When you sit down for your Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and you're asked what some of the things you're thankful for this year are, you can go ahead and be honest and just say, "Glee!" After all, the series has made people thankful for Wednesday nights again. And for bringing back moments of spontaneously bursting into song. No one is more aware of fan's joy over the show than the series' stars. CNN.com chatted with Matthew Morrison (Mr. Schuester) and scene-stealer Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester) about how "a cross between "The Breakfast Club" and "Grease" has struck such a chord with television viewers.
Matthew, who cut his teeth on the Broadway stage in shows like "Hairspray" talked about the unexpected success of "Glee", stating, "We're all set on a goldmine, and we're all excited and honored. It's hard to talk about it because it's such a special show and we're so happy to be a part of it." He also attributes shows like "So You Think You Can Dance" and "American Idol" for paving the way for the show's success. The actor also touched on the touchy subject of the cast being cut from tomorrow's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, saying, "I read about it on the Internet. I think they spun the story really well for 'Glee.' They didn't help NBC's cause, but I think it's interesting. But we're chugging away, and it's better for us we don't."
So, is Jane Lynch as rough around the edges as her fictitious counterpart Coach Sylvester? While she admits it is fun to bark those hilariously blunt one-liners, she leaves it all at work at the end of the day, " I'm a nice person after I leave 'Glee' because I get to exercise the heinous behavior while I'm in a track suit yelling at defenseless children." Aside from the musical aspect of the show (Jane calls the show "the home of American musical theater") she thinks it's really the underdog storyline about the band of merry misfits that his tuners singing their praise, "I think it's important for us to see the loser aspect of ourselves, reflected on television ... We like to root for the underdog. And these are a bunch of kids who in spite of getting slushies thrown in their faces every day and being maligned ... the high school culture. ... They show up to every day dutifully to glee club and sing their hearts out and support each other. I think that's something all of us want to root for, and we love music."
Neither Jane nor Matthew dropped any clues about upcoming episodes (Matt responded with a straightforward, "Something really big happens. I think that's the really exciting thing about the show. I'm not going to tell you anything") but judging from this interview, the kids of McKinley High aren't the only ones with something to sing about.
This article is from 'Glee' Stars Talk About The Importance Of Being Losers & Hint At 'Something Big' To Come
Glee TV Guide: Glee violates the Ten Commandments
"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 Commandments get violated at one point or another, while the audience is invited to laugh at people's pain and folly and humiliation."
Glee, the hit show about a high school Glee club, has very sharp claws, which is one reason kids like it so much. It is routinely, if hilariously, cruel (the sweet jock is described as so dumb, "he's cheating off a girl who thinks the square root of 4 is rainbows"). But no darker current--let alone motivation for parental monitoring--had occurred to me until I recently heard a bright, earnest youth minister tell a group of high school kids that he thought Glee was "anti-Christian."
It is easy to see his point, if you look at the specifics. In his view, Glee portrays Christians as phonies and hypocrites. He observed that the only self-identified Christian is the shiny blond Quinn, cheerleading president of the celibacy club, who is pregnant by one classmate but pretending the father is another. (To make matters more complicated, in a heartbreaking scene, she begs her parents' forgiveness; in righteous fury, they throw her out of the house.) Meanwhile, the glee-club director, Mr. Schuester, is unhappily married to a perky little spider, which makes the adultery subplot involving him look positively charitable. 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 Commandments get violated at one point or another, while the audience is invited to laugh at people's pain and folly and humiliation.
Which led my husband to pose the question to our daughters, What would Jesus watch? That in turn led to an intriguing--and useful--conversation around our dinner table. It's the oldest teacher's trick, better to show than tell: the Sermon on the Mount was clean and clear, but Jesus also offered parables, little mysteries to unwrap and examine for their coded messages. This is a delivery device especially good for teenagers building their rebellious muscles.
It insults kids to suggest that simply watching Characters Behaving Badly onscreen means they'll take that as permission to do the same themselves. The fact that Glee is about a club full of misfits already makes it ripe gospel ground; Jesus was not likely to be sitting at the cool kids' table in the cafeteria. 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.
This article is from The Gospel of Glee
Glee, the hit show about a high school Glee club, has very sharp claws, which is one reason kids like it so much. It is routinely, if hilariously, cruel (the sweet jock is described as so dumb, "he's cheating off a girl who thinks the square root of 4 is rainbows"). But no darker current--let alone motivation for parental monitoring--had occurred to me until I recently heard a bright, earnest youth minister tell a group of high school kids that he thought Glee was "anti-Christian."
It is easy to see his point, if you look at the specifics. In his view, Glee portrays Christians as phonies and hypocrites. He observed that the only self-identified Christian is the shiny blond Quinn, cheerleading president of the celibacy club, who is pregnant by one classmate but pretending the father is another. (To make matters more complicated, in a heartbreaking scene, she begs her parents' forgiveness; in righteous fury, they throw her out of the house.) Meanwhile, the glee-club director, Mr. Schuester, is unhappily married to a perky little spider, which makes the adultery subplot involving him look positively charitable. 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 Commandments get violated at one point or another, while the audience is invited to laugh at people's pain and folly and humiliation.
Which led my husband to pose the question to our daughters, What would Jesus watch? That in turn led to an intriguing--and useful--conversation around our dinner table. It's the oldest teacher's trick, better to show than tell: the Sermon on the Mount was clean and clear, but Jesus also offered parables, little mysteries to unwrap and examine for their coded messages. This is a delivery device especially good for teenagers building their rebellious muscles.
It insults kids to suggest that simply watching Characters Behaving Badly onscreen means they'll take that as permission to do the same themselves. The fact that Glee is about a club full of misfits already makes it ripe gospel ground; Jesus was not likely to be sitting at the cool kids' table in the cafeteria. 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.
This article is from The Gospel of Glee
Glee TV Guide: On Rachel Berry's True Partner, Finn Hudson versus Noah Puckerman
We're partial to both pairings, which means we could be persuaded either way, and that's why we're hosting another one of our irregular (but oh-so-fun) love debates.
So we've opened the floor to speeches in favor of both Team Puckleberry and Team Finnchel, and selected the best two arguments to present to you today. Your job is to jump in here, read the resolutions in favor, and then decide for yourself which pairing is more perfect for Rachel.
Ready? Set? Go!
Argument in favor of "Finn & Rachel" by Stephanie in New York
From the first episode of Glee, Finn and Rachel make their mark as the "It couple" of McKinley High School. The only problem? They are not actually together. He's the popular, clueless jock, and she's the talented, type-A geek; they are polar opposites. Yet they share musical talent and a desire to chase their dreams out of their small hometown.
On paper, they make no sense as a couple, and this is exactly why they actually work. To quote Rachel, "It is our differences that make us special. It's our differences that will help us win."
What cements this couple is the music. When they sing to each other, they express what they cannot say out loud.
Rachel was heartbroken to learn that Finn's girlfriend was pregnant (though only viewers know that Finn is not the father). Rachel finds out about the baby and is devastated. Finn tells her, heartsick, that he has feelings for her and their kiss was real. Rachel sticks with Glee Club, telling Finn, "If I let you down when you needed me most, I'd never forgive herself." Rachel knows she can help the club win competitions, aiding Finn in earning a college scholarship. This selfless act leads to a heartbreaking performance of Queen's "Somebody to Love." Rachel and Finn sing, reaching their arms out to hang on to each other. "Someday I'll get outta this prison cell," they sing. "Someday I'm gonna be free."
With Glee, all you need to know is in the music.
Argument in favor of "Puck & Rachel" by Julie in California
There are three factors that help me to determine which couple I will support for any fandom. These three factors are potential, chemistry and compatibility. Potential is what first drew me to the Puck-Rachel relationship on Fox's Glee. The moment his slushy hit her face, I thought, "This could be something. Something great." Something like the gruff popular/loner type bonding with the sweet, unpopular girl, where one learns to soften and the other learns cool confidence. Slightly cliché, maybe, but great nonetheless. Their compatibility stems from a shared desire to be a star (she's a gold star, he's a rock star) and a fierce determination when going after what they want.
Last, but certainly not least, is their chemistry. One need only to watch "Mashup" (warning: Puck-Rachel scenes might cause your TV to burst into flames) to become subject to the intense chemistry that burns between the two of them.
Yes, they are hot. Yet there is a sweetness that almost softens the sparks, making Puck and Rachel seem real, genuine. It is the summation of all of these factors that keep me on board the Puck-Rachel "ship" with the intent to never disembark. I'm encouraged by the Puck-Rachel fan base, which continues to grow every day, that I will not be sailing on this ship alone.
Glee Joe Viles/FOX
So? What do you think? Or do you declare this all to be poppycock because Puck obviously belongs with Quinn (Dianna Agron), or heck, because you've read the slashfic and you're just sure that Quinn belongs with Rachel?
Meanwhile, an all-new installment of Glee airs tonight at 9 p.m. on Fox. Don't miss it!
This article is from http://www.eonline.com
Glee TV Guide: Glee versus Lost
No more. Fox just released its 2010 TV schedule and it has placed Glee's new episodes (which premiere April 13) on Tuesday at 9 p.m. Unfortunately, Tuesdays at 9 p.m. just so happen to be when ABC is putting the final season of Lost. Not to mention there are already plenty of Melrose Place, NCIS: L.A. and The Biggest Loser fans out of there, and their faves all already air at that time.
Brutal, man. Our house has four DVRs total, so we can probably survive this without picking up a third dual-tuner TiVo at Best Buy, but most people don't have such a gluttonous appetite for TV. Therefore: Choices must be made.
This article is from http://www.eonline.com
Glee TV Guide: CNN interviews Glee's Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch
New York (CNN) -- The thing about "Glee" is that it came along at the right time.
The current television landscape isn't exactly a smorgasbord of satisfying viewing. It's littered with about-to-be-canceled programs that never establish viewership, a few standby dramas and reality show after reality show. Enter "Glee."
A cross between "The Breakfast Club" and "Grease"? Maybe not, but "Glee" is a combination of teen angst, musical theater and soap opera-worthy love triangles ready for prime time.
This isn't the first television show to base each episode around a big production number. Think "Fame" and "Cop Rock." But "Glee" does it with purpose.
"A song is never sung for no reason," says star Jane Lynch. "There's always deep psychological or emotional impetus for the song, and it's usually uplifting or tragic, and I think people love that, especially bringing that out through music."
"Glee" is different. It can be politically incorrect and yet it manages to address social issues correctly. It's quirky in the best sense of the word. And maybe the fact that it's set in a high school is the draw. Every adult has high school memories -- some good, some bad, some very bad. The teens who are watching "Glee" now can so like, oh my God, totally relate.
Being part of a hit television show is a rare thing considering most highly rated programs these days are starring rich non-acting housewives or people who are famous because they are rich non-acting housewives
So it's not surprising that two of the show's stars are very happy these days.
I spoke with "Glee" leads Matthew Morrison, who plays the hopeful and very likable Will Schuester, and Jane Lynch, who plays coach Sue Sylvester, need I say more. The following is an edited version of those interviews:
CNN: I have to ask you about the unbelievable success of "Glee." Did you ever expect this to happen?
Matthew Morrison: No. You audition to be in a pilot every year. To turn into this, it's. ... We're all set on a goldmine, and we're all excited and honored. It's hard to talk about it because it's such a special show and we're so happy to be a part of it.
CNN: It's basically musical theater on television. Why do you think the people were ready for it?
Morrison: I think a show like this probably couldn't have happened five years ago, but I think with the success of "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance" and other movie musicals, like "Hairspray, " "Chicago" and "Nine" that's coming up, they set the groundwork for people to accept it and being excited about it. I think we're putting a different twist on it to make it fun and interesting and kind of cool.
CNN: In the past few episodes, some bombshells were dropped. What can we expect in future episodes? Are you privy to anything?
Morrison: Am I privy to anything? I'm privy to everything. But there's going to be a lot more bombshells dropped. It's that kind of show every week. Something really big happens. I think that's the really exciting thing about the show. I'm not going to tell you anything.
CNN: Nothing? You can't give anything away?
Morrison: No. I'm sorry.
CNN: It's OK. Aside from the musical aspect of the show, do you think people are drawn to the underdog storylines?
Morrison: Yeah, it is a show about the underdogs. I think that everyone in the world at some point was an underdog, so I think everyone can relate to the show in that way.
CNN: The cast of "Glee" was supposed to sing on its own float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast on NBC. Then suddenly they weren't. What happened?
Morrison: You know about that as much as I do. I read about it on the Internet. I think they spun the story really well for "Glee." They didn't help NBC's cause, but I think it's interesting. But we're chugging away, and it's better for us we don't.
CNN: Are you having the time of your life right now?
Morrison: I am. I'm having the best time ever.
CNN: What has made "Glee" so instantly popular with viewers?
Jane Lynch: I think it's important for us to see the loser aspect of ourselves, reflected on television. ... We like to root for the underdog. And these are a bunch of kids who in spite of getting slushies thrown in their faces every day and being maligned ... the high school culture. ... They show up to every day dutifully to glee club and sing their hearts out and support each other. I think that's something all of us want to root for, and we love music. We're the home of American musical theater. We created it.
CNN: Tell me about Sue Sylvester. Something unexpected was revealed about her recently.
Lynch: Right. In the past episode of "Glee" you find out that Sylvester has an older sister with Down Syndrome who's in an institution, and so we get to see the softer side of Sue, and see how much she loves her sister and how gentle and kind she is with her sister. And of course she turns around and stabs someone else in the back. But we know that she does have it in there, that she has a heart. But we won't see a lot more of that of Sue.
Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck, the writers ... there's nothing conventional about them and they'll never do anything by hitting ... the nail and the head are going to come around the back door. That's what I love about getting a new script from them every week. You know it's going to be different and weird and really grounded in reality.
CNN: Can you relate to Sue Sylvester in any way?
Lynch: You know that devil on your shoulder that tells you terrible things about people and of course you'd never say "maybe you don't really believe." She has no filter, and it just comes right out. So I'm a nice person after I leave "Glee" because I get to exercise the heinous behavior while I'm in a track suit yelling at defenseless children.
CNN: How much fun is it being able to have no filter?
Lynch: It's great, it's the best. Whatever that comes to Sue's head comes out of the mouth. She loves the look of shock on people's face that they can't believe that she would say that and indeed she did.
CNN: Do you know what's going to happen next in any of the storylines? Are you clued in ahead of time?
Lynch: No, I am not. I know that we will go to the sectionals. We may win, we may lose, we'll see. But uh. ... It's going to be interesting. People will break up, people will get together. We're going to be seeing odd pairings. Buckle in, it's going to be a lot of fun.
CNN: I feel like every episode can stand on it's own.
Lynch: You can watch one episode. ... Each one is isolated and makes sense, and you can get involved in it. That's the hallmark of a really good, well written show. Yeah, they stand on their own. Really fine episodes.
This article is from http://www.cnn.com
The current television landscape isn't exactly a smorgasbord of satisfying viewing. It's littered with about-to-be-canceled programs that never establish viewership, a few standby dramas and reality show after reality show. Enter "Glee."
A cross between "The Breakfast Club" and "Grease"? Maybe not, but "Glee" is a combination of teen angst, musical theater and soap opera-worthy love triangles ready for prime time.
This isn't the first television show to base each episode around a big production number. Think "Fame" and "Cop Rock." But "Glee" does it with purpose.
"A song is never sung for no reason," says star Jane Lynch. "There's always deep psychological or emotional impetus for the song, and it's usually uplifting or tragic, and I think people love that, especially bringing that out through music."
"Glee" is different. It can be politically incorrect and yet it manages to address social issues correctly. It's quirky in the best sense of the word. And maybe the fact that it's set in a high school is the draw. Every adult has high school memories -- some good, some bad, some very bad. The teens who are watching "Glee" now can so like, oh my God, totally relate.
Being part of a hit television show is a rare thing considering most highly rated programs these days are starring rich non-acting housewives or people who are famous because they are rich non-acting housewives
So it's not surprising that two of the show's stars are very happy these days.
I spoke with "Glee" leads Matthew Morrison, who plays the hopeful and very likable Will Schuester, and Jane Lynch, who plays coach Sue Sylvester, need I say more. The following is an edited version of those interviews:
CNN: I have to ask you about the unbelievable success of "Glee." Did you ever expect this to happen?
Matthew Morrison: No. You audition to be in a pilot every year. To turn into this, it's. ... We're all set on a goldmine, and we're all excited and honored. It's hard to talk about it because it's such a special show and we're so happy to be a part of it.
CNN: It's basically musical theater on television. Why do you think the people were ready for it?
Morrison: I think a show like this probably couldn't have happened five years ago, but I think with the success of "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance" and other movie musicals, like "Hairspray, " "Chicago" and "Nine" that's coming up, they set the groundwork for people to accept it and being excited about it. I think we're putting a different twist on it to make it fun and interesting and kind of cool.
CNN: In the past few episodes, some bombshells were dropped. What can we expect in future episodes? Are you privy to anything?
Morrison: Am I privy to anything? I'm privy to everything. But there's going to be a lot more bombshells dropped. It's that kind of show every week. Something really big happens. I think that's the really exciting thing about the show. I'm not going to tell you anything.
CNN: Nothing? You can't give anything away?
Morrison: No. I'm sorry.
CNN: It's OK. Aside from the musical aspect of the show, do you think people are drawn to the underdog storylines?
