PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA, THE: PALEYFEST 2011: 28TH ANNUAL WILLIAM S. PALEY TELEVISION FESTIVAL: GLEE (LONG VERSION ANAMORPHIC)
Summary
One in a series of evenings and special screenings presented as part of The Paley Center for Media’s 28th William S. Paley Television Festival in Los Angeles. Held this year at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, the festival celebrates the excellence and diversity of American television and is dedicated to television’s creative community. This evening honors “Glee,” the satirical comedy musical series about a high school glee club in Lima, Ohio. Host Betsy Scolnik (vice-president, The Paley Center for Media) offers opening remarks and brings moderator Tim Stack (journalist, Entertainment Weekly) to the stage, and Stack then introduces the episode “Original Song,” which is screened in its entirety. (For synopsis and credits, see ACCNUM 104958.)
After the screening, Stack introduces the panelists: creators and executive producers Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy; executive producer Dante Di Loreto; and actors Darren Criss (Blaine Anderson); Heather Morris (Brittany Pierce); Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez); Mark Salling (Noah “Puck” Puckerman); Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang); Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams); Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones); Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel); Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson); Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester); and Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester).
The conversation touches on such topics as: the infamous kiss between Blaine and Kurt, as seen in the episode, and why it was “about time” for it to happen; the strong foundation of the characters’ relationship over the season; the importance to Murphy that Kurt “gets a happy ending”; their “shock” at the enthusiastic response to the kiss from the fans; the cast’s experience performing original songs for the first time, with the scenes also filmed in the Saban Theatre; Riley’s input choreographing her original song “Hell to the No”; how Riley is McHale’s “secret acting coach,” and how his own mannerisms influence his character; the other original songs performed in the episode, including the absurd “Trouty Mouth” and “Big-Ass Heart”; the interest in giving specific characters “a chance to shine” with the pieces; the upcoming return of the flighty April Rhodes (Kristin Chenoweth); the possible upcoming influence of the internet viral hit song “Friday” by Rebecca Black; the diabolical Sue and her actions in “Original Song”; the inspiration for her memorable biting one-liners, as written by Brennan; Falchuk’s experience writing the poignant father-son sex talk scene between Kurt and Burt, played by Mike O’Malley; the believability of Burt and Kurt’s much-loved relationship; inspiration for the scene from Murphy’s own life; the surprising support from the network; explanation of changes in the Hummel’s living arrangements since Burt’s marriage to Finn’s mother; Morris’ experience imitating both Britney Spears and Ke$ha; details about the technicalities of her vomiting scene; Morris’ history auditioning as a dancer for the real Spears; whether Criss has re-entered a Gap store since his memorable performance of Robin Thicke’s “When I Get You Alone” earlier in the season; the complicated recording and filming process of that scene, shot at a real Gap in Los Angeles; the “nightmare” of shooting the rain-soaked mashup of “Singin’ in the Rain” and Rihanna’s “Umbrella” scene, particularly for McHale’s wheelchair-bound character; Morrison’s painful tango scene and friendship with guest star Gwyneth Paltrow as substitute teacher and Will’s love interest Holly Holliday; Paltrow and Chenoweth as the “muses” of the show; Monteith’s history of strange jobs in his hometown of Victoria, British Columbia, including cab-driving; the relationship between Puck and Lauren Zizes, played by Ashley Fink, and the evolution of Lauren’s character; the on-set presence of Stevie Nicks during an episode featuring her song “Landslide”; the “overwhelming” fan response to the Brittany/Santana relationship, dubbed “Brittana”; Rivera’s experience receiving emotional fan responses regarding her character’s sexuality; “hate-Tweets” sent to McHale about his character’s interference with the “Brittana” relationship; the relationship between Tina and Mike Chang, played by Harry Shum, Jr.; whether Colfer designed the bird coffin, as seen in the episode; his time spent away from the other actors after Kurt’s transfer to another school at the beginning of the season, and an accidental spoiler regarding his future; Lynch’s amusement at Sue’s upcoming “League of Doom,” designed to bring down the glee club and her rival Will; an future episode featuring Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and its focus on the storyline involving closeted bully Dave Karofsky, played by Max Adler; other plans for the final six episodes of the season, including the glee club’s presence at Nationals; the writers’ desire not to make Kurt and Blaine “martyrs”; whether “Brittana” will have a happy ending and their interest in focusing on Santana’s journey for the time being; Morrison’s fondness for the maybe-romance between Will and guidance counselor Emma, played by Jayma Mays; Monteith’s opinions on the wildly popular Finn/Rachel pairing; Salling’s support of the good girl/bad boy Rachel/Puck relationship, known as “Puckleberry”; and the upcoming summer tour and changes from the first-season tour.
Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics: the return of singer Charice Pempengco (Sunshine Corazon); Colfer’s “campaign” for Julie Andrews to guest star; updates on the life of Quinn and Puck’s daughter Beth, adopted by Rachel’s biological mother Shelby, played by Idina Menzel; the writers’ “Twitter problems” from the vociferous Finn/Rachel fans, among others; whether any actors from Murphy’s former show “Popular” will make an appearance; Murphy’s sense of the network censors as “the enemy” on his bawdy drama series “Nip/Tuck,” and his more pleasant experience working with them on “Glee”; the “open-door policy” of cast input on their characters; the talent of the back-up singers and dancers; the ever-present piano accompanist Brad, played by Brad Ellis, and Murphy’s decision that he “hates those kids”; the show as a constantly-evolving “pop culture tribute”; ideas for an opera-like singing-only episode; plans for an episode celebrating Fleetwood Mac’s album “Rumours”; Colfer’s experience wearing painful shoes in the Lady Gaga-themed episode; whether Mercedes will get a proper love interest soon; the upcoming “Glee”-themed reality show; whether Sue will be seen in any more music videos; rules about freelance scripts; Rivera and Morris’ ideas for “Brittana”’s future, including a proposed spin-off; the unsurprising instance of gay characters in a series about show choir; the importance of viewers “seeing themselves represented” on the show; a shout-out to Criss’ viral video college production of the parody show “A Very Potter Musical”; Puck’s many romantic connections and the unique qualities in his girlfriends; the soon-to-be-released Warblers album; their performance in an upcoming prom episode; the competing glee clubs’ support of one another; and Blaine’s possible future as a member of New Directions.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: March 16, 2011 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 2:01:09
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 104760
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: Asian American Pacific Islanders Collection
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Betsy Scolnik … Host
- Tim Stack … Moderator
- Ian Brennan … Panelist
- Brad Falchuk … Panelist
- Ryan Murphy … Panelist
- Dante Di Loreto … Panelist
- Darren Criss … Panelist
- Heather Morris … Panelist
- Naya Rivera … Panelist
- Mark Salling … Panelist
- Jenna Ushkowitz … Panelist
- Kevin McHale … Panelist
- Amber Riley … Panelist
- Chris Colfer … Panelist
- Cory Monteith … Panelist
- Jane Lynch … Panelist
- Matthew Morrison … Panelist
- Max Adler
- Julie Andrews
- Rebecca Black
- Kristin Chenoweth
- Brad Ellis
- Ashley Fink
- Fleetwood Mac
- Ke$ha
- Lady Gaga
- Jayma Mays
- Idina Menzel
- Stevie Nicks
- Mike O'Malley
- Gwyneth Paltrow
- Charice Pempengco
- Rihanna
- Harry Shum, Jr.
- Britney Spears
- Robin Thicke