Glee Pilot: A Slushy Straight to the Face

We're baaaack! Get your slushies ready because we're tuning in for the Glee Pilot! We're taking it back to 2009 and questioning almost every plot line but somehow...we can't get enough!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

It makes like adultery, like cheating on your wife. It makes it palatable.

SPEAKER_04 0:05

You know what I'm saying? But here's the thing. He didn't cheat on his wife. Right, right, right. But he hasn't. He didn't cheat on his.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

And that's what you miss. On glee.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

Welcome back to the Selenial Rewatch Podcast. I'm Allie.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I'm Candace. The word of the day is glee, people. Let's just be so for real, so transparent. The word is glee.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

Glee is the word. The word that you heard.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

And that's what we're talking about today. But just the glee pilot with some things thrown in. Because you can't talk about the glee pilot without talking about glee as well.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

We're going to try our hardest to stick to the pilot, but there's so there's so much. So much to talk about with glee.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Countless things that I I don't even know how to get into it. You know what I mean? Where do we even start?

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Hence why we have to start at the pilot. Like we have to. Otherwise, we're going to get way too lost in the sauce or the slushies, if you know what I'm saying. Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

That was like a shock when I saw it. I was like, that was a thing. That was their thing. It was it was their thing. Just in the show. Right. Which, like, you didn't see anywhere else after that or before that. It was like Glee slushy in the face right off the bat. Let's get into it. Let's talk about Glee. So Glee premiered May 5th, 2009. Now, let's go back to 2009. What were you doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:34

2009, 2009. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, fair. I had to confirm this with Andrew today. I was like, hey, like, this isn't a fever dream that I had. This really happened, right? So our local community theater, we would do a summer camp there every summer. It's where I met Andrew famously. Um, and plug. I'm like, that's my husband. Um anyway, so I remember this one summer that there was like a permission slip that we all got sent home with. And it didn't really say a whole lot. It just was like the Fox Network is doing this new show about like theater kids, and they're gonna do a preview. They're gonna there's gonna be a showing of the first episode of the show at the theater. You know, if you want to see the show, like if you it was like an extra event, like after camp was over. You can have your parents sign the permission slip, and it was like a pizza party, and they projected the episode on the projector. And what I specifically remember is that there were red Glee t-shirts. So in my head, I was like, This had to have been sponsored by Fox. Like it had to have been a Fox like marketing event for the show, you know? And I was like, Andrew, correct me if I'm wrong, like that's exactly what happened, right? And he's like, that is exactly what happened because he went to it, he went to the Glee premiere party, and I didn't. I did not sign the permission slip. But what I remember is that it was, I mean, after having watched The Pilot again just now, I was like, oh my god, I cannot believe Andrew watched that in like seventh grade. Because some of the themes are mature, and I believe that's why there was a permission slip and it wasn't like a camp wide event. But I think the adults were surprised at how mature some of the themes were, and the kids just thought it was awesome. Everybody was just like, Woohoo! That show was so cool. Like, I loved Glee. Did you go to the Glee party last night?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Yeah, that's insane. That's yes. Was it like a viewing party for literally just their premiere? Or was it?

SPEAKER_03 3:38

So what I'm realizing, so I I again I looked this up because I was like, is this could this have happened? And the pilot was released in May, but the season didn't start until September. So I imagine that what happened is it was just a viewing of the pilot, probably, to like get people excited for the rest of the season coming out, even though the pilot had technically already premiered.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Okay. I will say when I looked up like the pilot date in May, just seemed so bizarre because it's right before summer, it's right before you get into like these summer competition shows like wipe out, things like that, or you know, a lot of your primetime television is taking their summer break. So I was just like, May? What an interesting date. So this to know that that was just the pilot, and then it continued in September.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

And our theater camp would always be like like in August, basically, like right before back to school. So I feel like these people at Fox the genius marketing team was like, okay, we need theater kids to be the audience for the show. We have to go where the theater kids are.

SPEAKER_04 4:44

But literally, that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

I don't know, just thinking of like a marketing event for like tween theater kids. I can't like, first of all, genius on Fox's part. So genius. But second of all, insane, like actually psychotic to be like, we're gonna go to local theaters and put boots on the ground and be like, hey kids, just so you know the show is coming out next month, we want you to watch it. And also have your parents sign a permission slip because some of these themes are inappropriate for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

There's just light touching by adults. Crazy.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Like the words, the words that were about to come out of my mouth, I was like, I think I'll just save those for later in the episode.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Totally, totally, totally. What do you remember about Glee? What were you doing in 2009? In 2009, specifically the summer of 2009, I was moving 15 minutes east of my childhood home. Which at that time, big stuff. I had spent what 12, 13 years, I also moved to a new house at in that time.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Like seventh grade 2009.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Oh my god. Yes. So it's like your formative years, you're uprooting that, and you're getting thrown into I think we've talked about this a little bit, a completely different demographic, a completely different school district, like a whole new world, if you will. And I will never forget it because seventh not seventh grade, sixth grade was like my least favorite school year. Hated it. So naturally, I'm a recluse. I know what I like. I like the arts. I like dancing. I like theater. I like all this stuff. So I'm watching, I'm watching American Idol. The final episode of that season finishes. Glee Pilot immediately starts.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Whoa, so you watch you watched in real time.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Oh my gosh, that's cool. Because I couldn't tell you who was on American Idol, but I know that I probably watched Glee.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

You know who Rachel Barry is.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Wait, that's so iconic. Is Fox still a network? Do they still make TV? What are they what's on Fox these days? American Idol still?

SPEAKER_01 6:51

American Idol has since moved to ABC. It's been acquired by Big Dog. Um, what's Fox these days these days? When football is in season. Okay. Sports. Football is on Fox. But it's a lot of local programming.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Hence why I think it's irrelevant.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

So theater kitted me showing. It's like if Glee's not on Fox is a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

If you play sports. And you know what? Now that we mentioned that, it was interesting that Glee was on Fox considering there were so like sports, other local programming, including the stuff.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

And that's why they had Kurt Humble show for Kicker. To lure in the sports guys.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yes. But to take it back one more time. And the last time, fully like this. I'm watching Glee pilot right after American Idol. After that, that's when my packing starts. That's when my moving is going. So now I'm in this new house, new school year, new people. This show, it's like the one thing that I was able to take from the old house and bring to the new house was Glee. You know? Like that's what felt consistent at that time. Is that a little dramatic?

SPEAKER_04 8:04

It's real. But so real.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

In my little adolescent brain, I'm like, everything is different. I never got to that. This was my biggest thing. I never got to do choir in my old school district. And I was so upset about it. So I was like, and then I see this choir show. And everything changed. And that's honestly when like my choir and theater days.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

Oh my gosh, that makes me so happy. I also no, I'm like I shit you not. I also started doing community theater in seventh grade. Girl.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Is that what QTC is?

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Is Quincy Community Theater? C T. Shout. Met my husband there. Met all my best friends there.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Sang there, danced there. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

I love what theater can do for people. Wow. Okay. Now that we've cried over ourselves, let's get into why. Well, no, back up. The creators, Ryan Murphy. Hello.

SPEAKER_03 8:59

All he does is camp. And he is still going. Doesn't he have two new shows out right now? The Beauty and He's the Beauty, right? And All's Fair. I know he's All's Fair.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

He's All's Fair, which was it. We talked about it. No. It was my friend Aaron. Shout out Aaron. Lesbian Peep Show. Sent me a voice note that said, I didn't watch Glee, but I've heard that all is fair is Glee without music.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Hundred percent. Once you accept that it's Cam, good show. Like when once we're there for like the looks and the hair and makeup and like the fun of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

And the Sarah Paulson of it all.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Mouth acting. Is it good enough? You're actually really good at that. I cannot do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

That's just me tucking my top lip, girl.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

But she kind of like pulls, she pulls it up. Yeah. My mouth is a little too atrophical for that. Let me try again.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Mm-hmm. It's the the Botox.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

Anywho.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

No.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Brian Murphy, Camp King, I would say. You know?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Yeah. And that's all you really need to know. But then we also had Brad Falchuk. And I don't know. But they talk about him a lot on That's What You Really Missed podcast with Jenna Ushquitz and Kevin McHale, two people from the show.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

So he was he was a very involved producer.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yes. And Ian Brennan, which found out from the That's What You Really Missed podcast, is Ian wrote a lot of scenes for Sue Sylvester, like specifically, and also had a big hand in writing a lot of those like really inappropriate things. So we'll get into it, but like there was a first screenplay that was really dirty, probably, with a bunch of innuendos and hidden things. But some of them got pushed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

And we'll that's crazy that there's like a a worse draft. You know what I mean? Because like it's like it's worse than this. Also, especially like from my experience with the marketing event, it's like they clearly were trying to cater to a young audience. Like, so why are you putting in those insane jokes?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Well, I mean, it t it I don't even want to say it teeters on the line because it's like you said, seventh grade, things are going way over our heads. Like, it doesn't matter how experienced you know that one guy in the back of the classes, everyone else, especially the theater kids. I'm sorry. We were innocent little babies kissed us. We didn't know any better.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

Never been never been kissed.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

No, and yet we're drawing highs in our notes.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Is um it's the first show I ever binge watched because I rented the season one DVD from Blockbuster when Blockbuster Breck and Mortar stores still existed and hadn't closed yet. And I remember being in my new house, and it was like a it I must have been over the summer because it was like that age when you're you're too old for a babysitter, but you're kind of too young to do anything else besides just stay home alone. Like I remember there was like a shift where it was like, oh cool, like I I get to stay home alone all day. And then you're like, oh wait, I there's I just have to stay home alone all day.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Yeah, it's like I don't really like this. I can I come to the grocery store with you, please? You know.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

