American television series (2009–2015)
Glee (stylized as glee) is an American jukebox musical comedy-drama television series that aired on Fox in the United States from May 19, 2009, to March 20, 2015. It focuses on the New Directions, a glee club at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. The club competes as a show choir while its disparate members deal with social issues, regarding sexuality, gender, race, family, teen relationships and teamwork.
The initial twelve-member main cast included Matthew Morrison as teacher Will Schuester, Jane Lynch as scheming cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, Jayma Mays as guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury, Jessalyn Gilsig as Will's wife, Terri Schuester. Other main cast members played students, with Dianna Agron as Quinn Fabray, a popular cheerleader who experiences a teenage pregnancy; Chris Colfer as Kurt Hummel, an effeminate, openly gay boy; Kevin McHale as Artie Abrams, a boy with a physical disability; Lea Michele as Rachel Berry, an ambitious performer driven by her dreams of becoming a Broadway theatre star; Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson, the school's sometimes-slow-witted star quarterback; Amber Riley as Mercedes Jones, an aspiring vocal diva whose talents go unrecognized; Mark Salling as Noah Puckerman, a delinquent in need of direction; and Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina Cohen-Chang, a shy goth who longs to be popular. The main cast was altered throughout the series, including the addition of Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez, a sardonic and cynical cheerleader struggling with her sexuality, Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang, a soft-spoken dancer whose parents do not support his dreams, and Heather Morris as Brittany Pierce, a ditzy cheerleader.
The series was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan, the latter of whom first conceived of "Glee" as a film. The three wrote all of the show's episodes for the first two seasons, and Murphy and Falchuk initially served as the show's main directors. The pilot episode was broadcast on May 19, 2009, and the first season aired from September 9, 2009, to June 8, 2010. Subsequent seasons aired from September through May, while the sixth and final season aired from January to March 2015. "Glee" features on-screen, performance-based musical numbers selected by Murphy, who aimed to maintain a balance between show tunes and chart hits, and produced by Adam Anders and Peer Åström. Songs covered in the show were released through the iTunes Store during the week of broadcast, and a series of "Glee" albums have been released by Columbia Records. The music of "Glee" has been a commercial success, with over 36 million digital single sales and eleven million album sales worldwide through October 2011. The series' merchandise also includes DVD and Blu-ray releases, an iPad application, and karaoke games for the Wii home video game console. The cast embarked on live concert tours after filming the first and second seasons; a based on the 2011 tour, produced by Murphy and directed by Kevin Tancharoen, was given limited theatrical release in August 2011. 
"Glee" received generally favorable reviews from critics during its first season, while reception to the later five varied. It won six Primetime Emmy Awards (including acting wins for Lynch and guest stars Neil Patrick Harris and Gwyneth Paltrow, along with Murphy's direction of the pilot), four Golden Globe Awards (including two consecutive awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and acting wins for Lynch and Colfer), and the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, and received many other accolades. In 2011, Fox chose the show to fill the coveted time slot following the network's coverage of Super Bowl XLV.
In 2013, in the wake of Cory Monteith's death and after his tribute episode "The Quarterback" aired, Murphy announced that the sixth season would be the series' last. After 121 episodes and over 729 music performances, "Glee" concluded on March 20, 2015.
Series overview.
The series centers on a high school show choir, also known as a glee club, in the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) takes over the glee club after the former teacher Sandy Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky) is fired for inappropriate contact with a student. With a rag-tag group of misfit teenagers, Will attempts to restore the glee club to its former glory while tending to his developing feelings for his co-worker, guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays), as well as defending the glee club's existence from the conniving cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). A major focus of the series is the students in the glee club: their relationships as couples, their love of singing and desire for popularity coming into conflict due to their membership in the low-status club, and the many vicissitudes of life in high school and as a teenager.
The first season features the fictional high school show choir New Directions competing for the first time on the show choir circuit, winning at the Sectionals competition (episode 13) but losing at Regionals (season finale/episode 22), while its members and faculty deal with sex, relationships, homosexuality, teenage pregnancy, disabilities, acceptance and other social issues. The central characters are glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), Will's wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig), guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays), and glee club members Rachel (Lea Michele), Finn (Cory Monteith), Artie (Kevin McHale), Kurt (Chris Colfer), Mercedes (Amber Riley), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Puck (Mark Salling), and Quinn (Dianna Agron).
The second season follows the club through wins at the Sectionals (episode 9) and Regionals (episode 16) competitions before losing at the Nationals competition in New York City (season finale/episode 22), while its members and faculty deal with relationships, religion, homophobia, bullying, rumors, teenage drinking, death and other social issues. The season's stories revolve around the same Glee club members as first season, with Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) and Brittany S. Pierce (Heather Morris) added to the main cast, along with Kurt's father Burt (Mike O'Malley).
The third season follows the club through wins at Sectionals (episode 8) and Regionals competitions (episode 14), before they win the Nationals competition (episode 21) in Chicago. The characters deal with gender identity, adoption, domestic abuse, teenage suicide, bullying, disabilities, texting while driving, college and other social issues. Glee club members added to the main cast were Mike Chang (Harry Shum Jr.) and transfer student Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss), while Jessalyn Gilsig as Terri Schuester was written out of the series and Mike O'Malley as Burt returned to recurring status. The McKinley High class of 2012 graduates at the end of the season.
