Glee (TV series)

Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that aired on the Fox network in the United States from May 19, 2009 to March 20, 2015. It focuses on the fictitious William McKinley High School Glee club, New Directions, which competes on the show choir competition circuit while its disparate members deal with relationships, sexuality, social issues, and learning to become an effective team. The initial twelve-member cast included 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. In subsequent seasons, the main cast has expanded to fourteen and fifteen members.

The series was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan, the last of whom first conceived of Glee as a film. The three wrote all of the show's episodes for the first two seasons, and Murphy and Falchuk initially served 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. Subsequent seasons aired in September through May. The sixth and final season is set to air from January to March 2015. 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 and Peer Åström. 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, an iPad application, and karaoke games for the Wii. There were live concert tours by the show's cast after the first and second seasons completed shooting; a concert film based on the 2011 tour, Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, was produced by Murphy and Fox and directed by Kevin Tancharoen.

During its first season, Glee received generally favorable reviews from critics, with Metacritic's weighted average of 77 out of 100 based on eighteen critical reviews. The season was nominated for nineteen Emmy Awards, 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 for Best Television Series, and Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer won Golden Globes for Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film|Best Supporting Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film|Best Supporting Actor respectively, and Gwyneth Paltrow won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. The show was also chosen by Fox to fill the coveted time slot that followed the network's coverage of Super Bowl XLV in 2011.

On October 17, 2013, in the wake of the death of Cory Monteith three months earlier, and a week after his tribute episode "The Quarterback" was aired, Murphy announced that the sixth season would be the final season of the series.

The show's final season premiered on January 9th, 2015 and concluded on March 20th, 2015, airing a total of 121 episodes during its six year run.

Conception
Ian Brennan 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 fifteen 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 and Helen Bernstein High School 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.

Writing
The three 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, 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.

Adler and Noxon did not return for the show's fourth season and instead House writers Russel Friend and Garrett Lerner, and Stacy Traub were hired.

Cast and characters
Glee featured 12 major roles with star billing during the first season, subsecuent seasons had up to 15 regular cast members. Matthew Morrison plays Will Schuester, McKinley High's Spanish teacher who becomes director of the Glee Club, hoping to restore it to its former glory. Morrison has assessed that the crux of Glee is "about [Will's] passion for music and influencing his kids." Jane Lynch is Sue Sylvester, head coach of the cheerleading squad or "Cheerios," and the Glee Club's nemesis. Lynch states that Sue is "pure evil and doesn't hide it," having been created as a product of Murphy, Brennan and Falchuk's "inner mean girl." Jayma Mays appears as Emma Pillsbury, the school's mysophobic guidance counsellor who has unrequited feelings for Will. Mays has deemed Emma an amazing character to play, explaining: "I don't find that female characters are always written with a lot of depth, but she's so well defined on the page. Sure, she's terrified of germs and in love with a married man, so seeing her as the voice of reason for the kids is amazing." Emma's relationship with Will will continue to grow, as "she has these moments of clarity when she's talking to Will because he calms her." Jessalyn Gilsig played Terri Schuester, Will's demanding wife of five years from 2009 to 2010, during the first and second season. Gilsig has stated that things would become sticky as Terri learns of Will's relationship with Emma, explaining: "Terri is a woman of conviction, so she's going to do whatever it takes to keep her man, even if that means finding this woman and hunting her down."
 * Main article: Cast and Characters

Lea Michele plays Rachel Berry, talented star of the Glee Club who is bullied by the Cheerios and football players. Michele took the role in Glee because of Rachel's characterization, explaining: "Not only is she a singer, but she has so much heart— I think it's what we need on a TV. A show that is filled with heart and love that is funny. It sends an amazing message to kids about the arts and being who you are." Cory Monteith who played Finn Hudson, star quarterback of the school's football team who risks alienation by his friends to join the Glee Club. Monteith was attracted to the fact Finn "isn't just a dumb jock," but instead "walks a fine line between following his dreams and balancing what other people expect of him." Monteith played Finn during the first four seasons of the show, and he was supposed to return to the series during the fifth season, but couldn't do it because of his death four months prior to the 5th season premiere.