But yeah, I remember Shut up, girl, that's vintage.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

I know. I got this from my orthodontist when I got my bracelet. Oh yeah, this isn't left my size.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

For our listeners, Candace is holding up a ten dollar Blockbuster gift card. Oh yes. And now I'm wondering Scratch hasn't even I'm wondering how much does it cost to rent a movie? Like how many movies could you get for $10? Probably. Were new releases more expensive? Well no. Probably. I literally I don't know because I wasn't using my own money at Blockbuster. No, I was like, I want that. Okay. I remember I rented the season one DVD and I literally binged it in my basement all day on this one summer, summer day. And I knew that it was like kind of inappropriate and that like I wanted to watch it alone, like I didn't want to watch it with my family, but I also knew that I didn't know like I was I had an awareness that some of the things were going over my head, but I was also like, but I I I feel like I shouldn't be watching this, so I should keep it to myself.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah. That's so funny you say that. Two things, and I'll make them quick. One, I have the season one, like I have all of season one on DVD because my dad used to drink a lot of Coca-Cola, and on the like tops and in the boxes, and like on the bottom of the cans were codes that you could put in for rewards. And uh, I just started my period, so this might make me cry. He had so many points that he was able to like buy the whole first season of Glee. And he got it for me. Oh, that's so sweet. I cry. I know.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

And I'm like, this man was watching. So you're you're a true Gleek. Like you would call yourself that. You watched every week. Yes. I did not.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

There's a photo of me in seventh grade. Oh my god. No, in eighth grade of me as a bird girl in Suzucole backstage with other theater freaks. Again, if you're listening, it will be like a few.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Like they did. Okay, I have to find then pictures of me. I had. So I did not attend the glee premiere party at my local theater, but I somehow snagged a glee shirt because they were giving out like Glee merch. And so I was like kind of like a poser, you know what I'm saying? Like I had the glee shirt. Yeah. I had watched season one in my basement, but like I didn't, I didn't watch every week. I didn't watch new episodes. But I w I wanted uh in the theater community, I wanted to appear as if I was a gleek.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Isn't that so like honestly lame? It's lame, but it meant so much to us at the time. Oh my gosh. Like, are we for real? And then the second quickest thing that I have is this girl on TikTok, she's recently been sharing journal entries from when she was younger, and she was like diamond in the church. Keep going. And so in her journals, I've I've seen this, I've seen this, I've seen this. Yeah, keep going. She would write to Daddy God about how she shouldn't be watching Glee, but it's just so enticing. And obviously she's gay, but like writing about how it's making her feel these things, but she knows that she shouldn't. But she's watching Glee in secret, and she doesn't want to specifically.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

I think the journal entry that I'm thinking about is the one where she reads and she's like, My friend Bethany, or whatever this girl's name is, came to me struggling with SSA, same-sex attraction. She said her SSA got really bad when she started watching Glee. So I started watching Glee to see what it was all about. And God, I understand why she feels that way after watching Glee, but I can't stop.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

And you know what? I get it, because tell me why I got up at a decent time this morning to watch the second episode.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

I was gonna say that myself when we get to the end and we're like, is it worth a rewatch? Girl, when season when episode one ended, I wanted to physically turn the TV off to prevent myself from just continuing on to the next episode. Like I was ready to talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

It's addictive, and I think this goes straight into why the show was so unique and why it kept us watching be it every week or binging it in our basements by ourselves. It was putting in those like themes that, like you said, we didn't realize were a little questionable, a little odd. But for the parents that were watching with us, and this is my grown brain now, I'm like, did they see this as a teaching moment? Interesting, you know, because like in the I'm getting the first and second episode already mixed up, but like they tackle bulimia, they tackle bullying, they tackle quote unquote being on the teen drinking and God, teen drinking, teen pregnancy later down the road, and just like so many hard-hitting themes of what it means to be an adolescent, you know, between ages of 13 and 19.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

And it's in the Can we talk about also like the other things that make the show unique in terms of like the way in which that pilot like was edited together. Specifically, I'm thinking of the like audition montage that meets Rachel Barry's like story of like her life. Like, we got her life story. We got her whole life story in the first episode. I think that montage is genius.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

I mean, it would a montage, the early 2000s hated to see a montage coming, if you ask me. Because we've watched High School Musical, another audition montage movie. We've seen The Devil Wears Prada, the opening sequence alone, but then also just seeing Anne Hathaway progress in her, you know, yeah, fashion self within the movie. Another movie that we haven't watched yet, but I would love to talk about She's the Man. Another montage right in the middle of that movie where she's like finally transforming. The montage itself progresses a storyline in a way that works for like both TV and movies, you know what I mean? Like, you can't get a montage in my theater. That's just not possible. You have to take that time to develop the character.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

The only way to progress the play.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

You have to sing to sing.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Correct. So this audition montage just takes you through all the personalities and people that are going to eventually be in this Glee Club. Yeah. And it's amazing. Because it also reminds me of another audition montage movie that came out a couple years after Glee. A couple years after, yeah. Pitch pitch perfect. Got so excited, almost started over. Uh yeah. Iconic. For real. If you ask me. And we'll talk about that movie at some point, I'm sure. But yeah, it just it started a movement.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

You can tell time, energy, and effort was spent on this pilot. And I feel like the actors recently and all their interviews have been talking about that. They're like, yo, we had so much rehearsal time for that pilot that once we actually started shooting the show for real, we were like shocked that we were having to put together these musical numbers and such little time and blah blah blah. But I feel like it shows like the effort and the care that was taken with putting out a really good pilot. Because I feel like I've watched, yeah. Sorry. I think I feel like I've watched other show pilots where like you see like the seed that is planted, but you're like, that was mid. Like compared to the rest of the show, like when it becomes, you're like, okay, I see the idea, I see the concept, and I'm glad that they changed this, that, and the other thing for the rest of the show. But I feel like Glee's pilot nailed it, low-key.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Glee's pilot planted the seed, germinated it, laid the roots out, and sprouted all by the end of the day.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

And we're in biology class. Okay, so first comes germination.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Listen, we had a full plant by the end of the day.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

And that's what makes you want to go on to the next episode, you know? Because there was like enough expos is it ex- is it called exposition? Am I using the right word? There's enough exposition, yeah. Like enough just to like really get the plot moving fast. And I feel like you and I, you didn't we haven't talked about it yet, but you sent me a polo about how long the pilot is. It's almost an hour. It's nearly a full hour. Yeah. I perceive that show to be 30-minute episodes.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

That's how I perceive it in my brain. Talk about it because that was my biggest takeaway. Once I sat down and hit play, I said, oh, 4715. We have six commercials running throughout this whole show. Oh, okay. Okay, so I'm sad. But like you said, it feels like a 30-minute show.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

It goes by just like Okay, we kind of have already started talking about it, but should we get into the plot, the characters, all the things? Mm-hmm. Take it over.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

We must. We must. Okay. So just right off the bat, this whole episode just starts off. It's about a struggling high school glee club trying to rebuild. In Lima, Ohio. Oh you get Lima like the bean. No, you get Lima, Ohio. A good Midwest.

SPEAKER_03 21:37

And listen, the best show choirs are in the Midwest, baby. Don't play with Indiana. Don't play. Indiana show choirs will defeat you. And you should be.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Hey, hey, I'm not in high school.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

You said no, whoa, don't vote for me. I'm just a fan.

unknown 21:54

Threatened.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

I'm just a fan. But yeah, this Glee Club is struggling because. One, the original director of the club is putting his hands where he should talk about it. And that's your first, like I mean, outside of the cheerleading squad, which is how the whole episode actually opens, is on the cheerleading squad. It sets up the hierarchy of the school.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Literally.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Which I didn't realize at first. I was like, why are we even starting with the Cheerios?

SPEAKER_03 22:24

It's setting the stage.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

It's starting, it's yeah. The pyramid of girls that reflects the pyramid of the school. Literally. So you have the cheerleaders, and then I think you get into the football team. And then it's like theater choir kids after that. And yeah, the old Glee Club director is a terrible person. He's putting his hands on students. But the way that they show it, disclaimer, do not.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

Yeah, we we we do not console Wait. We do not condone sexual assault. We do not condone um taking yeah, taking advantage of kids, abuse of power. We do not condone harassment. All of it. This turns into like a Title IX training. We're like, in the workplace, if you see it. I know that Rachel Barry did.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

And Rachel Barry did, but we'll get to it because she didn't do it for the reason that it was really bad. Anyway, the way that they showcased this, why was it palatable? Yeah. You know what I mean? It was like it was supposed to be funny. And sure, in 2009, it's like this male teacher is touching this other male student. That's a little weird, but okay. Like, no, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Palatable is like the right word to use, though, because why was I not like totally disgusted? Do you know what I'm saying? Like, it didn't because I feel like there are shows who do show uh they show really disturbing images of like sexual violence, like harassment. My first-y, it makes you feel uncomfortable and you cringe. But I feel like because it was campy, and that actor who plays Sandy, the teacher, like he was like silly with it, and then you cut to Rachel Barry, like fuming in the window. Because that's actually that's like one of the first shots of Leah Michelle, you know?

