Ay mamá

"Ay mamá" (; American English: "Oh, mom", British English: "Oh, mum") is a song by Spanish music act Rigoberta Bandini. The song was independently released on 23 December 2021 and was a candidate to represent Spain in the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, taking part in its preselection, Benidorm Fest. Among the favourites to win, "Ay mamá" placed as the runner-up behind "SloMo" by Chanel. The song was included on Bandini's first studio album, La Emperatriz, released later in 2022.

It has performed well on the Spanish charts and music streaming services, reaching number one and winning three Song of the Year awards, and entered Spanish pop culture both as a feminist anthem and as a viral phenomenon due to its unusual staging at Benidorm Fest.

## Production and composition

Paula Ribó González began performing as singer-songwriter Rigoberta Bandini in 2020 after having been in several girl groups in the 2010s. Ribó performs as Rigoberta Bandini with her band composed of her partner, Esteban Navarro, and younger cousins, Juan Barenys and Memé (Belén Barenys). On "Ay mamá", Ribó and Memé provide vocals, Navarro is the keyboardist, and Barenys is their percussionist. Bandini became one of the most popular singers in Spain over the COVID-19 pandemic, with 2021 song "Perra" becoming a "feminist anthem" for its theme of vindicating femininity and for the wordplay of its title, "perra". Ribó has said that she does not only write songs about women but that femininity is a large inspiration on her work. Wiwibloggs noted that "Ay mamá" has choral verses build into an electropop chorus, which they had previously described as Bandini's particular style and something that is "anything but safe and lame" even within the context of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). During composition of the song, the band experimented with different synthesizer sounds, and the line was originally being recorded with a vocoder.

Ribó wrote "Ay mamá" as a tribute to her own mother, around ten years before releasing it, when she was 23; after becoming a mother herself she decided to put the song out. She composed it on the piano and began developing it for submission to Benidorm Fest, Spain's ESC preselection, eight years after originally writing it; she felt there was something special in the song and decided to develop it for the contest, adding that she "liked the demo, but [was not] in love with it" and "would withdraw if by the deadline [she] wasn't convinced about it" – she said she did love the final version. One of the more significant things she changed was the opening line. In the final version it is , while originally it had been ; Ribó changed this knowing that such explicit a lyric would not be accepted for the ESC and for wanting to make a song that could resonate with everyone from childhood to old age, later saying that she felt Spain was still a country that generally balked even at the word "tit".

According to Ribó, the song is a "feminist scream" created to "pay tribute to mothers and all women" as well as "transcending maternity", as not all women become mothers, to speak to the inherent power and unity in being a woman. With its theme of feminism, the song also denounces censorship of women's breasts and celebrates motherhood; in an interview with Spanish broadcaster RTVE, Ribó said that as well as the song criticising constant public opinions of women's bodies there is humour in the lyrics, that "[she] really [likes] writing and for [her] the lyrics are important. In this case, in addition to talking about the strength of femininity, in this case of mothers, it is a song that amuses [her]".

The lyrics of the song include , referring to French artist Eugène Delacroix, who painted many nude and topless women, and specifically his artwork Liberty Leading the People. The painting depicts Liberty personified as a woman with her breasts out leading liberated people over the bodies of soldiers; the lyrics of "Ay mamá" invoke the same personification, calling for a "breast revolution". Delacroix's painting had also been censored on Facebook in 2018 for depicting female nipples. Originally, the name Delacroix was not in the lyrics, with the song having a different pre-chorus. Interviewed in 2021, Ribó said that the image of Liberty in Delacroix's painting still moves her.

## Reception and impact

The Heraldo de Aragón wrote in May 2022 that the song had become "one of the feminist anthems of Spain" and praised its ability to get people both dancing and thinking. In the same month, Cosmopolitan wrote that it had found more success than most songs that do represent Spain at the ESC ever achieve.

The song was chosen for the soundtrack of the Telecinco docuseries Montealto: Regreso a la casa [es] – about Rocío Carrasco visiting the mansion of her late mother, Rocío Jurado – in January 2022. It was also used across Telecinco and other Mediaset España media from its release in 2021, including in news features produced about censorship of female nipples.

"Ay mamá", and Bandini's other music, received a boost in popularity following the Benidorm Fest appearance: in the week after Benidorm Fest, Bandini entered the global top 200 artists by streaming and downloads across major platforms at \#179; "Ay mamá" was streamed over 8 million times on Spotify; and Bandini had the top two most-watched music videos and became the most-watched music artist on YouTube Spain, the first woman and third Spanish musician to achieve this. By May 2022, "Ay mamá" had been streamed over 22 million times on Spotify.

Various politicians – including government ministers – expressed their support for the song, while some conservative politicians, including the leaders of the center-right People's Party and far-right Vox, attacked the song. On 8 March 2022, during the International Women's Day marches and protests in Spain, the song was played at many of the demonstrations. The song has been politicised by different people and parties in Spain: Irene Montero, Minister of Equality, used references to the song and its lyrics to support her campaign to introduce more feminist laws for democratic equality; Congresswoman Macarena Olona has turned around the lyrics of the song in order to criticise Montero's campaign; and writer Maria de la Pau Janer published an opinion piece that used the song's title and its lyrics about menstruation to support her argument that while menstruation should be discussed and celebrated more, Spain's 2022 menstrual leave bill would result in women being passed over for jobs.

Describing 2022 as "the year of the boob" in August 2022, El Mundo wrote that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had threatened to pull Spain out of the ESC if broadcasters censored Ribó performing topless, should that have happened, with his cabinet supporting the idea of Ribó performing topless at Benidorm Fest.

Catalan parody sketch show Polònia performed a parody of the song in February 2022. Titled "Ay papá", it was performed by Pep Plaza imitating Felipe VI, the King of Spain, as he humorously criticises his father, Juan Carlos I, and the scandals that have landed Juan Carlos in the news in the years following his abdication and relocation to the Middle East. It also featured an imitator as Alaska, a Benidorm Fest presenter, giving frank commentary about the voting system following criticisms of Benidorm Fest's votes. Spanish music comedy duo Los Morancos recorded a parody called "Ay Omá" lampooning the state of health services in Spain, particularly for older women. The viral Benidorm Fest performance of "Ay mamá" was recreated by Susi Caramelo [es] on Tu cara me suena during the week of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

## Accolades

## Chart performance

It reached number one on the Spanish charts on 28 January 2022, becoming the first song that failed to represent Spain at the ESC to top the country's chart since "Lo Malo" by Aitana and Ana Guerra in 2018. The song received a platinum certification by PROMUSICAE on 1 March. After debuting in the top 100 in December 2021, it spent 36 continuous weeks on the chart, leaving in the first week of September 2022. It re-entered the top 100 in the second week of October 2022 upon the release of the album La Emperatriz, on which it features.

## Cover art

The single's cover art depicts the tarot card of The Empress from the Major Arcana of the Tarot of Marseilles cards. Ribó explained that the card is a symbol of freedom and feminine power, and a card she has felt a connection to.