Morrison: Yeah, it is a show about the underdogs. I think that everyone in the world at some point was an underdog, so I think everyone can relate to the show in that way.
CNN: The cast of "Glee" was supposed to sing on its own float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast on NBC. Then suddenly they weren't. What happened?
Morrison: You know about that as much as I do. I read about it on the Internet. I think they spun the story really well for "Glee." They didn't help NBC's cause, but I think it's interesting. But we're chugging away, and it's better for us we don't.
CNN: Are you having the time of your life right now?
Morrison: I am. I'm having the best time ever.
CNN: What has made "Glee" so instantly popular with viewers?
Jane Lynch: I think it's important for us to see the loser aspect of ourselves, reflected on television. ... We like to root for the underdog. And these are a bunch of kids who in spite of getting slushies thrown in their faces every day and being maligned ... the high school culture. ... They show up to every day dutifully to glee club and sing their hearts out and support each other. I think that's something all of us want to root for, and we love music. We're the home of American musical theater. We created it.
CNN: Tell me about Sue Sylvester. Something unexpected was revealed about her recently.
Lynch: Right. In the past episode of "Glee" you find out that Sylvester has an older sister with Down Syndrome who's in an institution, and so we get to see the softer side of Sue, and see how much she loves her sister and how gentle and kind she is with her sister. And of course she turns around and stabs someone else in the back. But we know that she does have it in there, that she has a heart. But we won't see a lot more of that of Sue.
Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck, the writers ... there's nothing conventional about them and they'll never do anything by hitting ... the nail and the head are going to come around the back door. That's what I love about getting a new script from them every week. You know it's going to be different and weird and really grounded in reality.
CNN: Can you relate to Sue Sylvester in any way?
Lynch: You know that devil on your shoulder that tells you terrible things about people and of course you'd never say "maybe you don't really believe." She has no filter, and it just comes right out. So I'm a nice person after I leave "Glee" because I get to exercise the heinous behavior while I'm in a track suit yelling at defenseless children.
CNN: How much fun is it being able to have no filter?
Lynch: It's great, it's the best. Whatever that comes to Sue's head comes out of the mouth. She loves the look of shock on people's face that they can't believe that she would say that and indeed she did.
CNN: Do you know what's going to happen next in any of the storylines? Are you clued in ahead of time?
Lynch: No, I am not. I know that we will go to the sectionals. We may win, we may lose, we'll see. But uh. ... It's going to be interesting. People will break up, people will get together. We're going to be seeing odd pairings. Buckle in, it's going to be a lot of fun.
CNN: I feel like every episode can stand on it's own.
Lynch: You can watch one episode. ... Each one is isolated and makes sense, and you can get involved in it. That's the hallmark of a really good, well written show. Yeah, they stand on their own. Really fine episodes.
This article is from http://www.cnn.com
Glee TV Guide: Grace Hitchens in Glee
In this Wednesday's episode of Glee (9/8c on Fox), New Directions finally meets some of the competition for sectionals: Jane Adams Academy, led by Grace Hitchens (guest-star Eve). The rapper-actress took a few minutes from her tour in Dubai — her fourth album "Flirt" drops later this year — to dish on her guest stint, including the plot to take down the McKinley High glee club.
Working as a glee club coach from a competing reform school, "she gets approached about trying to get rid of the glee club at the school," Eve said. "You see her take these girls to the school and they do this 'Bootylicious' number, which blows the competition away. When you see this number, you're going to die. It's one of those things where you're like, 'How can they make this happen?' but it's also hilarious at the same time."
Grace's tactics are far different than those of Will (Matthew Morrison). "For me especially, I come from a harder place" she said. "I'm the teacher of a reform school. I'm used to being very strict."
Originally, songstress Whitney Houston was going to guest star in this role. "I would've loved to watch that myself," Eve said. "I think it would've been different in a sense because she's an original diva. She would've brought a whole other energy, which would've been amazing."
Unfortunately, Eve won't be singing during the episode. "It was really fun to sit back and watch everyone else sing," she said. "If there was another episode and I could come back, it would be amazing if I could sing." What's her ideal song if she returns to the show? "Sweet Dreams," by The Eurythmics, she said. "That's like my karaoke go-to song."
With the news that fellow Glee guest-star Kristin Chenoweth will return to the show, might Eve be lured back as well? "If I'm asked to do it, I definitely would," she said. "It's just a really well-made, smart show."
This article is from http://www.seattlepi.com
Working as a glee club coach from a competing reform school, "she gets approached about trying to get rid of the glee club at the school," Eve said. "You see her take these girls to the school and they do this 'Bootylicious' number, which blows the competition away. When you see this number, you're going to die. It's one of those things where you're like, 'How can they make this happen?' but it's also hilarious at the same time."
Grace's tactics are far different than those of Will (Matthew Morrison). "For me especially, I come from a harder place" she said. "I'm the teacher of a reform school. I'm used to being very strict."
Originally, songstress Whitney Houston was going to guest star in this role. "I would've loved to watch that myself," Eve said. "I think it would've been different in a sense because she's an original diva. She would've brought a whole other energy, which would've been amazing."
Unfortunately, Eve won't be singing during the episode. "It was really fun to sit back and watch everyone else sing," she said. "If there was another episode and I could come back, it would be amazing if I could sing." What's her ideal song if she returns to the show? "Sweet Dreams," by The Eurythmics, she said. "That's like my karaoke go-to song."
With the news that fellow Glee guest-star Kristin Chenoweth will return to the show, might Eve be lured back as well? "If I'm asked to do it, I definitely would," she said. "It's just a really well-made, smart show."
This article is from http://www.seattlepi.com
Glee TV Guide: FOX puts "Glee" on a three-month-plus break
The first network to have the full midseason schedule announced, FOX puts "Glee" on a three-month-plus break. The musical show will wrap its first half of season 1 on December 9 and only returns for the rest on April 13. Indeed it will be paired with the performance night of "American Idol" on Tuesdays.
"Idol" will have its usual two-night shows starting January 12. Before "Glee" slips in as its partner, the singing competition will be accompanied at the 9/8c hour on Tuesdays by a new series titled "Our Little Genius". It is an unscripted series that features America's most gifted kids as they are tested with some of the most challenging and difficult questions.
A new series "Human Target" will premiere on Wednesday, January 20. "Target" is an action-packed drama about a unique private contractor who will stop at nothing even if it means becoming a human target to save his clients.
Another important note from the midseason line-up is that "Dollhouse" will still occupy the Friday nights. FOX had decided not to continue the series and wrap it all within January 8 to 22. After that "Kitchen Nightmares" will take over starting January 29.
"Past Life" will have its two-hour series premiere on Thursday, February 11 and will move to its regular slot at 9/8c after "Bones". The drama series is only a filler of "Fringe" which returns on January 14 to February 4 but takes a break until April 1.
"Lie to Me" has just got its nine back episode order which gives it a full second season, but FOX has not determined a particular date, stating that it will be in "late spring". Meanwhile, the status of " 'Til Death" and "American Dad!" are also still to be determined.
This article is from http://www.aceshowbiz.com
"Idol" will have its usual two-night shows starting January 12. Before "Glee" slips in as its partner, the singing competition will be accompanied at the 9/8c hour on Tuesdays by a new series titled "Our Little Genius". It is an unscripted series that features America's most gifted kids as they are tested with some of the most challenging and difficult questions.
A new series "Human Target" will premiere on Wednesday, January 20. "Target" is an action-packed drama about a unique private contractor who will stop at nothing even if it means becoming a human target to save his clients.
Another important note from the midseason line-up is that "Dollhouse" will still occupy the Friday nights. FOX had decided not to continue the series and wrap it all within January 8 to 22. After that "Kitchen Nightmares" will take over starting January 29.
"Past Life" will have its two-hour series premiere on Thursday, February 11 and will move to its regular slot at 9/8c after "Bones". The drama series is only a filler of "Fringe" which returns on January 14 to February 4 but takes a break until April 1.
"Lie to Me" has just got its nine back episode order which gives it a full second season, but FOX has not determined a particular date, stating that it will be in "late spring". Meanwhile, the status of " 'Til Death" and "American Dad!" are also still to be determined.
This article is from http://www.aceshowbiz.com
"We brought in anyone: white, black, Asian, in a wheelchair," says Brad Falchuk [Glee's Executive Producer]
LOS ANGELES - The glee club members twirl their wheelchairs to the tune of "Proud Mary" in joyful solidarity with Artie, the fellow performer who must use his chair even when the music stops.
The scene in a recent episode of the hit Fox series "Glee," which regularly celebrates diversity and the underdog, was yet another uplifting moment - except to those in the entertainment industry with disabilities and their advocates.
For them, the casting of a non-disabled actor to play the paraplegic high school student is another blown chance to hire a performer who truly fits the role.
"I think there's a fear of litigation, that a person with disabilities might slow a production down, fear that viewers might be uncomfortable," said Robert David Hall, longtime cast member of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."
All of that is nonsense, said Hall.
Hall, 61, chair of a multi-union committee for performers with disabilities, is part of a small band of working actors on TV that includes Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, star of Fox's "Brothers"; teenager RJ Mitte of AMC's "Breaking Bad"; and ABC's "Private Practice" newcomer Michael Patrick Thornton.
Mitchell's credits include "Veronica's Closet" before he was injured in a motorcycle accident, and "Ed" after he began using a wheelchair. Mitchell, 44, is also a producer of "Brothers," which he says represents "a movement" that deserves support from the wider disabled community and the industry.
"This is what my life is. This is what I want the world to see," he said. "I want to hold the networks accountable. If I can come out and do what I'm doing, they can come to the table."
It's not just TV that falls short of what Mitchell and others seek, including auditioning those with disabilities for roles that echo their situation and for roles in which it is irrelevant. (Then it's up to them to prove they deserve the job, Hall said.)
In the theater world, advocacy groups for the disabled recently objected to the casting of Abigail Breslin ("Little Miss Sunshine") as young Helen Keller in a Broadway revival of "The Miracle Worker."
Television, however, has a unique place in the country's cultural and social fiber. It is entrenched in most lives as it consumes hours of leisure time and has the daily power to reinforce attitudes or reshape them. Increasingly, it's been expected to reflect America in whole.
That was the intent in assembling the cast of "Glee," said executive producer Brad Falchuk, along with getting the best performers possible.
"We brought in anyone: white, black, Asian, in a wheelchair," he said. "It was very hard to find people who could really sing, really act, and have that charisma you need on TV."
He understands the concern and frustration expressed by the disabled community, he said. But Kevin McHale, 21, who plays Artie, excels as an actor and singer and "it's hard to say no to someone that talented," Falchuk said.
This article is from www.fayobserver.com
The scene in a recent episode of the hit Fox series "Glee," which regularly celebrates diversity and the underdog, was yet another uplifting moment - except to those in the entertainment industry with disabilities and their advocates.
For them, the casting of a non-disabled actor to play the paraplegic high school student is another blown chance to hire a performer who truly fits the role.
"I think there's a fear of litigation, that a person with disabilities might slow a production down, fear that viewers might be uncomfortable," said Robert David Hall, longtime cast member of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."
All of that is nonsense, said Hall.
Hall, 61, chair of a multi-union committee for performers with disabilities, is part of a small band of working actors on TV that includes Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, star of Fox's "Brothers"; teenager RJ Mitte of AMC's "Breaking Bad"; and ABC's "Private Practice" newcomer Michael Patrick Thornton.
Mitchell's credits include "Veronica's Closet" before he was injured in a motorcycle accident, and "Ed" after he began using a wheelchair. Mitchell, 44, is also a producer of "Brothers," which he says represents "a movement" that deserves support from the wider disabled community and the industry.
"This is what my life is. This is what I want the world to see," he said. "I want to hold the networks accountable. If I can come out and do what I'm doing, they can come to the table."
It's not just TV that falls short of what Mitchell and others seek, including auditioning those with disabilities for roles that echo their situation and for roles in which it is irrelevant. (Then it's up to them to prove they deserve the job, Hall said.)
In the theater world, advocacy groups for the disabled recently objected to the casting of Abigail Breslin ("Little Miss Sunshine") as young Helen Keller in a Broadway revival of "The Miracle Worker."
Television, however, has a unique place in the country's cultural and social fiber. It is entrenched in most lives as it consumes hours of leisure time and has the daily power to reinforce attitudes or reshape them. Increasingly, it's been expected to reflect America in whole.
That was the intent in assembling the cast of "Glee," said executive producer Brad Falchuk, along with getting the best performers possible.
"We brought in anyone: white, black, Asian, in a wheelchair," he said. "It was very hard to find people who could really sing, really act, and have that charisma you need on TV."
He understands the concern and frustration expressed by the disabled community, he said. But Kevin McHale, 21, who plays Artie, excels as an actor and singer and "it's hard to say no to someone that talented," Falchuk said.
This article is from www.fayobserver.com
Glee is gloriously good - delightful, witty, accomplished and unabashedly silly at times.
Are you positively gleeful over Glee? Did you find The Beautiful Life less than beautiful? Do you no longer hanker for Hank? And are you feeling somewhat lackadaisical about The Jay Leno Show?
If so, you're in lockstep with most people's viewing habits this fall. As most TV dramas and sitcoms wind down their fall with post-November reruns, while preparing for the onslaught of new shows starting in January, now is as good a time as any to take stock of a season that has defied early expectations.
TV viewing is up across the board, for both the conventional broadcast networks and the specialty channels, and not just because of a new ratings- measurement system in Canada that records viewing patterns wherever the viewer may be, whether at home or in an airport lounge or a downtown bar.
The programs themselves are better, and sudden cancellations are more a rarity than a given, all of a sudden. With a handful of exceptions - The Beautiful Life, Hank - even cancelled series such as Dollhouse and Eastwick are being allowed to play out the string, by airing all their episodes, before vanishing.
There are still worrying signs for those whose business is making and showing TV programs. The economic recovery has been slow to take hold, and the advertising market that sustains broadcast television is still soft. The entire financial model of broadcast TV faces an uncertain future, thanks to changing consumer habits and rapidly advancing technology, file-sharing and web downloads.
For the time being, though, the TV business is more stable than it has been in months, possibly years. Here are some of the highlights, and lowlights, from the past two months of fall TV.
* Best new series
Just three months ago, it was inconceivable to think that the stars of a new TV show would be invited to perform at this year's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City, only to be disinvited because the TV network televising the parade - NBC - didn't want to promote a show that airs on a rival network. Glee, the wonderful, exhilarating, life-affirming ensemble drama about a high-school musical-theatre company of social misfits, airs on Fox in the U.S. and on Global in Canada, where it has become the most improbable TV success story since The Office proved that a TV idea can be imported from the U.K. without turning into an embarrassment.
Glee is gloriously good - delightful, witty, accomplished and unabashedly silly at times. Its goofy charm has won over an audience perhaps jaded by too many dead-body-in-the-morgue crime dramas and witless reality shows.
It's also one of the few conventional prime-time TV dramas with genuine joie de vivre, as evidenced by Glee cast member Mark Salling's - he plays football star Puck in the series - big-hearted response to being disinvited from the Thanksgiving parade, as reported by E! Online. ``I got no hard feelings,'' Salling said. ``I'm going to watch (the parade) from my home, with family, which was allowed to happen by NBC not inviting us. So I'm not complaining. Thank you, NBC.''
Here's another sign that Glee is here to stay: Late last month, Madonna gave Glee's producers the rights to her entire catalogue of music. Glee is positively Madge-ical, evidently.
* Worst new series
It would be easy to point to a show that has already been cancelled, whether it's off the air already - The Beautiful Life, Hank, etc. - or just marking time until it disappears: Brothers, Trauma, Three Rivers, etc.
At this time of year, though, it's probably more helpful to single out a program that showed great promise initially, only to fall apart in the weeks and months since.
This season, it's hard to single out a program that had a more dazzling, bravura opening, only to become plodding and predictable, than FlashForward. Is it possible to jump the shark in just four episodes?
TV is facing across-the-board budget cuts, so it was perhaps inevitable that FlashForward wouldn't be able to sustain its eye-filling opening act, with its epic canvas and thrilling emotional arcs. Even so, the speed with which FlashForward devolved into a weepy soap opera - and a weepy soap opera set in a hospital corridor, at that - is profoundly disappointing.
There has been major upheaval behind the scenes on FlashForward in recent weeks, with one showrunner departing and one of the series' original creators, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer, now being given sole responsibility for the show.
Any change Goyer makes won't be evident, however, until FlashForward returns from its Christmas break in the new year.
* Series that should have been renewed
If TV were judged purely on hindsight, there would be no need for a Hank or The Beautiful Life.
Even so, the fans often know better than highly paid network executives when a struggling show should be allowed room to breathe and grow.
Based on last year's cancellations alone, it's now clear that Pushing Daisies, Life, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Life on Mars and Samantha Who? all deserved another shot. Hank was specifically programmed to replace Samantha Who?, a show fans fought to save.
Similarly, Eastwick will not return to ABC once the current string of episodes has aired. Eastwick replaced Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money, all of which look like better financial bets now, in hindsight.
No broadcast network is given to more peculiar decisions than NBC, though. NBC is the network that decided it didn't need Medium - an Emmy winner now in its sixth season on rival CBS - because it had the promising police drama Southland waiting in that time period, instead. But then NBC cancelled Southland before airing a single second-season episode. Now the network has been reduced to shovelling in editions of its newsmagazine Dateline, while scrambling to find something to replace Southland with. Meanwhile, Medium is a Top 40 hit for CBS.