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Yes, it's just already strung out over losing a solo. I'll just hop into it real quick. Um, the stakes of a high school student are showcased here.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

There is a no-stake like a high school choir solo.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

No, no, and that's all she sees is that this boy is beating her out for a solo, and she runs to the principal to say She said it was horrible.

SPEAKER_03 24:42

He was he was caressing him. I've never seen anything like it. It was so upsetting to watch.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Yeah. She doesn't realize what the real issue is there.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Well, I think she does, but she's she's taking she's taking advantage of the situation. Which is very yeah, it gives like a little bit of Sharpe Evans. Like anything it takes, I am willing to do. I will manipulate the situation to my advantage. I know that a teacher inappropriately touching a kid is horrendous, but like if I can use this to my benefit, I will. Because at the end of the day, her motive, which we know from the moment she walks on our screen, is to be a star. She said, sad for him, great for me.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

I risk my case. You got that right. Yeah. But yeah, it's right there. Turning on him was only for her benefit. But as we move through the episode, Will Schuster is just he's a Spanish teacher, which I completely forgot about.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Can I say something about that? He's So Please do everybody in the Midwest has a white Spanish teacher, right? Or am I such me? Yes. I have so I feel like there's a real stereotype of like the white Spanish teacher who is like obsessed with either whether they are obsessed with like Mexican culture or like Spain and Spanish culture. There is a white person who speaks fluent Spanish and teaches it to kids, but the way that they speak Spanish is so over-enunciated and articulated so kids can learn it. And I truly feel like Matthew Morrison did not live up to the white Spanish teacher lore. Like when he says to Will, not Will. When he says to Finn, he's like, qué pasa in El Semana Pasado.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

You know that the white Spanish teacher would be like they'd be putting the emphasis and the I don't want to say the accent into the state. No, they do, they they over-enunciate the accent.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

I think like for the sake of teaching it to not to like non-native speakers, like the the cadence, the slowness, the overenunciation. He is he is missing it. For whatever reason, they all are practicing in Spanish class saying me llamo es guillermo. Don't know why everybody has the same name. But you know the white Spanish teacher would be like Me llamo es Guillermo. And Will Schuster's like meamo es guillermo.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

He probably likes American cheese on his sandwiches.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

Well, are we gonna get into the Matthew Morrison of it all, or are we gonna stick to Will Schuster?

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Let's we'll get to the character breakdowns, but anyway. He's a Spanish teacher, and he just wants to bring up this Glee Club and try to give them, no pun intended, a new direction, which that is their name that he comes up with in the middle of the night while he's half naked. Weird. Another weird thing about this, this is one of those things that slipped through the cheesecloth of the cheesecloth screenplay, if you will. I know. New directions is nude erections. It's a homophone.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Disgusting.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

And that's who is that? That's Ian.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Yeah. That's Ian. That's Ian. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

I would have literally, if you didn't r spell that out for me, I would not have ever thought of that.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Never in my life.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

I was today, March 15th. And that's the difference between this Fox show and Disney. Wouldn't wouldn't fly at Disney, baby. And that's why when we graduated from high school musical, we moved on to Glee. Because it was what was next in line for us.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

It sure was. It sure was. Damn. So moving along in the plot, really, really quick. Finn is discovered singing in the locker room by Will because he tries to pitch the Glee Club to the football team. Finn struggles between football popularity and joining the club, which we've seen this we know the story well. Mr. Troy Bolton. And if you ask me, Finn is Lima Ohio's Troy Bolton.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Zach Efron walked so Cory Montif could run. You got that right. You but yeah, I mean, by the end of the episode, he ends up joining the club and they band together after 47 minutes of trial and error, and that's the end of the pilot. But there's so much more to talk about because we have to get into the characters of it all. But you watch the pilot. What are your first impressions?

SPEAKER_03 29:15

I love the characters. I feel like the six original cast members that start in Glee Club were the correct six to start with. I also, I'm gonna say it. I cried during Don't Stop Believe In. I know. One thing about me is I'm gonna cry.

unknown 29:33

I'm gonna cry.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

Hey, I don't blame you. What was truly like kinesthetic empathy? Like the idea that like when you watch somebody do something that you have done, or a like a movement or something like that, like you can like feel it in your body. And it's that shot of Leah Michelle like in her red t-shirt, skipping forward to sing her first solo, and she's looking and making eyes at Ben. Like I like, I don't know, I love Shoir. Like I choreographed for a middle school show choir now. I loved being in Show Choir myself, and I just feel like the way that I have described what it feels like to be in Shoquir is like being the best version of yourself because like you're not playing a character, it's not like you know, theater or acting, like you're just being you're just being you, but like on steroids, like yeah, you really do feel like some type of like pop star like type energy. Um I don't know, something about that shot like took me back, and I was like, I have felt that feeling before. I have felt like the what does she describe herself? She's like, and I'm the ingenue that everyone roots for. Like like the what Yeah. Um like whatever that feeling is that you get from uh performing and from singing and dancing, like I just feel like there is such like a humanness in singing, dancing. Like it's it's just like a very embodied experience, at least for me, when I get to participate in it.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

And I just Oh, totally. There's she just gives it.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

And I can't lie, after watching them do horrible renditions of sit down your rock in the boat and frickin' and I love Grease, but that Danny and Sandy number was not it. They needed an 80s pop track to send them to the moon.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

They did. And we'll talk about the 80s pop track because girl, what the fuck? Sorry, that was crazy. Let's get into the character breakdown so we can get into the nitty-gritty of it all for real, for real. And I think why don't you open it with our fearless leader, Will Schuster.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

I was asking everyone to talk about him because I I don't know what my beef is with him. Like, okay, Matthew Morrison played Link Larkin in the original Broadway hairspray. He's a theater kid, Matthew Morrison is. And he's on Broadway right now doing some theater kid ass behavior. Yes. Really? Yes, he's on Broadway. Oh, I I but I hold on. Let me let me look this up really quick. Yep. Just in time. It's a new musical based on the life of Bobby Darren. Don't know who that is, but he is the lead. Oh, okay, and okay, this is what I was seeing earlier. Earlier this year, he did a limited cabaret called Rhythms and Revelations. That's what I okay. And cabarets aren't meant to be masturbatory. They're they're meant to just be like, this is me. Anyway, can you tell me like why is that coming up for me? Why do I hate him? Like something, like I see him on my screen and I like don't want to like him. Like I want, I want to like I just something something about him.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

I think it's the Justin Timberlake of it all. It's this white boy who is trying like trying to embody this soulful being and have swag and rhythm, which hey, if you can sing and dance at the same time, you in my opinion, inherently have rhythm. But there's there's something lacking with his execution of it. It's like he knows he's good at it, so he's like Okay, so you're speaking He's kinda like hey about it.

SPEAKER_03 33:12

His cringe. Do you know what I mean? Here's what here's what I forgot. I just Googled this. I was like, why did Matthew Morrison get canceled? And I had forgotten that he was a judge on So You Think You Can Dance for their 17th season.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 33:24

And he got fired because he was messaging one of the contestants, one of the female contestants on Instagram, and he claims that it was all innocent and it was all professional, and he was like wanting to, you know, help her out and give her tips about the industry.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Okay, yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:38

But he was a judge and she was a contestant, and that was not allowed per his contract. Also, he's a male in a position of power and she's a female. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Like, you're not like you have to follow the rules. So he thought that what he was doing was helpful.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

He thought what he was doing was okay at the very least, and the network did not see it that way and let him go. I don't remember the stipulations. I don't remember how old this contestant was, but at the end of the day, if you if you breach your contract as a professional, like that you should be fired. Yeah, no matter what you do.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

I don't care if you're not sure.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

Yeah, like whether or not it's creepy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Or you just, I don't know, left your hotel after hours. Just don't, you know.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But I I had forgotten that. I just knew in like in the back of my mind, somewhere I was like, I don't like something about him. What is it? Then maybe that's it. Maybe that's it.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Well, I think everything you said is true too. Hey. Uh I can't help it. Can't help it. Speaking of cringe, should should we move on to Rachel Barry? Please. Please, let's move on to Rachel Barry. You know, in recent years, a lot has been talked about when it comes to Leah Michelle and her her character and her morals and who she is as a person.

SPEAKER_03 34:58

Her ability to read, her literacy.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Do you want to claim your position now?

SPEAKER_03 35:02

Okay, so this is my I'm gonna s I'm gonna do a kind of a big disclaimer here. I think there are harmful conspiracy theories. I think there are conspiracy theories that are bad to spread, and we should not spread them, and they they really lead to misinformation and confusion. However, I think the conspiracy theory that Leah Michelle can't read is harmless. For me to believe in this, it does not hurt anyone. And I fully believe that Leah Michelle cannot read. I think it's funny.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

I'm not gonna say whether or not I think she can or can't read. Someone had to be able to read in order to get her where she is, be it her or somebody else. Who? I don't know. But somebody had to read. But aside from that, what I will say, regardless of who she is on the inside and you know who she voted for, I don't know. She can sing. Girl, down. Mm-hmm. Don't rain on my parade when it comes later. I actually think changed my brain chemistry a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 36:02

The way that Rachel Berry, the character, gets introduced to us through On My Own. Legendary, like that song, you have to have some vocal chops to deliver it the way that she did, you know?

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Lungs at 110 capacity.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think we can talk about her casting lore, which is interesting, but like she was the correct choice for that role.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

Like to be to be an original character on an original television show, like you have to like put a certain amount of yourself into it, I think. And I think 100%. I think she was perfectly casted.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yeah. She plays Rachel Barry excellently. Rachel Berry is Leah Michelle.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

If you ask me.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

I believe every word that comes out of that character's mouth because the actress playing her is so committed. Yes. 110%. What's the casting lore?