## Music video

The music video for "Ay mamá" was released on 1 May 2022, coinciding with the celebration of Mother's Day in Spain. Developing the music video began as soon as the group returned from Benidorm Fest; the ideas were very ambitious in terms of production so creating the video would take some time. Ribó felt that taking the time to create a more impressive video was worthwhile, as the song was sustaining its popularity on its own. They did not initially plan to release the music video on Mother's Day but after being in post-production for a month the timing coincided to do so. It was directed by Salvador Sunyer, whom Ribó chose to work with because she knew he could find the right balance of "humour, poetry, beauty and femininity". Sunyer had "carte blanche in artistic terms" control over the video. By the time of the music video's release, the video of the song's performance in the grand final of Benidorm Fest had over 7.5 million views on YouTube. At the premiere of the music video, Ribó said that "it's not a great story, but there are very beautiful images", and that it is funny, which she liked.

It depicts Ribó trying to compose a song without disturbing her young child. While doing so, she notices a photo of her mother and imagines herself embodying all women from prehistory to the far future when women have four arms and fly. In this future, a spaceship shaped like a sphinx with Mark Zuckerberg's head, with a Meta logo on its forehead, approaches a pink planet with a prominent volcano, which looks like a spherical breast and its nipple. The nipple then shoots a laser beam and explodes the Zuckerberg ship. At the end of the video, Ribó's son wakes in the music studio, and she rushes to comfort him.

According to costume designer Pau Aulí, who had three weeks to conceptualise the costumes before shooting, the different eras of women's history in the video are marked by different outfits as well as the settings, with each outfit also being symbolic of an aspect of feminism in some way: in prehistory, Ribó and the dancers are naked and covered in mud to indicate freedom; in recent history, Ribó wears a corset and hoop skirt with a powdered face, showing oppressive women's fashion; and in the far future, the women are metallic to show resilience. Some of the costume choices represent the hymen and vulva.

Other allusions to women's history in the video include some of the images surrounding Ribó before she sees the photo of her mother – including a Tarot of Marseilles Empress card, an image of the Hindu goddess Durga, and an image of Rembrandt's painting Bathsheba with King David's Letter – and a gallery of depictions of breasts, motherhood, and femininity through art history in a creative sequence set in the dome of the Pantheon. The Delacroix painting mentioned in the lyrics, Liberty Leading the People, also appears in the music video, with Ribó's head superimposed on Liberty. The inclusion of the Zuckerberg ship, which also resembles the Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars, being destroyed by a giant breast is a condemnation of his company's social networks censoring female nipples.

Seven Free the Nipple campaigners were hired to appear in the music video, topless, showing different appearances of breasts. None of the footage of "real breasts" was included in the final video and the only breasts shown in the video not as part of artworks were those of Ribó and the dancers covered in mud as prehistoric women. Sunyer, who had artistic control of the final cut, said that there was no censorship intended in removing the footage and that he made the decision to cut it for artistic reasons only, saying that the footage did not work with the rest of the video. Another nipple freedom group, Femen, had been approached to participate but did not do so, with the group blaming the video production team; Sunyer says that they had been asked because some of the video ideas resembled Femen's protests, and he did not want to be seen as plagiarising, but he ultimately decided not to involve Femen as the group wanted artistic control of their appearance in it. The Free the Nipple activists were told before the music video was released that they had been cut, and they were still credited. Sunyer also suggested that some of the cut footage, which includes a natural birth, may be used in a music video for "Ay mamá (Génesis)". After the video was released, one of the activists used social media to express her disappointment in the creative direction of the video, which she said they all felt had potential to carry a more powerful message, as well as the fact the decisions were made by men, noting that their complaints were not directed at Bandini.

## Live performances

The first live performance of the song was in Logroño at the Riojaforum concert in January 2022, during which Ribó and Memé performed topless during parts of the song. They repeated this at other concerts following Benidorm Fest. At Festival Ítaca in L'Estartit in June 2022, the group was joined by a giant puppet with a breast exposed, also called Rigoberta, from Geganters de la Bisbal d'Empordà, which was dancing in the audience. This also served as part of the giant Rigoberta's 40th anniversary celebrations in the area.

### Benidorm Fest

As Bandini's popularity grew in 2021, Wiwibloggs wrote that she was "one of the hottest names in Spain's music industry" and said she would be the dream artist to represent them at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest; interviewed by EFE, Ribó said she would consider taking part but may wait for a future edition. In December 2021, "Ay mamá" was among the fourteen candidates selected by RTVE to participate in Benidorm Fest in January 2022 for a chance to represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, with the broadcaster saying after the Benidorm Fest semi-finals that the performance had everything needed to succeed at the ESC. Shortly before Benidorm Fest, "Ay mamá" entered Spotify's global top 50 viral songs.

It placed first in its semi-final, receiving the top votes from both the jury and the public and receiving the most combined points across both semi-finals with 111 (one point ahead of Chanel and her song "SloMo" with 110), though Ribó had performed with sinusitis. It then competed in the grand final, with its staging "not leaving anyone indifferent"; the performance featured, towards the end of the song, a large spherical breast. Prior to Benidorm Fest, Ribó wrote on Twitter that "the boob will be so big that we won't fit on stage". The giant boob was created by Marina Salazar. Ribó was dressed initially in an outfit reminiscent of a wedding dress with sunglasses before removing these and the veil and, later, stripping down to a nude suit; she had asked the costume designer for outfits with impact, that "go from chastity to animality", and said in other circumstances she would have stripped completely at the end. The sunglasses were a suggestion from Juan Barenys, with Ribó saying it was a detail that took some of the pressure off by adding some lightness to the early staging. RTVE described the staging as "fresh, innocent, and full of symbolism". Ribó also had issues when performing in the grand final, as her in-ear piece stopped working partway through the song. Two additional dancers, María Isabel (Mabel) Olea and Marta Ros, joined the four performers at the competition; among other dancers, both also appeared in the music video. La Vanguardia said that the combination of the song's powerful lyrics and the staging in the grand final made it go viral.

In the grand final, the Galician-language song "Terra" by Tanxugueiras won the public and demoscopic (panel representative of the Spanish demographics) votes, the former by a landslide, with "Ay mamá" and "SloMo" filling out the top three in both; "Terra" performed poorly in the jury vote, however, which was instead dominated by the other two songs. Ultimately, "Ay mamá" placed second overall, ahead of "Terra" in third and behind winner "SloMo", which then came third at the ESC.

Ribó congratulated Chanel after she won, even as the obscure televoting system of the national selection and Chanel's win over Bandini and Tanxugueiras drew criticism in the media and saw four government ministers make official requests for RTVE to release full details of the votes. Both Bandini and Tanxugueiras asked fans to accept the result; Ribó said she knew ESC fans would have preferred her or Tanxugueiras to win but that she felt uncomfortable that the crowds in Benidorm were chanting for her when Chanel was announced the winner. She later told HuffPost that she realised she was not destined to win the competition, adding: "going to Eurovision would be super fun, but I prefer that my song has become a part of society". In April 2022, "Ay mamá" was voted the best non-winning song from a national final by ESC fan website escgo! annual SongHunt contest. It was also chosen to represent Spain in the 2022 OGAE Second Chance Contest, in which it came third.

## Credits and personnel

### Song

- Paula Ribó González – writer, lead vocals, music publisher
- Esteban Navarro Dordal – writer, background vocals, keyboardist, producer, composition
- Belén Barenys González – lead and background vocals
- Juan Barenys González – background vocals, percussionist
- Stefano Maccarrone – producer, composition

### Video

- Salvador Sunyer – director, original idea
- Josep Prat Sorolla – original idea, creative director
- Paula Ribó González – original idea
- Pepe Gay de Liébana – cinematography
- Martí Blanché – editor
- Susana Ripa – producer
- Mañana – production company
- Limp – post-production
- Dolby Atmos – sound

Credits and personnel adapted from music video and single video.