* Most promising new performer
The easy answer: Throw a stick at the cast of Glee and whomever it hits - Cory Monteith, Lea Michele, Amber Riley, Dianna Agron, etc. - there's your promising performer. Glee's ensemble of relative unknowns, like the show itself, is crazy-cool, across the board.
For a change of pace, then, look in a completely different direction to The Vampire Diaries, a vampire-themed melodrama that's so much better than anyone had a right to expect. The Vampire Diaries is right up there with Glee as one of the fall season's most sensational surprises, and the whole show turns on whether the young actress who plays star-crossed, hard-luck, high-school senior Elena Gilbert can act.
Toronto-raised Nina Dobrev - her parents emigrated from her native Bulgaria when she was just two years old - can act, and how. An alumni of Degrassi: The Next Generation, a kind of proving ground for young Canadian TV actors and actresses hoping to break into the big leagues in Los Angeles, Dobrev is understated but deeply textured in a role filled with potential pitfalls. Dobrev is not just another wafer-thin, airily light Hollywood ingenue, and it shows.
Initial suspicions were that The Vampire Diaries would turn out to be Twilight Lite, and Dobrev would be cast as the poor man's Kristen Stewart. Instead, thanks in no small part to Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson - and to Dobrev herself - The Vampire Diaries turned into something much smarter, sexier and more profound than anyone could have expected.
* Most welcome TV trend
Here's a switch: The TV networks have become more patient, all of a sudden.
Even when a show is officially cancelled - Joss Whedon's luckless Dollhouse, for example - the network is keeping it on the air until its full complement of 13 episodes has been shown.
The situation has been forced on the networks at least in part by economics. If a show has been bought and paid for, it only makes sense in hard economic times to show the episodes that have been produced - although, as NBC proved with Southland, there are always exceptions.
The other welcome trend is the growing number of adult, challenging serialized dramas on the specialty channels, whether it's Dexter on The Movie Network, or Damages on Showcase, or True Blood on HBO Canada. The cable dramas are moving, too, toward a European broadcasting model: fewer episodes per season, with more time, care and attention paid to making 10 or 13 really strong episodes, instead of 22 mediocre ones.
In a meeting with TV critics this past summer, The Shield creator Shawn Ryan - now the executive producer of Lie to Me - surprised his audience by saying he found making 10 or 13 episodes of The Shield more stressful and labour- intensive than making 22 episodes of his (now cancelled) network drama The Unit, because he put so much more time and effort into making every second of The Shield count.
* Most annoying TV trend
Commercial creep is both maddening and dangerous to broadcast TV's long-term survival - dangerous, that is, if consumers continue to use commercial breaks as an excuse to channel-surf, pop in a DVD, or turn off and tune out entirely.
Commercial interruptions seem especially distracting this season. The catch- 22 of TV programming is that, the more absorbing and engaging a program is, the more the commercials seem like a distraction.
It isn't just the commercials. Drop-ins - those persistent, in-your-face reminders that tell you what you're watching, and then promote a completely unrelated program on a completely different day and time - give viewers another reason to weigh their options.
The solution? Fewer ads, better ads and more expensive ads, with advertisers willing to pay a premium to reach a premium audience. The Fox network has experimented - with mixed results - with scaling back the commercial time on its supernatural thriller Fringe, and charging a premium for ad time. Fox is also telling viewers up front - again, with mixed results - at the beginning of each commercial break that ``Fringe will return in 60 seconds;'' ``Fringe will return in 30 seconds,'' etc. So far, none of the Canadian networks has followed Fox's lead, and Fox has not tried to expand the experiment to its other programs - yet.
It's either that or a wholesale shift to the pay-TV model - think HBO Canada or The Movie Network - where subscriber fees cover programming costs, and the only promotional ads are those between movies and shows.
* Leno at 10: Loser or winner?
The numbers were respectable to start with - the curiosity factor alone was worth a few percentage points to The Jay Leno Show's early weeks - but those same numbers have been dovetailing ever since.
That's true in Canada, as well as in the U.S. In a twist few could have predicted as recently as four weeks ago, History Television's Ice Pilots NWT - a homegrown docu-reality series on a specialty channel unavailable in many Canadian homes - handily beat The Jay Leno Show, roughly 450,000 viewers to 300, 000.
NBC, The Jay Leno Show's parent network, is committed to keeping Leno where he is for a full year before making any decision about the show's future.
That decision - like the decision to give Leno a 10 o'clock talk show in the first place - will be purely financial. The Jay Leno Show costs around $500,000 US a night to produce, as opposed to anywhere from $2 million US to $4 million US for an equivalent hour of TV drama.
Still, there are other factors in play. The early ratings in the U.S. indicate serious audience erosion for NBC affiliates' local newscasts at 11 p.m. , following The Jay Leno Show. That's affecting the local affiliates' bottom line. Even in Canada, local stations make most of their revenue from local newscasts.
The early indicators are that the Leno experiment may be cost-friendly, but it's not giving viewers much of a reason to keep watching.
No matter what happens to Leno, it's been a crazy season so far, full of surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant. New hits, more viewers - Leno aside - and more glee all around. January looks a lot more interesting, all of a sudden.
astrachan@canwest.com
blog: www.canada.com/tv guy
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
If so, you're in lockstep with most people's viewing habits this fall. As most TV dramas and sitcoms wind down their fall with post-November reruns, while preparing for the onslaught of new shows starting in January, now is as good a time as any to take stock of a season that has defied early expectations.
TV viewing is up across the board, for both the conventional broadcast networks and the specialty channels, and not just because of a new ratings- measurement system in Canada that records viewing patterns wherever the viewer may be, whether at home or in an airport lounge or a downtown bar.
The programs themselves are better, and sudden cancellations are more a rarity than a given, all of a sudden. With a handful of exceptions - The Beautiful Life, Hank - even cancelled series such as Dollhouse and Eastwick are being allowed to play out the string, by airing all their episodes, before vanishing.
There are still worrying signs for those whose business is making and showing TV programs. The economic recovery has been slow to take hold, and the advertising market that sustains broadcast television is still soft. The entire financial model of broadcast TV faces an uncertain future, thanks to changing consumer habits and rapidly advancing technology, file-sharing and web downloads.
For the time being, though, the TV business is more stable than it has been in months, possibly years. Here are some of the highlights, and lowlights, from the past two months of fall TV.
* Best new series
Just three months ago, it was inconceivable to think that the stars of a new TV show would be invited to perform at this year's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City, only to be disinvited because the TV network televising the parade - NBC - didn't want to promote a show that airs on a rival network. Glee, the wonderful, exhilarating, life-affirming ensemble drama about a high-school musical-theatre company of social misfits, airs on Fox in the U.S. and on Global in Canada, where it has become the most improbable TV success story since The Office proved that a TV idea can be imported from the U.K. without turning into an embarrassment.
Glee is gloriously good - delightful, witty, accomplished and unabashedly silly at times. Its goofy charm has won over an audience perhaps jaded by too many dead-body-in-the-morgue crime dramas and witless reality shows.
It's also one of the few conventional prime-time TV dramas with genuine joie de vivre, as evidenced by Glee cast member Mark Salling's - he plays football star Puck in the series - big-hearted response to being disinvited from the Thanksgiving parade, as reported by E! Online. ``I got no hard feelings,'' Salling said. ``I'm going to watch (the parade) from my home, with family, which was allowed to happen by NBC not inviting us. So I'm not complaining. Thank you, NBC.''
Here's another sign that Glee is here to stay: Late last month, Madonna gave Glee's producers the rights to her entire catalogue of music. Glee is positively Madge-ical, evidently.
* Worst new series
It would be easy to point to a show that has already been cancelled, whether it's off the air already - The Beautiful Life, Hank, etc. - or just marking time until it disappears: Brothers, Trauma, Three Rivers, etc.
At this time of year, though, it's probably more helpful to single out a program that showed great promise initially, only to fall apart in the weeks and months since.
This season, it's hard to single out a program that had a more dazzling, bravura opening, only to become plodding and predictable, than FlashForward. Is it possible to jump the shark in just four episodes?
TV is facing across-the-board budget cuts, so it was perhaps inevitable that FlashForward wouldn't be able to sustain its eye-filling opening act, with its epic canvas and thrilling emotional arcs. Even so, the speed with which FlashForward devolved into a weepy soap opera - and a weepy soap opera set in a hospital corridor, at that - is profoundly disappointing.
There has been major upheaval behind the scenes on FlashForward in recent weeks, with one showrunner departing and one of the series' original creators, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer, now being given sole responsibility for the show.
Any change Goyer makes won't be evident, however, until FlashForward returns from its Christmas break in the new year.
* Series that should have been renewed
If TV were judged purely on hindsight, there would be no need for a Hank or The Beautiful Life.
Even so, the fans often know better than highly paid network executives when a struggling show should be allowed room to breathe and grow.
Based on last year's cancellations alone, it's now clear that Pushing Daisies, Life, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Life on Mars and Samantha Who? all deserved another shot. Hank was specifically programmed to replace Samantha Who?, a show fans fought to save.
Similarly, Eastwick will not return to ABC once the current string of episodes has aired. Eastwick replaced Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money, all of which look like better financial bets now, in hindsight.
No broadcast network is given to more peculiar decisions than NBC, though. NBC is the network that decided it didn't need Medium - an Emmy winner now in its sixth season on rival CBS - because it had the promising police drama Southland waiting in that time period, instead. But then NBC cancelled Southland before airing a single second-season episode. Now the network has been reduced to shovelling in editions of its newsmagazine Dateline, while scrambling to find something to replace Southland with. Meanwhile, Medium is a Top 40 hit for CBS.
* Most promising new performer
The easy answer: Throw a stick at the cast of Glee and whomever it hits - Cory Monteith, Lea Michele, Amber Riley, Dianna Agron, etc. - there's your promising performer. Glee's ensemble of relative unknowns, like the show itself, is crazy-cool, across the board.
For a change of pace, then, look in a completely different direction to The Vampire Diaries, a vampire-themed melodrama that's so much better than anyone had a right to expect. The Vampire Diaries is right up there with Glee as one of the fall season's most sensational surprises, and the whole show turns on whether the young actress who plays star-crossed, hard-luck, high-school senior Elena Gilbert can act.
Toronto-raised Nina Dobrev - her parents emigrated from her native Bulgaria when she was just two years old - can act, and how. An alumni of Degrassi: The Next Generation, a kind of proving ground for young Canadian TV actors and actresses hoping to break into the big leagues in Los Angeles, Dobrev is understated but deeply textured in a role filled with potential pitfalls. Dobrev is not just another wafer-thin, airily light Hollywood ingenue, and it shows.
Initial suspicions were that The Vampire Diaries would turn out to be Twilight Lite, and Dobrev would be cast as the poor man's Kristen Stewart. Instead, thanks in no small part to Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson - and to Dobrev herself - The Vampire Diaries turned into something much smarter, sexier and more profound than anyone could have expected.
* Most welcome TV trend
Here's a switch: The TV networks have become more patient, all of a sudden.
Even when a show is officially cancelled - Joss Whedon's luckless Dollhouse, for example - the network is keeping it on the air until its full complement of 13 episodes has been shown.
The situation has been forced on the networks at least in part by economics. If a show has been bought and paid for, it only makes sense in hard economic times to show the episodes that have been produced - although, as NBC proved with Southland, there are always exceptions.
The other welcome trend is the growing number of adult, challenging serialized dramas on the specialty channels, whether it's Dexter on The Movie Network, or Damages on Showcase, or True Blood on HBO Canada. The cable dramas are moving, too, toward a European broadcasting model: fewer episodes per season, with more time, care and attention paid to making 10 or 13 really strong episodes, instead of 22 mediocre ones.
In a meeting with TV critics this past summer, The Shield creator Shawn Ryan - now the executive producer of Lie to Me - surprised his audience by saying he found making 10 or 13 episodes of The Shield more stressful and labour- intensive than making 22 episodes of his (now cancelled) network drama The Unit, because he put so much more time and effort into making every second of The Shield count.
* Most annoying TV trend
Commercial creep is both maddening and dangerous to broadcast TV's long-term survival - dangerous, that is, if consumers continue to use commercial breaks as an excuse to channel-surf, pop in a DVD, or turn off and tune out entirely.
Commercial interruptions seem especially distracting this season. The catch- 22 of TV programming is that, the more absorbing and engaging a program is, the more the commercials seem like a distraction.
It isn't just the commercials. Drop-ins - those persistent, in-your-face reminders that tell you what you're watching, and then promote a completely unrelated program on a completely different day and time - give viewers another reason to weigh their options.
The solution? Fewer ads, better ads and more expensive ads, with advertisers willing to pay a premium to reach a premium audience. The Fox network has experimented - with mixed results - with scaling back the commercial time on its supernatural thriller Fringe, and charging a premium for ad time. Fox is also telling viewers up front - again, with mixed results - at the beginning of each commercial break that ``Fringe will return in 60 seconds;'' ``Fringe will return in 30 seconds,'' etc. So far, none of the Canadian networks has followed Fox's lead, and Fox has not tried to expand the experiment to its other programs - yet.
It's either that or a wholesale shift to the pay-TV model - think HBO Canada or The Movie Network - where subscriber fees cover programming costs, and the only promotional ads are those between movies and shows.
* Leno at 10: Loser or winner?
The numbers were respectable to start with - the curiosity factor alone was worth a few percentage points to The Jay Leno Show's early weeks - but those same numbers have been dovetailing ever since.
That's true in Canada, as well as in the U.S. In a twist few could have predicted as recently as four weeks ago, History Television's Ice Pilots NWT - a homegrown docu-reality series on a specialty channel unavailable in many Canadian homes - handily beat The Jay Leno Show, roughly 450,000 viewers to 300, 000.
NBC, The Jay Leno Show's parent network, is committed to keeping Leno where he is for a full year before making any decision about the show's future.
That decision - like the decision to give Leno a 10 o'clock talk show in the first place - will be purely financial. The Jay Leno Show costs around $500,000 US a night to produce, as opposed to anywhere from $2 million US to $4 million US for an equivalent hour of TV drama.
Still, there are other factors in play. The early ratings in the U.S. indicate serious audience erosion for NBC affiliates' local newscasts at 11 p.m. , following The Jay Leno Show. That's affecting the local affiliates' bottom line. Even in Canada, local stations make most of their revenue from local newscasts.
The early indicators are that the Leno experiment may be cost-friendly, but it's not giving viewers much of a reason to keep watching.
No matter what happens to Leno, it's been a crazy season so far, full of surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant. New hits, more viewers - Leno aside - and more glee all around. January looks a lot more interesting, all of a sudden.
astrachan@canwest.com
blog: www.canada.com/tv guy
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Fox ‘Glee’ cast share their high school past & more with Yahoo Music
Fox ‘Glee’ cast share their high school past & more with Yahoo Music. Most of the cast of Fox’s new hit show, “Glee,” recently sat down with Yahoo Music (watch video clip).
They interviewed Leah Michele (Rachel), Chris Colfer (Kurt), Kevin McHale (Artie), Mark Salling (Noah “Puck”),and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina). . They talked about their actual high school past,their characters,and what they love most about the show.
Lea Michele said Glee is a great representation of what high school is like, right now. Then Chris Colfer said he just left high school,and that it’s scary how accurate the show is to the way high school was. He says he would’ve love the show in high school because he can totally relate to it.
Kevin McHale said that a lot of fans thank him for representing the outcast in high school. However, he says a lot of kids don’t fit in,in high school,and the show is shedding some light on that.
Leah said the fans feel that the show speaks for them a lot. Next, Mark Salling describes his character. He says that he’s kind of a jerk on the show,and that he was actually an even bigger jerk when he was in high school.
Chris and Kevin said it’s crazy when famous people are their fans, because they’re still new to the whole thing. They also interviewed Jenna Ushkowitz. She said, she also talked about how mesmerized she is,that certain celebrities are fans of the show.
Leah revealed what she loves the most about the show. She said, it has great writers and incredible music. Mark Salling said it’s a fun show,and people need that. The show also has awesome musical performances.
This article is fromontheflix.com
They interviewed Leah Michele (Rachel), Chris Colfer (Kurt), Kevin McHale (Artie), Mark Salling (Noah “Puck”),and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina). . They talked about their actual high school past,their characters,and what they love most about the show.
Lea Michele said Glee is a great representation of what high school is like, right now. Then Chris Colfer said he just left high school,and that it’s scary how accurate the show is to the way high school was. He says he would’ve love the show in high school because he can totally relate to it.
Kevin McHale said that a lot of fans thank him for representing the outcast in high school. However, he says a lot of kids don’t fit in,in high school,and the show is shedding some light on that.
Leah said the fans feel that the show speaks for them a lot. Next, Mark Salling describes his character. He says that he’s kind of a jerk on the show,and that he was actually an even bigger jerk when he was in high school.
Chris and Kevin said it’s crazy when famous people are their fans, because they’re still new to the whole thing. They also interviewed Jenna Ushkowitz. She said, she also talked about how mesmerized she is,that certain celebrities are fans of the show.
Leah revealed what she loves the most about the show. She said, it has great writers and incredible music. Mark Salling said it’s a fun show,and people need that. The show also has awesome musical performances.
