A Presentation by Donald Miller

1. A Presentation by Donald Miller

2. What is GLEE? Glee is a musical drama series focusing on teen and young adult drama in a high school setting, aired on the FOX network. It premiered May 19, 2009 with its pilot episode, and is currently still ongoing. It has 5 seasons under its belt so far and is going on for one last 6th season. The show’s premise: Will Schuester, the Spanish Teacher at William McKinley High School signs on to the New Directions show choir club to fulfill his dream of being a choir teacher. However, he finds it on the brink of cancellation due to the club not winning any competitions of any sort. In addition, the club has next to no members, save for the extremely dedicated, so Will takes it upon himself to gather music-ready students to revive the club. With nothing to work with but the jazz band, an egotistical girl named Rachel, the camp-gay Kurt, the wheelchair bound Artie, the non-ecstatic Tina, the in-background-and-really-wanting-to-get-more-attention Mercedes, and the duo-timing football quarterback Finn, Will has too mold his rag-tag bunch of misfits into a show choir ready for regionals, all while dealing with his issues, and competing against Sue, the cheerleader coach. With all this and the students themselves have to deal with the issues affecting their own lives, the Glee Club certainly has a tough road ahead of them.

3. Setting And Atmosphere • The show is set in the fictional William McKinley High School, in the fictionalized version of Lima, in the less fictional Ohio. • Because it is a high school Com-Dram, the majority of the scenes take place at the school itself, mainly in the choir room, stage and various teachers offices. Scenes also happen, however, in many of the characters homes, as they deal with conflicts amongst themselves. • Because the show is a comedy, and is set in Ohio, the atmosphere is a bright, happy and joyful, with even title credits being a bright yellow colour.

4. Kurt HummelPlayed by: Chis Colfer • Kurt is one of the original members of the glee club. Kurt is the first few season’s token gay character, and as such, many of his sub-plots and character arcs deal with his homosexuality, the bullying he endures from other students, and his interactions with the rest of the New Directions group. • Kurt usually hangs out either by himself, or with other members of the Glee club, particularly with his “BFF” Mercedes. • He often deals with being the groups second-best male lead compared to Finn, who gets the most solos and leads in shows. • Another character related to him is his dad, Burt Hummel, is notable as he looks like the very last person who would accept having a gay son, is actually the most protective person of Kurt, and tries his damnedest to keep people from picking on him for who he is.

5. Finn HudsonPlayed By: Corey Monteith • Finn can be considered one of the “main character” of the show, as he is focused on a fair bit, and is the go-to male lead in any of New Direction’s musicals, despite not being the best singer. • Along with being in New Directions, he is also the quarterback for the high school football team, a prestigious position as any high-school media will tell you. • He often hangs out with Puck, another member of his football team (and later ND member), and the Glee club members in general. • The actor who played this character, Cory Monteith, passed away from a drug overdose July 13, 2013. As such, the character Finn has been written as having died off screen, with the first half of the new season dealing with his death.

6. Rachel BerryPlayed by: Lea Michele • Rachel has been cited in-universe and out of the show as one of the most talented students in the ND group, and divas it up hard because of it. Said to have started her show business career with winning a dance competition at 3 god-damn months old. Which is played for laughs. • She usually hangs out with the ND crew, and no one else. Because being a child prodigy at all forms of performing, and not at all being average looking, totally isolates you from your peers. • What's also notable, is that she was born from a substitute too-term parent, as both of her true parents are homosexual men.

7. Issues and Morals • The situations the show deals with range from acquiring solos, too dealing with sexual-orientation rooted bullying and prejudice, to teen pregnancy, to lying and fraud to stay in a marriage, to dealing with confidence issues, to the treatment of disabled people, to sex, to depression, biases and assumptions based on first glances, racial issues, personal image, teamwork, and music. It covers a lot of subjects. • The show generally shows very positive messages, preaching equality and understanding. However, as with most shows with themes, rarely they screw up a moral, such as promoting that: you can’t always get what you want, so just let someone better have it, like say a solo or lead in a song. Besides the occasional mess ups, the morals are still very sound, and accurately deal with a lot of problems teens face in American high schools.

8. Viewership • The show draws in about 13.5 million viewers a week. Glee’s original target audience may have been teens, but has spread viewership to near most demographics, such as teens, adults, the elderly and (most inappropriately) kids; most likely because of it’s bright and cheerful demeanor, open ended run time, relatable characters, sense of humour, healthy messages, balance of seriousness and comedy, and (subjectively) a good taste in music.

9. Compared to “One tree Hill” • Compared to One Tree Hill, which only capped at 3 million viewers in season 5, Glee readily gets 13.5 million views each week. This can be attributed to the aforementioned openness and friendly atmosphere that Glee creates, where as One Tree Hill was darker and harsher, meant specifically for teenagers. While Glee deals with whole hosts of societal issues, not just topping at high school drama, One tree Hill cared less about most of it’s subplots, and chose to focus on the in-school tension created by the main characters and their relationships, and didn’t really focus on the side characters, besides how THEY react with the main characters. >=< ???

10. THE END • By: Donald Miller • With some help from: Wikipedia, TV Tropes, Imdb, and Wiki Answers • Oh, and happy holidays Ms. Merriam! :D