## Charts and certifications

## Other versions

On 27 April 2022, Bandini released "Ay mamá (Génesis)", the version of the song that was originally submitted to Benidorm Fest. Ribó decided to release this version because it "really is nothing like ["Ay mamá"]. They have many parts in common but it's another song with its own identity, so [the band] were excited. It was more than anything the desire to share that kind of draft notebook." The Génesis version includes many more lyrics than the original single.

Bilbao-based musicians Krusak and Xabier Iriarte collaborated to record a Basque cover of the song in April 2022, "Ene ama", which also became popular. In a viral video on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, Spanish singer Mario Jefferson performed the song while imitating famous Latin music artists' voices, propelling him to fame as one of Spain's new generation of imitators.

On 13 May 2022, the song was performed by contestant Scorpio on the Catalan singing competition show Eufòria, with a mural projection of images of women breastfeeding shown behind.

Ribó is an ambassador for the Levi's Music Project; between March and May 2022, they ran a competition for fans and music producers to download the song elements of "Ay mamá" and remix the song. The Levi's Music Project collaborations intend to inspire creativity, and after the remixes were submitted Ribó chose her favourites and held a live feedback session with the creators on Discord.

A cover version by Azúcar Moreno was released in April 2023; the group had represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 and also competed in Benidorm Fest 2022.

## See also

- List of number-one singles of 2022 (Spain)

2021 song by Rigoberta Bandini


Ugg boots trademark dispute

Ugg boots trademark disputes are the disputes between some footwear manufacturers, as to whether "ugg" is a protected trademark, or a generic term and thus ineligible for trademark protection. In Australia and New Zealand, where "Ugg" is a generic term for the style of footwear, 702 registered trademarks include the term "Ugg" in various logos and designs. By contrast, UGG is a registered trademark of the California-based company Deckers Outdoor Corporation in over 130 countries worldwide, including the U.S., the European Union, and China.

Ugg boots (sometimes called uggs) in Australia and New Zealand are a unisex style of sheepskin boot. In many other countries, however, UGG boots are a brand of footwear owned by Deckers, and in Turkey is recognised as a well-known brand. The boots are made of twin-faced sheepskin with fleece on the inside and with a tanned outer surface, often with a synthetic sole. The boots originated in Australia and New Zealand, initially as utilitarian footwear worn for warmth and comfort. UGG boots emerged as a fashion trend in the United States in the late 1990s and as a world-wide trend in the late 2000s.

## Trademark law in the United States

The Lanham Act is the primary statute governing federal trademark law in the United States; however, as it only applies to "commerce which may lawfully be regulated by Congress", it does not address terms that are used in foreign countries. The doctrine of foreign equivalents guideline serves this purpose.

Under the doctrine of "foreign equivalents", a foreign language term used in a foreign country that is considered generic in that country cannot be imported into the United States and used as a trademark. In applying the doctrine, the courts consistently refer to two policy rationales. The first rationale, "the doctrine serves the interests of domestic competition":

> "Because of the diversity of the population of the United States, coupled with temporary visitors, all of whom are part of the United States marketplace, commerce in the United States utilizes innumerable foreign languages. No merchant may obtain the exclusive right over a trademark registration if that exclusivity would prevent competitors from designating a product as what it is in the language their customers know best." — Otokoyama Co. Ltd. Vs Wine of Japan Import Inc.

The second rationale, "the doctrine serves the interests of international comity":

> "Because United States companies would be hamstrung in international trade if foreign countries granted trademark protection to generic English words, the United States reciprocates and refuses trademark protection to generic foreign words." — Enrique Bernat F., S.A. v. Guadalajara, Inc.

However, the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure ("TMEP") states that the test for applying the doctrine of foreign equivalents is "whether, to those American buyers familiar with the foreign language, the word would denote its English equivalent". Thus the doctrine is generally interpreted by courts as not applying if the generic word is not a word from a foreign language, but one from an English-speaking foreign country.

Court cases have noted that the generic status accorded to English-language words in foreign countries has no bearing on the registration of marks in the United States. The genericity argument was invoked for Ugg boots and was rejected by a U.S. district court which cited the following cases in support. In Anheuser-Busch, Inc. v. Stroh Brewery Co., the court rejected as irrelevant the generic usage of the phrase "L.A. beer" in Australia for low-alcohol beer. The court ruled that "a term may be generic in one country and suggestive in another" and that genericity in Australia was irrelevant. In Carcione v. The Greengrocer, Inc., the court rejected as irrelevant the generic use of the term "Greengrocer" in most English speaking countries for a retailer of fruit. The court rejected the argument on the grounds that it is irrelevant how a term is used outside the United States: "The parties agree that the term is generic in Britain. Since we deal here with American trademark law, and thus American consumers, neither British usage nor the dictionary definition indicating such usage are determinative." In another case, the court stated that while a term may be generic in another country, if "it is not so recognized in this country [the U.S.]... the mark must still be regarded as arbitrary and fanciful in the United States." and thus remains eligible for registration as a trademark in the United States.

As the doctrine is a guideline rather than a rule, it has been criticized with commentators noting that United States courts are often contradictory and inconsistent in their application of the doctrine, and that it provides little guidance to owners when choosing their marks or to courts when assessing protectability or likelihood of mark confusion. It has been suggested by the International Trademark Association that the doctrine be abolished and replaced with one that applies equally to all foreign words, regardless of whether they are from a foreign language or an English language, and that they take into account that country's trademark laws. Under the proposed changes, "Terms that are generic are never protectible as trademarks and are never registerable".

## Trademark disputes

The UGG trademark has been the subject of dispute in several countries. The trademark for "Ugh-Boots" has been removed from the trademark registry in Australia for non-use. Outside Australia and New Zealand, "UGG", in capital letters, is a registered trademark of Deckers Outdoor Corporation.

In 1971, an Australian surfer, Shane Steadman, registered the name "UGH-BOOTS" as a trademark in Australia and began selling sheepskin boots under that name. In 1982 he registered the name "UGH" and a logo containing a stylised Sun with the words "UGG AUSTRALIA". In 1979, Brian Smith, another Australian surfer, applied to be the United States distributor for Country Leather, a Western Australian manufacturer of ugg boots, and began selling their Australian-made boots in New York and to surfers in California. In 1987 he set up Ugg Holdings Inc. and in 1995 purchased the trademarks from Steadman. In 1996 he sold his interest to Deckers and in 1999 Deckers registered the trademarks for "UGG" in the US and 25 foreign countries. Deckers began asserting its new trademark and sent out cease and desist letters to Australian manufacturers who were using the name ugg for their boots but otherwise took little action. In the early 2000s, demand for ugg boots was soaring, partly as a result of US\$8 million spent on marketing by Deckers, but also due to several celebrity endorsements.

For the nine months to September 2004, UGG boots sales totaled \$39.2 million, an increase of 180% over the previous year. Plans were also in place to expand the UGG brand to cover hats, scarves and gloves. With the continuing rise in popularity, Deckers now began a serious effort to halt the use of the name "ugg" by other manufacturers. Deckers' law firm, Middletons of Melbourne, sent cease and desist letters to a number of Australian and American manufacturers who were selling uggs over the Internet, preventing them from selling uggs on eBay or from using the word in their domain names or registered business names.