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Oh my god, you don't know this story? I might know. Is it about her audition?

SPEAKER_03 37:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Okay. Then I know a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 37:08

I think I don't know why this was like such a popular story. I feel like it maybe was like a softball question. You know how like daytime TV interviews that they just ask, like, literally like meaningless bullshit? Like, uh, tell me about anyway. Yeah. It's like I feel like a lot of people know the story, but in case you don't, Leah Michelle got in a car accident right before her glee audition. Like literally her wingshield shattered and there was glass in her hair and on her clothes. But she went to the glee audition anyway because that is how bad she wanted it. And then the pianist starts playing her song. I I don't recall what song she was gonna sing, but I think they like skipped a couple of measures or it was in the wrong key or something. And she could have kept going, but she stopped and corrected the pianist. And there might even be video footage of this. You might even be able to find it on YouTube. And she's like, No, no, actually, there it should be a four-bar intro. Can we start again? And that is when the casting committee was like, We got her. This is this is our Rachel Barry. Because she was just being herself. She was like, No, it has to be perfect. Excuse me, I should have four bars of intro.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

She's saying on my own. And she was so serious. She said, We have to go back to the second verse. And everyone laughed.

SPEAKER_03 38:20

That's what's so interesting about like television and film versus like live theater is like because she came from theater, you know, her she got her start on Broadway. What how old was she in ragtime? Like seven years old?

SPEAKER_01 38:33

Had to have been.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

She was young. And then she played um in Spring Awakening with Jonathan Groff. Anyway. So that's her background because the the way that television works, like, got to create, like, the writers got to meet her and like create storylines and like little details inspired by her. And so I feel like there are certain audition rooms where that would not go over. You know, if you're like, we have to go back to the second verse, they would be like, ma'am, your time is up.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:04

But because they were looking for that perfectionist character, it it worked, you know. It was the it was the magic of the audition.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

Yeah. I've been uh listening to Semi Well Adjusted by Allison Stoner.

SPEAKER_03 39:18

Okay. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

And just, I mean, she was in the audition circuit young.

SPEAKER_03 39:23

Like Yeah, that story that she tells about those like Cattle Call, like or it was a competition that she went to.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

Oh my god, yes. That was insane. Ridiculous. I'm hoping to finish it before we talk about Camp Rock. Oops, slip up. Um Spoiler! Little bit, but I'm really wanting to get into it just I don't know, for an overall look of the Hollywood audition playing field. Anyway, they got who they were looking for with Miss Rachel Barry, Leah Michelle. Now, I do want to say, again, in the most recent years, there have been a lot of other actresses specifically talking about how they've been treated by Leah Michelle without actually saying her name.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

And I just want to say that really sucks.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

It sucks to hear, especially like, and I hate to lump Leah Michelle into Rachel Barry because Rachel Barry should be like, in my opinion, this progressive girl who knows what she wants, and while she has, you know, that privilege, she can use her voice for good things. You know? Hell, she's got two dads. Rachel Barry does.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

And we'll never know which one was the real sperm donor. Girl, your other dad is black. Like those jokes, I was like, oh my god! In 2009, we really went we went there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

But anyway, I I hate to hear that she's was kind of a bitch to her other counterparts, either on the show or other shows. For sure. But can sing down played the role well.

SPEAKER_03 40:59

Mm-hmm. Art and artist. I guess we're separating here on the Zelenor Rewatch podcast.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Yeah. Sorry about it. Yeah. Um Finn. Finn Hudson.

unknown 41:12

All right.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Played by the late Corey Monty. One of a handful of deaths that have been reported from this show. Too soon. Gone too soon. Way too soon. I didn't really have much about him besides the Troy Bolton of Lima, Ohio. But they set his character up so interestingly. Mm-hmm. You know? Like a true hidden gem within the street. The boy next door. The boy next door.

SPEAKER_03 41:39

Like literally, like if you look up in the deck the the dictionary, if you look up in the dictionary, boy next door on screen, it is him. Mm-hmm. Because he is on the football team, but he gets already out of that.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

The port-a potty.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

In the first episode, you know what I'm saying? He does throw, he helps, you know, throw Kurt in the trash, but he holds his jacket first. You know, like he never was seen that mean. And I feel like there are other storylines or there's other ways in which like you could have seen that transformation happen for his character, like throughout the many seasons. But they chose, yeah, they chose to do it all in the pilot and be like, he's gonna shed this and decide that he's gonna do both, like, from the jump. And I feel like that does set him, it puts him in that boy next door box of like, oh, this is a good guy. We don't have to question it, we're not confused about it. We know he's a good guy, and we're gonna root for him.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Well, I while I'm glad that it all happened in the first episode, I do wonder if writers felt like they needed to make sure the audience knew that he was a good guy from the very beginning, just so that it solidified his place within the Glee Club. Exactly. You know, it's like there was no question on whether or not he was gonna be in it or he wasn't. Mm-hmm. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

But that's no, I mean, well, if you think about it, he he becomes the missing link. Mm-hmm. When Mr. Shu is like, I'm having a baby, I'm leaving. He's the one who's like, Mercedes, you're on costumes. Rachel, you're on choreography, you know, like Arthur. Yeah, you get the jazz band. Like he it is the Troy Bolton effect of like, hey, every team needs a captain, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna step up, you know? Like, it really sets him up to be to be that boy next door, good guy character. Well, having nuance and complexity, like, you know, his dad left, he cares about taking care of his mom. He does still want to play football, he's not giving that up. He's gonna, you know, he's gonna have some conflicts with his friends, he's got daddy issues, like he's got girlfriend issues. Oh my god, that celibacy bit is iconic.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

In the second episode, does that come about? But good lord. Real quick, because you said it, he tells Mercedes to handle costumes because you know she's fashionable, I guess, as the only black girl on the squad. And all she came up with was red shirts and jeans.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

Okay, here's what I'll say about the red shirts and the jeans is that they I thought were fitting for each character. Kurt's red shirt is ruffly. Artie has like the button down, like he's kind of like half in the band, half singing.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

It was personalized. It was personalized.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

Yes, yes. Yeah. I mean, hey, they they have to pay $60 a month to to do glee. They don't get any budget.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

Crazy.

SPEAKER_03 44:45

So I think Mercedes, she did what she could. She did what she could with what she had. Proud of her brother. I want to um trickle back to one thing about Finn before we move on. Please. Is and I don't want to this episode to be heavy, but it's we can't talk about glee without talking about the untimely deaths. Like it just is what it is. Yeah. Crazy that in like the way that his character gets brought into Glee Club is the drugs of it all.

SPEAKER_01 45:12

I just got like a full-body tingle because I didn't even put two and two together like that.

SPEAKER_03 45:18

Yeah. Like Corey Monteith, the actor who does eventually pass away from a drug overdose, I do believe, right? I'm pretty sure. In the pilot, like one of his main scenes is being accused of doing drugs, and he actually wasn't, the character Finn, you know. Mr. Schuster blackmailing a blackmailed him. Literally blackmailing. He should be fired. Yeah, crazy. But anyway, like I don't I don't know. I just think for a young actor to have to do a scene like that and be like, they're not mine, I promise. Like, like, I'll do anything. Like, I don't, I, you know, I like kind of like pleading. I feel uh it just made me sad. I was like, ugh. Life imitates art, art imitates life. This sucks.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Yeah, there are so many little things like that within the show that didn't age well for the ones that were lost. Yeah. Yeah, very, very interesting little crossover there.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Let's lift the mood though. Jane Lynch.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Sue Sylvester. What a bitch. Love her. I love her character. I love her. Lesbian icon. And you know what? I did look this up because I was like, when when did Jane Lynch come out? When was she on the scene as, you know, a lesbian in Hollywood? Never came out. Just kind of said, I'm here. Yeah. And I said, you know what? Rock on girlfriend.

SPEAKER_03 46:40

Because that's her comedic relief. I think. I don't know how we were talking about like the pilot really sets up the whole series. I think the pilot, she's the first speech, she says the first line in Glee. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

And it's like waterboarding.

SPEAKER_03 46:55

Yeah, she said, You think this is hard? Try being waterboarded. That's hard. That's hard.

SPEAKER_01 46:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:00

Like, like, she she is so unhinged from the jump. And it only builds and builds and builds throughout the rest of the seasons.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:11

And it's such a fun little like foreshadowing into her role. Also, again, with like the power dynamics of it all, like the Cheerios are, you know, they they were on the news. Like they had a spotlight. Yeah, they they are superior to the Glee Club. Therefore, she feels superior to Will Schuster. And it really gets the ball rolling for a lot of like upcoming conflict in a fun, lighthearted way, because her character is so zany.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

It just it kills me. Like how this is so stupid. But like how much budget the Cheerios get. Like, she's treating them like a college better than a college team. College teams don't have dietitians.

SPEAKER_03 47:58

What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 47:59

That's what I'm saying. Like, she's got her own printer for the Cheerios. She's got the a dry cleaning service for the Cheerios. And you know what? To a certain extent, I get it. But shouldn't your outfits be like machine washable?