This article is fromontheflix.com
Glee’s Nov. 25 episode, entitled “Hairography,” will feature the songs “Don’t Make Me Over,” “Imagine” and “True Colors.”
"Glee" Continues to Ride High on Music Charts
Music sales from the hit Fox dramedy “Glee” continue unabated as self-described Gleeks demonstrate an insatiable thirst to own songs from the TV show.
After two weeks of release, the TV show’s first soundtrack — “Glee: The Music, Volume 1″ — has been residing near the top of Billboard’s sales charts, coming fourth its opening week with sales of 113,000 copies and hanging tough in ninth place its second week with sales of 56,000 units.
Digital song downloads from the show remain hot, with the show placing 17 songs on iTunes’ Top 300 song list at press time: “Lean On Me” (20th), “Don’t Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl” (24th), “I’ll Stand By You” (33th), “Endless Love” (37th), “Defying Gravity” (60th), “Crush” (113th), “Dancing With Myself” (135th), “Proud Mary” (162nd), “Halo/Walking On Sunshine” (171th), “It’s My Life/Confessions, Pt. 2″ (173rd), “Defying Gravity” – Lea Michele Solo version (183rd), “You’re Having My Baby” (198th), “Don’t Stop Believin’” (212nd), “Sweet Caroline” (217th), “Somebody to Love” (248th), “Don’t Stop Believin’” – single version (252nd) and “I Say a Little Prayer” (263rd).
The show’s Nov. 25 episode, entitled “Hairography,” will feature the songs “Don’t Make Me Over,” “Imagine” and “True Colors.”
— Andrew Ku
This article is from www.playbill.com
Music sales from the hit Fox dramedy “Glee” continue unabated as self-described Gleeks demonstrate an insatiable thirst to own songs from the TV show.
After two weeks of release, the TV show’s first soundtrack — “Glee: The Music, Volume 1″ — has been residing near the top of Billboard’s sales charts, coming fourth its opening week with sales of 113,000 copies and hanging tough in ninth place its second week with sales of 56,000 units.
Digital song downloads from the show remain hot, with the show placing 17 songs on iTunes’ Top 300 song list at press time: “Lean On Me” (20th), “Don’t Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl” (24th), “I’ll Stand By You” (33th), “Endless Love” (37th), “Defying Gravity” (60th), “Crush” (113th), “Dancing With Myself” (135th), “Proud Mary” (162nd), “Halo/Walking On Sunshine” (171th), “It’s My Life/Confessions, Pt. 2″ (173rd), “Defying Gravity” – Lea Michele Solo version (183rd), “You’re Having My Baby” (198th), “Don’t Stop Believin’” (212nd), “Sweet Caroline” (217th), “Somebody to Love” (248th), “Don’t Stop Believin’” – single version (252nd) and “I Say a Little Prayer” (263rd).
The show’s Nov. 25 episode, entitled “Hairography,” will feature the songs “Don’t Make Me Over,” “Imagine” and “True Colors.”
— Andrew Ku
This article is from www.playbill.com
"Glee" cast was set to celebrate the end of a breakthrough year
By Christopher Lawrence, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Nov. 22--It's almost enough to make you stop believin'.
By all accounts, the "Glee" cast was set to celebrate the end of a breakthrough year by performing their signature Journey cover song during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (9 a.m. Thursday, KVBC-TV, Channel 3).
Then the Grinches at NBC banned the young actors because they're on the competing Fox network. This despite the fact that Fox's Bart Simpson balloon has been a mainstay of the parade, the unofficial kickoff to TV's holiday season, since 1990.
It's not like Fox was pushing for dancing pharmaceuticals on a "House"-themed "12 Pills of Christmas" float. Or a "The Holidays Can Be Torture" float with "24's" Jack Bauer waterboarding Santa through Columbus Circle. They're a bunch of singing kids!
Maybe next year "Glee's" producers will just pony up for a giant, inflatable likeness of Sue Sylvester, the cheerleading coach played by Jane Lynch.
To see more of the Review-Journal or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.lvrj.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
AMEX:NLN, NYSE:DIS,
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.
Nov. 22--It's almost enough to make you stop believin'.
By all accounts, the "Glee" cast was set to celebrate the end of a breakthrough year by performing their signature Journey cover song during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (9 a.m. Thursday, KVBC-TV, Channel 3).
Then the Grinches at NBC banned the young actors because they're on the competing Fox network. This despite the fact that Fox's Bart Simpson balloon has been a mainstay of the parade, the unofficial kickoff to TV's holiday season, since 1990.
It's not like Fox was pushing for dancing pharmaceuticals on a "House"-themed "12 Pills of Christmas" float. Or a "The Holidays Can Be Torture" float with "24's" Jack Bauer waterboarding Santa through Columbus Circle. They're a bunch of singing kids!
Maybe next year "Glee's" producers will just pony up for a giant, inflatable likeness of Sue Sylvester, the cheerleading coach played by Jane Lynch.
To see more of the Review-Journal or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.lvrj.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
AMEX:NLN, NYSE:DIS,
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.
Glee TV Guide: Hairography Sneak Peak
The upcoming GLEE episode "Hairography" airs Wednesday, Nov. 25th (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Watch a sneak peek of the hit show! The episode features a guest appearance by R&B/Rap artist and actress Eve.
Glee TV Guide: Quinn and Puck sings "Papa Don't Preach"
The Madonna episode of Glee is here! While babysitting Mr. Shu's wife's sister's brats, Quinn (Dianna Agron) and Puck (Mark Salling) make beautiful music together. To be specific, she sings and he accompanies a rendition of Madonna's 1980s teen-pregnancy classic "Papa Don't Preach."
WATCH IT NOW!
WATCH IT NOW!
Glee TV Guide: More from Rachel and Mr. Schu
This week may not have been the most exciting episode of Glee, but we did get a surplus of facial expressions that would make Jake Gyllenhaal’s Oscar snapshots look normal. Mr. Schuester decides to pair up the group and have each couple sing a ballad that expresses their feelings accurately. One by one, the fates decide each pairing as names are chosen from a hat. Mr. Schu gets stuck with Rachel who suggests they perform a rendition of Endless Love to demonstrate the essence of a ballad. Rachel subsequently reveals her best attempt at crazy eyes – that 17-year-old schoolgirl in love with her teacher look – while Schu wards off her advances with some of his own ‘what the hell is going on’ type looks.
After Rachel gives Mr. Schu a tie as a gift, we get a little background into the story of Suzy Pepper, the awkward girl at school complete with just about every nerdy accessory sans the wiring for her teeth. After spending some quality time stalking Mr. Schuester and calling his house in the middle of the night, Schu finally tells Suzy that there cannot be anything between them. Suzy then takes action in the only possible way – by eating the hottest pepper around thus burning holes in her esophagus. In order to escape the past repeating itself, Schu mashes up Young Girl and Don’t Stand So Close to Me to perform for Rachel while Emma tags along to explain any confusion behind his message. Unfortunately, Emma spends the length of the song with a limp jaw (Maybe a bit of drool?) and eyes wider than this little guy proving to be essentially useless.
The next couple is Finn and Kurt. If we thought Rachel had some crazy facial distortions, Kurt’s uncomfortable staring at Finn is twice as difficult to watch. We begin to really feel the conflict that Finn feels (Who knew the kid had genuine feeling within?) in not telling both his and Quinn’s parents about the pregnancy issue. Although I wouldn’t say that it is under his own terms that Finn lets his own mother know about what is going on (Really, man? Caught singing to a sonogram on your computer? There is so much I could say to that kid, but it would almost certainly become more inappropriate than Kurt’s dreams), he does decide, with the support of Kurt, to tell Quinn’s parents.
It is during a small dinner with Quinn and her parents that Finn decides to bust out Paul Anka’s (a little too literal?) title Having My Baby. It seems that awkward moments became the common theme of this particular episode of Glee. Watching Quinn’s father slowly realize the message behind the song is priceless. It’s like a Catholic father realizing his daughter, the celibacy club president, is pregnant (Oh…Wait…). Quinn’s mother, the typical Stepfordy wife, is unable to backup her daughter when her overbearing daddy decides to throw Quinn out of the house. More to come with the hot tub couple to come…
glee1Terri, unfortunately, gets her five minutes of irritating airtime as she does her best to take advantage of the naiveté of Rachel by allowing her to cook and clean. While driving Rachel home, Schu quickly cuts off Rachel from singing Crush. (I’m thinking that producers began to realize that enough was enough for awkward situations and even more awkward facial expressions.
Eventually we learn that the group is going to sing for Quinn and Finn to show their support, which turns into a solid routine (Mainly by Artie) of Lean On Me. However, what was really eye opening was the fact that Puck revealed to Mercedes that he was the real father. But Mercedes reacts like it is just another piece of Glee Club Gossip and suggests he keep it to himself because Quinn has chosen Finn. Ummmm does anyone else think that advice like that is more immoral than Sue’s Cheerios workout or what?
Can somebody tell me when “the other Asian kid” (Mike Chang) going to get his shining moment?
This article is from poptimal.com
After Rachel gives Mr. Schu a tie as a gift, we get a little background into the story of Suzy Pepper, the awkward girl at school complete with just about every nerdy accessory sans the wiring for her teeth. After spending some quality time stalking Mr. Schuester and calling his house in the middle of the night, Schu finally tells Suzy that there cannot be anything between them. Suzy then takes action in the only possible way – by eating the hottest pepper around thus burning holes in her esophagus. In order to escape the past repeating itself, Schu mashes up Young Girl and Don’t Stand So Close to Me to perform for Rachel while Emma tags along to explain any confusion behind his message. Unfortunately, Emma spends the length of the song with a limp jaw (Maybe a bit of drool?) and eyes wider than this little guy proving to be essentially useless.
The next couple is Finn and Kurt. If we thought Rachel had some crazy facial distortions, Kurt’s uncomfortable staring at Finn is twice as difficult to watch. We begin to really feel the conflict that Finn feels (Who knew the kid had genuine feeling within?) in not telling both his and Quinn’s parents about the pregnancy issue. Although I wouldn’t say that it is under his own terms that Finn lets his own mother know about what is going on (Really, man? Caught singing to a sonogram on your computer? There is so much I could say to that kid, but it would almost certainly become more inappropriate than Kurt’s dreams), he does decide, with the support of Kurt, to tell Quinn’s parents.
It is during a small dinner with Quinn and her parents that Finn decides to bust out Paul Anka’s (a little too literal?) title Having My Baby. It seems that awkward moments became the common theme of this particular episode of Glee. Watching Quinn’s father slowly realize the message behind the song is priceless. It’s like a Catholic father realizing his daughter, the celibacy club president, is pregnant (Oh…Wait…). Quinn’s mother, the typical Stepfordy wife, is unable to backup her daughter when her overbearing daddy decides to throw Quinn out of the house. More to come with the hot tub couple to come…
glee1Terri, unfortunately, gets her five minutes of irritating airtime as she does her best to take advantage of the naiveté of Rachel by allowing her to cook and clean. While driving Rachel home, Schu quickly cuts off Rachel from singing Crush. (I’m thinking that producers began to realize that enough was enough for awkward situations and even more awkward facial expressions.
Eventually we learn that the group is going to sing for Quinn and Finn to show their support, which turns into a solid routine (Mainly by Artie) of Lean On Me. However, what was really eye opening was the fact that Puck revealed to Mercedes that he was the real father. But Mercedes reacts like it is just another piece of Glee Club Gossip and suggests he keep it to himself because Quinn has chosen Finn. Ummmm does anyone else think that advice like that is more immoral than Sue’s Cheerios workout or what?
Can somebody tell me when “the other Asian kid” (Mike Chang) going to get his shining moment?
This article is from poptimal.com
Fox's Glee got 7.29 million viewers
Wednesday night's episode of Glee drew 7.29m for Fox, according to the latest viewing figures.
It was down slightly from last week's episode, which managed 7.35m in its usual 9pm slot.
Earlier on Fox, 5.68m tuned in for So You Think You Can Dance during the 8pm hour.
Over on CBS, The New Adventures Of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried put in 7.45m and 7.17m at 8pm and 8.30pm, then the audience climbed to 13.47m during the 9pm screening of Criminal Minds. At 10pm, 13.68m watched CSI: New York.
NBC's Mercy had 7.79m at 8pm, Law & Order attracted 8.43m during the 9pm hour, and 4.83m tuned in for the 10pm Jay Leno Show.
A rerun of Modern Family grabbed 6.16m for ABC at 8pm, then The Middle took 7.1m. At 9pm, new episodes of Modern Family and Cougar Town interested 9.16m and 7.9m respectively, while Robin Roberts: Janet Jackson attracted 6.64m at 10pm.
America's Next Top Model took 3.66m for The CW at 8pm, then a special clip show drew 1.81m at 9pm.
SOURCE
It was down slightly from last week's episode, which managed 7.35m in its usual 9pm slot.
Earlier on Fox, 5.68m tuned in for So You Think You Can Dance during the 8pm hour.
Over on CBS, The New Adventures Of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried put in 7.45m and 7.17m at 8pm and 8.30pm, then the audience climbed to 13.47m during the 9pm screening of Criminal Minds. At 10pm, 13.68m watched CSI: New York.
NBC's Mercy had 7.79m at 8pm, Law & Order attracted 8.43m during the 9pm hour, and 4.83m tuned in for the 10pm Jay Leno Show.
A rerun of Modern Family grabbed 6.16m for ABC at 8pm, then The Middle took 7.1m. At 9pm, new episodes of Modern Family and Cougar Town interested 9.16m and 7.9m respectively, while Robin Roberts: Janet Jackson attracted 6.64m at 10pm.
America's Next Top Model took 3.66m for The CW at 8pm, then a special clip show drew 1.81m at 9pm.
SOURCE
Glee TV Guide: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Spoilers for last night's Glee coming up after the jump:
Last week I wrote that watching Glee was like watching a bungee jump, the way its episodes kept boinging up and down in quality. Allow me to amend that: it's amazing how Glee can career from excruciating to transcendent within a single episode. Hell, within a single scene.
Thus last night, we had to sit through the (for me, at least) uncomfortable experience of watching Finn sing "Having My Baby" to Quinn at the family dinner table, a moment that dragged on painfully long. Would it actually take two verses for the 'rents to figure out what he was getting at? (This is one problem with Glee's presenting itself as a "realistic" musical; to have characters burst into song in a conventional musical as a narrative device is one thing, but if we have to accept that each character is actually singing in the moment, in real life, then those around them have to react realistically—which made this scene very, very weird.)
But that bit transitioned into to Quinn's surprisingly affecting confrontation with her parents, elevated both by the sad, angry monologue from Riches alum Gregg Henry and Quinn's revealing to her mother that she knew her mother knew she was pregnant. It was a really nicely handled scene, just this side of pathos, which not only made Quinn more of a person but, more important, brought the whole pregnancy story into the realm of reality—no elaborate deceptions, just a preggers girl in trouble with her parents. (Now if we can only get the ridiculous fake Terri pregnancy behind us.)
The reaction on Finn's home front, meanwhile, showed how Glee has matured from the broadly caricatured show it was early on. In the pilot—which was fantastic in its own right—Finn's mom was just the slightly pathetic figure we saw pining after the lawn-care guy. But her reaction to the news was a brilliant bit of characterization through small moments: that is, in the way that she knew what the problem was and comforted her son—while also showing us that she was saddened and a little angry—she let us know that she's been through tough times, that she's made mistakes and understands them, but also knows that hugging Finn is not going to make his basic problem any better.
And the scene in which she agrees to take in Quinn reminded me of Kurt's lovely coming-out to his dad earlier. When it's not going over the top of the top (which can be delightful in itself), Glee is becoming very good at showing how life happens in small exchanges in people's laundry rooms and finished basements.
Speaking of which, is anyone out there not completely in love with Finn at this point? I'm really enjoying how the show has subverted his jock stereotype, without completely reversing it either. Yeah, he's a little thick and very naive. But he's also self-aware, and heartbreakingly sweet. He's clearly a little uncomfortable with Kurt's obvious crush on him, but he also takes pains to show that he's fine with Kurt being gay, not just out of P.C.-ness (though Finn's a good enough kid to know how to behave decently) but because he really likes Kurt. He's also a decent enough kid that he can't suppress his paternal instinct, and his serenade to not-really-his-baby's sonogram was more moving than anything he's sung to his girlfriend.
Meanwhile, the Shue-and-Rachel subplot did its own ping-ponging around. Their initial ballad was gaspingly funny (Matthew Morrison's facial reactions were a little overdone, but Lea Michele had the crazy-eyes thing down). On the other hand, his "Don't Stand So Close to Me" mashup was over-literal and just painful to watch. Yet the episode managed to get at the emotional core of this comic plot too. Even Suzy Pepper, who seemed like a throwaway dorky-girl stereotype, was fleshed-out as a person, even if her insights into her own and Rachel's insecurities were a touch too perfect.
It's the sort of attention to character that I'm not sure Glee would have been capable of in its first few episodes. "Ballad" wasn't as good as "Wheels" (it also had the handicap of no Sue Sylvester), and it was definitely inconsistent internally. (Another nitpick: the "Lean on Me" closer was too predictable and too thematically close to "Keep Holding On" to be really effective.)
But that's the kind of ride you get with this very unusual show. And if you plot the zig-zagging quality of Glee over the season on a chart and smoothed out the statistical variation, the trend line would definitely be up, and that's a very good thing.