The manufacture of ugg boots in Australia was primarily a cottage industry. Individually lacking the resources to fight Deckers, 20 Australian manufacturers formed the Australian Sheepskin Association to fight the corporation's claim, arguing that "ugg" is a generic term referring to flat-heeled, pull-on sheepskin boots. They further argued that Australian manufacturers had been making and trading this style of boot for decades, including exporting them to the US. One of these manufacturers, Perth's Uggs-N-Rugs, who had been manufacturing uggs since 1978 and selling them online since 1996, appealed to Australian trademark regulators, IP Australia. The officer who heard the case stated that the "evidence overwhelmingly supports the proposition that the terms (ugg, ugh and ug boots) are interchangeably used to describe a specific style of sheepskin boot and are the first and most natural way in which to describe these goods." In 2006 Uggs-N-Rugs won the right to use the term UGG BOOT/S and variations such as UGH BOOT/S. The case was the subject of a 2006 television documentary, The Good, The Bad and The Ugg Boot. Counsel for Uggs-N-Rugs was David Stewart instructed by Wrays: Counsel for Deckers was Christian Dimitriadis instructed by Ashurst.

Deckers retained the rights to their UGG logo as trade mark protection only applies for the way the mark appears in its entirety and not for the words it contains. The name Ugg/UGG was determined to be generic after the Registrar of Trade Marks found that registration did not confer "rights in the generic term, or terms, from which it is derived" and that the identity of the various trade marks "derive from the hyphenated nature of the expression." Therefore, UGH boots, UG boots and UGG boots ("or other variations") without hyphens are all generic terms in Australia. IP Australia also ruled that the trademark "UGH-boots" (with hyphen) should be removed from the trademark register for non-use as Deckers had only been using the UGG logo, not the UGH marks. Deckers initially declined to pay Uggs-N-Rugs court costs as required by the 2006 ruling. Following the publication of a Wall Street Journal article which referred to the oversight, Deckers paid the costs in September 2010. The ruling only applies in Australia and Deckers still owns the trademarks in other jurisdictions such as the US, China, Japan and the European Union.

In 1998, Deckers demanded that the American company Koolaburra cease infringing the UGG trademark. Koolaburra replied that they did not use the name "UGG" or "UGH" and that the only mark they used was "Ug". Deckers sent a further "cease and desist" letter in 2001 and another in 2003 but Koolaburra declined to stop using the name "Ug" and in 2004, Deckers filed a case against Koolaburra in the California federal court alleging (1) trademark infringement, (2) false designation of origin (Koolaburra labelled their boots "Australian Ug Boots"), (3) trademark dilution, (4) cybersquatting, (5) unfair competition, (6) trade disparagement, (7) unjust enrichment and (8) breach of contract (Deckers claimed that in 1998 Koolaburra had agreed to stop using the name Ug). Koolaburra in turn challenged that the name UGG was generic and not entitled to trademark protection. As the UGG mark was registered, Deckers was entitled to the assumption that it was not generic, thus the burden of proof rested with Koolaburra.

In support, Koolaburra provided the testimony of America's National Surfing Team coach Peter Townend and Nordstrom's footwear buyer Heather Kolkey. These declarations were accepted by the court as anecdotal. Additionally, Koolaburra provided three instances of the generic usage of Ugg in American magazines; however, the court pointed out that the most recent was dated 1980. Koolaburra also quoted the New York City published Oxford English Dictionary definition of "Ugg"; however, this was rejected after Deckers petitioned the Dictionary to change the definition of "Ugg" from "a kind of soft sheepskin boot" to a definition that included UGG's trademark, which the OED agreed to do. Koolaburra then argued that the UGG trademark was invalid as Brian Smith had fraudulently registered the name by giving false representations that the term was not generic, arguing that "as an Australian citizen, Smith knew of the fact that the term Ugg was a generic term". This was rejected by the court as fraud requires an applicant to "knowingly" make the false representations, ruling that such belief was subjective, and finding that even if Smith knew the term was generic in Australia, he may have "honestly held [a] good faith belief" that it was not generic in the United States.

Deckers countered through submitting declarations from four professionals in the footwear industry who stated that "UGG" is widely recognized in the industry as a brand name, not a generic term and provided the court with survey evidence supporting that consumers in the US consider UGG to be a brand name; among women aged 18 to 45 who had purchased footwear valued over \$100 in the last 12 months, 58% believed UGG was a brand name while only 11% thought it generic. Koolaburra then argued that the term was generic under the doctrine of "foreign equivalents" (Under U.S. law, a term used in another country that is considered generic in that country cannot be imported into the United States and used as a trademark). This was rejected as the doctrine only applied to terms in a foreign language. In February 2005, the court ruled for Deckers on their claims of "trademark infringement" and "unfair competition", finding that a consumer would likely be confused with the similarity in "appearance, sight and sound" between "Ug" and UGG" as the parties were marketing in direct competition with identical products. However, the court declined to rule on the validity of trademarks in Australia as it was considered inappropriate to interfere with another country's rulings.

The Australian Sheepskin Association is attempting to change the name UGG into a regional mark similar to that achieved for Champagne which would negate its trademark status in many jurisdictions. Deckers in response has focused on the fact that its UGG boots are made in China and not Australia. In 2012, sales of Deckers UGG boots totaled over US\$630 million while the UGG brand, which now includes hats, scarves, gloves, slippers, casuals, jackets, coats, and handbags totaled over US\$1 billion with 30% of sales outside of the United States.