SPEAKER_03 48:12

Yeah. My high school uniform was wash that thing in the regular washing machine. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Hang to dry if you're lucky, you know. But no, I I love the character that they set up for Jane Lynch. And a name to put in the show, too. Sue Sylvester. Oh, I was just thinking Jane Lynch. Like Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:32

An actor. As a human. Yeah. Yes, yes. I was gonna say, um, I think that's the beauty of the sitcom is that like there has to be conflict. There has to be a villain. Like there has to be these kind of like key pieces in order for there to be a plot. Like in order for there to in order for it to work. And yet they do it in a way where the stakes are low enough that like it's not a drama. It's not, you know, a heavy show to watch. You can put it on and have a laugh.

SPEAKER_05 49:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 49:03

You know, and I feel like they they found that sitcommy recipe, like, they got all the ingredients just right, I feel.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

I mean, I I was watching this and naturally with it being in a school, it reminded me of Abbott Elementary. Yes. And just like the almost the documentary style of it all, but in Glee, like, those cameras don't exist. Whereas in Abbott Elementary, they do, which I still find really interesting. But I I have a hard time thinking that Quinta Brunson didn't take some of that style of filming within a school setting from Glee. Because it's just so similar and the way that it flows together is just so perfect.

SPEAKER_03 49:45

It reminded me of English Teacher as well. I don't know if you've watched that show at all.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

I haven't.

SPEAKER_03 49:50

Yeah, it's I think there's only like two seasons out. It's on Hulu. But yeah, like the way that there's like so many medical dramas, and like, you know, we can put there's so many like law dramas, like legal dramas, like there's like these categories. I feel like Glee was kind of like it is quintessential in the like school genre of television. Because there's so many silly things that can happen in a school.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

Right?

SPEAKER_03 50:14

As someone who works in a school now, oh my god, there's a lot of silliness going on.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

Let's get into some of these early club members. Right off the bat, Kurt Hummel, played by Chris Coulfer, little little twink boy. He's so lovable. He is, he doesn't do anything to hurt anybody. He's just like, I'm here to protect my peace and do what I need to do. And I love that about him because I really feel like I mean, there's so much representation within the show, but I feel like he was a key player in the little gay boys that didn't realize they were gay yet, but were in theater and needed an outlet. Yes. You know, and I really loved that for them, which really tracks where I'm at today because I was like, yes, they get somebody. Yeah. Meanwhile, I also had like my people, but didn't know it.

SPEAKER_03 51:09

I feel like the moment that solidifies Kurt, like his character in the first episode, is when he's auditioning and he's singing Mr. Cellophane, which in terms of song choice, we get to get into that.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 51:22

I think it's excellent choice, but is when he's hitting that high note and he fixes the piece of his bangs. Like, just it's just such a nice touch and a really fun acting choice that like again sets him up for the rest of the season. Like, he cares about his image, he cares about fashion, he's really interested in like those creative outlets beyond just singing and performing.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:50

And I feel like there, like you said, there's there's a lot of different types of gays in community theater, but there is is a certain type of boy that grows up and does have more of an interest in fashion and does have a more I feel like now like little kids are so interested in like skincare and beauty and it's weird, but Yeah. There's a there's a there's a type of kid like that. Mm-hmm. I think to I mean, obviously there's more gay characters that come in in the later seasons, but to choose to start with one, like who are we gonna start with? I think it's a r it's a really nice choice. And it contrasts like the boy next door, it contrasts Artie, like it's a it's a nice choice.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

Yeah, it's good. Speaking of Artie, Kevin McHale. I love this man. I was a big, big Kevin McHale fan when this show came out, and I will never forget seeing him pop up on screen and being like, that's the guy from NLT. And no one knew who NLT was, but of course, Glee popped off, Kevin McHale popped off, and people are like, Oh, you were in a boy band before this. This is that moment where I'm like, and I knew it.

SPEAKER_03 53:01

I was boots on the ground, I was there first. I was there first.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

Did you know about NLT?

SPEAKER_03 53:07

No, I I have no idea what you're talking about. That's what I'm pretending like I do.

SPEAKER_01 53:10

It's a little four-part boy band. I'm pretty sure they had a really short stint of popularity, and I'm pretty sure I only found one of their songs from like just sweeping YouTube for music videos in 200 probably seven or eight.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

And this music video pops up for a song called That Girl by NLT, and I loved the music video because it took place in a high school and they were at high school dance, and these kids, these four boys, were being laughed at by like other bigger, taller, like jockier dudes, and they opened up the gym floor and it like splits open to open a pool. What? And they all like What's the budget for this? I don't know, but it was ridiculous. But they all like jump in and then obviously they get the girl, cause now they're all dancing in the water. Whatever. It's whatever. But I thought he was so cute, and I thought he was a really good dancer. Which brings me to my next point. You put the best dancer in a wheelchair.

SPEAKER_03 54:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:18

Make it make sense, or don't do it.

SPEAKER_03 54:21

This is where the like the 2009 of it all really comes into play.

SPEAKER_05 54:27

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 54:27

Because it's like the writers and creators were they were trying to do too many things. Because it's like, on one hand, representation, that's amazing. Like, like, there are disabled people and they deserve to be in clubs and they deserve to participate in school activities just as much as everyone else. Blah blah blah, the whole thing. How great. However, why is he at the butt of the joke? Like, they were like, you only have five kids in Glee Club, and one of them's a cripple. Like, no, she literally says five and a half. Yeah, that's not that that's not okay. You can't say that.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

He also gets pushed off stage.

unknown 55:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:09

Or he gets pushed while he's on the stage twice.

SPEAKER_03 55:13

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 55:13

Hello?

SPEAKER_03 55:14

I feel like as I have kind of like shifted in my PT career and I work with wheelchair users now more often than I did before. I'm like, this is just like such unrealistic. Like, like somebody who uses a manual wheelchair, meaning they can push, they can self-propel, they can push themselves, is not just at the liberty of everyone around. Like the idea that he would just like get pushed and would be like, whoa, I I can't control the wheelchair is right how it that's not how it works.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

Like he's not incapable or they're not incapable of stopping themselves, you know?

SPEAKER_03 55:52

Yes, yeah. I just was like, oh, you did not have like a a disability consultant on staff. Like no one was consulted. And I feel like nowadays the conversation would be about like if the character is disabled, why not get a disabled actor? The whole thing like that. That wasn't even a conversation back then. No.

SPEAKER_01 56:12

Because I know damn well now there are disabled people who sing, act, dance. Hello? Mm-hmm. It just really pissed me off. More and at the time, it was more so because I knew he could dance. And I knew he was the best dancer on this.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

You said let him out of the chair. Let him out.

SPEAKER_01 56:32

I said, put him through physical therapy.

SPEAKER_03 56:35

Well, yeah, there's there's lots of wheelchair users who are like situational users, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

So let him be a hoot and a holler.

SPEAKER_03 56:42

So let's get up. Let him get up. Let him shake his little groove thing.

unknown 56:47

Fuck.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

But that was aggressive. Anyway, all that to say, Kevin McHale has since said that he would not accept the role at this point. He wouldn't do it again. He wouldn't revisit the role if there was ever a time to do that. Especially if Artie was still wheelchairbound. Yep. Ridiculous. Amber Riley. Miss Mercedes Jones. The best damn singer on that stage. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry, Rachel Berry. She is one of the people that has mentioned Leah Michelle without mentioning Leah Michelle. Exactly. Specifically on the set of Glee, which just puts more salt into the wound because I'm like, y'all are both really talented.

SPEAKER_03 57:29

Yeah, I feel like Mercedes is a she's a standout character. She is she's a breakout star from that show.

SPEAKER_01 57:36

Most definitely. And I still don't think Amber Riley gets the recognition for her natural talents outside of Glee that she should. But she just brings so much to that cast. Mm-hmm. And I can't say enough good things about her.

SPEAKER_03 57:50

My favorite thing that I see on TikTok these days is like, let's just say like a current, a current artist releases like a new song, and people will be in the comments and be like, dude, the Mercedes glee cover of this would go so hard. Or like, I just know that if this song came out, you know, 12 years ago, Mercedes would have ate this up on a glee cover.

SPEAKER_01 58:14

I love comments like that because it's true. It's true. Mercedes Jones can do no wrong.

SPEAKER_03 58:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:22

When singing a song.

