Glee leaves remarkable legacy
TV drama brought outsiders into its big tent, while making singing cool
NEW YORK After a six-season run, Glee leaves behind a remarkable legacy.
First of all, the Fox TV series (which also aired in Canada on Global) dared to try something that had seldom if ever worked on series television: It mixed episodic narrative with musical production numbers. It set those performances in the context of a show choir, called New Directions, at the fictitious William McKinley High School, a setting replete with stories about growing up, self-acceptance, perseverance and dreams.
Glee did something else few would have thought possible: It helped make glee clubs and choral singing cool.
And it served as a platform for new talent, launching such stars as Lea Michele while giving wide exposure to veterans like Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch, with guest appearances by a broad range of celebrities that included Helen Mirren, Lindsay Lohan and Ricky Martin.
Pop music — both new and well-established — reached new audiences, both on the show and through sales of more than 50 million songs and 13 million albums under the Glee brand.
While it was demonstrating a viewer appetite for musical theatre among its audience, Glee accomplished one more thing: It highlighted, and even helped normalize, young people traditionally deemed marginal both in real life and on TV.
Among the many outliers included in the Glee big tent were transgender girl Unique (played by Alex Newell), openly gay Kurt (Chris Colfer), wheelchair-using Artie (Kevin McHale) and stuttering Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz). Tolerance, or at least reaching for it, was a Glee hallmark.
During its rollicking run, Glee also confronted real-life drama, notably the death of cast member Cory Monteith. A breakout Calgary-born, Vancouver-trained star who played singer-quarterback Finn Hudson, Monteith had struggled in real life with substance abuse. In July 2013, he died at 31 in a Vancouver hotel room of an accidental alcohol and drug overdose.
That October, Glee said a poignant goodbye to Finn (whose death, though never described, was written into the series) while paying tribute to Monteith in an emotional farewell episode called The Quarterback.
Michele and Monteith were a couple, as were their characters Rachel and Finn on the show. In that episode especially, reality intruded all too vividly on the show’s make-believe tale.
With the Glee series finale, reality intrudes once again: For the characters at McKinley High, as well as the audience that has followed them for six seasons, graduation day has arrived.