GLEE-fully Yours

I don't know what's the matter with me! Oh, wait...perhaps it was the whole flood thingy. But I just realized that I have been hotly devoted to FOX television's latest phenomenon GLEE and have yet to blog about it.

GLEE, for those of you not in the know, is an hour-long musical television drama/comedy (dramedy) that gleefully combines the minimalist raunchiness of Grease with the scrubbed-clean (with industrial strength Disney) wholesomeness of High School Musical. From somewhere at the core of these two song-and-dance spectacles comes GLEE – an unexpected offspring of seemingly questionable innocence. The show is aimed at the coveted 18-to 24 demographic, but with enough adult meaty writing to keep the oldies interested. Mix this all up and viola! A hit is born!

The Premise

A group of misfit student singers – plucked from every corner of society – led by an overly optimistic and charming young male teacher set off to change the views about geeks and glee club in the halls of a fictional Ohio high school called McKinley High. Against all odds the teacher, Will Shuster (Matthew Morrison) navigates the choppy waters of a nonexistent budget, a penny-pinching Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), a malicious cheer-leading coach, Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), a highly ineffective, grossly inexperienced, super virginal guidance counselor, Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays), and a twisted, self-centered liar of a wife, Terri Shuster (Jessalyn Gilsig) to try to prove to everyone that his glee kids deserve as much of an opportunity to succeed as anyone else.

Among the main glee kids:

The high-strung, semi-unlikable, overly perfectionist vocal princess of the show who is convinced of her future stardom, Rachel Berry, played by Broadway baby-turned-TV-star, Lea Michele.

The tormented, sweetly adorable, fashionably forward gay kid Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), who is coming out and into his own in glee club and at home with his rough-around-the-edges single father.

The maddeningly naïve, adorably gullible and popular athlete, Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith), whose untapped singing talent is aggressively and deceitfully recruited for glee club by Mr. Shuster, while he is unknowingly being made a fool of by his girlfriend and best friend.

Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron), the chastity-infused, conniving, stuck-up, perfectly popular and quite pregnant head cheerleader, who at first convinced the innocent Finn (see above) that he had knocked her up by sitting in a hot tub with her.

The powerhouse-voice that can sometimes raise the hairs on your neck is attributed to the talk-to-the-hand, attitude-spewing chubby black girl Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), who once adorably fell for the quite obviously gay Kurt.

Then there is the Mohawk sporting Cassanova and Quinn’s real BabyDaddy, Noah 'Puck' Puckerman (Mark Salling), who has a penchant for bedding his MILF clientele from his summer job as a pool boy and his fellow student bodies, during the off season.

Kevin McHale plays Artie Abrams, the wheelchair-bound student singer, with the soulful voice and requisite nerdy look that is perfect for glee club. In the first episode, football team members tossed him in a huge trash bin. He has that kind of life before glee club and sometimes, after it.

The Asian girl, Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) who faked stuttering as a means of self-preservation for her obvious crack in self-esteem at a school where you’re nobody unless you have something different. She learned the hard way, via Artie’s harsh criticism of her fake challenge, that faking a disability is a cruel insult to those who have a real one.

Other misfits and quite fits and social bees and wannabes also traverse the hallowed halls of high school life, while engaging in dramas – large and small – that lend credence to GLEE, the likes of which I’ve not see on television, since the onslaught of the dreaded reality TV craze. The resident slut is Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera), the incredibly gifted street dancer is Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.), the ditzy, easily manipulated cheerleader with deep blonde roots is Brittany (Heather Morris) and the soulful R&B boy of the band is Matt Rutherford (Dijon Talton). There is also the super creepy, icky, sweaty, grossly unkempt football coach who foolishly aspired to marry the lovely Ms. Pillsbury. He is Coach Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher) and he would be far more dangerous if he had half a brain, which he doesn’t.

So why is GLEE such a hit? Of course, the writing is superb, froth with sexually-charged double entendres, innuendos and loaded with inappropriate comments. The dance sequences are outrageously and theatrically awesome with the kind of energy that is both contagious and creative. The kids are likeable and their stories are real enough to make us want to feel for them. Mr. Shuster is the kind of guy we all wish we’d had for a teacher and mentor. We all needed a Mr. Shuster to believe in us. Lea Michele as a singer and performer sets the show on a whole other level of talent and showmanship. Her voice is that once-in-lifetime kind of sound you can’t believe is coming out of anyone’s face and so you gravitate to her for its pure beauty.