SPEAKER_03 58:23

Do you know about her audition, Lore? No. Okay, so she recently did an interview, um, and I think we've posted some clips on our social, but she was talking about how prior to that audition, she only sang soprano, like really like floaty, like melodic. Like that's how she was trained to sing. Um, and so they and she sang something like that for her audition. And they were like, Hey, um, can you do what's the song You're Gonna Love Me? From Dream Girls? I'm telling you. I'm telling you, yeah. They're like, Could you sing this? And she's like, huh? Uh I guess. She's like, I guess I can. Um, but she's like, I had never done anything like that in my life. I had never sang like that in my life. She's like, that's not my voice. Like, that wasn't. I just, she's like, that was not my thing. And then she did, and the the the creatives went crazy. Apparently, they had had like a hard time finding the Mercedes they were looking for. They had been through like months and months of casting. Um, Amber Riley goes in and she's, you know, sitting in the in the waiting room with the other Mercedes hopefuls, and she's like, Yeah, it's been a really busy week, like, you know, with callbacks, and the other girls are like, We've been here for three months doing callbacks. Like, what do you mean? Yeah. She didn't like she didn't know how how long they'd been looking for that character, but I think it was a done deal once they heard her sing that. Yeah. Yeah. She says that whoever like was in the the casting panel that day, like literally dragged her to another room and was like, do it again for the these people, do it again for these people. Like, like, you have to see this, you have to hear this girl sing. Which is really interesting that she wasn't trained that way. And that's how we our generation knows her as like a like a belter, you know. Yeah, and she's like, No, I had never sung like that ever before. That's unbelievable. Which is really I I think that's a great story for like young performers to hear, is like there will be times in your life where people see something in you that you don't see in yourself, and it's okay to like let go and like let go and like God, you know what I'm saying? Come on, daddy God. All comes back to him. But truly, like sometimes, sometimes people see stuff in you that you don't see in yourself, and like you just you gotta let go of those preconceived notions about yourself and be like, maybe they're right. You know, maybe I can do this thing that I thought was totally out of my comfort zone.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:48

Yeah, I need to have that pep talk with myself sometimes. Uh Candace, I see great things in you. Thank you. You too, friend. Real quick aside about Mercedes or Amber Riley as a whole. I saw recently, I think on a reel on Instagram or something, but there was a question about her character. About Yes, keep going. Like, would she still be with Sam? Who was introduced like later in Glee? They and it's a little boy. She's asked if they'd still be together, and she's like, you know, I'm not gonna lie to you. I think it was puppy love, they were together for high school and that was it. But I do think Mercedes might be a little gay today. And I said, Hallelujah! Because you can't okay, if one, if you watched that show, you're a little gay now. Two, everyone in Glee Club a little gay, right? So it it only makes sense that Mercedes likes girls.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:44

I saw the same clip and I was like, yeah, that tracks. That tracks.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:49

Yes, precisely. Anyway, the final early club member who literally only has one line in the pilot.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:55

Yeah, kinda kinda sucks for her.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

Sucks for her because it's a stupid line. And I anyway, it's Tina Goen Chang, played by Jenna Ushkowitz. Ushkowitz or Ushkowitz? Because I don't want to say it wrong. Ushkowitz. With a Z. With a Z. Yeah. She has one line at the very end when they go to see Vocal Adrenaline perform, and she's like, Where did doom? Ridiculous. You gave a goth girl a stutter, and that's her only line. Yeah. Boo.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:26

Again, representation matters. Lots of people have stutters. True. Like shout out, shout out to include a character with a stutter, but the whole like therapeutic process for people with stuttering is to help build their confidence to speak more. So like only giving her one line, again, there there was there was no um disabilities consultant on the case.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

I was like, you got a point, and maybe you're putting me at my place because that hey, I'll be put in a place if I need to be.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:56

So No, no, no. I'm not, I'm not like you can I'm just saying, like, like I I work with a lot of speech therapists, and there are a lot of kids who stutter, and it's normal, and like a lot of people go through it, but like the therapy is not to get rid of the stutter, the therapy is to build confidence so that these kids don't feel shy about talking in front of their peers anymore. No, it's I think a lot of people have this misconception, like, oh, like speech therapy is to try to make a stutter go away, and that's like that's not really the point. The point is kids who stutter become shy and they end up not talking, and that's harmful to their development, and point in case she has no lines.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:36

Yeah. Ridiculous. Let her talk. Let her talk. Did you notice that when she signed up, she signed in a stutter?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:45

Yeah, that that was I g I think that's camp. That's kind of funny to me. But that's like stupid. That's stupid. Because it's like a thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:54

Write your name. Write your name. Girl, stand up. Girl, stand up and say something. But no, I was listening to the That's What You Really Miss podcast this morning. Just their episode about the pilot episode, because I was curious. And she had some Jenna had some really interesting insight on Tina's character. Because she didn't have a last name when they filmed that sign-up sheet scene. So that she was just like, So what's my last name? And they said but she was like, Okay, so like what will it end up being? And she mentioned like Jenna Ushkowitz is such an interesting name when you pair it with a Korean American woman or girl at the time. And so that's why they named her Cohen Chang, so that you get like both sides of her like upbringing and who she is. So I thought that was kind of cool. This is we could baby cut this if this is stupid. Is she Jewish? Her dad probably is.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:57

I was gonna say Ushkowitz gives like that is like a Jewish name to me. Yeah. And I think Cohen is a Jewish name as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:04

Yes, Cohen is very common and historically significant Jewish surnamed. That's what I thought. Derived from the Hebrew word Cohen meaning priest, daddy god.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:13

Anyway. Daddy, and it all comes back to Daddy God. It all comes back to Daddy God.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:18

But something interesting that I learned from the podcast this morning was going back to like the audition montage, she didn't know that she was gonna sing I Kissed a Girl until like very soon before they filmed that. Interesting. Yeah. Cause I think the character of Tina had a completely different personality. And I don't even know what song she was gonna sing, but Tina was supposed to be a little more girly and uh feminine rather than this goth girl.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:52

Like edgy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:53

Yeah. And so when that was solidified, they were like, Well, she can't sing whatever other songs. We gotta give her like a punchy song. Mm-hmm. So they gave her I kissed a girl, and the choreographer was like, When you say girl, like hit it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think at first they were trying to give Tina this bisexual storyline. Yeah. Because later, at some point, it's either I think it's in the second episode when the Glee Club performs in front of the school. I wanna or Let's Talk About Sex. Mm-hmm. Or no, what's the song? It's not Let's Talk About Sex. Push It. Yeah. When they perform Push It by Salt and Pepper. I'm pretty sure Leah or Rachel touches Tina's boobies.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:42

I think she did that in this episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:43

Okay, so it is in the first one.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:45

It's in this episode. Yeah. It's when she like touches like Kurt's face. She touches when she's like walking over to get to Corey or to get to Finn. Yeah. No, that I saw that and I was like, still that's silly.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:01

Yeah, she was touching all up on her boobies. And I guess Tina was supposed to like it. But then obviously, like later down the road within the show, she ends up with I think Artie at one point and Mike.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:16

Well, they got the they got the lesbians in through some other characters.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:20

Speaking of the other characters, some other later club members include Noah Puckerman or Puck played by Mark Saling, another unfortunately gone too soon actor on the show. And we have Quinn for Bray played by Diana Agron. Agron.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:37

Crazy lore with her.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:38

Really?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:39

The Swifties are gonna lose their minds, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:42

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:42

Yeah. Wait, what? The Gailers. The Galers love to talk about Diana Egron. I know nothing about this. I think they were alleged to be together. Girl, look. And that's and that's where I draw my line as being like, I like Taylor Swift. It's like I don't know all the details, but these girls that do go berserk, they go bananas, and they're like, and if this and if Diana Egron and when they were together and So it's a bunch of like red lines going everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:11

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:12

That's it's it's yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:14

I'll have to look into it at you know, when I have the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:17

You know, speaking of speaking of the girls and the gays.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:19

Santana Lopez. Another probably I mean they're all sad, but this one really hurt me to the core losing Nye Rivera because she was trying to save like her son and herself based on everything that came out about her passing, and it is just so so upsetting. And like if you think back to the coverage about and surrounding her death, like seeing the glee cast come out, I could cry right now, but like seeing the pictures of them and like her father and just all out there is so so sad. But you know what on a more positive note, something that I found while listening to the That's What You Really Miss podcast, which I think I want to start actually listening to because I'll get into it at the end, but this show really revived something in my little theater kid heart. But sweet! I love the way that Kevin and Jenna talk about their co-stars even after they've passed. Like they just talk about them as if nothing ever happened, but with the acknowledgement that they are gone.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:29

And so it's really sweet. It's really nice to have someone talk about them in a more positive light than what surrounded their lives, especially Mark Saling.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:40

Because that was tragic and disturbing, very disturbing. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:45

Yeah, I think there's like a part of like grieving that hopefully most people can get to where it's like it's just nice to talk about those people and like tell stories and remember positive memories, and it it doesn't always have to feel heavy. It can just feel like, oh yeah, do you remember when blank blank blank happened? And like that. That's a really like nice place to come to. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:06

Kevin often talks on his TikTok about like glee things, and one of his most recent is he was watching I don't know, some performance between um Rachel and Santana, and Santana's like pointing at her notes, and he just found so much joy in seeing that again. And I'm like to have that and have experienced that altogether, like as a cast, I'm sure it's just so it means so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:34

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:35

But last but not least, there's Brittany Pierce, played by Heather Morris, and she comes in the second episode, but she adds a whimsy to Glee that is just unmatched, in my opinion. I think she's so funny. Somebody has to bring it. Listen. So going through all those characters, who was a standout character for you?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:56

I think probably the first time I watched it, I remember like I really liked Kurt's character when I was watching it the first time. I feel like I was drawn, well, I I like people that look like me. If you have pale skin and dark hair, I'm like, my people, my brother. Brunettes, unite. But I feel like there was something fun about like his prim and properness. Like the idea that you would get like dressed up to go to high school in your finest clothes, like your half sweater. Yes, I feel like it was aspirational to me. I mean, yeah, yeah. It gives it gives a little bit like Sharpay and Ryan vibes, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:39

I was about to say something so unhinged. If Sharpay and Ryan had a younger brother that ended up gay, yeah, it would have been him.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:48

Well, because he kind of marries the two of them, right? He has like all the Ryan, like, man who gives feminine traits and all the Sharpay, like fabulous, like clothing, like self-expression to the max. Like, I don't know. I I I was a girl who did a few things in high school. Like, I I feel like uh it was like one day I'd be in sweats and then the next day I would try really hard and I would do my hair and I'd have a cute outfit. But I feel like it was aspirational to me in middle school to be someone who like really cared about my appearance in high school.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:19