Also in the club are Amber Riley as Mercedes Jones, a fashion conscious diva who refuses to sing back-up; Chris Colfer as Kurt Hummel, a flamboyant countertenor who is bullied by the football team; Kevin McHale as Artie Abrams, an electric guitar player and paraplegic manual wheelchair user; and Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina Cohen-Chang, an Asian-American gothic student with a speech impediment. Colfer has explained that Kurt: "puts on a very confident, 'I'm better than you' persona, but underneath it all he's the same anxious and scared teen everyone is/was at some point. In later episodes, he goes through an identity crisis, accepting and finding acceptance for who he is. [...] He's a tough guy in designer clothes." McHale describes Artie as "what you would call a nerd. He loves Glee Club with all his heart and uses it to escape the big bad world that high school can be just like the other members of Glee Club." He found it challenging to adapt to the fact Artie is in a wheelchair, explaining: "Coming from a dance background, I instinctually want to start dancing or tapping my foot to the music. So, I've been learning how to keep that under control and how quickly being in the wheelchair becomes natural."

Mark Salling plays Noah "Puck" Puckerman, a friend of Finn's on the football team who disapproves of Finn joining the Glee Club. Salling found it challenging to make the character "more than two-dimensional so he can be likeable at the same time," which necessitated "find[ing] the balance between arrogance and cocky and sensible and likeable." Salling gained 20 pounds before filming the pilot episode in order to better embody his football playing character. He then lost 30 pounds for a scene which required him to be toned, which he described as "an extreme experience." Dianna Agron plays Quinn Fabray, Finn's girlfriend who is head of the Cheerios and celibacy club. Quinn joins the Glee Club from the second episode, and is described by Agron as Rachel's enemy, and "terrible, the meanest girl." Recurring roles include Patrick Gallagher as Ken Tanaka, head coach of the football team who wants to date Emma, Iqbal Taeba as Principal Figgins, the high school's unenthusiastic principal, and Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez, a competitive member of the Cheerios. Rivera drew on her own high school experience of unpopularity to prepare for the role, as well as watching films such as Mean Girls to "really get in the zone and feel like a bitchy Sophomore."

The show featured Broadway stars in recurring or minor roles including John Lloyd Young as "a retired wood shop teacher with an excellent singing voice," Victor Garber as Will's father, and Debra Monk as Will's mother. Kristin Chenoweth will play April Rhodes, a former member of the Glee club who never finished high school and ended up hitting rock bottom, Josh Groban appeared as himself, and Cheyenne Jackson also appeared. Other guest stars include Sarah Drew as Suzy Pepper, a senior with a crush on her teacher, and Stephen Tobolowsky as Sandy Ryerson, the director of the Glee Club before Will took over. Whitney Houston was contacted to appear, but declined, so rapper Eve took her place as Grace Hitchens.

Casting
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 lacking theatrical experience needed to demonstrate, during their auditions, that they could also sing and dance. Chris Colfer had no previous professional experience, but Murphy wrote in the character Kurt Hummel for him. 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, 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 has featured as many as fifteen main roles with star billing, after starting with twelve. Morrison plays Will Schuester, McKinley High's Spanish teacher, who becomes glee-club director and hopes to restore it to its former glory. Lynch plays Sue Sylvester, head coach of the "Cheerios" cheerleading squad, and the Glee Club's 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 and the discovery that she has faked being pregnant instead of revealing she had suffered a false pregnancy. Michele plays Rachel Berry, talented star of the glee club who is often bullied by the Cheerios and football players, but grows closer to them as the show progresses. Rachel has an on-and-off relationship with Finn Hudson starting in season one; they become engaged in season three. Monteith played Finn, 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 fashionable 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 it himself. Naya Rivera and Heather Morris, who portray Cheerios and glee club vocalists Santana Lopez and Brittany Pierce respectively, were originally recurring actors, but were promoted to series regulars in the second season. 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 as of the third season: 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. For the fourth season, Chord Overstreet, who started as a recurring actor in the second season, playing glee club member Sam Evans, was promoted to the main cast, while Agron and Mays were credited as recurring guest stars.