Read more: http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/11/19/glee-watch-guess-whos-coming-to-dinner/#ixzz0XN25RvFk
Last week I wrote that watching Glee was like watching a bungee jump, the way its episodes kept boinging up and down in quality. Allow me to amend that: it's amazing how Glee can career from excruciating to transcendent within a single episode. Hell, within a single scene.
Thus last night, we had to sit through the (for me, at least) uncomfortable experience of watching Finn sing "Having My Baby" to Quinn at the family dinner table, a moment that dragged on painfully long. Would it actually take two verses for the 'rents to figure out what he was getting at? (This is one problem with Glee's presenting itself as a "realistic" musical; to have characters burst into song in a conventional musical as a narrative device is one thing, but if we have to accept that each character is actually singing in the moment, in real life, then those around them have to react realistically—which made this scene very, very weird.)
But that bit transitioned into to Quinn's surprisingly affecting confrontation with her parents, elevated both by the sad, angry monologue from Riches alum Gregg Henry and Quinn's revealing to her mother that she knew her mother knew she was pregnant. It was a really nicely handled scene, just this side of pathos, which not only made Quinn more of a person but, more important, brought the whole pregnancy story into the realm of reality—no elaborate deceptions, just a preggers girl in trouble with her parents. (Now if we can only get the ridiculous fake Terri pregnancy behind us.)
The reaction on Finn's home front, meanwhile, showed how Glee has matured from the broadly caricatured show it was early on. In the pilot—which was fantastic in its own right—Finn's mom was just the slightly pathetic figure we saw pining after the lawn-care guy. But her reaction to the news was a brilliant bit of characterization through small moments: that is, in the way that she knew what the problem was and comforted her son—while also showing us that she was saddened and a little angry—she let us know that she's been through tough times, that she's made mistakes and understands them, but also knows that hugging Finn is not going to make his basic problem any better.
And the scene in which she agrees to take in Quinn reminded me of Kurt's lovely coming-out to his dad earlier. When it's not going over the top of the top (which can be delightful in itself), Glee is becoming very good at showing how life happens in small exchanges in people's laundry rooms and finished basements.
Speaking of which, is anyone out there not completely in love with Finn at this point? I'm really enjoying how the show has subverted his jock stereotype, without completely reversing it either. Yeah, he's a little thick and very naive. But he's also self-aware, and heartbreakingly sweet. He's clearly a little uncomfortable with Kurt's obvious crush on him, but he also takes pains to show that he's fine with Kurt being gay, not just out of P.C.-ness (though Finn's a good enough kid to know how to behave decently) but because he really likes Kurt. He's also a decent enough kid that he can't suppress his paternal instinct, and his serenade to not-really-his-baby's sonogram was more moving than anything he's sung to his girlfriend.
Meanwhile, the Shue-and-Rachel subplot did its own ping-ponging around. Their initial ballad was gaspingly funny (Matthew Morrison's facial reactions were a little overdone, but Lea Michele had the crazy-eyes thing down). On the other hand, his "Don't Stand So Close to Me" mashup was over-literal and just painful to watch. Yet the episode managed to get at the emotional core of this comic plot too. Even Suzy Pepper, who seemed like a throwaway dorky-girl stereotype, was fleshed-out as a person, even if her insights into her own and Rachel's insecurities were a touch too perfect.
It's the sort of attention to character that I'm not sure Glee would have been capable of in its first few episodes. "Ballad" wasn't as good as "Wheels" (it also had the handicap of no Sue Sylvester), and it was definitely inconsistent internally. (Another nitpick: the "Lean on Me" closer was too predictable and too thematically close to "Keep Holding On" to be really effective.)
But that's the kind of ride you get with this very unusual show. And if you plot the zig-zagging quality of Glee over the season on a chart and smoothed out the statistical variation, the trend line would definitely be up, and that's a very good thing.
Read more: http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/11/19/glee-watch-guess-whos-coming-to-dinner/#ixzz0XN25RvFk
Glee TV Guide: More on the "Ballad"
As an education major, I tend to freak out when I hear of forbidden teacher-student relationships, real or not. Yet in Glee, it was surprisingly entertaining (not to mention frightening) to watch Rachel pine for Will, and then to see Will take appropriate precautions — thank you boundaries! And yes, this does actually happen. And it’s awkward.
This episode had a lot of singing and a lot of drama, so basically I was a happy camper. We meet Quinn’s (blond) parents, a former student who used to be in love with Will (warning: it’s creepy!), some moments between Kurt and Finn, a baby confession, three karaoke songs, an intense fight, and two bitchy scenes with Terri — one’s funny though. Finn shows his true colors, and the glee club shows their solidarity and support for Quinn and Finn. And of course, everything is solved by 8:57 CST.
Glee Predictions: Well, at least one person knows that Finn isn’t the baby daddy. Considering how solid the glee club is, the baby-daddy drama may not be as bad as I may have thought. I just hope Sue will be back next week.
Glee Music Tip: I tend to melt when Artie starts to sing, and especially when he riffs. His riffs during “Lean on Me” were simple, eloquent and not overstated. Also, it was refreshing to hear Will actually sing rather than rap. I love his rapping skills, but he’s been on Broadway multiple times, and this episode we really got to see why — to be honest, I was swooning almost as much as Emma and Rachel.
This article is from www.northbynorthwestern.com
This episode had a lot of singing and a lot of drama, so basically I was a happy camper. We meet Quinn’s (blond) parents, a former student who used to be in love with Will (warning: it’s creepy!), some moments between Kurt and Finn, a baby confession, three karaoke songs, an intense fight, and two bitchy scenes with Terri — one’s funny though. Finn shows his true colors, and the glee club shows their solidarity and support for Quinn and Finn. And of course, everything is solved by 8:57 CST.
Glee Predictions: Well, at least one person knows that Finn isn’t the baby daddy. Considering how solid the glee club is, the baby-daddy drama may not be as bad as I may have thought. I just hope Sue will be back next week.
Glee Music Tip: I tend to melt when Artie starts to sing, and especially when he riffs. His riffs during “Lean on Me” were simple, eloquent and not overstated. Also, it was refreshing to hear Will actually sing rather than rap. I love his rapping skills, but he’s been on Broadway multiple times, and this episode we really got to see why — to be honest, I was swooning almost as much as Emma and Rachel.
This article is from www.northbynorthwestern.com
Glee TV Guide: Ballad
If Mr. Schue defines ballads as “stories set to music,” why is “Glee” called “Glee” ? Shouldn’t it be called “Ballad”? No matter. Ladies and gentlemen, we have plot advancement! The solution to the pregnancy puzzle of this kitschy high school dramady took shape this week, with secret spilling times three.
The episode centered on the art of the ballad, a song style that is synonymous with what this series is all about. In the never-ending preparation for glee club sectionals, Mr. Schue pairs off the students to sing ballads to one another. To up the drama, he has them pick names out of a hat. Odd pairings abound, starting with Finn and Kurt. Finn uses Kurt as a sounding board for his nervousness about Quinn’s pregnancy. Kurt, who is thrilled at the pairing because he secretly loves Finn, points the clueless football player to “I’ll Stand By You” by the Pretenders. During his performance of the soft rock song, Finn moves through time to his bedroom and sings the song to the baby’s ultrasound on his laptop. Finn’s mom walks in on him and asks the obvious (“Were you just singing to a sonogram?”) and Finn breaks down crying on her lap to confess.
Later at school, Quinn freaks out at the idea that Finn’s mom could likely tell her parents. Earlier, we met Quinn’s mom and dad, a caricature of conservative-cum-drunk parents. Quinn’s mom measures her for her gown for the Chastity Ball (she is, after all, the president of the Chastity Club) and, having discovered the dress no longer fits, accepts Quinn’s explanation that she ate “really big tacos” for lunch.
Fast forward to Sunday evening, when Finn ends up at dinner with the family. Quinn’s parents start talking about the upcoming Chastity Ball and Finn has a panic attack. He runs to the bathroom and calls Kurt for advice, who reminds him to sing his feelings in a ballad. Finn, worried he has been away from the dinner table for too long, abruptly ends the conversation. “I have to go,” he says. “They’ll think I’m pooping.” Finn returns to the table, boombox in hand, and begins singing Paul Anka’s “You’re Having My Baby.” It takes Quinn’s parents a few bars to pick up on the message but they eventually do. Her father finds multiple ways to express his disappointment and kicks her out of the house. Finn takes her to his home, where his mom invites her to stay for as long as she needs.
Meanwhile, Puck can’t take the attention and support Finn is getting over a child that is really his. In a fit of anger, Puck tells his ballad partner, Mercedes, that he is the father. Instead of running to tell the school, Mercedes scolds him for confiding in her and reminds him that he is the baby’s daddy but Quinn chose Finn to be the baby’s father.
Over in Rachel-land, there’s a separate, semi-humorous sub-plot. Rachel was the last name drawn from the hat for the ballad pairings, so Mr. Schue reluctantly steps in to fill the vacant spot. They demonstrate the power of the ballad together, with Rachel selecting “Endless Love.” In just a few minutes, Rachel develops in all-out-infatuation, which Mr. Schue picks up on and promptly freaks out about. Her crush — unlike the song — proves to be finite. But what it lacks in time, it makes up for in intensity. Rachel gives him a royal blue tie adorned with gold stars and a treble clef. “I figure every time you wear it you can think of me and the star you’re helping me become,” she says.
To fight off Rachel’s adoration, Mr. Schue uses a mashup of “Young Girl” Gary Puckett and the Union Gap and the Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.” But it only strengthens Rachel’s resolve. “Yes,” she beams when he asks if she got the message of the mashup. “It means I’m very young and it’s hard for you to stand close to me.” A hilarious scene in Mr. Schue’s car follows. Rachel sings the beginning of the song “Crush” after dropping by Mr. Schue’s home to play house. Rachel comes to her senses, thanks to a bathroom lecture from one of Mr. Schue’s former teen stalkers, and gives Mr. Schue a plant with a note that says, “Sorry I’ve Been Acting Crazy.” All is forgiven.
The cast comes together at the end to sing a song of support — the ballad to beat all ballads, “Lean on Me” — to Quinn and Finn. It becomes sort of a jam fest, with Mercedes and Artie leading the way. Noticeably absent this week was Sue Sylvester. Emma appeared for just a few minutes. We’d appreciate more of both of them in the coming weeks. But hooray for the (albeit slow) unwinding of the pregnancy mess.
This article is from blogs.wsj.com
The episode centered on the art of the ballad, a song style that is synonymous with what this series is all about. In the never-ending preparation for glee club sectionals, Mr. Schue pairs off the students to sing ballads to one another. To up the drama, he has them pick names out of a hat. Odd pairings abound, starting with Finn and Kurt. Finn uses Kurt as a sounding board for his nervousness about Quinn’s pregnancy. Kurt, who is thrilled at the pairing because he secretly loves Finn, points the clueless football player to “I’ll Stand By You” by the Pretenders. During his performance of the soft rock song, Finn moves through time to his bedroom and sings the song to the baby’s ultrasound on his laptop. Finn’s mom walks in on him and asks the obvious (“Were you just singing to a sonogram?”) and Finn breaks down crying on her lap to confess.
Later at school, Quinn freaks out at the idea that Finn’s mom could likely tell her parents. Earlier, we met Quinn’s mom and dad, a caricature of conservative-cum-drunk parents. Quinn’s mom measures her for her gown for the Chastity Ball (she is, after all, the president of the Chastity Club) and, having discovered the dress no longer fits, accepts Quinn’s explanation that she ate “really big tacos” for lunch.
Fast forward to Sunday evening, when Finn ends up at dinner with the family. Quinn’s parents start talking about the upcoming Chastity Ball and Finn has a panic attack. He runs to the bathroom and calls Kurt for advice, who reminds him to sing his feelings in a ballad. Finn, worried he has been away from the dinner table for too long, abruptly ends the conversation. “I have to go,” he says. “They’ll think I’m pooping.” Finn returns to the table, boombox in hand, and begins singing Paul Anka’s “You’re Having My Baby.” It takes Quinn’s parents a few bars to pick up on the message but they eventually do. Her father finds multiple ways to express his disappointment and kicks her out of the house. Finn takes her to his home, where his mom invites her to stay for as long as she needs.
Meanwhile, Puck can’t take the attention and support Finn is getting over a child that is really his. In a fit of anger, Puck tells his ballad partner, Mercedes, that he is the father. Instead of running to tell the school, Mercedes scolds him for confiding in her and reminds him that he is the baby’s daddy but Quinn chose Finn to be the baby’s father.
Over in Rachel-land, there’s a separate, semi-humorous sub-plot. Rachel was the last name drawn from the hat for the ballad pairings, so Mr. Schue reluctantly steps in to fill the vacant spot. They demonstrate the power of the ballad together, with Rachel selecting “Endless Love.” In just a few minutes, Rachel develops in all-out-infatuation, which Mr. Schue picks up on and promptly freaks out about. Her crush — unlike the song — proves to be finite. But what it lacks in time, it makes up for in intensity. Rachel gives him a royal blue tie adorned with gold stars and a treble clef. “I figure every time you wear it you can think of me and the star you’re helping me become,” she says.
To fight off Rachel’s adoration, Mr. Schue uses a mashup of “Young Girl” Gary Puckett and the Union Gap and the Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.” But it only strengthens Rachel’s resolve. “Yes,” she beams when he asks if she got the message of the mashup. “It means I’m very young and it’s hard for you to stand close to me.” A hilarious scene in Mr. Schue’s car follows. Rachel sings the beginning of the song “Crush” after dropping by Mr. Schue’s home to play house. Rachel comes to her senses, thanks to a bathroom lecture from one of Mr. Schue’s former teen stalkers, and gives Mr. Schue a plant with a note that says, “Sorry I’ve Been Acting Crazy.” All is forgiven.
The cast comes together at the end to sing a song of support — the ballad to beat all ballads, “Lean on Me” — to Quinn and Finn. It becomes sort of a jam fest, with Mercedes and Artie leading the way. Noticeably absent this week was Sue Sylvester. Emma appeared for just a few minutes. We’d appreciate more of both of them in the coming weeks. But hooray for the (albeit slow) unwinding of the pregnancy mess.
This article is from blogs.wsj.com
Glee Episode 10 : Ballad Preview
Now, I remember some gleeks actually getting frustrated when they found themselves shedding a tear or two after last week's episode. "This show is a drama?" they said, and I answered, "it can be." It sort of has. So there goes Glee, evolving from a feel-good comedy to a potentially nerve-wrecking drama, and now... a suspense thriller?
Okay, I'm exaggerating it. I am, of course, referring to Rachel's huge crush on Will, which is still a surprised because (1) it took ten episodes and (2) she's been complaining that he's out to destroy her career from the very start. If it was me, I would've called it a crush right then and there--not that I've had a crush on a teacher, mind.
And that all happens because of Will's ill-fated decision to have them both sing "Endless Love". Then again, it isn't his fault: he had to pitch in when Rachel's supposed partner gets sick. You see, he got everyone in glee club pair up and sing their favorite ballad, which means this isn't the only duet worth watching--Kurt and Finn? Still a hilarious prospect--only this was the only one that really took off.
Unlucky for Will, this isn't the only one. Suzy Pepper, come in, please.
Also tonight, Finn meets Quinn's parents, and things won't be going well--so much for singing. Let me guess. Paul Anka's "(You're) Having My Baby?" Apparently that's the thing that'll get him in hot water. What, because they don't like a spazzed-out guy like him bearing their granddaughter?
Sarah Drew, Gregg Henry and Charlotte Ross guest star in tonight's freshly-printed Glee, from 9pm on Fox. Of course, you know where the photos (and videos!) are.
Click here for photos...
Okay, I'm exaggerating it. I am, of course, referring to Rachel's huge crush on Will, which is still a surprised because (1) it took ten episodes and (2) she's been complaining that he's out to destroy her career from the very start. If it was me, I would've called it a crush right then and there--not that I've had a crush on a teacher, mind.
And that all happens because of Will's ill-fated decision to have them both sing "Endless Love". Then again, it isn't his fault: he had to pitch in when Rachel's supposed partner gets sick. You see, he got everyone in glee club pair up and sing their favorite ballad, which means this isn't the only duet worth watching--Kurt and Finn? Still a hilarious prospect--only this was the only one that really took off.
Unlucky for Will, this isn't the only one. Suzy Pepper, come in, please.
Also tonight, Finn meets Quinn's parents, and things won't be going well--so much for singing. Let me guess. Paul Anka's "(You're) Having My Baby?" Apparently that's the thing that'll get him in hot water. What, because they don't like a spazzed-out guy like him bearing their granddaughter?
Sarah Drew, Gregg Henry and Charlotte Ross guest star in tonight's freshly-printed Glee, from 9pm on Fox. Of course, you know where the photos (and videos!) are.
Click here for photos...
Sun Media Interviews Glee Star Finn Hudson
We asked Canadian Cory Monteith, who plays Finn Hudson on Glee (Fox, Global), to be a talent scout with regard to his own cast-mates.
So who's most likely to have a big singing career?
"Amber Riley (who plays Mercedes), without hesitation," Monteith said yesterday in Toronto. "There's something about her that needs to sing. It comes from somewhere that I don't really get."
Who's the best dancer?
