Mainstream and Margin: The Glee Project

HUM 3085: Television and Popular Culture

Spring 2015Dr. Perdigao

February 23, 2015

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

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

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 (2012-2013): Competing performers on Broadway

• Nashville (2012- ): Competing country singers

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=iBKwUD997vPozM&tbnid=p77uheZS5XFLGM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmemecrunch.com%2Fmeme%2F8F3Y%2Fhurricane-the-love-boat-s-isaac-v2&ei=9mUkUa-RCIrW9ASInYDQCA&bvm=bv.42661473,d.eWU&psig=AFQjCNFLeDzxHNE3TDLkYyavoDdDvocvmw&ust=1361426269566927

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=HYGm28GIWqQhdM&tbnid=jqoWDsvVMmRgFM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanpop.com%2Fclubs%2Ffergie%2Fimages%2F12881869%2Ftitle%2Ffergie-world-cup-kick-off-with-alicia-keys&ei=gGckUZyyD5CI9QTmtICwBg&bvm=bv.42661473,d.eWU&psig=AFQjCNHRNSkCWdYkrFvSmShYFzkEOkeTvQ&ust=1361426669440024

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=hjvKL4OnThKAoM&tbnid=U2q54iog4jIjmM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThe_Mickey_Mouse_Club&ei=82ckUZKuNYSe8QSdloCQAw&bvm=bv.42661473,d.eWU&psig=AFQjCNGv532GsBfB0YjwpyjG-Wcea_D8EQ&ust=1361426800724494

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=Ggz70LRGpy_ztM&tbnid=aCp6ikGhzyKdIM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.celebritybug.net%2F2012%2F10%2Fnashville-season-1-episodes.html&ei=nmUkUan6F4Tm8QSJ94HoBw&bvm=bv.42661473,d.eWU&psig=AFQjCNGS2CyoC05NymPHglehksecGcAGdQ&ust=1361426201716642

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

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

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

The Musical Episode• Psych: “Psych: The Musical” (2014)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=8tJJZscacmQPyM&tbnid=EC6UVul3tJfYmM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tumblr.com%2Ftagged%2Fsaved%2520by%2520the%2520bell%3A%2520the%2520college%2520years&ei=9F8kUZrGH5Ps9ATux4DgAg&psig=AFQjCNFpTQWLrBgWt6a6T5DxxmlRDSuNdQ&ust=1361424744316914

http://www.zimbio.com/go/CCwNq8rAy_P/http:/fashionindie.com/sjp-glee/a-vogue-idea/

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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

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, baring the device, breaking the fourth wall)

• Breaking that wall: gleeks and fandom, identification

• “Gleek of the Week”

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”)

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

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

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