Game of Thrones, which was a huge part of many people's lives, is coming to an end today and some people are not very happy about it. But that got me thinking and it turns out that another show that was once a big part of my life but I've since almost completely forgotten about began ten years ago today. The pilot episode of Glee aired in a special broadcast on May 19, 2009, ahead of its full first season later that year.
The Glee pilot had lit the television critics' world on fire in the months before it aired, with many identifying it as "the next big thing," something special that would catch the attention of the masses, and they were right. Glee was completely different than anything else on TV, being a musical with a large and unusually diverse ensemble cast. Glee was one of the first online fandoms I got into. The first half of the first season of Glee (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the first season) is still fondly remembered as among the best in the golden age of (network) TV. It had heart and sentimentality while serving as a fun parody of what life was like for a modern high schooler. Eventually, the show started to rapidly descend into a funhouse mirror version of itself, embracing all the tropes it originally tried to spoof. The show became corny, overcommercialized, and frequently offensive to the groups it was trying to represent. By the third season, most of the fanbase actively hated the show, with a dozen different factions of people screaming and bickering at each other over everything they could think of. The Glee fandom dominated websites like Tumblr and Twitter, turning them into battlegrounds for shippers and marginalized groups and music fans. By the fourth season, ratings were in free fall, the tragic death of Cory Monteith caused multiple other storylines to spiral out of control, and eventually the show ended with its sixth season, which was actually a decent return to form for a number of episodes.
Today, Glee is largely forgotten. Community, a show that regularly mocked Glee (and for good reason) to the extent of devoting an entire wonderful episode to spoofing it, is remembered far more fondly. Many of Glee's actors have disappeared from Hollywood, had their careers ruined, or even ended up in prison. Its attempts at diversity are now remembered largely as cheap token efforts, Ryan Murphy desperately trying to appeal to marginalized groups whose struggles he didn't understand. I do think it had a generally positive impact on getting TV writers to recognize the value of representation. But today most people, including myself, have essentially forgotten this show ever existed.
Nonetheless, I'm curious if anyone remembers Glee or was part of the fandom at any point and remembers the good and bad (and very bad) aspects of it, all these years later.
Recommended reading: Glee harmonized art and commerce, then gradually became a commercial
The Glee pilot had lit the television critics' world on fire in the months before it aired, with many identifying it as "the next big thing," something special that would catch the attention of the masses, and they were right. Glee was completely different than anything else on TV, being a musical with a large and unusually diverse ensemble cast. Glee was one of the first online fandoms I got into. The first half of the first season of Glee (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the first season) is still fondly remembered as among the best in the golden age of (network) TV. It had heart and sentimentality while serving as a fun parody of what life was like for a modern high schooler. Eventually, the show started to rapidly descend into a funhouse mirror version of itself, embracing all the tropes it originally tried to spoof. The show became corny, overcommercialized, and frequently offensive to the groups it was trying to represent. By the third season, most of the fanbase actively hated the show, with a dozen different factions of people screaming and bickering at each other over everything they could think of. The Glee fandom dominated websites like Tumblr and Twitter, turning them into battlegrounds for shippers and marginalized groups and music fans. By the fourth season, ratings were in free fall, the tragic death of Cory Monteith caused multiple other storylines to spiral out of control, and eventually the show ended with its sixth season, which was actually a decent return to form for a number of episodes.
Today, Glee is largely forgotten. Community, a show that regularly mocked Glee (and for good reason) to the extent of devoting an entire wonderful episode to spoofing it, is remembered far more fondly. Many of Glee's actors have disappeared from Hollywood, had their careers ruined, or even ended up in prison. Its attempts at diversity are now remembered largely as cheap token efforts, Ryan Murphy desperately trying to appeal to marginalized groups whose struggles he didn't understand. I do think it had a generally positive impact on getting TV writers to recognize the value of representation. But today most people, including myself, have essentially forgotten this show ever existed.
Nonetheless, I'm curious if anyone remembers Glee or was part of the fandom at any point and remembers the good and bad (and very bad) aspects of it, all these years later.
Recommended reading: Glee harmonized art and commerce, then gradually became a commercial