"Kevin McHale, who plays Artie in the wheelchair," Monteith said. "Isn't that ironic? He's a terrific dancer and a big Michael Jackson fan."
And who's the best actor?
"Chris Colfer (who plays Kurt)," Monteith said. "I think he's going win a Golden Globe or something."
You know, Cory, if your ego were out of control, you would have answered "me, me and me" to those three questions. Must be the humble Canadian in him!
SOURCE
So who's most likely to have a big singing career?
"Amber Riley (who plays Mercedes), without hesitation," Monteith said yesterday in Toronto. "There's something about her that needs to sing. It comes from somewhere that I don't really get."
Who's the best dancer?
"Kevin McHale, who plays Artie in the wheelchair," Monteith said. "Isn't that ironic? He's a terrific dancer and a big Michael Jackson fan."
And who's the best actor?
"Chris Colfer (who plays Kurt)," Monteith said. "I think he's going win a Golden Globe or something."
You know, Cory, if your ego were out of control, you would have answered "me, me and me" to those three questions. Must be the humble Canadian in him!
SOURCE
Has Glee become a cult favorite among theater community in New York?
Eleven o’clock is late for teenagers to start a party on a weeknight, but this was a special occasion. The high school-age cast of Broadway’s “Bye Bye Birdie” had gathered to watch “Glee,” Fox’s hourlong musical comedy series that has become a cult favorite among the theater community in New York.
Having taken their final bows, more than a dozen cast members, many cozily outfitted in pajamas, crowded this past week into the studio apartment of Natalie Hill (a nonteen actress in “Birdie”) to watch a recording of the latest episode.
“He’s not in a wheelchair in real life?” someone asked about Kevin McHale, who plays Artie, a disabled character. Giggles. The answer was no. The round-robin commentary continued.
“He’s 17.”
“He’s 17?”
“Pass the pretzels.”
“Oh my God, he’s adorable!”
Artie, singing the Billy Idol hit “Dancing With Myself,” looks longingly at his crush Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz). “Awwwww,” everyone sighed in unison.
“Glee,” which chronicles the lives of members of a high school glee club, is attracting between 7 and 8 million viewers every week, and doing well among the valued 18- to 49-year-old market segment. But it is something of an obsession among theater denizens, teenage and otherwise. Two of the “Glee” leads, Lea Michele (who plays Rachel) and Matthew Morrison (who plays the teacher Will Schuester) have starred in Tony-winning musicals on Broadway, and are friends or friends of friends of many people who populate the stages of New York.
Ms. Ushkowitz and Jane Lynch, who plays the glee-club-hating cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester, are stage veterans, while other theatrical luminaries like Kristin Chenoweth and Jonathan Groff (Ms. Michele’s co-star in “Spring Awakening”) will occasionally pop up on the series. Its music stretches from Avril Lavigne, Kanye West and the Supremes to “My Fair Lady,” “West Side Story” and “Guys and Dolls.” Madonna songs are scheduled for future episodes.
In-jokes are peppered throughout the dialogue. A recent episode even poked fun at the star of “Birdie”: “They say it takes more certainty than talent to become a star. I mean, look at John Stamos.” For someone in theater, what’s not to love?
At the moment, the “Birdie” cast was watching Rachel and the gay, meticulously groomed Kurt (Chris Colfer) have a “Diva Off” to see who gets to perform “Defying Gravity,” the bring-down-the-house number from the musical “Wicked” and an anthem for aspiring chorus singers everywhere. Kurt is miffed that the song is automatically given to a girl; he can hit a high F.
“Riley!!” the “Birdie” cast squealed, turning to another member, Riley Costello, who can also hit that high note. Later that evening, Paul Pilcz and Kevin Shotwell said that during “Birdie” rehearsals Mr. Costello would grab the black piano cover, drape it around his shoulders and sing “Defying Gravity.”
Among the Birdies, Kurt is the clear favorite. “I love him,” said Deanna Cipolla, who was sitting on the floor in light-blue PJs with cupcakes on them.
Ms. Hill added, “I think he’s brilliant, he’s the best.”
During a commercial, Brynn Williams and Daniel Quadrino explained why Will has such a nutty wife. “They were high-school sweethearts,” they said simultaneously.
“Jinx!” Ms. Williams shouted with a laugh. Most of the cupcakes that Ms. Hill brought in from Magnolia Bakery were gone, and the sugar rush had apparently kicked in.
“Shhhh,” Catherine Blades said when the show came back on.
Rick Miramontez, the co-owner of O&M, a theatrical public-relations firm, holds a “Glee” party Wednesdays at 9 p.m. (when the show is regularly broadcast) at his house. Kurt was a favorite there as well.
“Mostly because it seems like Rachel gets all the solos,” Sam Corbett, an intern at O&M, said. “And in real life, Chris Colfer wanted to sing ‘Defying Gravity’ in high school and he never got the chance. That’s why it was written into the script.”
Over at the August Wilson Theater, cast members from “Jersey Boys” tend to gather in the stage manager’s office to discuss each episode. Kurt was favored there too — not surprisingly for a show where the star has to hit high notes every evening.
Having taken their final bows, more than a dozen cast members, many cozily outfitted in pajamas, crowded this past week into the studio apartment of Natalie Hill (a nonteen actress in “Birdie”) to watch a recording of the latest episode.
“He’s not in a wheelchair in real life?” someone asked about Kevin McHale, who plays Artie, a disabled character. Giggles. The answer was no. The round-robin commentary continued.
“He’s 17.”
“He’s 17?”
“Pass the pretzels.”
“Oh my God, he’s adorable!”
Artie, singing the Billy Idol hit “Dancing With Myself,” looks longingly at his crush Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz). “Awwwww,” everyone sighed in unison.
“Glee,” which chronicles the lives of members of a high school glee club, is attracting between 7 and 8 million viewers every week, and doing well among the valued 18- to 49-year-old market segment. But it is something of an obsession among theater denizens, teenage and otherwise. Two of the “Glee” leads, Lea Michele (who plays Rachel) and Matthew Morrison (who plays the teacher Will Schuester) have starred in Tony-winning musicals on Broadway, and are friends or friends of friends of many people who populate the stages of New York.
Ms. Ushkowitz and Jane Lynch, who plays the glee-club-hating cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester, are stage veterans, while other theatrical luminaries like Kristin Chenoweth and Jonathan Groff (Ms. Michele’s co-star in “Spring Awakening”) will occasionally pop up on the series. Its music stretches from Avril Lavigne, Kanye West and the Supremes to “My Fair Lady,” “West Side Story” and “Guys and Dolls.” Madonna songs are scheduled for future episodes.
In-jokes are peppered throughout the dialogue. A recent episode even poked fun at the star of “Birdie”: “They say it takes more certainty than talent to become a star. I mean, look at John Stamos.” For someone in theater, what’s not to love?
At the moment, the “Birdie” cast was watching Rachel and the gay, meticulously groomed Kurt (Chris Colfer) have a “Diva Off” to see who gets to perform “Defying Gravity,” the bring-down-the-house number from the musical “Wicked” and an anthem for aspiring chorus singers everywhere. Kurt is miffed that the song is automatically given to a girl; he can hit a high F.
“Riley!!” the “Birdie” cast squealed, turning to another member, Riley Costello, who can also hit that high note. Later that evening, Paul Pilcz and Kevin Shotwell said that during “Birdie” rehearsals Mr. Costello would grab the black piano cover, drape it around his shoulders and sing “Defying Gravity.”
Among the Birdies, Kurt is the clear favorite. “I love him,” said Deanna Cipolla, who was sitting on the floor in light-blue PJs with cupcakes on them.
Ms. Hill added, “I think he’s brilliant, he’s the best.”
During a commercial, Brynn Williams and Daniel Quadrino explained why Will has such a nutty wife. “They were high-school sweethearts,” they said simultaneously.
“Jinx!” Ms. Williams shouted with a laugh. Most of the cupcakes that Ms. Hill brought in from Magnolia Bakery were gone, and the sugar rush had apparently kicked in.
“Shhhh,” Catherine Blades said when the show came back on.
Rick Miramontez, the co-owner of O&M, a theatrical public-relations firm, holds a “Glee” party Wednesdays at 9 p.m. (when the show is regularly broadcast) at his house. Kurt was a favorite there as well.
“Mostly because it seems like Rachel gets all the solos,” Sam Corbett, an intern at O&M, said. “And in real life, Chris Colfer wanted to sing ‘Defying Gravity’ in high school and he never got the chance. That’s why it was written into the script.”
Over at the August Wilson Theater, cast members from “Jersey Boys” tend to gather in the stage manager’s office to discuss each episode. Kurt was favored there too — not surprisingly for a show where the star has to hit high notes every evening.
To continue reading, click A Market Segment ‘Glee’ Can Call Its Own: Theater Folk
This article is from the www.nytimes.com
How popular is GLEE?
Glee, Fox's sharp and subversive musical comedy series, is averaging a respectable 8.6 million viewers a week.
And apparently all of them are going online to champion and celebrate the show, which is turning out to be more viral than H1N1.
Glee may rank 42d in the Nielsen ratings, but it's a phenomenon on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
"We monitored Twitter feeds," says Chris Albrecht, coeditor of NewTeeVee.com, a Web site devoted to online video, "and Glee is absolutely crushing the competition. Of all TV shows, it's the one people Twitter about the most."
Fans of the series - imagine High School Musical with a wicked sense of humor - call themselves Gleeks. They have a unique way of expressing their devotion: taping do-it-yourself copycat videos of the show's rousing musical numbers, then posting them on YouTube or on their individual home pages.
The spontaneous explosion of tribute videos was the first indication to the makers of Glee, which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox29, that their show was hitting a sweet spot with viewers.
"Right after we aired the pilot in May, people started posting their own versions of our songs online," says Dante Di Loreto, Glee's executive producer. "It was so exciting to see because we knew then that we had touched a chord.
"Believe me, I've seen a lot of different versions of our songs," says Di Loreto of the online reproductions. "No matter how crazy they get, it's still flattering."
Things certainly do get loony in these play-at-home versions of Glee. There are videos featuring puppets, Disney cartoon characters, even a live leaf bug grooving to the show's cover of "Gold Digger."
Remember the sparkly rendition of Burt Bacharach's "I Say a Little Prayer" delivered by three lissome cheerleaders on one episode?
Imagine it painstakingly reenacted by three bearded gay men in baby Ts.
"People say, 'You should do it in drag,' " says Jason Whipple, who lip-syncs the lead. "I say, 'We are doing it in drag! It's boy drag.' "
Whipple, who recently moved to San Francisco from Vermont, made the clip as a lark in his apartment with two friends and a digital camera. They dubbed their hirsute trio the Full Silkwood, after a typically audacious punch line from the show.
His little jape has turned Whipple into a minor celebrity.
"I was walking with a friend of mine to a coffee shop," he says. "A couple of people stopped us. 'You're the guy from the video!' My friend was like, 'You just moved here a month ago. How does everyone know you?' "
One of the more ambitious tribute videos is a shot-for- shot restaging of the pilot's showstopper, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'. "
Filmmaker Wes Kim recruited six friends for the reenactment, shot in downtown Seattle. Because he didn't have a portable device to play back the episode, Kim had to refresh his memory of the source material by different means.
"Everyone had iPhones and smart phones," he says. "So for specifics, we would watch bits of it on the spot."
Most Gleeks avoid the big production numbers and their complex choreography, preferring to imitate the more manageable songs performed by trios or duos.
The vast majority of these knockoffs seem to be shot in bedrooms or finished basements using Web cams. They look like outtakes from a sleepover party. The jerky and murky results are often embarrassingly amateurish.
So why do people upload them to the Web for all the world to see?
Say hello to the American Idol generation. Everyone is a star waiting to happen. Just add microphone.
"A lot of the literature about contemporary youth in my discipline talks about narcissism," says Alexander Riley, associate professor of sociology at Bucknell University. "This is a generation that is driven in the direction of obsessive concern for self. It's a narcissism with a powerful degree of requiring the approval of others."
Uploading videos, says Riley, "has a lot to do with the role celebrity plays in a society like ours. It's increasingly apparent that many celebrities are made by a particular process. There's the thought, 'If they can be a celebrity, I can, too.' "
Fox, of course, is eagerly fanning the online fervor for Glee in all its forms.
"We've got over 700,000 Facebook fans, up from 17,000 when we launched," says Hardie Tankersley, the network's vice president of online content and strategy. "All the major characters have a Facebook page and a Twitter feed. Sue Sylvester [played by Jane Lynch] has her own Twitter account."
"Fox has been really active in digital marketing, " says NewTeeVee.com's Albrecht. "They've been able to leverage iTunes, and that gives them another outlet to propagate the show."
More than 2 million songs by the Glee cast have been purchased on iTunes. Last week, six selections from the show were among iTunes' Top 200 downloaded songs. Nine episodes were among the Top 200 in TV sales. And Glee: The Music, Vol. 1, released Nov. 3, sold 113,000 copies its first week to capture the No. 4 spot on the Billboard 200 chart.
The number of tribute videos may really go through the roof in the next few months if a novel initiative by the show's producers pans out.
"Based on fan demands, we're going to include instrumental versions only on some special editions of the soundtracks as an added element," says Di Loreto. The second soundtrack will be released early next month.
"It'll make it easier," he says, "for people to do karaoke versions of our songs."
As though Gleeks need any more encouragement.
This article is from www.philly.com
And apparently all of them are going online to champion and celebrate the show, which is turning out to be more viral than H1N1.
Glee may rank 42d in the Nielsen ratings, but it's a phenomenon on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
"We monitored Twitter feeds," says Chris Albrecht, coeditor of NewTeeVee.com, a Web site devoted to online video, "and Glee is absolutely crushing the competition. Of all TV shows, it's the one people Twitter about the most."
Fans of the series - imagine High School Musical with a wicked sense of humor - call themselves Gleeks. They have a unique way of expressing their devotion: taping do-it-yourself copycat videos of the show's rousing musical numbers, then posting them on YouTube or on their individual home pages.
The spontaneous explosion of tribute videos was the first indication to the makers of Glee, which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox29, that their show was hitting a sweet spot with viewers.
"Right after we aired the pilot in May, people started posting their own versions of our songs online," says Dante Di Loreto, Glee's executive producer. "It was so exciting to see because we knew then that we had touched a chord.
"Believe me, I've seen a lot of different versions of our songs," says Di Loreto of the online reproductions. "No matter how crazy they get, it's still flattering."
Things certainly do get loony in these play-at-home versions of Glee. There are videos featuring puppets, Disney cartoon characters, even a live leaf bug grooving to the show's cover of "Gold Digger."
Remember the sparkly rendition of Burt Bacharach's "I Say a Little Prayer" delivered by three lissome cheerleaders on one episode?
Imagine it painstakingly reenacted by three bearded gay men in baby Ts.
"People say, 'You should do it in drag,' " says Jason Whipple, who lip-syncs the lead. "I say, 'We are doing it in drag! It's boy drag.' "
Whipple, who recently moved to San Francisco from Vermont, made the clip as a lark in his apartment with two friends and a digital camera. They dubbed their hirsute trio the Full Silkwood, after a typically audacious punch line from the show.
His little jape has turned Whipple into a minor celebrity.
"I was walking with a friend of mine to a coffee shop," he says. "A couple of people stopped us. 'You're the guy from the video!' My friend was like, 'You just moved here a month ago. How does everyone know you?' "
One of the more ambitious tribute videos is a shot-for- shot restaging of the pilot's showstopper, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'. "
Filmmaker Wes Kim recruited six friends for the reenactment, shot in downtown Seattle. Because he didn't have a portable device to play back the episode, Kim had to refresh his memory of the source material by different means.
"Everyone had iPhones and smart phones," he says. "So for specifics, we would watch bits of it on the spot."
Most Gleeks avoid the big production numbers and their complex choreography, preferring to imitate the more manageable songs performed by trios or duos.
The vast majority of these knockoffs seem to be shot in bedrooms or finished basements using Web cams. They look like outtakes from a sleepover party. The jerky and murky results are often embarrassingly amateurish.
So why do people upload them to the Web for all the world to see?
Say hello to the American Idol generation. Everyone is a star waiting to happen. Just add microphone.
"A lot of the literature about contemporary youth in my discipline talks about narcissism," says Alexander Riley, associate professor of sociology at Bucknell University. "This is a generation that is driven in the direction of obsessive concern for self. It's a narcissism with a powerful degree of requiring the approval of others."
Uploading videos, says Riley, "has a lot to do with the role celebrity plays in a society like ours. It's increasingly apparent that many celebrities are made by a particular process. There's the thought, 'If they can be a celebrity, I can, too.' "
Fox, of course, is eagerly fanning the online fervor for Glee in all its forms.
"We've got over 700,000 Facebook fans, up from 17,000 when we launched," says Hardie Tankersley, the network's vice president of online content and strategy. "All the major characters have a Facebook page and a Twitter feed. Sue Sylvester [played by Jane Lynch] has her own Twitter account."
"Fox has been really active in digital marketing, " says NewTeeVee.com's Albrecht. "They've been able to leverage iTunes, and that gives them another outlet to propagate the show."
More than 2 million songs by the Glee cast have been purchased on iTunes. Last week, six selections from the show were among iTunes' Top 200 downloaded songs. Nine episodes were among the Top 200 in TV sales. And Glee: The Music, Vol. 1, released Nov. 3, sold 113,000 copies its first week to capture the No. 4 spot on the Billboard 200 chart.