### Trademark infringement cases

- During a trademark infringement and trade dress case in 2008, a generic term defense was rejected by a Dutch court as not being applicable to counterfeit goods. The court also rejected La Cheapa's claim that as Australian companies believe "ugg" was a generic name, the "UGG AUSTRALIA" mark was not protected in the Benelux, noting that La Cheapa also admitted knowing that UGG in the Benelux is a famous brand which undermined their argument that UGG was generic. La Cheapa distributed sheepskin boots it had purchased from a supplier in China on an Internet site from the Netherlands, describing them on its website as "100% authentic Ugg Australian boots!!!", with "UGG logo on the heel" and in boxes virtually identical to Deckers packaging. These were found by the court to be counterfeits. The Deckers case had also included La Cheapa's sale of imported boots manufactured by Jumbo Ugg Boots Binder Production Pty Ltd in Melbourne, Australia branded Jumbo Uggs. The court stated that "given the exact similarity of the goods (namely: boots)" and the fact that the word "ugg" was part of the brand, and the undisputed fact that the "UGG brand" was popular in the Benelux, it found that the importation and distribution of sheepskin boots which contained the word "ugg" in its label took an "unfair advantage of, or is detrimental to, the distinctive character of the brand UGG" and was thus an infringement of the Deckers trademark.
- On December 25, 2010, Deckers filed a trademark infringement suit in a bid to stop Emu Australia from using the UGG name on its sales website. On December 30 Emu Australia counter-sued for the cancellation of Deckers' UGG trademark in the US. Emu's suit alleged that Deckers' trademark was obtained after a false statement to the US Patent and Trademark Office and was therefore invalid. On 25 August 2011, the case was dismissed with prejudice by stipulation of the parties but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
- In 2010, the validity of the UGG trademark was challenged in a Turkish court by a local manufacturer after his application to register a trademark containing the words UGGBOOTS and AUSTRALIA was rejected. Judge Verda Çiçekli ruled for Deckers, finding that UGG was not a generic term and did not have any descriptive nature in the Turkish language, except to refer to Deckers products. The court further ruled that UGG was a well-known trademark that has gained recognition and distinctiveness worldwide, and while acknowledging the challenger's allegations that UGG was a generic term in Australia, ruled that such alleged facts have no bearing on the validity of the trademark within Turkey. Deckers was also awarded costs in the action.
- In 2010, IP Australia ruled on the trademark opposition dispute between Deckers and Luda Production Pty Ltd, granting Luda the right to register the trademarks UGG AUSTRALIA (& Design) and MADE BY UGG AUSTRALIA with costs awarded against Deckers. Luda declared that the "element ugg" was used generically in the sheepskin boot market but that its use had not caused any confusion with Luda's UGG AUSTRALIA products. Luda began manufacturing ugg boots in 1981 and in 1982 began selling its boots with woven heel counters featuring the UGG AUSTRALIA mark. In 1984, the company was incorporated at which time Luda had attempted to trademark its UGG AUSTRALIA logo but was asked by the Trade Mark Office not to proceed as the name was "descriptive" and was therefore not registerable. In 2004, Luda filed another trademark application after becoming aware of "other products being sold bearing variations of the element UGG" in conjunction with the word "Australia." Deckers opposed the application on three grounds, prior use (Deckers argued that the prior use shown by Luda was invalid as the mark they sought to register was not "an exact copy" of the mark they used), that Deckers had a more significant reputation in Australia and that Luda had filed the application in bad faith. The court found that Deckers did not have a significant reputation in an Australian market which was dominated by Luda Productions, and thus failed the requirements of the Trade Practices Act, regarding public misapprehension of the origin of the manufacturer. The court noted that Luda's use of the term "UGG AUSTRALIA" predated Deckers' infringement defense by 22 years, which negated Deckers' claim that Luda was trading upon their reputation and that Luda had not filed in bad faith, but in order to gain statutory protection for trade marks already recognized in Australia. Regarding a non-use action between Deckers and Luda Production Pty, IP Australia confirmed that Deckers owned the trademark of their UGG AUSTRALIA label (with sun-like device); however, the scope of Deckers' trademark was narrowed, restricted to just footwear.
- In 2011, Deckers filed suit against the Chinese company Dangdang for allegedly selling counterfeit Uggs at the Jingdong Mall and on Taobao, a Chinese language website similar to eBay and Amazon. Known as "snow boots" in China, Dangdang had been selling Australian made boots labeled Merino World UGG. In defense, a spokesperson from Jingdong Mall argued that the boots were a different brand to Deckers with the letters in the word "UGG" designed differently. In support, he cited Baidu Baike, the Chinese online encyclopedia, which describes Ugg as a generic term for sheepskin boots. Asked to comment, the media and public relations Manager of the Australian Trade Commission attached to the Australian Embassy in Shanghai, Anthony-Yan stated that the snow boots style originated in Australia where all such boots are referred to as UGG boots. The Australian manufacturers' logos contained the word "UGG" in large block letters on the heel of the boot, and the court found that this practice deceived the ordinary consumer. The court ruled that use of the word "ugg" in Chinese commerce was an infringement of the Deckers Chinese "UGG" trademark, and held the manufacturers and distribution firms liable.
  The Shanghai suburb of Gaoqiao is the nation's largest production base for snow boots with more than 200 businesses manufacturing footwear valued at more than 1 billion yuan (US\$163 million) annually; it is also "the nation's largest production base for imitation UGG brands," with an estimated 150 companies producing counterfeit UGGs. Deckers UGG boots cost from 1,500 to 8,000 yuan (US\$240 to US\$1,300) in China when demand exceeded supply in 2011, which led to a large market for both counterfeit UGGs and the lower priced uggs imported from Australia.

Legal conflict between footwear manufacturers


Colossal Cave Adventure

Colossal Cave Adventure (also known as Adventure or ADVENT) is a text-based adventure game, released in 1976 by developer Will Crowther for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. It was expanded upon in 1977 by Don Woods. In the game, the player explores a cave system rumored to be filled with treasure and gold. The game is composed of dozens of locations, and the player moves between these locations and interacts with objects in them by typing one- or two-word commands which are interpreted by the game's natural language input system. The program acts as a narrator, describing the player's location and the results of the player's attempted actions. It is the first well-known example of interactive fiction, as well as the first well-known adventure game, for which it was also the namesake.

The original game, written in 1975 and 1976, was based on Crowther's maps and experiences caving in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, the longest cave system in the world; further, it was intended, in part, to be accessible to non-technical players, such as his two daughters. Woods's version expanded the game in size and increased the number of fantasy elements present in it, such as a dragon and magic spells. Both versions, typically played over teleprinters connected to mainframe computers, were spread around the nascent ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, which Crowther was involved in developing.

Colossal Cave Adventure was one of the first teletype games and was massively popular in the computer community of the late 1970s, with numerous ports and modified versions being created based on Woods's source code. It directly inspired the creation of numerous games, including Zork (1977), Adventureland (1978), Mystery House (1980), Rogue (1980), and Adventure (1980), which went on to be the foundations of the interactive fiction, adventure, roguelike, and action-adventure genres. It also influenced the creation of the MUD and computer role-playing game genres. It has been noted as one of the most influential video games, and in 2019 was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame by The Strong and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games.

## Gameplay

Colossal Cave Adventure is a text-based adventure game wherein the player explores a mysterious cave that is rumored to be filled with treasure and gold. The player must explore the cave system and solve puzzles by using items that they find to obtain the treasures and leave the cave. The player types in one- or two-word commands to move their character through the cave system, interact with objects in the cave, pick up items to put into their inventory, and perform other actions. The allowable commands are contextual to the location, or room, the player is in; for example, "get lamp" only has an effect if there is a lamp present. There are dozens of rooms, each of which has a name such as "Debris Room" and a description, and may contain objects or obstacles. The program acts as a narrator, describing to the player their location in the cave and the results of certain actions. If it does not understand the player's commands, it asks for the player to retype their actions. The program's replies are typically in a humorous, conversational tone, much as a Dungeon Master would use in leading players in a tabletop role-playing game.

The original 1976 version of the game contains five treasures which can be collected. Although it is based on a real cave system, it contains a few fantasy elements such as a crystal bridge, magic words, and axe-wielding dwarves. The player can die by falling into a pit or being killed by the dwarves, but otherwise the game has no ending or goal beyond finding the treasures. The 1977 version of the game, upon which later versions were based, adds ten more treasures and more fantasy elements. It also adds a points system, whereby completing certain goals earns a predetermined number of points. The ultimate goal is to earn the maximum number of points—350, in the 1977 version—which involves finding all the treasures in the game and safely leaving the cave.

## Development

### Crowther's original version

Colossal Cave Adventure was originally created by William Crowther in 1975 and 1976. Crowther and his ex-wife Patricia were both programmers and cavers and had extensively explored Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, the longest cave system in the world, in the early 1970s as part of the Cave Research Foundation. In 1972, Patricia led the expedition that found a connection between Mammoth Cave and the larger Flint Ridge Cave System. In addition to caving, the pair produced vector map surveys of the cave: they transcribed the survey data of the cave from "muddy little books" into a teleprinter terminal in their house, which could send and print messages from programs running on the central computer and was connected to a PDP-1 mainframe computer at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN) where William Crowther worked. This data was then fed into a program developed by the pair that generated plotting commands onto punched tape, which were then fed into a Honeywell 316 minicomputer attached to a Calcomp drum plotter at BBN to print paper maps. These maps were some of the earliest computer-drawn maps of caves.