Many of the original characters graduated from McKinley High at the end of the third season. Murphy said, "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. In May 2012, Murphy said that just because a character on the show graduates high school does not mean that they are leaving, "A lot of people have been writing Dianna's off the show, Amber's off the show — they're not off the show. I think Amber was talking about that bittersweet feeling of, 'I'll never be in the choir room with that exact group of people.' At least that's what she told me ... When I read that [tweet,] I said, 'I think people will misconstrue that.' She's excited about where her character is going. They all are. I wanted to do the right thing by all of them." He then continued: "They're all coming back. Anyone who is a regular is coming back. Everyone said yes."

On June 28, 2013, the media reported that Morris, Riley, Salling, and Shum would be changing from starring status to guest starring roles for the fifth season, and on the following day that Jacob Artist, Melissa Benoist, Blake Jenner, Alex Newell and Becca Tobin, who play Jake Puckerman, Marley Rose, Ryder Lynn, Wade "Unique" Adams, and Kitty Wilde, respectively, were all being promoted to the show's main cast.

On July 13, 2013, Monteith was found dead in his room at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia. An autopsy completed on July 15 indicated that he died of alcohol and heroin overdose. On July 20, 2013, Ryan Murphy said in various media outlets that Cory would have a tribute in season five's third episode, which would deal with the death of Monteith's character, Finn.

On July 30, 2013, Mays confirmed that she will depart the show after the fifth season to work on other projects, but stated that she would be open to returning as a guest star in the future.

On July 7, 2014, it was confirmed that Rivera would be placed on a recurring status for the sixth and final season, by her request.On August 28, a website revealed that Amber Riley will once again become a regular along with Dot-Marie Jones while Jayma Mays will be on a recurring status.

Many of the cast members have appeared together in the musical Spring Awakening (Lea Michele, Jenna Ushkowitz, Jonathan Groff) or on the show Heroes (Jayma Mays, Jessalyn Gilsig, Dianna Agron, Stephen Tobolowsky).

Reception
Prior to the broadcast of Glee ' s pilot episode, Entertainment Weekly ' s Ken Tucker gave the show an A, posing the question: "Has there ever been a TV show more aptly named than Glee? It both embodies and inspires exactly that quality." Glee was the top ranked topic on social networking site Twitter on the night of its initial airing. Alessandra Stanley for the New York Times called the show "blissfully unoriginal in a witty, imaginative way," saying the characters are "high school archetypes" but noted "a strong satiric pulse that doesn’t diminish the characters’ identities or dim the showmanship of a talented cast." The Daily News ' David Hinckley wrote that the show "isn't close to perfect" but "has likable characters, a good sense of humor and a reasonably deft touch with music." He called the pilot episode "not very plausible" but "potentially heartwarming," writing of the musical choices: "The duet of "You're the One That I Want" from Grease may be a little obvious, but setting a group dance routine to Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" shows some inspiration. Whether Glee can hold that note remains a very unanswered question. But it will at least be worth watching to see." USA Today ' s Robert Bianco assessed: "There's a lot to like here: the exuberance of the musical numbers, the bite to the comedy and the joy of seeing something different. It has casting and tone problems, but it has all summer to fix them."