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:20

Which is like so funny because I look like garbage every day now as an adult. Like I don't put a lot of effort into my appearance. Don't say that about yourself. But thank you, thank you. I won't talk about your friend that way. But please don't like like truly, like I don't wear makeup to work. I wear like the same like the same I I have my uniform is like t-shirt joggers pullover, t-shirt joggers pullover. I get it.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:43

When you sit for so many hours a day and you're not going anywhere, at least in my experience, I would say what's the point. But you know what? I've been trying.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:52

I've been trying. Other standout character, Sue Sylvester. True, true. Cause you know, I'll say one little thing, because we've talked about her so much. They set her up just enough to make you want more. Yes. Like going forward.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:06

I was gonna say she didn't get that much screen time, but she makes an impression.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:11

Huge. I mean, when you talk about waterboarding in the first minute, you got you're bringing something to the table. Yeah. You know? But one character that we didn't talk about that was a standout character for me, Emma. Cause girl, um, he's married. You know me. Trusty. The amount of times I wrote, he's a married man. He's a married man. Will, you're married. He's married. And then at one point, Terry, Will's wife, pissed me off. And I said, Emma, get your man. The stakes are low. The stakes are low here.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:47

But the issue, the issues at hand that come with Terry are much bigger than our adolescent brains could handle at the time. But yeah, Emma is such an interesting character. And the way that they set up like her and Will from the jump, just you already know that they're gonna end up together at some point in the show is crazy. Because now you're rooting for a woman to take a married man.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:16

Right, which is kind of crazy as like a as a regular viewer. Yes. But they the way that they do it is so good that you are rooting for that as a viewer. You are it makes it makes like adultery, like cheating on your wife. It makes it palatable. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 1:14:35

But here's the thing, he didn't cheat on his wife. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:38

But he's cheated on his like as the well, as as the viewer, they're setting you up to you want Emma to get what she wants.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:46

You want Emma to get what she wants, but you also want Will to be out of what he's in. Mm-mm. And the way the way that they set Terry up is really interesting to me because they make her a toxic wife, which you don't see often depicted in TV. Right. Or movies, for that matter. You might, but it it's not often. The thing that they gave her was so woman-coded, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:17

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:18

She is uh has a shopping addiction. She has a shopping addiction and has no care for spending. Yeah. And the part that pissed me off, I work on my feet four hours a day for three days a week. Girl, shut- of serious management potential. Act like it, babe. Work full time. Work full time. That really messed me up. Because now he's a janitor. Episode two. He's doing detention for free. He's paying out of pocket for the Glee Club. Girl, your man is providing. Mm-hmm. And you're folding sheets. Not that it can be a respectable job, but you're doing it for part-time hours, Queen.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:58

Yeah. No, you're you're not getting any benefits.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:00

How are you gonna have a baby with no health insurance? Like, literally, those were my hours when I worked at high V in high school. In high school, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Three days a week for four hours after school. I was home by dinner and I complained the whole time.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:16

I think you're speaking to something interesting, is so when you asked me that question, I answered like my seventh grade self, who was I drawn to. But on this rewatch as an adult, I was also quite drawn in by Emma's yearning. Everybody likes to talk about yearning on TikTok these days.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:33

We love a yearn.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:35

Also, her like choices, like I think the clean freak thing was like uh that that was written into the script. But the way in which she does those tasks, like the way she uses like just the tips of her fingers to barely touch anything disgusting and her posture and the way she carries herself, like it gives her like an innocence that you want to root for. Like you want her to get what she wants. It's just yeah, it's just funny that like as an adult, we're like resonating more with the adult characters compared to the high schoolers, which is funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:07

I will say part of her appeal is also her ability to bluntly tell the truth in such a like sweet way. I don't know exactly what she says, but she claps back at somebody, and I'm like, the football coach.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:23

She said, All those times you ask me out, and I say, I'm on my period, I say, I'm allergic to nighttime. None of that is true. I don't like you. There's someone else I like.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:34

Yeah, and I'm just like, even though she's got some deep-seated things going on with being a clean freak, which is revealed in episode two, she's a confident little woman. And I love that about her. I love that about her.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:48

Yeah. Which I think, like, our whole podcast, we always talk about like, why was this show such a big hit? Like, why did this work out so well? And I think when you have a high school plot line and an adult character plotline, it really expands the audience, you know? Yeah. There were probably people in their 30s and 40s, 30s and 40s watching the show and being really drawn into those like adult storylines. Meanwhile, we were like, skip over this, like, you know, let's see him sing again.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:19

Get to the singing, get to the singing. One more aside about Emma to kind of say one more thing about her before we get into the songs, is I do think it's interesting that she kind of brought Will back because he was applying for a different job at the very end, and she's like, This is you in high school back in '93, and you're giving up on these kids. And I think that was the solidifier of they're gonna end up somewhere. But also, she's good for him, she's a good friend. She sees him, she sees him, she sees him. At least that, if they don't ever end up together, they do. She sees him, she's a good friend for him, and that's all we needed to know. My biggest takeaway from this scene, uh, Will Schuster peaked in high school. Uh-huh. And that's all you need to know about Matthew Morrison. You know what I mean? Oopsies. Oopsies.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:16

Can we talk about some of the music from the show?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:19

Please.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:20

Please. Okay, so obviously the big finale is Don't Stop Believin. And I think you wrote it in your notes that y'all sang this in school.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:31

Yes. Um I had at at my middle school, we did an end-of-the-year show. Anybody could participate as long as you you tried out, and most people made it because it was this big show. And so in eighth grade, wait, what year is that?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:46

In like 2010.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:48

2001.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:48

Yeah. 2010, 2011.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:50

The theme for this show was the 80s. So you have all these middle school kids singing 80s songs, dancing to 80s songs, acting out popular 80s icons, things of that nature. And I'm pretty sure we sang don't stop believing at some point in that show. And it makes sense because it's 30 years post-like when that song came out. Yeah. But also for parents, that's the height of their nostalgia.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:21

So it brings everybody in to this song. So then you fast forward to 2009, you hear Don't Stop Believing, you get the parents that are like, Oh, I love this song in high school. Oh, these high school kids are singing it on TV, and my middle schooler is being exposed to this music. To my music, yeah. And now it's like kids are asking, Well, what other songs did Journey sing? And what other songs are theirs? Which I was one of those kids that ended up looking up more Journey music and know a couple of their songs now. Mm-hmm. So it's just really interesting to see nostalgia play a part every 20 years of big monumental things like that. But what? That song is like I feel like it's been tainted now.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:10

It's worn out. It's tired. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:13

Well, it's tired.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:15

It worked hard.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:16

It did numbers. Yeah, it spiked. Like it it gained popularity again in the late thousands.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:23

Yeah, like in the middle. And I think it had something to do with this. Yeah. Mm-hmm. High school show choir sang this. Period. When I was in middle school. So there was this beautiful, like, well, I don't know if beautiful is the right word. There was a so in my school district, there was like just a really robust music program to where when you were younger, you looked up to the kids that were older than you. You idolize them. You're like, I want to be just like them. And so I was in middle school when our show choir did this. And I remember, like, I will never forget like the girl soloists, the guy soloists. I could tell you their names. Because we thought it was so cool. Like, whenever we would see the show choir perform and be like, Man, like, Don't Stop Believing is so good. Like, I love it when they do that one. And like, I can't think of like a more like nerdy middle school theater kid thing to say than like, damn, like Show Choir really ate up Don't Stop Believing.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:21

Hey, that's how I was for I think my eighth grade year. Cause at the end of the year, like all the choirs in not the school district, but like my middle school and then the high school that we were gonna go to, like all packed into the high school auditorium to watch like a choir competition. Something like that. And the song that they sang that year was Bohemian Rhapsody.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:46

Yes! Of course they did. Of course they did.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:49

A seven-minute song of that song. And I just remember thinking, wow, I want to be part of what they're doing because they're really good. Yep. Did I care more because my cousin was one of the soloists? Yes. Yeah. But I still wanted to be just like everybody else up on the stage. Just like getting it. And dancing.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:11

One thing about 2010 Show Choir is that they didn't play about the 80s. No. There was gonna be an 80s pop ballad. There was gonna be a dance break to a guitar solo. It was going to happen.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:26

Yeah. I think that's kind of why I don't love the song Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Now. It's because it was overdone in middle school. Mm-hmm. But I digress.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:35

Especially in an all-girls show choir.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:37

Anyway. Yes. So don't stop believing, obviously, like the most popular song from The Pilot.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:44

The pilot.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:45

But then you mentioned on my own from Lay Miz that Rachel sang for her audition.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:51

As did Leah Michelle for her audition in real life.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:54

Because they're one and the same. Which bold choice on both parts, but hey. Hey.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:01

High school theater girls, be like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:03

You got that right.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:05

They're gonna come to the audition with a crazy song. That they more or less can't sing.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:12

But they tried. Rachel could though. Can't fight this feeling. I think this is a great song that or let me rephrase that. This was a great song for Corey Monty to sing.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:24

Is it weird that it's in the shower? Yeah. Is it weird that your teacher is watching and listening to you sing in the shower? Eavesdropping on your shower singing? Yeah. Terrible. Terrible. Get it. Get it out of there. But Jenna Ushkowitz mentioned this in their podcast episode. She loves this scene.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:42

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:42

And I think it has more to do with Corey than it does with like any of the storyline. Because this is when you really get to hear him sing. Yeah. This is the first time you hear him sing. And then it all just it clicks. You want him to be a part of Glee Club so bad.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:59

