Mainstream and Margin: The Glee Project

1. Mainstream and Margin: The Glee Project HUM 3085: Television and Popular Culture Spring 2013 Dr. Perdigao February 20-22, 2013

4. Glee, “Vitamin-D” • Puck: “What’s a mash-up?” • Will: “A mash-up is when you take two songs and mash them together to make an even richer explosion of musical expression.” • Literary mash-ups: Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009); Ryan C. Thomas’ The Undead World of Oz (2009); Nickolas Cook’s Alice in Zombieland (2011), Gena Showalter’s Alice in Zombieland (2012) • Dramedy as hybrid form • Characters, theme, genre, mode of production for analysis of influence, place within the history of television • Evolution of the form—dominant forms and experimentation

5. Music and Television (No, not MTV) • I Love Lucy (1951-1957): Ricky at the Tropicana • The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1959): Variety show for children • The Partridge Family (1970-1974): Family band; trippy bus • The Love Boat (1977-1987): Featured performers • Solid Gold (1980-1988): Music and dancing • Fame (1982-1987): Performing arts high school in New York • Kids Incorporated (1984-1993): Kids forming own band, Kids Incorporated • The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989-1994): Reboot • In Living Color (1990-1994): Variety show, sketch comedy, Fly girls

6. Rebooting the Musical • American Idol (2002- ), So You Think You Can Dance (2005- ), The Voice (2011- ), The X-Factor (2011- ) responding to reality craze • Scripted versions of reality series • Glee (2009- ): Misfits in glee club New Directions; identity struggles • Smash (2012- ): Competing performers on Broadway • Nashville (2012- ): Competing country singers

19. The School Story: Marginalization • Welcome Back, Kotter(1975-1979): Teacher guiding group of problematic high school students in Brooklyn • The Facts of Life (1979-1988): Mrs. Garrett’s tutelage of a group of girls at private boarding school • Square Pegs (1982-1983): Two friends struggling to fit in high school clique culture • Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987-1989): Prototype for Saved by the Bell, featuring the teacher • Saved by the Bell (1989-1993) • My So-Called Life (1994-1995): Angsty teen Angela narrating her life in diaries

20. The School Story: Marginalization • Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003): [It’s on every list, I know but here for a reason]; misfit group of “Scoobies” gathering together to fight the Big Bad • Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000): Set in the 1980s at William McKinley High School (yes, the same as Glee and The Wonder Years); sister’s and brother’s friends as, respectively, the freaks and geeks

21. The Musical Episode • Magical Realism • Gilligan’s Island: “The Producer” (1966) • Chicago Hope: “Brain Salad Surgery” (1997) • Daria: “Daria!” (1999) • Xena: Warrior Princess: “The Bitter Suite” (1998) • Xena: Warrior Princess: “Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire” (2000) • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Once More, With Feeling” (2001) • That ’70s Show: “That ’70s Musical” (2002) • Oz: “Variety” (2002) • 7th Heaven: “Red Socks” (2005) • Scrubs: “My Musical” (2007) • Fringe: “Brown Betty” (2010) • How I Met Your Mother: “Girls vs. Suits” (2010) • The Simpsons: “Elementary School Musical” (2010) • Grey’s Anatomy: “Song Beneath the Song” (2011) • Community: “Regional Holiday Music” (2011): spoof of Glee

32. Defining a Subculture • Redefining mainstream—production, theme, style • Square Pegs (1982-1983): shot as single camera series during period of multi- camera live studio productions • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yujw1Shc-KI • Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000): set in Michigan in the 1980s; writing episodes to music, telling the characters’ stories; first series to feature rock music • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdUCGiF-yaA

33. The Mash-Up • Margins and centers • Dominant American culture, the “mainstream” vs. the marginalized • Cliques • Dominant mode of television production: from variety show to multi-camera live studio production to single camera telefilm • Glee playing with the voiceover, varying characters’ voices • Blaine: “Britney, who are you talking to?” Britney: “I thought I was doing a voiceover” (“Britney 2.0”) (metafiction at its best, baring the device, breaking the fourth wall) • Breaking that wall: gleeks and fandom, identification • “Gleek of the Week”

34. The Mash-Up • Identity matrix: race, class, gender, sexual orientation • Disability studies • Satire and parody, irony and reversal • Play with expectations • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=970yJGLpot0 • (6:10) • Sue: “I’ll need to see the set list for sectionals, after all. I want them on my desk warm from the laminator at 5 pm. If it is one minute late, I will go to the animal shelter and get you a kitty cat. I will let you fall in love with that kitty cat. And then on some dark cold night I will steal away into your home and punch you in the face.” (“Mash-Up”)

35. The Mash-Up • Sue on wheelchair ramps: “Those are what I call lazy-makers. They discourage our able-bodied students from getting their proper exercise by using the stairs!” (“Wheels”) • “Sue’s Corner”: “That’s how Sue Cs it” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3zL76CkQp4

36. The Monster Mash-Up • Formula fiction • Buffy the Vampire Slayer (now Grimm, Once Upon a Time) featuring the “monster of the week” • Glee and the club assignments • “Vitamin-D”: mash-up to reinvigorate the glee club • Will’s accusation that they are “sleepwalking” and need a more competitive edge

37. Sunshine, Optimism, and Angels • “Vitamin-D” experimenting with boundaries, borders • Division into girls’ and boys’ teams • Kurt’s alliance • Gender roles • Perspective and point of view: heteroglossia, polyphony • Subjective camera, point of view shot, to show Finn’s perspective