The number of tribute videos may really go through the roof in the next few months if a novel initiative by the show's producers pans out.
"Based on fan demands, we're going to include instrumental versions only on some special editions of the soundtracks as an added element," says Di Loreto. The second soundtrack will be released early next month.
"It'll make it easier," he says, "for people to do karaoke versions of our songs."
As though Gleeks need any more encouragement.
This article is from www.philly.com
Glee TV Guide: More on the "Wheels"
By Julia Gang
Summary:
Although this episode starts with what looks like Bring It On on crack, it’s actually less focused on the comedy and more focused on the lack of diversity in the school’s extracurricular activities. We see Brittany (the blonde cheerleader who doesn’t do much) actually talk, a pretty awesome diva-off between Kurt and Rachel, a messy baking scene between two former lovers, a kiss between new ones (I hope!), a huge fist fight between best friends, and a number on wheelchairs (“Proud Mary”). We also see into Sue’s life. I won’t give it away, but it did make me tear up a little bit.
Music Tip:
I love Kurt and Artie’s voices. Not to say that the others’ aren’t amazing, it’s just refreshing to see what the rest of the cast can do. And they’ve got really great voices: Artie has a poppy, glottal and smooth baritone that could scream teeny-bopper boy band, and Kurt’s simple voice easily mixes into falsetto as smooth as Mika or Freddie Mercury. They’re both simple, easy to listen to, and sang songs that really complemented their voices.
Predictions:
Quinn needs to come clean about the baby — now. This episode was all about Puck trying to act like a father, and Quinn bitching at Finn about lacking in the future-father department. I also think that Finn has some potential in being a mechanic, so maybe he’ll have a job with Kurt’s dad once his employers figure out he can walk (which could be awkward). And thanks, Glee — you made me wait for two weeks and now no sign of Emma and Will? I can only hope for next week.
This article is from www.northbynorthwestern.com
Summary:
Although this episode starts with what looks like Bring It On on crack, it’s actually less focused on the comedy and more focused on the lack of diversity in the school’s extracurricular activities. We see Brittany (the blonde cheerleader who doesn’t do much) actually talk, a pretty awesome diva-off between Kurt and Rachel, a messy baking scene between two former lovers, a kiss between new ones (I hope!), a huge fist fight between best friends, and a number on wheelchairs (“Proud Mary”). We also see into Sue’s life. I won’t give it away, but it did make me tear up a little bit.
Music Tip:
I love Kurt and Artie’s voices. Not to say that the others’ aren’t amazing, it’s just refreshing to see what the rest of the cast can do. And they’ve got really great voices: Artie has a poppy, glottal and smooth baritone that could scream teeny-bopper boy band, and Kurt’s simple voice easily mixes into falsetto as smooth as Mika or Freddie Mercury. They’re both simple, easy to listen to, and sang songs that really complemented their voices.
Predictions:
Quinn needs to come clean about the baby — now. This episode was all about Puck trying to act like a father, and Quinn bitching at Finn about lacking in the future-father department. I also think that Finn has some potential in being a mechanic, so maybe he’ll have a job with Kurt’s dad once his employers figure out he can walk (which could be awkward). And thanks, Glee — you made me wait for two weeks and now no sign of Emma and Will? I can only hope for next week.
This article is from www.northbynorthwestern.com
Glee's "Wheels"
If you are one of those TV viewers who think “Glee” is just about funny lines and amazing music — and there’s nothing wrong with that — you’re in for a surprising ride tonight when the hit Fox show returns after its three-week hiatus.
In previous episodes, “Glee” has hinted at its big heart: Remember Kurt (Chris Colfer) coming out to his father and Finn (Cory Monteith) learning that his girlfriend is pregnant and crying on his teacher’s shoulders? Weepy stuff. But tonight’s episode is a game-changer for the off-beat series about an underdog glee club, guaranteed to make you laugh, cry and probably dance a little, all the while answering burning questions about Artie (Kevin McHale) Sue (Jane Lynch) and Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) and showing off the vocal talents of Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt in a Diva-Off.
Overcoming emotional and physical disabilities is the central theme of tonight’s episode, titled “Wheels,” which showcases McHale, who plays the wheelchair-bound Artie, and reveals in a fresh way the daunting challenges some people face in their everyday lives. Filmed last spring and directed by Emmy winner Paris Barclay, the emotional episode kept the actors and crew in tears throughout its entire production and, according to creator Ryan Murphy, had long-term effects on its three writers.
“This episode is the turning point for the show,” he said during a recent telephone interview. “Certainly, after this, it remains a comedy, and it’s fun. But writing this made me feel the responsibility of showing the truth of the pain that outcasts go through. It’s not all razzle-dazzle show business. It’s tough, and it’s painful, and it was for me growing up, and it is for most people. So I think this made me realize that amid the fun and the glamour, it’s really great now and again to show the underbelly of what people who are different feel.”
Things kick off with Artie’s first solo, a confident, wheelchair-bound bop to the Nouvelle Vague version of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself.” The number is a response to a prior scene in which his fellow glee clubbers dismiss the idea of paying extra for a special wheel-chair accessible bus so that Artie can ride with them to sectionals. They assume he won’t mind riding with his dad – only he does.
“ ’Dancing With Myself’ is where Artie gets to break away from being misunderstood by everyone,” McHale said. “It’s where he gets to express himself. He's actually a very secure guy – you know, he does rap! – and he doesn’t usually care what anyone else thinks. But here’s an instance where his friends have taken for granted the fact that he’s in a wheelchair. So this performance is all about him saying, ‘Look, this is who I am, and this is who I want to be.’ ”
McHale, formerly of the boy band Not Like Them, said it didn’t take him long to adjust acting (and singing and dancing) in a wheelchair – “I do have to concentrate on keeping my legs still and laid to one side,” he said -- but that the role has made him more aware of the challenges other people face.
“It’s a completely different side of life,” he said.
“More than ever, I realize how grateful I am to be able to get up between each take and walk around. I’m glad that I can represent that kind of life on television so millions of people see it every week. And the whole point of it is to show that Artie can still do everything everyone else can that matters.”
McHale’s co-stars also got a taste of not being able to use their legs. To make them appreciate what Artie goes through daily, Mr. Schuester (Matthew Morrison) subjects all the glee clubbers to wheelchairs for a week. Murphy ordered a range of different-style wheelchairs – from the hospital kind to racing varieties – to give them the full effect. And the episode ends in a romping rendition of Tina Turner’s version of “Proud Mary,” set on a stage with skateboard-style ramps that took some getting used to for everyone except McHale.
Murphy told choreographer Zach Woodlee that he didn’t want to make it easy for the cast members by letting them stand up and leave their wheelchairs during the number.
“Artie doesn’t get to get up ever, so I didn’t want anyone to get up,” said Murphy, who wanted viewers to see the effort that comes with performing in a wheelchair.
“If it looked too fun and easy, it wouldn’t read right,” Woodlee said. “Ryan really wanted people to understand what Artie deals with.”
That means those sweaty faces are the real deal.
“Yeah, that wasn’t acting,” McHale said with a laugh. “Lea had the wheelchair from hell. I don’t know if she was missing safety locks or what, but every time she leaned back, she would fall. She fell more than the rest of us.”
Not that they didn’t have fun making up moves for their new wheels. At one point in the number, the kids nearly bring the house down when they start rocking their chairs from side to side, hard.
“We did it as a joke at first, and we were all laughing hysterically because it was as close to the real Tina Turner moves as we could get,” McHale said. “But then we all thought it looked awesome and everyone loved it, so it stayed in.”
Speaking of rocking out, “Wheels” also features the show choir’s first diva off, a battle royale between Rachel and Kurt. The idea was born when Colfer shared with Murphy how he had begged his high school drama department to let him perform his favorite song, “Defying Gravity,” and he was denied every year because he’s male.
“I told him, ‘Well, you came to the right show runner, mister,’ ” Murphy said. “And I found a way to write it into the show because that’s in a nutshell what this show is about: someone being told that they can’t do something because of what the perception of them is as opposed to what their real ability is.”
Because the episode was so time-consuming and emotional for the actors, the producers held a special screening for them. Having the chance to finally sing the showstopper from “Wicked” “really meant the world to me,” Colfer wrote in an e-mail to The Times this month.
“It's absolutely terrifying to watch yourself do something you've dreamed about for such a long time,” he wrote. “I know I'm definitely not the best singer, but I think the message, the story behind the song about defying limits and borders placed by others, hopefully all that gets across with the performance. Although I do some very ‘Kurtsy’ things in the song, it's probably one of the most honest and close-to-heart scenes I've ever filmed or performed for that matter.”
“Wheels” launched a discussion among the show’s cast that Murphy hopes will continue with the audience.
“If anything else, I hope kids who are that age can see that episode and maybe realize how hard it is for some people that they make fun of or tease,” Murphy said. “As we go forward, this episode has reverberations for the whole season.”
That doesn’t mean the series will lose its edge and grow into an after-school special. In the coming weeks, Jonathan Groff (“Spring Awakening”) will join the cast as the lead singer of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline, and “Dollhouse” creator Joss Whedon will direct one episode. Because of the way fans have responded to the show’s music — 2.6 million downloads on iTunes since the series premiered — Murphy said future episodes will contain even more song and dance numbers.
The laughs will still prevail, even if in three weeks viewers find themselves moved by a deaf choir’s rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and the two actresses with Down's Syndrome introduced tonight stay for recurring roles.
“This is a comedy first and foremost,” Murphy said. “But we see the obligation to go deeper. This isn’t just a genre show to me. It’s about the desperate need for a place in the world and how we all fit in and how hard it is for some people to get by.”
-- Maria Elena Fernandez and Denise Martin
This article is from latimesblogs.latimes.com
In previous episodes, “Glee” has hinted at its big heart: Remember Kurt (Chris Colfer) coming out to his father and Finn (Cory Monteith) learning that his girlfriend is pregnant and crying on his teacher’s shoulders? Weepy stuff. But tonight’s episode is a game-changer for the off-beat series about an underdog glee club, guaranteed to make you laugh, cry and probably dance a little, all the while answering burning questions about Artie (Kevin McHale) Sue (Jane Lynch) and Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) and showing off the vocal talents of Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt in a Diva-Off.
Overcoming emotional and physical disabilities is the central theme of tonight’s episode, titled “Wheels,” which showcases McHale, who plays the wheelchair-bound Artie, and reveals in a fresh way the daunting challenges some people face in their everyday lives. Filmed last spring and directed by Emmy winner Paris Barclay, the emotional episode kept the actors and crew in tears throughout its entire production and, according to creator Ryan Murphy, had long-term effects on its three writers.
“This episode is the turning point for the show,” he said during a recent telephone interview. “Certainly, after this, it remains a comedy, and it’s fun. But writing this made me feel the responsibility of showing the truth of the pain that outcasts go through. It’s not all razzle-dazzle show business. It’s tough, and it’s painful, and it was for me growing up, and it is for most people. So I think this made me realize that amid the fun and the glamour, it’s really great now and again to show the underbelly of what people who are different feel.”
Things kick off with Artie’s first solo, a confident, wheelchair-bound bop to the Nouvelle Vague version of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself.” The number is a response to a prior scene in which his fellow glee clubbers dismiss the idea of paying extra for a special wheel-chair accessible bus so that Artie can ride with them to sectionals. They assume he won’t mind riding with his dad – only he does.
“ ’Dancing With Myself’ is where Artie gets to break away from being misunderstood by everyone,” McHale said. “It’s where he gets to express himself. He's actually a very secure guy – you know, he does rap! – and he doesn’t usually care what anyone else thinks. But here’s an instance where his friends have taken for granted the fact that he’s in a wheelchair. So this performance is all about him saying, ‘Look, this is who I am, and this is who I want to be.’ ”
McHale, formerly of the boy band Not Like Them, said it didn’t take him long to adjust acting (and singing and dancing) in a wheelchair – “I do have to concentrate on keeping my legs still and laid to one side,” he said -- but that the role has made him more aware of the challenges other people face.
“It’s a completely different side of life,” he said.
“More than ever, I realize how grateful I am to be able to get up between each take and walk around. I’m glad that I can represent that kind of life on television so millions of people see it every week. And the whole point of it is to show that Artie can still do everything everyone else can that matters.”
McHale’s co-stars also got a taste of not being able to use their legs. To make them appreciate what Artie goes through daily, Mr. Schuester (Matthew Morrison) subjects all the glee clubbers to wheelchairs for a week. Murphy ordered a range of different-style wheelchairs – from the hospital kind to racing varieties – to give them the full effect. And the episode ends in a romping rendition of Tina Turner’s version of “Proud Mary,” set on a stage with skateboard-style ramps that took some getting used to for everyone except McHale.
Murphy told choreographer Zach Woodlee that he didn’t want to make it easy for the cast members by letting them stand up and leave their wheelchairs during the number.
“Artie doesn’t get to get up ever, so I didn’t want anyone to get up,” said Murphy, who wanted viewers to see the effort that comes with performing in a wheelchair.
“If it looked too fun and easy, it wouldn’t read right,” Woodlee said. “Ryan really wanted people to understand what Artie deals with.”
That means those sweaty faces are the real deal.
“Yeah, that wasn’t acting,” McHale said with a laugh. “Lea had the wheelchair from hell. I don’t know if she was missing safety locks or what, but every time she leaned back, she would fall. She fell more than the rest of us.”
Not that they didn’t have fun making up moves for their new wheels. At one point in the number, the kids nearly bring the house down when they start rocking their chairs from side to side, hard.
“We did it as a joke at first, and we were all laughing hysterically because it was as close to the real Tina Turner moves as we could get,” McHale said. “But then we all thought it looked awesome and everyone loved it, so it stayed in.”
Speaking of rocking out, “Wheels” also features the show choir’s first diva off, a battle royale between Rachel and Kurt. The idea was born when Colfer shared with Murphy how he had begged his high school drama department to let him perform his favorite song, “Defying Gravity,” and he was denied every year because he’s male.
“I told him, ‘Well, you came to the right show runner, mister,’ ” Murphy said. “And I found a way to write it into the show because that’s in a nutshell what this show is about: someone being told that they can’t do something because of what the perception of them is as opposed to what their real ability is.”
Because the episode was so time-consuming and emotional for the actors, the producers held a special screening for them. Having the chance to finally sing the showstopper from “Wicked” “really meant the world to me,” Colfer wrote in an e-mail to The Times this month.
“It's absolutely terrifying to watch yourself do something you've dreamed about for such a long time,” he wrote. “I know I'm definitely not the best singer, but I think the message, the story behind the song about defying limits and borders placed by others, hopefully all that gets across with the performance. Although I do some very ‘Kurtsy’ things in the song, it's probably one of the most honest and close-to-heart scenes I've ever filmed or performed for that matter.”
“Wheels” launched a discussion among the show’s cast that Murphy hopes will continue with the audience.
“If anything else, I hope kids who are that age can see that episode and maybe realize how hard it is for some people that they make fun of or tease,” Murphy said. “As we go forward, this episode has reverberations for the whole season.”
That doesn’t mean the series will lose its edge and grow into an after-school special. In the coming weeks, Jonathan Groff (“Spring Awakening”) will join the cast as the lead singer of rival glee club Vocal Adrenaline, and “Dollhouse” creator Joss Whedon will direct one episode. Because of the way fans have responded to the show’s music — 2.6 million downloads on iTunes since the series premiered — Murphy said future episodes will contain even more song and dance numbers.
The laughs will still prevail, even if in three weeks viewers find themselves moved by a deaf choir’s rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and the two actresses with Down's Syndrome introduced tonight stay for recurring roles.
“This is a comedy first and foremost,” Murphy said. “But we see the obligation to go deeper. This isn’t just a genre show to me. It’s about the desperate need for a place in the world and how we all fit in and how hard it is for some people to get by.”
-- Maria Elena Fernandez and Denise Martin
This article is from latimesblogs.latimes.com
Glee Returns Tonight
In “Wheels,” scripted by series creator Ryan Murphy, couples are tested, secrets are revealed and, oh, yeah, there are some rousing musical numbers, if you like that sort of thing, and you will.
Ex-Cheerio Quinn (Dianna Agron, almost unrecognizable in civilian clothes) snipes at Finn (Cory Monteith) to get a job to pay her pre-natal bills.
“Somewhere in that pea brain of yours is a man. Access him and tell him to prove to me that I chose the right guy to have a baby with.”
Of course, lunkhead Finn doesn’t grasp the truth in that statement. The real baby daddy, his so-called best friend Puck (Mark Salling), lurks around every locker.
Sue (Jane Lynch) is forced to hold open auditions to replace Quinn. Suffering through a parade of incompetents, she tells Will (Matthew Morrison), “I’m about to projectile express myself all over your Hush Puppies.”
When she drafts seemingly the most unprepared, vulnerable student, Will fears for her next evil stunt.
Fox has been teasing Sue’s big secret for weeks. A 3-year-old watching network TV for the first time could figure it out, but damn if Lynch doesn’t sell the reveal. It may just lighten the darkest heart.
Oh, someone else is holding a secret, too, one that tears apart another Glee couple just as they’re about to lift off.
Elsewhere, Will comes up with a creative solution for the club’s lack of respect for wheelchair-bound Artie (Kevin McHale).