The fourth season continues in Lima with a new generation of students but also follows some of the McKinley graduates from the third season, notably to the fictional New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts (NYADA) in New York City. The season follows the club through a loss at the Sectionals competition (episode 9) and subsequent reinstatement when the winning Dalton Academy Warblers were found to have used banned substances (human growth hormone) (episode 12) before winning at the Regionals competition (episode 22), which meant they would be attending their third consecutive National show choir competition. In the meantime, Rachel Berry and Kurt Hummel navigate NYADA and their lives as aspiring performers, plus their relationships with Finn and Blaine. Issues during the season include sex, bulimia, gender identity, child molestation, dyslexia, school violence, and pregnancy scares. Former main cast members Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) and Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) were credited as guest stars, while previously recurring glee club member Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) was promoted to the main cast.
The fifth season, unlike previous seasons, continues the school year begun in the previous season. The season shows the reigning champion glee club finishing second at Nationals competition (episode 11) before the club is permanently disbanded by Sue Sylvester, now school principal, for budgetary reasons (episode 12), leaving the focus on graduation. The show then jumps several months forward in time and deals entirely with the alumni's lives in New York City for the remainder of the season, including Rachel's successful Broadway debut. Throughout this season, the club and its alumni deal with relationships, death and mourning, body image, gay bashing, intimacy, and other social issues. Several main cast members dropped to recurring guest stars as of this season: Amber Riley as Mercedes, Mark Salling as Puck, Harry Shum Jr. as Mike and Heather Morris as Brittany. New main cast members included glee club members introduced in the fourth season: Melissa Benoist as Marley Rose, a kind teenager who develops an eating disorder; Alex Newell as Unique Adams, a shy, nerdy teenager who becomes more bold and glamorous after coming out as transgender; Blake Jenner as Ryder Lynn, a dyslexic teen; Jacob Artist as Jake Puckerman, a biracial teen struggling with anger issues; and Becca Tobin as Kitty Wilde, a Christian mean girl. Actor Cory Monteith died during summer before the fifth season was shot; his character, Finn Hudson, died off-screen in the season's third episode, "The Quarterback".
The sixth and final season focuses on Rachel Berry, who returns to McKinley after her television pilot fails. She decides to reconstitute the glee club with all-new McKinley students and with Kurt's help. Will Schuester is now coaching rival club Vocal Adrenaline, while Blaine is coaching the Dalton Academy Warblers. All of the new main cast members from the fifth season have returned to guest star status in this final season when they appear, as well as Naya Rivera as Santana and Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina; Amber Riley as Mercedes rejoins the main cast, and Dot-Marie Jones as Coach Beiste joins the main cast for the first time. The cast members deal with gay marriage, gender identity, transitioning and other social issues. The newly reconstituted club wins the Nationals competition, Sue is fired as principal and Will is hired to be the principal of a McKinley High repurposed as a magnet arts school, with Sam as the new director of New Directions. The finale jumps five years into the future: Rachel has married Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff), wins a Tony Award, and is a surrogate mother for Kurt and Blaine (who are themselves Broadway stars). Artie has directed Tina in a film, Mercedes is a highly successful recording artist, and Sue has just been re-elected Vice President of the United States. The McKinley auditorium is renamed after Finn.
Cast and characters.
In casting "Glee", Murphy sought out actors who could identify with the rush of starring in theatrical roles. Instead of using traditional network casting calls, he spent three months on Broadway, where he found Matthew Morrison, who had previously starred on stage in "Hairspray" and "The Light in the Piazza"; Lea Michele, who starred in "Spring Awakening"; and Jenna Ushkowitz, who had been in the Broadway revival of "The King and I".
During their auditions, actors without any theatrical experience needed to demonstrate that they could also sing and dance. Chris Colfer had no previous professional experience, but Murphy wrote in the character Kurt Hummel for him. Jayma Mays auditioned with the song "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" from "The Rocky Horror Show", while Cory Monteith initially submitted a tape of himself acting only, and was requested to submit a second, musical tape, in which he sang "a cheesy, '80s music-video-style version" of REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling". Kevin McHale came from a boy-band background, having previously been part of the group Not Like Them. He explained that the diversity of the cast's backgrounds reflects the range of different musical styles within the show itself: "It's a mix of everything: classic rock, current stuff, R&amp;B. Even the musical theatre stuff is switched up. You won't always recognize it." Jane Lynch was originally supposed to have a recurring role as Sue Sylvester, but was made a series regular when a Damon Wayans pilot she was working on for ABC fell through. The cast is contracted for a potential three "Glee" films, with their contract stating that "[The actor] hereby grants Fox three exclusive, irrevocable options to engage [the actor] in up to, respectively, three feature-length motion pictures." Murphy said in December 2010 that he wasn't interested in doing a "Glee" movie "as a story", and added, "I might do it as a live concert thing." "", filmed during the 2011 Glee Live! In Concert! tour,