The Baltimore Sun ' s David Zurawik was critical of the show's characterization and comedy, but was impressed by the staging of "Don't Stop Believing," writing that: "the staging of that song [...] is so elevating and inspirational that it almost redeems all the stereotypes and lame humor that come before. Grit my teeth as I did at how one-dimensionally empty-headed the writing could be, I will still be back for the start of this series in the fall because of its musical punch." Tom Jicha for The Sun Sentinel similarly opined of the episode that: "A lively score and appealing performers somewhat compensate for overly familiar characters and plotting," while Rob Owen for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette agreed: "It's the music that makes Glee a gleeful delight. Without the song-and-dance production numbers, this Fox pilot would be just another high-school-set comedy-drama." The Chicago Tribune ' s Maureen Ryan commented that: "the two biggest musical numbers are tremendously entertaining. They're shot and performed with verve, and they put to shame those medleys contestants often perform on the Wednesday edition of American Idol," but again observed: "Whether it will work as a satirical dramedy about the cutthroat social environment of high school is another matter." Of the principal cast, Ryan opined: "Casting Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester [...] was a wise move; the actor not only has a sweet voice, but a hangdog hopefulness that gives a needed anchor to the show's more satirical elements. Cory Monteith gives quarterback Finn Hudson a jock-ish authority mixed with an appealingly square naivete, and Lea Michele not only has an amazing voice, but manages to make her character, spoiled diva Rachel Berry, more than a humorless stereotype." She was critical, however, of Gilsig as Terri, calling her "the worst thing about Glee" and opining: "As written by Murphy and played by Gilsig, the character is screechy, unfunny and deeply unpleasant. It's as if Ryan didn't trust that the audience would get behind Will and the saga of his ragtag glee club and so saw fit to give the teacher the shrewish, nagging wife from hell."

In contrast, Tom Shales for The Washington Post criticized Morrison as Will, writing: "Morrison is definitely not gleeful and doesn't seem particularly well equipped to be a high-school impresario; as pipers go, he's not even marginally pied." Shales was more positive regarding Lynch's performance, and concluded that: "Dramatic tension isn't exactly plentiful, but pleasingly staged songs and a general aura of retro ingenuousness come through, and seem awfully if fitfully refreshing." Variety ' s Brian Lowry also highlighted acting and characterization issues with the show, writing that: "It's among the adults, alas — who are mostly over-the-top buffoons — where Glee nearly sails off the rails, from Jane Lynch's tyrannical cheer matron to the salivating football coach, a bit like the Rydell High gang in Grease." Lowry opined that: "Modest redemption comes from the stammering Emma (Heroes ' Jayma Mays), who has a clear crush on Will, even though he's married to his high-school sweetheart. Perhaps to foster a rooting interest (or at least sympathy) for a Will-Emma pairing, said wife (Jessalyn Gilsig) is initially presented as a ditsy shrew." Mary McNamara for the LA Times has called Glee: "the first show in a long time that's just plain full-throttle, no-guilty-pleasure-rationalizations-necessary fun." She praised Lynch as Sue, writing that "Lynch alone makes Glee worth watching," and opined that overall: "The music, though by no means edgy, is energetic with a wide audience appeal, like the show itself.

After the episode "Showmance," the Parents Television Council named Glee the 'Worst Show of the Week'.

U.S. ratings
Over the hour of broadcast, the Glee pilot drew an average of 10 million viewers. It began with 12.518 million, dropping after the first half hour from first place to third, retaining only 8.917 million viewers, for an average of 9.619 million viewers.

International syndication
In Canada, Glee airs on Global. The premiere was on September 9, 2009, a week after its original airing on Fox. Throughout the remainder of the season, the show will air at 9 PM and in simulcast with Fox. It ran on Global till the end of Season 4 and currently has been airing on City since Season 5.

In the Philippines, Glee will air on ETC Entertainment Central starting on September 15, every Tuesday at 10:00PM. And will also air at the said network's sister network, Jack TV starting September 14, every Wednesday at 4:00 PM and replays at 9:00 PM. Meanwhile, Jack TV will first air the pilot's Director's Cut edition at September 13 at 9:00 PM. In September 2010, Glee still airs on ETC Entertainment Central & Jack TV. It airs on Wednesday at 9:00 PM in ETC Entertainment Central & Jack TV.

In Latin America, Glee will air on FOX Latin America beginning somewhere on November. The pilot episode has already been aired on Sunday, September 5.

TV3 in Ireland has announced Glee as part of its 2009/2010 schedule.

Awards and nominations
As of January 22, 2010, Glee has received nominations for People's Choice Awards, Teen Choice Awards, Writer's Guild of America Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, Satellite Awards, Golden Globe Awards and several other awards. The show has won ten of those awards nominations so far.