Kurt (Chris Colfer) challenges Rachel (Lea Michele) to a diva sing-off. Rachel is unhappy at Will’s efforts to mediate.
“Maybe one of these days you’ll find a way to create teaching moments without ruining my life,” she says.
In one of the best relationships on the show, Kurt and his gruff father prove how much they are willing to sacrifice for each other.
Other positive points to note: Not a single appearance by the annoying Emma (Jayma Mays) or Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig). No one is threatening to shut the club down, this week, anyway. Murphy seems to be fine-tuning the show’s tone (not the show tunes, which need no help) and easing up on the hostility directed at the main players.
Still, does Rachel really need to be hit in the face with some sort of glop every single episode? There’s no shock value to that joke any longer.
As underdog Artie, McHale finally gets the spotlight and runs away with it. With a large, controlled voice that belies his youth, he might just be “Glee’s” secret weapon. Then again, everyone in this packed episode is just getting better. “Glee” knows how to leave viewers happy.
Tonight at 9 on WFXT (Ch. 25).
SOURCE
Glee TV Guide: "I love Adam Lambert! I want to sing with him so badly," says Lea Michele
Glee star Lea Michele has admitted that she would like to sing with Adam Lambert.
The season eight American Idol runner-up has been tipped for a guest star cameo on the hit Fox musical comedy.
The 23-year-old actress, who plays Rachel Berry on the show, revealed that she thinks the 'For Your Entertainment' singer is "awesome".
She told MTV: "I love Adam Lambert! I want to sing with him so badly. If they don't let me [sing with him] on the show, I would just in life.
"I just want to sing with him so badly. He's just such an incredible vocal performer, and I'm such a huge fan."
She added: "I feel like I'd be getting to work out at the gym with the best trainer in the world. You want to work out with someone who's ripped and is going to train you well.
"That's what I think about when I think of Adam Lambert. I just think he's awesome."
Lambert recently told Ryan Seacrest on his radio programme that he hadn't "heard anything officially" from the Glee producers about an appearance.
This article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk
The season eight American Idol runner-up has been tipped for a guest star cameo on the hit Fox musical comedy.
The 23-year-old actress, who plays Rachel Berry on the show, revealed that she thinks the 'For Your Entertainment' singer is "awesome".
She told MTV: "I love Adam Lambert! I want to sing with him so badly. If they don't let me [sing with him] on the show, I would just in life.
"I just want to sing with him so badly. He's just such an incredible vocal performer, and I'm such a huge fan."
She added: "I feel like I'd be getting to work out at the gym with the best trainer in the world. You want to work out with someone who's ripped and is going to train you well.
"That's what I think about when I think of Adam Lambert. I just think he's awesome."
Lambert recently told Ryan Seacrest on his radio programme that he hadn't "heard anything officially" from the Glee producers about an appearance.
This article is from www.digitalspy.co.uk
Glee Covers takes iTunes by Storm
Though seen as a bit of a gamble, Newsweek recently reported,the musical "dramedy" Glee has turned out to be among the year's biggest TV successes in the US. And not just because of its ratings, good though they are. No, what makes Glee, which starts on E4 next year, stand out from the competition is the very thing that supposedly made the show about a high school music club so daring a proposition – the songs.
For whether it's Journey's Don't Stop Believin', Beyoncé's Halo or Cyndi Lauper's True Colors, the entertaining cover versions performed by Glee's cast are dominating iTunes. By the eighth episode the show had sold more than 2.5m downloads – and in doing so generated both the sort of cross-promotional hype most TV series would kill for and a welcome additional revenue source for the network, which is estimated to make between 40 and 50 cents a download. Last week a Glee compilation album was released, featuring songs from the first half of the season.
"Not everyone in the world downloads. We're about to find out whether people will go for the whole presentation and want to hold it in their hands and have the booklet," Columbia Records' soundtrack consultant Glen Brunman told the Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music ConferenceHollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music Conference on the eve of the album's release. Given the album entered the iTunes chart at No 1, it would seem the answer is that quite a few are prepared to shell out.
And it's not just Fox who are benefiting from Glee's success. While artists were initially wary of allowing their songs to be used – Whitney Houston against it – those who agreed have enjoyed a boost to their sales. According to a report in Entertainment Weekly, Rihanna's Take a Bow and Usher's Confessions Part II saw a jump of 189% and 221% respectively.
And with the Glee-vangelists gaining in number – Newsweek recently reported that the show's "rabid online fanbase has given the music a life of its own" – those musicians who do turn the show down risk appearing spoilsports. Fox's head of music, Geoff Bywater, claimed at the Billboard conference that they haven't been rejected by anyone, but rumours abound that Coldplay and Bryan Adams were among those to say a firm no.
There are plans to coax some of music's biggest names into writing six new songs for an episode later this season and the show's creator, Ryan Murphy, has said he is still hoping for a yes from his "holy grail", Bruce Springsteen.
An internet hit of the moment is picking which cover you would most like to see on Glee, while the young cast have found themselves asked to do everything from appearing at shopping malls to singing the national anthem at the third game of baseball's World Series. Not bad for a show many executives thought was too camp to last beyond a handful of episodes.
SOURCE
For whether it's Journey's Don't Stop Believin', Beyoncé's Halo or Cyndi Lauper's True Colors, the entertaining cover versions performed by Glee's cast are dominating iTunes. By the eighth episode the show had sold more than 2.5m downloads – and in doing so generated both the sort of cross-promotional hype most TV series would kill for and a welcome additional revenue source for the network, which is estimated to make between 40 and 50 cents a download. Last week a Glee compilation album was released, featuring songs from the first half of the season.
"Not everyone in the world downloads. We're about to find out whether people will go for the whole presentation and want to hold it in their hands and have the booklet," Columbia Records' soundtrack consultant Glen Brunman told the Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music ConferenceHollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music Conference on the eve of the album's release. Given the album entered the iTunes chart at No 1, it would seem the answer is that quite a few are prepared to shell out.
And it's not just Fox who are benefiting from Glee's success. While artists were initially wary of allowing their songs to be used – Whitney Houston against it – those who agreed have enjoyed a boost to their sales. According to a report in Entertainment Weekly, Rihanna's Take a Bow and Usher's Confessions Part II saw a jump of 189% and 221% respectively.
And with the Glee-vangelists gaining in number – Newsweek recently reported that the show's "rabid online fanbase has given the music a life of its own" – those musicians who do turn the show down risk appearing spoilsports. Fox's head of music, Geoff Bywater, claimed at the Billboard conference that they haven't been rejected by anyone, but rumours abound that Coldplay and Bryan Adams were among those to say a firm no.
There are plans to coax some of music's biggest names into writing six new songs for an episode later this season and the show's creator, Ryan Murphy, has said he is still hoping for a yes from his "holy grail", Bruce Springsteen.
An internet hit of the moment is picking which cover you would most like to see on Glee, while the young cast have found themselves asked to do everything from appearing at shopping malls to singing the national anthem at the third game of baseball's World Series. Not bad for a show many executives thought was too camp to last beyond a handful of episodes.
SOURCE
Glee TV Series Review
Glee is the American musical comedy drama that is a massive hit overseas and has become something of a cult following.
It has been described as High School Musical for adults.
“We are really putting the cart before horse in this show,” says Glee star Jane Lynch. “It is like the most widely anticipated show.”
“And it's a little more mature,” continues Mark Salling. “It's kind of like High School Musical went off to college experimented a little bit - had some fun, took some drugs, had to get a corporate job… something like that.”
“Everyone is a lot more accepting of it now,” says Matthew Morrison. “That is why we are able to do a TV show like this. Music shows in the past have been, like, epic failures.”
It is the singing, dancing, darkly humoured comedy which - to the surprise of most - has taken the television world by storm.
The statistics are impressive. More than 25 million people viewed the first episode. It was Fox's highest rated new series. In fact, Fox picked up the series pilot just 15 hours after reading the script.
More than 750,000 fans are dedicated to its Facebook and MySpace pages. After only three episodes six of the show's songs have already made it into iTunes top 100 downloads.
So why is the show so successful?
“I think the writing is really witty. I think it works because we don't take ourselves too seriously,” explains Morrison. “You know the show is about optimism and I think we are in a world right now that kind of needs that outlet and kind of gleefulness, you know.”
Created by the team behind Nip Tuck, the show focuses on the rather geeky but endearing high school show choir known as the Glee Club.
“I think what makes a different to High School Musical is the adult storylines,” says Morrison. “It focuses a lot on the adult characters and how the adults mesh with the kids and I think that's very interesting.”
Matthew Morrison plays the optimistic director of the choir who is determined to restore it to its former glory.
But the dramas there, at times, have nothing on the antics of his workmate with a crush and his psychotic wife.
“It's an interesting little triangle right there,” continues Morrison. “Mostly if you saw a show and a guy was thinking about cheating on his wife you'd think ‘oh my god, that guy is such a jerk.’ But on my show my wife is so despicable everyone is... you want it. You are rooting for me to have an affair.”
Morrison admits in real life he was never a geek at school - quite the opposite. He was your all American prom King, class president and athletics champ.
However, according to the character who plays Puck the bully he is not really acting at all.
“I'd like to say I'm even meaner in real life though,” says Mark Salling. “So I had to tame it a little bit, pull it back.”
But the character everyone really loves to hate is Sue Sylvester – played by Jane Lynch. The overzealous and often inappropriate head coach of the cheerleaders.
“There is this ensemble comedy movement in television that is really great,” says Jane Lynch. “I guess there is always going to be a star who rises to the top, but basically it's being a team and the best joke wins and everybody plays support to everybody else and I love that. And is definitely what we have in this show. It’s an ensemble. “
The stars say Glee is not one of those guilty pleasures. It’s naughty and nice.
This Glee TV Show review is brought to us by this site c/o Amanda Gillies.
It has been described as High School Musical for adults.
“We are really putting the cart before horse in this show,” says Glee star Jane Lynch. “It is like the most widely anticipated show.”
“And it's a little more mature,” continues Mark Salling. “It's kind of like High School Musical went off to college experimented a little bit - had some fun, took some drugs, had to get a corporate job… something like that.”
“Everyone is a lot more accepting of it now,” says Matthew Morrison. “That is why we are able to do a TV show like this. Music shows in the past have been, like, epic failures.”
It is the singing, dancing, darkly humoured comedy which - to the surprise of most - has taken the television world by storm.
The statistics are impressive. More than 25 million people viewed the first episode. It was Fox's highest rated new series. In fact, Fox picked up the series pilot just 15 hours after reading the script.
More than 750,000 fans are dedicated to its Facebook and MySpace pages. After only three episodes six of the show's songs have already made it into iTunes top 100 downloads.
So why is the show so successful?
“I think the writing is really witty. I think it works because we don't take ourselves too seriously,” explains Morrison. “You know the show is about optimism and I think we are in a world right now that kind of needs that outlet and kind of gleefulness, you know.”
Created by the team behind Nip Tuck, the show focuses on the rather geeky but endearing high school show choir known as the Glee Club.
“I think what makes a different to High School Musical is the adult storylines,” says Morrison. “It focuses a lot on the adult characters and how the adults mesh with the kids and I think that's very interesting.”
Matthew Morrison plays the optimistic director of the choir who is determined to restore it to its former glory.
But the dramas there, at times, have nothing on the antics of his workmate with a crush and his psychotic wife.
“It's an interesting little triangle right there,” continues Morrison. “Mostly if you saw a show and a guy was thinking about cheating on his wife you'd think ‘oh my god, that guy is such a jerk.’ But on my show my wife is so despicable everyone is... you want it. You are rooting for me to have an affair.”
Morrison admits in real life he was never a geek at school - quite the opposite. He was your all American prom King, class president and athletics champ.
However, according to the character who plays Puck the bully he is not really acting at all.
“I'd like to say I'm even meaner in real life though,” says Mark Salling. “So I had to tame it a little bit, pull it back.”
But the character everyone really loves to hate is Sue Sylvester – played by Jane Lynch. The overzealous and often inappropriate head coach of the cheerleaders.
“There is this ensemble comedy movement in television that is really great,” says Jane Lynch. “I guess there is always going to be a star who rises to the top, but basically it's being a team and the best joke wins and everybody plays support to everybody else and I love that. And is definitely what we have in this show. It’s an ensemble. “
The stars say Glee is not one of those guilty pleasures. It’s naughty and nice.
This Glee TV Show review is brought to us by this site c/o Amanda Gillies.
Glee Stars Rumored Dating
Playing it coy when asked to confirm about the nature of their relationship, Cory and Lea however have nothing but praise for each other. "He's great and he makes me laugh," Lea tells OK! Magazine. As for Cory, he says "We've become very close friends."
FOX's comedy-musical series "Glee" witnesses Cory Monteith portraying the character of Finn Hudson, a popular high school quarterback with movie star looks and a Motown voice who must protect his cool reputation with his holier-than-thou girlfriend. Lea, meanwhile, stars as Rachel Berry, a perfectionist firecracker who is convinced show choir is her ticket to stardom.
SOURCE Picture are courtesy of Sylvain Gaboury/PR Photos.
What do you think? Are these rumors true?
Glee: The Music, Volume 1 Storm the Charts
The fall's freakiest phenomenon has been the triumph of the (mostly) wholesome kids from "Glee" as they storm the charts weekly with new songs from their hit Fox show. "Glee: The Music, Vol. 1" (Columbia) is at its best when it re-imagines songs with grand, inventive new arrangements like the ones for "Don't Stop Believin'," the jazzy reworking of Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself" and the stirring "Somebody to Love." But as unnecessary as the faithful takes on "Bust Your Windows" or "Take a Bow" are, their candy-coated treatment keeps them sweet enough in this context.
SOURCE
SOURCE
TV Guide Interview with Mark Salling
There's still one more week until Glee returns (Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 9/8c, Fox), so in lieu of a new episode, TVGuide.com caught up with Mark Salling, who plays Puck, the arrogant jock and true father to Quinn's baby. Salling dives head first into the issue of the love quadrangle, and his take on things will probably give some hope to Rachel (Lea Michele) and Puck fans. Unfortunately, the news isn't as good for Quinn (Dianna Agron) and Finn (Cory Monteith).
Puck and Rachel had a short fling in the previous episode. Will they get together again?
I would never rule it completely out, especially with this group of writers. You never know what's going to happen and who's going to be with whom. I hope it does; I like that dynamic myself. It seems like the fans really liked it, so hopefully they'll take that into consideration.
Can you say when everyone will find out that Puck is the baby's daddy?
No, but maybe some characters will know before it officially comes out.
What will Finn's reaction be after learning that his best friend knocked up his girlfriend?
I think he'll be devastated. He's invested a lot already into the idea of fathering this child. Hopefully, Puck will step up to the plate and practice what he preaches and walk the walk.
Will Quinn eventually have to choose between Puck and Finn?
We haven't gotten there yet, but I would imagine. She can't have both. I don't know if she's going to make a choice or if it's going to be made for her. [The choice] might be neither one of us.
Will the baby-daddy drama tear the glee club apart?
It can't be good for us. Some people can't be around each other anymore. It might throw the dynamic off; it's not a good thing. That's what happens when you dip your pen in the company ink.
What can we expect from the second half of the season?
The writers are seeing what worked and what didn't with the first 13 [episodes]. I know we'll have more themed episodes, like the Madonna one. There are a lot of surprises to come.
You must've been excited when Neil Diamond tweeted about you singing "Sweet Caroline." How did that feel?
My mom is probably getting more of a kick out of it than I am. That was her favorite artist. To see how excited she was was the best part of it for me.
You were a singer before Glee. Where can we hear your music?
I did self release and produce an album in 2008 under the pseudonym Jericho. It's called Smoke Signals. I [launched] MarkSallingMusic.com on Halloween. It [has] all my music on there.
SOURCE
Puck and Rachel had a short fling in the previous episode. Will they get together again?
I would never rule it completely out, especially with this group of writers. You never know what's going to happen and who's going to be with whom. I hope it does; I like that dynamic myself. It seems like the fans really liked it, so hopefully they'll take that into consideration.
Can you say when everyone will find out that Puck is the baby's daddy?
No, but maybe some characters will know before it officially comes out.
What will Finn's reaction be after learning that his best friend knocked up his girlfriend?
I think he'll be devastated. He's invested a lot already into the idea of fathering this child. Hopefully, Puck will step up to the plate and practice what he preaches and walk the walk.
Will Quinn eventually have to choose between Puck and Finn?
We haven't gotten there yet, but I would imagine. She can't have both. I don't know if she's going to make a choice or if it's going to be made for her. [The choice] might be neither one of us.
Will the baby-daddy drama tear the glee club apart?
It can't be good for us. Some people can't be around each other anymore. It might throw the dynamic off; it's not a good thing. That's what happens when you dip your pen in the company ink.
What can we expect from the second half of the season?
The writers are seeing what worked and what didn't with the first 13 [episodes]. I know we'll have more themed episodes, like the Madonna one. There are a lot of surprises to come.
You must've been excited when Neil Diamond tweeted about you singing "Sweet Caroline." How did that feel?
My mom is probably getting more of a kick out of it than I am. That was her favorite artist. To see how excited she was was the best part of it for me.
You were a singer before Glee. Where can we hear your music?
I did self release and produce an album in 2008 under the pseudonym Jericho. It's called Smoke Signals. I [launched] MarkSallingMusic.com on Halloween. It [has] all my music on there.
SOURCE
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