on 1 September 1870 by brothers William and George Baird...
that she is a "huge fan" of Glee. The show's judges were former EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
actress Tamsin Outhwaite, Blue member Duncan James
Duncan James
Duncan Matthew James Inglis is an English singer, actor and television presenter. He is best known as a member of the boyband Blue.-Early life:...
, singer Anastacia
Anastacia
Anastacia is an American singer-songwriter. Anastacia has been highly successful in Europe, Asia, South Africa and South America, but has had only minor success in her native United States...
and High School Musical
High School Musical
High School Musical is a 2006 American television film, first in the High School Musical film franchise. Upon its release on January 20, 2006, it became the most successful film that Disney Channel Original Movie ever produced, with a television sequel High School Musical 2 released in 2007 and...
choreographer Charles "Chucky" Klapow
Charles Klapow
Charles "Chucky" Klapow is an American choreographer and dance instructor who has performed and choreographed for various performers and several television and stage productions. He is also known for his teachings of the mental approach to dance...
.
External links
- Glee Wiki
- Glee episode list at TV GuideTV GuideTV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
- Encyclopedia Britannica: Glee (American television program)