In 1975, after he and Patricia divorced, William Crowther stopped caving with the Cave Research Foundation. Driven by what he later described as an increase in spare time combined with missing his two daughters, he began working on a text-based game in Fortran on BBN's PDP-10 mainframe, interfacing through a teletype printer, that they could play. He combined his memories and maps of the Mammoth Cave system, particularly a 1975 map of the Bedquilt area of the caves, including Colossal Cavern, with elements of the Dungeons & Dragons campaigns that he played with friends to design a game around exploring a cave for treasure. Crowther wanted the game to be accessible and not intimidating to non-technical players such as his children, and so developed a natural language input system to control the game so that it would be "a thing that gave you the illusion anyway that you'd typed in English commands and it did what you said". Crowther later commented that this approach allowed the game to appeal to both non-programmers and programmers alike, as in the latter case, it gave programmers a challenge of how to make "an obstinate system" perform in a manner they wanted it to. This approach was also developed to allow the game to be played on a teletype printer, rather than rely on user interface elements used in programs designed for monitors.

The initial version of the game was about 700 lines of code, plus another 700 lines of data such as descriptions for 66 rooms, navigational messages, 193 vocabulary words, and miscellaneous messages. Once the game was complete, in early 1976, Crowther showed it off to his co-workers at BBN for feedback, and then considered his work on the game finished, leaving the compiled game on the mainframe before taking a month off for vacation. According to one of Crowther's then-coworkers in 2007, "once it was working, Will wasn't very interested in perfecting or expanding it." Crowther's work at BBN was in developing ARPANET, one of the first networks of computers and a precursor to the Internet, and the PDP-10 mainframe was part of that network. During his vacation, others found the game and it was distributed widely across the network to computers at other companies and universities, which surprised Crowther on his return. The game did not have an explicit title in it, simply stating "WELCOME TO ADVENTURE!!" as a part of the opening message and having a file name of ADVENT; it was referred to as both Adventure and Colossal Cave Adventure, with the latter becoming the more common name over time. Most computer terminals at the time did not have monitors, and players would instead play the game over teleprinters connected to the mainframe.

### Woods's modifications

One person who discovered the game was Don Woods, a graduate student at Stanford University. Woods found the game on a PDP-10 at the Stanford Medical School and wanted to expand upon the game. He contacted Crowther to gain access to the source code by emailing "crowther" at every domain that existed on the ARPANET. Woods built upon Crowther's code, introducing more high fantasy-related elements such as a dragon. He changed the puzzles, adding new elements and complexities, and added new puzzles and features such as a pirate that roams the map and steals treasure from the player or objects that could exist in multiple states. He also introduced a scoring system within the game and added ten more treasures to collect in addition to the five in Crowther's original version. According to cavers who have played the game, much of Crowther's original version matches the Bedquilt section of Mammoth Cave with some passages removed for gameplay purposes, though Woods's additions do not as he had never been there. According to William Mann, a caving compatriot of Crowther who played both versions when they were developed, Crowther was focused on creating the cave system as a setting for a game, while Woods was interested in making a game and not in replicating the feeling of caving.

Woods's version, released in 1977, expanded Crowther's game to approximately 3,000 lines of code and 1,800 lines of data, growing to 140 map locations, 293 vocabulary words, and 53 objects. Woods also added access controls to the game, allowing mainframe administrators to restrict the game from running during business hours. Woods began working on the game in March 1977; by May his version was complete enough to release, and was soon attracting attention around the United States. Woods continued releasing updated editions in Fortran until 1995. Crowther later said that Woods's bringing fantasy elements earlier into the gameplay was an improvement to his version, though Crowther's daughters also recall him telling them when they were frustrated at puzzles in the game that it was one of Woods's additions, not his.

Crowther did not distribute the source code to his version to anyone else, and it was later believed to be lost until it was rediscovered on an archive of Woods's student account at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 2005. Woods, however, distributed the code to his version alongside the compiled executable. Woods's 1977 version became the more recognizable and widespread version of Colossal Cave Adventure, in part due to its wider code availability, as it led to several other variants of the game being produced.

### Later versions

Both Crowther's and Woods's version were designed to run on the PDP-10 and used features unique to DECSYSTEMS-10 Fortran IV on that architecture, meaning that the program could not be easily moved to other systems, even those that could run Fortran programs. One of the first efforts to port the code to other languages or systems was by RAND Corporation researcher James Gillogly in 1977. Gillogly, with agreement from Crowther and Woods, spent several weeks porting the code to the C programming language to run on the more generic Unix architecture. It can still be found as part of the BSD Operating Systems distributions, or as part of the "bsdgames" package under most Linux distributions, under the command name "adventure". Bob Supnik of Digital Equipment Corporation also ported the game in Fortran to the PDP-11 minicomputer in mid-1977, spreading it to other minicomputer systems. Afterwards, numerous other ports were made of the game to different languages and systems, sometimes identified by the number of points available in the game. There were enough ports and variants and alternate takes of the game by 1982 that an article in Your Computer described the entire set of games wherein the player enters short commands to move between set locations as "Adventure games", and provided code for the ZX81 computer for an "Adventure-writing kit" program that could be used to generate a game with that gameplay. In 2017, Eric S. Raymond created a port for modern computers of Woods's 1995 version of the game as Open Adventure and released the source code under an open-source license with permission from Crowther and Woods.

Commercial versions of the game were also released. Microsoft published a version titled Microsoft Adventure in 1979 for the Apple II Plus and TRS-80 computers, and again in 1981 for MS-DOS as a launch title for IBM PCs, one of the few software programs and the only game at launch. The Software Toolworks released The Original Adventure for IBM PCs in 1981; endorsed by Crowther and Woods in exchange for a nominal payment, it was the only version for which they received any money. Level 9 Computing released multiple versions of the game for different computer platforms under the name Colossal Adventure, beginning with a version in 1982 for the Nascom that includes an entire extra section where the player saves elves from flooding caves, as well as later versions that include pictures of the areas.

A 3D remake of the game, under the title Colossal Cave, was released by Cygnus Entertainment as its first title in on January 19, 2023, for Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Meta Quest 2. Designed by Ken and Roberta Williams, co-founders of Sierra Entertainment, the game was started as a hobby project by the pair during the COVID-19 pandemic, before being expanded into a full commercial product by a team of thirty. It was intended by lead designer Roberta to be a recreation of how playing the game felt like to her in 1979.

## Legacy

### Video games

Colossal Cave Adventure is considered one of the most influential video games. In 2019, it was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame by The Strong and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games. The game is the first well-known example of interactive fiction and established conventions that have since become standard in interactive fiction titles, such as the use of shortened cardinal directions for commands like "e" for "east", as well as inspiring the contents of the fiction titles themselves. The game is the namesake and the first well-known example of an adventure game, as it combined the interactivity of computer programs with the storytelling of literature or role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, despite its lack of linear plot. The only text adventure game known to precede it is Wander from 1974, which did not have the spread or influence of Adventure.