Then there is one Ms. Jane Lynch who plays the unbelievably uncensored cheer-leading coach, Sue Sylvester. Her unfiltered lines are cutthroat and as far from politically correct as you can be. Her sense of right and wrong resemble no one else’s, but as her tag line proudly says “That’s how Sue sees it”. And with that one line, she has been able to get away with things that are cringe-worthy, yet hysterically funny all the same. But more importantly, GLEE is great because it’s relatable. If you ever had to plot a course through the complicated web of high school drama with anything short of perfect skin, weight, look, style, clothes, friends and smarts in your own life, then you can sit back and laugh at this show’s exaggerated, yet oddly accurate portrayal of that awkward time in almost everyone’s life.

Truthfully, I was a fan of GLEE (a.k.a a GLEEK) even before I saw a minute of it. I count among my all-time favorite feature films The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Flashdance, Footloose, Chicago, Dreamgirls, West Side Story, anything with Fred and Ginger. Plus my mostly secret guilty pleasure, whatever Shirley Temple put out in her hey-day. I’m positively fascinated by tap dancers! If that makes me a geek (or a gleek), so be it! I also adore Broadway musicals and count Cats, Wicked, Grease, Chicago and West Side Story among my most adored. So there was a slim chance in hell that once GLEE hit the tube, I would not become wholly devoted to its songs, stories and dances and all that jazz.

Quite unexpectedly (and most pleasing for FOX) GLEE has become a certified hit. The cast of the bubbly show are quickly becoming megastars and advertisement angels as a group and on their own. They’re appearances are now highly sought out by everyone from baseball World Series planners to, most recently, Oprah Winfrey herself! The cast and crew, as was seen on Oprah, of GLEE work their tails off to put on this show. It’s an adrenaline-pushed, high-energy, sun-up to sundown job and they all seem to love it. That love and determination flies out of them each week and that is what gives the show credibility, most of all.

At the early height of its popularity, GLEE went on mid-season hiatus to usher in the new season of American Idol. This year Idol is a snooze-fest. It felt more like it was taking up space on the Tuesday/Wednesday program line-up than actually entertaining. While GLEE was away, I experienced show withdrawal like no other time. I ached for it like a pimp at a crack ho auction. I wished for its return as the Idol weeks dragged on and on. When it came back, it did not

disappoint. Two shows into its return and they’ve already had a Madonna Music showdown the likes of which the Queen of Pop herself would proudly promote. Sue Sylvester led the love fest of Madonna-era fascination and did the Material Girl proud. What more can we expect from GLEE? I think I heard Lady GaGa (or her music) will be visiting McKinley soon. Holy crap! Now that’s an episode I want to see!

FOX hit a homer with GLEE because the marketability of the show and all its appendages seems to be endless right now. The GLEE cast has covered everyone’s music. From Broadway’s “Wicked” and “West Side Story” to Beyoncé to Bon Jovi, Rhianna to Billy Joel, Queen to The Supremes, Jordin Sparks to Carrie Underwood, Neil Diamond to the Pretenders, John Lennon to Madonna and on and on. And when awards season rolled around, the little-show-that-could found itself as a front-runner for several awards. Not to brag like a proud mother, but here’s the impressive list:

• Six Satellite Awards nominations and five wins
• Four Golden Globe Awards and one win
• Three Teen Choice Awards – to air in August
• Two Writers Guild of America Awards – No wins, but what do they know?
• One Directors Guild of America Award – No wins, but who cares about them?
• A Satellite "Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy"
• A Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series"
• And a People's Choice Award for "Favorite New TV Comedy"

The series as an ensemble cast and as individual actors have received acting award nominations. Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele all won Satellite Awards and were nominated for Golden Globe Awards. Lynch was nominated for four individual awards and Sue Sylvester saw fit to win three of those! And last but not least, Lea Michele has four nominations and two wins. Bravo!!

When the show first started, they had a hard time getting permission from a lot of artists to cover their music on the show. Flash forward a few weeks into GLEE’s debut and suddenly iTunes is knocked around like a punching bag with all the GLEE cast versions downloaded and in high demand. Suddenly, the dollar $igns start to make some noise and suddenly, now it is the artists that ‘wanna a piece of the GLEE mystique’. And that’s just for music. Stars are lining up to be on the show. Josh Groban, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith have already been on. And soon the multi-faceted Neil Patrick Harris and the nutty Molly Shannon will drop by McKinley High. Topping the list for the rumor mill appearances are Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake and Adam Lambert. Funny what a good, award-winning year and soaring popularity will do for a little show.

My name is Marilyn L. and I’m a Gleek!