I was thinking about that when I was watching this. I was an obsession with singing in the shower scenes in TV and film. Because we already talked about Pitch Perfect at the top of the episode, but like that's another like really legendary like singing in the shower moment. But I think there's like a vulnerable oh my god. Vulnerability that comes with like literally being naked. Yes. And alone. Yeah. And I think everybody has that experience in the shower where like your best thoughts come to you in the shower. You sing in the shower. Like everybody kind of like enters a zone, and so a scene like that, it's like you're seeing him enter his zone, enter his like flow state where he's totally uninhibited and he's unaware of his surroundings, and he's unaware that his frickin' Spanish teacher who can't speak Spanish is standing there. But it's really compelling, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:49

It's like it's like a window into him. I was gonna say inhibitions are low in the bathroom. Like, I don't know about you, but I feel safe. Yes. Like there's no external elements that are, you know, bothering me, stressing me out, making me worry. Everything this sounds so this sounds crazy. Like everything that I need is in the bathroom.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:13

Well, privacy is an expectation. And the privacy is a prerequisite for the bathroom, you know? Hello. Like when you're at a party and you're like, you spend an extra minute in the bathroom just because like you need it, like because you're like, I just need a break from socializing for a second. Because it's it is expected and acceptable socially to be alone in the bathroom, you know? Which is why it feels so special to go to the bathroom with your girls at a party or a night out. Because it is like a more intimate moment. It is. And you're like, we're girls together. Girlhood. And anyway. Um, I we can't talk about the music on Glee without talking about the way that the covers of the songs that they did throughout all the seasons became our versions of those songs, our preferred version sometimes, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:04

I was listening to Glee versions exclusively.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:07

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:08

Oh while.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:09

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:10

And I'm not just reading that word for word from our notes. That is a true sentiment. Like, blame it glee version when they talk about alcohol. My favorite episode. I don't know why. It's disgusting, but it's so good.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:25

Well, I feel like that's how as an adult you know like what type of company you're in. If you're like at a bachelorette party where there's like mixed company and you you don't know everybody there, but somebody says, like, oh, can you cue blank the glee version? Like whatever song it is, if you hear the words but the glee version afterwards, you're that's my girl. We're friends now. We get each other.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:49

Church. All I gotta say. Wait, wasn't there a moment on TikTok with that they were they were running?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:56

Yeah. Similar to stuff we've talked about with Disney in the past. But that is really part of the genius of the show is they sold that music. You could buy that on iTunes. It became popular, you know, they had cool soundtracks of not original music. They didn't have I mean, I there were original songs on Glee, don't get me don't get me wrong. Oh my god, there were.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:18

A couple of like not one episode that I remember. No.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:22

But most of it was covers, and so they didn't have to, from a budget standpoint, if if I'm just speculating, they didn't have to like hire songwriters, they didn't have to hire lyricists, they didn't have to, you know, I mean they still had to do like they had to pay for the rights and production and things, but like it kind of cuts out like a pretty big part of making music if you just do covers. Oh, 100% sell those covers and you know, become commercially successful.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:51

Yeah, especially when you buy the rights to cover it. Mm-hmm. You're you're fine, you know. Like everybody's making their money that they need to. I just I think about Glee now. Like, Glee wouldn't be made today. No. You know, and I don't I don't want to jump the gun on like final thoughts or anything, but Glee just would not be made today with what it came with back then. But I do have a question. If there was a current song, I would say in the last five years, that was going to be covered on Glee, what would you want to hear?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:29

Okay. This might be a crazy take. I feel like it would be like it would be like an episode of like them in college, like experimenting with drugs for the first time, and it would be like Charlie XEX and Troy Savon, like a mashup.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:46

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:47

It would be like, what's the song that they do together? Is it talk? Yes, talk talk. It would just it would just be like literally like a party song.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:56

And it's like, it's yeah. I'm not gonna get into the details, but I can see it in my head of like the production of it all. Like they're kind of like stumbling in and out of the bathroom. There's like lights, they're they're dancing, a choreographed dance, but it's not it's like it's like the alcohol episode, but different vibe.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:15

Yeah. I I feel like I hadn't thought about the whole episode, like world around it.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:24

You're like, name a song. I'm like, let me tell you the creative direction for a full episode. And I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:30

I feel like, if not college, because I I love the original six, like you said, that are right at the beginning of the pilot. But I do feel like there would be like more of like a coming out story for one of the girls. I like that. But I I don't know who. It could be a current character or a character that comes in later. I don't know if it's high school or college, but like Chapel Roan, they experienced their first like gay club. So maybe it is college.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:58

And Pink Pony Club is Oh my god, they would they would destroy Pink Pony Club, they would do such a good job. That's what I would want to hear. Okay, yeah, I like that. What is your favorite glee cover that does exist? Probably probably blame it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:15

But I also I love all the songs from that episode. It's hard to choose just one. Because they also cover Kesha.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:23

Yeah. Oh, they do, don't they?

SPEAKER_01 1:31:26

Yeah. But also River Deep, Mountain High, Nai Rivera can sing her throat out. What's another one that I just remember like listening on my iPod Nano. To the Glee version. To the Glee version. Downloaded from YouTube. I was listening to How Will I Know? Oh, okay. Whitney Houston, the Glee version.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:47

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:47

Mm-hmm. I think those are like my top ones.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:51

Did they do a full Whitney Houston episode? I think they did. I wanna dance with somebody and they switched. Uh-huh. I need I need a woman to take a chance. It was woman instead of man. Pretty sure, yeah. Listen, I know that one from my dance recital because one thing about my dance teacher is we were gonna be dancing to the Glee version.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:13

I mean, it was cleaner.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:14

If they did it on Glee, we were doing it in the studio. You knew your place. My I think all-time favorite cover is Mercedes singing Bust the Windows Out, Chica. That you I didn't know that song before Glee, and then I fell in love with that song, and I was like, I'm gonna be listening to this.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:32

Another queen that I feel like does not get the recognition she deserves, Jasmine Sullivan. My god.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:40

Which is crazy because, like, what life experience did I have at that age to resonate with that song?

SPEAKER_01 1:32:47

None. None. None. We had no reason to bust windows, slash tires, or write our name in leather seats. But we were mad at someone.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:58

We had feminine rage deep inside of us. Yeah. Just waiting to be unleashed and unlocked.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:05

And here we are, the year 2026. It's time.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:08

Speaking of time, we've been talking for a full two hours about Glee because we can't shut up. We can't stop yapping. We love this.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:15

We love this so much. I think it's time. It's time. It's time. I answered it at the top of the episode, because I have no shame. But will you be rewatching this?

SPEAKER_03 1:33:26

Yeah. I like true like literally, I'm like, okay, so I had to force the remote into my hand, and I had to I was like, turn it off. Don't keep going. Don't watch on episode two. We're only talking about the pilot. But like I it just the instinct when that um the theme song starts playing and the credits start to roll, and I I literally wanted to like press next episode. That's it for me. That is the answer to the question. Is like, of course I want to watch the rest.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:54

It feels like a drug. Yeah. Like, I don't know what they put in glee. And it just might be that. They put the glee in glee.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:04

They injected the glee into our veins. Yeah. At a time when we needed it. Listen, and I think we need it now again.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:11

Do we need it now? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:12

Do you think the story will resonate with generations to come?

SPEAKER_01 1:34:16

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:17

No. I let me not say no completely. I think there was a lot of representation within the show that was incorrectly portrayed.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:27

I think this show lives in a time where that was accepted and that's where it should stay. Mm-hmm. And the only people, if you ask me, who should be re-watching this for the first time is our generation. Mm-hmm. Because we've learned and know better. Right. Like I said, this show would not be made today. It would be canceled. I don't even think a pilot would make it. But I say that, and we have TV shows and movies today that push the envelope just a little farther to see what is palatable. What can we handle that we know is uncomfortable, problematic, and a little questionable, but we still watch it.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:07

Like there are still things like that being made. And there are things like that that will continue to be made. But I think there's a safety net around it still about how it's portrayed and who portrays those roles and those experiences.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:22

Yeah, I agree with you. I think there is a nostalgia for us, and that is why we go back to it. But if you're a young person now, like looking for representation, whether it's your skin color or your ability level, or you know, like your representation. You're a jock who wants to sing. Right. Like I I just feel like there's so many other pieces of media, there's so many other stories, so many other avenues that you can go to for that representation, and it's actually done so much better. You know, there's just there just are now that we've progressed as a society, there are better examples of that resp representation. 100%. So yeah, I think this is just for us.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:05

Yeah. I would not let like if I had nieces or nephews or children of the age that I was at that could watch Glee, I wouldn't let them watch Glee.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:15

Yeah, I'd be like, watch something else. Watch something else. We've done better at this point.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:20

Yeah. I might show them like the songs.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:24

I would show them the songs, I would show them the performances that went with the songs. Mm-hmm. But the message within the show and how to go about certain things, just find it somewhere else. Read a book.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:34

Yeah. Read a book. Read a book. If I had a kid, I'd say read a book. Yeah. Kids these days can't read. Anyway, let's let's talk about what our our season finale is.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:47

We rock. We rock! We rock! Next week I get to show you the picture.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:52

Oh my god! A spoiler! We're doing Camp Rock next week. We're gonna keep talking about kids that sing and dance. We can't stop. We can't get enough.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:04

Oh my gosh. That is hilarious. Wow. But yeah, we're talking about Camp Rock, so get those knees ready. The Diz knees are coming in hot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:15

Thanks for listening. We love you. Gleeks out.