Colossal Cave Adventure was immensely popular among the small computer-using population of the time. Historian Alexander Smith described it as "ubiquitous" on computer networks by the end of 1977, alongside Star Trek and Lunar Lander. Computer game programmers of the time were greatly inspired by the game; according to game designer and creator of the Inform interactive fiction language Graham Nelson, "for the five years to 1982 almost every game created was another 'Advent'". Several of these games were the initial releases of companies that would go on to become key innovators for the early adventure game genre. These included Zork (1977)—which began development within a month of the release of Woods's version—first by the team of Dave Lebling, Marc Blank, Tim Anderson, and Bruce Daniels at MIT and later by Infocom; Adventureland (1978) by Scott Adams of Adventure International; and Mystery House (1980) by Roberta and Ken Williams of On-Line Systems. The 1980 Atari 2600 video game Adventure was an attempt to create a graphical version of Colossal Cave Adventure, and itself became the first known example of an action-adventure game and introduced the fantasy genre to video game consoles. Carmen Sandiego, an early educational game series begun in 1985, was inspired by transforming the idea of moving around the caverns of Colossal Cave Adventure looking for treasure into moving around the globe searching for clues.

In addition to inspiring adventure games, as described by Matt Barton in Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games, Colossal Cave Adventure demonstrated the "creation of a virtual world and the means to explore it", and the inclusion of monsters and simplified combat. For this, it is considered a precursor of computer role-playing games, though it was lacking several elements of the genre. Glenn Wichman and Michael Toy name the game as an influence for their game Rogue in 1980, which went on to become the namesake of the roguelike genre. Colossal Cave Adventure also inspired the development of online multiplayer games like MUDs, the precursors of the modern-day massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

### Other media

Two phrases from the game have gone on to have a lasting impact in programming and video games. "Xyzzy" is a magic word that teleports the player between two locations ("inside building" and the "debris room"). It was added by Crowther at a request by his sister when play-testing the game to skip the early section of the game. As an in-joke tribute to Adventure, many later games and computer programs include a hidden "xyzzy" command, the results of which range from the straightforward to the humorous. Crowther stated that for its purpose in the game, "magic words should look queer, and yet somehow be pronounceable", leading him to select "xyzzy". Additionally, in the game there is a maze created by Crowther where each of ten room descriptions was exactly the same: "YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY LITTLE PASSAGES, ALL ALIKE." The layout of this "all alike" maze was fixed, so the player would have to figure out how to map the maze. The phrase "you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike" has become memorialized and popularized in the hacker culture, where "passages" may be replaced with a different word, as the situation warrants. This phrase came to signify a situation when whatever action is taken does not change the result.

Colossal Cave Adventure has continued to be referenced by media for decades since. The 2003 book on the history of interactive fiction Twisty Little Passages was named after the "all alike" maze, and the 2010 documentary on the history of text adventure games Get Lamp is named for the command to get one of the first objects the player encounters and must carry to solve the game. The 2013 game Kentucky Route Zero's third act draws direct inspiration from the game, showing a computer simulation set up inside of a cave, which is itself depicting a massive cave system. The game is also a key plot point in an episode of the 2014 TV series Halt and Catch Fire, a period drama taking place in the early days of the personal computing revolution. In it, the chief software designer uses the game as a competency test to determine which programmers will remain on the team. As a tie-in, a fully playable version of the game augmented with player hints and artwork revealed when certain locations are visited was made available on the show's official website.

1976 video game

Commercial video games with freely available source code

Video games developed in the United States


Pilot (Glee)

"Pilot" is the first episode of the American television series Glee. It premiered on the Fox network on May 19, 2009. An extended director's cut version aired on September 2, 2009. The show focuses on a high school show choir, also known as a glee club, set within the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. The pilot episode covers the formation of the club and introduces the main characters. The episode was directed by series creator Ryan Murphy, and written by Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. Murphy selected the music featured in the episode, with the intention of maintaining a balance between showtunes and chart hits.

The episode achieved 9.619 million viewers on first broadcast, and 4.2 million when the director's cut version aired. Critical response was mixed, with The New York Times's Alessandra Stanley highlighting the episode's unoriginality and stereotyped characters, but praising the showmanship and talent of the cast. The Daily News's David Hinckley opined that the show was imperfect and implausible but "potentially heartwarming", while USA Today's Robert Bianco noted casting and tone problems, but commented positively on the show's humor and musical performances. Mary McNamara for the Los Angeles Times wrote that the show had a wide audience appeal, calling it: "the first show in a long time that's just plain full-throttle, no-guilty-pleasure-rationalizations-necessary fun."

## Plot

Spanish teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) learns that Sandy Ryerson, the head of William McKinley High School's Glee Club, has been fired for inappropriate sexual behavior towards a male student. The school principal, Figgins (Iqbal Theba), gives Will permission to take over the club, which angers Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), the head of the school's successful cheerleading squad, Cheerios. Will plans to revitalize the glee club, naming the group New Directions, which attracts the attention of fame-hungry Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), diva Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), fashionable Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), paraplegic Artie Abrams (Kevin McHale), and shy Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz). Will's wife, Terri Schuester (Jessalyn Gilsig), is unsupportive of Will's devotion to the glee club, encouraging Will to instead give up teaching and become an accountant to increase their income. When Will tries to convince the school's football players to join glee club, he overhears football quarterback Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith) singing in the locker room showers; he blackmails Finn by planting marijuana in his locker. Not wanting to upset his widowed mom, Finn agrees to join New Directions.

Will and school counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) take the kids to visit a performance by Vocal Adrenaline, a rival glee club. They perform an impressive rendition of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab", which leaves the New Directions worried about their chances of competing in the regional show choir competition. Following the performance, Terri reveals to Will that she is pregnant. Believing he needs to support his family, Will regretfully tells the club he is resigning, and applies for a job as an accountant.

Finn is attacked by the football team for his involvement with New Directions, and he initially decides to quit the club. When Finn watches the team trap Artie in a portable toilet, Finn refuses to take part and rescues Artie. He apologizes to the glee club members, and the group resolves to continue without Will. Meanwhile, Emma urges Will to reconsider his decision to leave by showing him a video of him performing in Glee Club when he was at McKinley High. Will then comes across the New Directions performing "Don't Stop Believin'" in the auditorium. Impressed by the performance, Will decides to stay at McKinley, telling the club he couldn't bear to see them win Nationals without him.

## Production

### Conception

Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan created Glee. Murphy drew inspiration from his own childhood, which saw him play the lead role in all of his high school's musicals. Brennan and producer Mike Novick were also highly involved in their own schools' glee clubs. Brennan originally wrote a script for a Glee movie, but Murphy believed the concept would work better as a TV series. Fox picked up the series pilot within 15 hours of receiving the script, which Murphy attributes in part to the success of the network's American Idol, commenting: "It made sense for the network with the biggest hit in TV, which is a musical, to do something in that vein". Murphy intended the show to be a form of escapism, explaining: "There's so much on the air right now about people with guns, or sci-fi, or lawyers running around. This is a different genre, there's nothing like it on the air at the networks and cable. Everything's so dark in the world right now, that's why 'Idol' worked. It's pure escapism." With regards to Glee's audience, Murphy intended for it to be a family show that would appeal to adults as well as children, with adult characters starring equally alongside the teenage leads. Glee is set in Lima, Ohio. Murphy chose a Midwest setting as he himself originates from Indiana, and recalls childhood visits to Ohio to the Kings Island theme park. Although set in Lima, the show is actually filmed at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

### Music

The episode features covers of numerous songs sung on-screen by the characters. Musical segments take the form of performances, as opposed to the characters singing spontaneously, as the intention is for the series to remain reality-based. Murphy has commented that his interest lay in creating a "postmodern musical", rather than "doing a show where people burst into song", drawing on the format of Chicago. Murphy is responsible for selecting all of the songs used, and strives to maintain a balance between show tunes and chart hits, as: "I want there to be something for everybody in every episode. That's a tricky mix, but that's very important – the balancing of that."

