Series Overview

Glee is a Golden Globe-winning Fox musical comedy created by Ryan Murphy ( Nip/Tuck ) that depicts Will Schuester’s ( Matthew Morrison ) efforts to save McKinley High’s Glee Club from cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester ( Jane Lynch ). Glee’s musical numbers, underdog characters, and rousing soundtracks have all helped make Glee a runaway pop-culture hit.

Glee was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan - who has also written episodes. Murphy drew inspiration from his childhood experience as a lead actor 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 based on his own experiences at Prospect High School in suburban Chicago, 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”. Glee is set in Lima, Ohio. Murphy chose a Midwest setting as he himself grew up in Indiana, and recalls childhood visits to Ohio to the Kings Island theme park. Although set in Lima, the show is filmed at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

Although Glee has been compared to film series High School Musical, Murphy commented that he has never seen a High School Musical film, and that his interest lay in creating a “postmodern musical,” rather than “doing a show where people burst into song,” drawing more heavily on the format of Chicago. 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 regard to Glee’s audience, Murphy intended for it to be a family show which would appeal to adults as well as children, with adult characters starring equally alongside the teenage leads. Murphy has mapped out plans for the series covering a potential for three years of broadcast.

~via Wiki

Watch Glee Season 1 Full Episodes Online