Songs featured in the pilot include: "Where Is Love?" from Oliver!, Aretha Franklin's "Respect", "Mister Cellophane" from Chicago, Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl", "On My Own" from Les Misérables, "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" from Guys and Dolls, "You're the One That I Want" from Grease, REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling", Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" and "Don't Stop Believin' and "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' by Journey. The director's cut version also includes an acoustic rendition of John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane". Murphy was surprised at the ease with which use of songs was approved by the record labels approached, and explained: "I think the key to it is they loved the tone of it. They loved that this show was about optimism and young kids, for the most part, reinterpreting their classics for a new audience." The score of the episode features a cappella covers of instrumental songs provided by The Swingle Singers. Dance routines were choreographed by Zach Woodlee.

Four of the songs featured in the episode were released as singles, available for digital download. "On My Own" charted at number 42 in Ireland and 73 in the UK, and "Can't Fight This Feeling" charted at number 117 in the UK. "Rehab" charted at number 93 in Australia, 38 in Ireland, 62 in the UK and 98 in America. "Don't Stop Believin' reached number 2 in the UK, 4 in America, 50 in Canada, 5 in Australia, 4 in Ireland and 16 in New Zealand. It sold 177,000 copies in the US in its first week, and went on to sell the most copies of any Glee single: it was certified gold with 500,000 sales in the US in October 2009, and reached one million in sales and platinum certification in March 2011; it has also been certified platinum in Australia.

### Casting

In casting Glee, Murphy sought out actors who could identify with the rush of starring in theatrical roles. Instead of using traditional network casting calls, he spent three months on Broadway, where he found Morrison, who had previously starred on stage in Hairspray and The Light in the Piazza, Michele, who starred in Spring Awakening, and Ushkowitz, from the Broadway revival of The King and I. The role of Rachel was written specifically for Michele. Colfer had no previous professional experience, but reminded Ryan of the character of Kurt from The Sound of Music, and was thus cast as Kurt Hummel. He originally auditioned for Artie with the song "Mr. Cellophane", however Murphy was so impressed by his performance that the role of Kurt was created for him. Colfer commented on his casting: "I'm so happy to be a part of something that is so new and different and so needed at this time. It's good to have something positive, especially for kids in small towns, like myself, who need a little pick-me-up. It's true: You can be famous – even if there's no money left in the world."

Auditioning actors with no theatrical experience were required to prove they could sing and dance as well as act. Mays auditioned with the song "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" from The Rocky Horror Show, while 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". Monteith has deemed his casting "spot on" as: "I'm just like my character. I've never trained or had any lessons. I can just do it – with some adjustments, obviously." McHale came from a boy-band background, having previously been part of the group Not Like Them. He auditioned with the song "Let It Be" and tested alongside Colfer and Ushkowitz. He explained that the diversity of the cast's backgrounds reflects the range of different musical styles within the show itself: "It's a mix of everything: classic rock, current stuff, R&B. Even the musical theater stuff is switched up. You won't always recognize it." Lynch was originally intended to be a guest star, but became a series regular when a Damon Wayans pilot she was working on for ABC fell through.

## Reception

### Ratings

Over the hour of broadcast, the first airing of the episode drew an average of 9.619 million US viewers. It began with 12.518 million, dropping after the first half-hour from first place in the ratings to third, retaining only 8.917 million viewers. The episode ranked fourteenth in the weekly program ratings, and was the fourth most viewed show on the Fox network for the week. It received a 3.9/7 rating/share in the key adults 18–49 demographic. The director's cut version of the episode attained 4.2 million viewers, and a 1.8/5 rating/share in the 18–49 demographic. The episode was the nineteenth highest viewed show in Canada for the week of broadcast, with 1.04 million viewers. It was watched by 278,000 viewers in the United Kingdom, a 1.3% audience share, and by a further 100,000 on timeshift, a 0.6% share. The director's cut was aired on January 11, 2010, followed by Showmance, and was watched by 1.76 million viewers, becoming the most-watched show on E4 for the week, and the most-watched show on cable for the week.

### Awards and nominations

Following the first broadcast of the episode, Glee was nominated for three Teen Choice Awards: Choice TV: Breakout Series, Choice TV: Breakout Star Male (Cory Monteith) and Choice TV: Breakout Star Female (Lea Michele). Murphy was nominated for the 2009 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing of a Comedy Series for his work on the episode. Robert J. Ulrich, Eric Dawson, Carol Kritzer and Jim Carnahan won an Artios Award for casting of a comedy series, Mark Hutman was nominated for the "Single Camera Television Series" Art Directors Guild Award, and David Klotz won a Golden Reel Award for "Best Sound Editing: Short Form Music in Television" for his work on the episode. At the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, Murphy, Falchuk and Brennan were nominated for the "Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series" award for their work on the episode. Murphy was additionally nominated for the "Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series" award, and Hutman, Christopher Brown and Barbara Munch were nominated for the "Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series" award.

### Critical reception

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

The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik was critical of the show's characterization and comedy, but was impressed by the staging of "Don't Stop Believin', calling it "so elevating and inspirational that it almost redeems all the stereotypes and lame humor that come before. Grit my teeth as I did at how one-dimensionally empty-headed the writing could be, I will still be back for the start of this series in the fall because of its musical punch." Tom Jicha for The Sun Sentinel similarly claimed of the episode that: "A lively score and appealing performers somewhat compensate for overly familiar characters and plotting", while Rob Owen for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette agreed: "It's the music that makes Glee a gleeful delight. Without the song-and-dance production numbers, this Fox pilot would be just another high-school-set comedy-drama."

The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan commented that: "the two biggest musical numbers are tremendously entertaining. They're shot and performed with verve, and they put to shame those medleys contestants often perform on the Wednesday edition of American Idol", but again observed: "Whether it will work as a satirical dramedy about the cutthroat social environment of high school is another matter." Of the principal cast, Ryan said: "Casting Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester [...] was a wise move; the actor not only has a sweet voice but a hangdog hopefulness that gives a needed anchor to the show's more satirical elements. Cory Monteith gives quarterback Finn Hudson a jock-ish authority mixed with an appealingly square naivete, and Lea Michele not only has an amazing voice but manages to make her character, spoiled diva Rachel Berry, more than a humorless stereotype." She was critical, however, of Gilsig as Terri, calling her "the worst thing about Glee" and opining: "As written by Murphy and played by Gilsig, the character is screechy, unfunny and deeply unpleasant. It's as if Ryan didn't trust that the audience would get behind Will and the saga of his ragtag glee club and so saw fit to give the teacher the shrewish, nagging wife from hell."

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

Television episodes written by Brad Falchuk

Television episodes written by Ryan Murphy (filmmaker)