Glee/Trivia

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  • S1
    • E01 Pilot
    • E14 Hell-O
    • E19 Dream On
    • E22 Journey to Regionals
  • S2
    • E02 Britney Brittany
    • E03 Grilled Cheesus
    • E04 Duets
    • E06 Never Been Kissed
    • E07 The Substitute
    • E08 Furt
    • E09 Special Education
    • E12 Silly Love Songs
    • E14 Blame It on the Alcohol
    • E15 Sexy
    • E16 Original Song
    • E17 A Night of Neglect
    • E18 Born This Way
    • E19 Rumours
    • E20 Prom Queen
    • E21 Funeral
    • E22 New York
  • S3
    • E10 Yes No
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• Actor Allusion:
  • When Victor Garber takes a break from his usually cool, hard-hitting persona to play Will's dad, he expresses his regret at never going to law school and at the end of the episode decides to apply. This is a Shout-Out to Victor Garber's portrayals of lawyers in many movies and TV shows (Legally Blonde, Eli Stone, etc...)
  • Victor Garber is also known for his work in Broadway musicals (e.g., Assassins), thus his appearance in a show all about music and musicals is another lampshade hanging in an already overly-meta show.
  • Rachel auditions for Glee by singing the song "On My Own" from Les Miserables (the musical). Lea Michele, the actress who plays Rachel, made her Broadway debut as Young Cosette in the Broadway cast of the same musical and more recently played Eponine in the Hollywood Bowl concert. For those not in the know, grown Eponine sings "On My Own". Young Cosette/Young Eponine (nonspeaking) rotate nights in most productions, so she would have played both roles.
  • In the pilot episode, when Sandy sees Will at the linen store, his reaction is identical to that of Ned Ryerson every time he sees Phil in the street. Sandy's last name is Ryerson too (though Word of God says that the name "Sandy Ryerson" was scripted before the actor was cast).
  • In the second episode, when Terri flicks the kitchen lighter with a very smug attitude (as opposed to her needy, slightly hysterical character) it could be an allusion to Jessalyn Gilsig's role in Heroes as Meredith Gordon, the smug and self-confident woman with the power to control fire and create a small flame from her hand.
  • The online recap of "The Rhodes Not Taken," the episode in which Kristin Chenoweth guest-starred, shows Kristin's character hitting one of Chenoweth's famous "Cheno Notes." The narrator Finn comments with admiration, "Wicked." Rhodes also mentions her dream of making it to Broadway. In her second appearance, Kristin says that she's going to create the first all-white rendition of "The Wiz", and she sings the solo for "Home" from the same musical.
  • Also, Will and Terri are in a tiny Pie Shop when he thinks of Chenoweth's character.
  • Terri's sister asks if her baby will be black, a reference to Jessalyn Gilsig's character (Gina Russo) in Nip Tuck.
  • Rachel claims that nudity is one of the few things she won't do to break into the business, which is ironic considering Lea Michele's other famous role involved some nudity on-stage 8 times a week.
  • In Sectionals, Mercedes sings a song from Dreamgirls; Amber Riley auditioned for Dreamgirls.
  • In episode 4, Kurt performs Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" in his basement along with Tina and Brittany (Played by Heather Morris). This was a Shout-Out to Heather Morris' role as one of Beyoncé's backup dancers in Single Ladies. Heather Morris actually started out in Glee as only being there to teach them that dance, and then later got the role as Brittany when it turned out they still needed a third cheerleader.
  • Bryan Ryan's vocal exercises as he enters the theater sound horribly familiar.
  • In Episode 21, "Funk," it is revealed that Rachel is a vegan after the members of Vocal Adrenaline egg her in the parking lot. Lea Michele is a vegan in real life who has appeared in ads for PETA.
  • In "Home" April sings part of "A House is not a Home". Kristin Chenoweth sings the song in the revival of Promises Promises.
  • Kurt singing "Defying Gravity" is a reference to Chris Colfer's having been denied the opportunity to perform it earlier in life.
  • Though unintentional, this isn't the first time Dianna Agron has played a bitchy head cheerleader.
  • Will forbids the club from doing Britney Spears songs, in reference to how Matthew Morrison himself was opposed to doing a Britney Spears episode.
  • The show regularly lampshades Finn's lack of dancing ability, in reference to Cory Monteith's notoriously bad dancing.
  • Borders on Adam Westing, with Barry Bostwick and Meat Loaf playing conservative strawmen who want Sue to protest the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
  • Magenta was played by an actress named Patricia Quinn in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Quinn Fabray plays Magenta in the Rocky Horror Glee Show.
  • In Never Been Kissed, Blaine, played by Darren Criss, the lead actor and songwriter for A Very Potter Musical, tells Karofsky that he's "Not Alone," the title of a recurring track from the musical.
  • In "A Very Glee Christmas", Mike wishes for Channing Tatum to stop being in stuff. Tatum starred in the first Step Up. Harry Shum Jr., who plays Mike, had a role in Step Up 2 and Step Up 3D.
  • In the "When I Get You Alone" number, Blaine tries on some pink sunglasses in a store.
  • In Silly Love Songs, Blaine tells Kurt about his plan to sing a song to someone on Valentine's Day, leading Kurt to believe that the song is for him, only to later find out it's for someone else. This isn't the first time a character played by Darren Criss has done something like this.
  • In the episode Sexy, Holly Holliday makes a comment about not liking shows about doctors, in front of Stamos's character.
  • New Directions does a song from Hairspray in "The Purple Piano Project". Matthew Morrison was the original Link Larkin on Broadway. If you notice, when he hears Rachel's opening notes, he smiles knowingly.
  • "I Am Unicorn" is full of it:
    • Burt telling Kurt that, if he can't find any good roles for a kid like him, to "write them yourself". Chris Colfer just wrapped Struck By Lightning, which he also wrote.
    • The choreography for "I'm the Greatest Star" has Kurt climbing all over scaffolding, hanging from it upside down, and spinning ninjitsu knives. All of which Chris is well known for liking and doing in real life.
• Adored by the Network: Being the biggest hit Fox has had since American Idol, it was renewed for a third season only halfway through the first.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • The creators have admitted that the idea of Brittany/Santana as a serious, Official Couple started with the fans, that they never planned for them to be more than a one-off joke until they saw that the fans wanted more.
  • Over at Television Without Pity Brad is referred to exclusively as "Tinkles." April Rhodes later calls him this.
• Author Existence Failure: Cory Monteith, who played Finn, died on July 13th, 2013.
  • The Character Died with Him: Ryan Murphy confirmed that Finn passed away as well, with Lea Michele's blessing, the character's cause of death was purposely never revealed.
• Cast the Expert: Heather Morris was only brought in to teach the Single Ladies dance (she was a back-up dancer for Beyonce on tour) but when the producers needed a third cheerleader, Heather Morris was cast to play Brittany.
• Channel Hop: Moving from Channel 4 to Sky (in the UK).
  • Re-runs are still shown on E4, if you can't afford £40-odd a month for Sky (cable TV).
• Colbert Bump: Has had this effect with some of the music they've featured on their show.
• The Danza: Jacob Artist as Jacob (Jake) Puckerman and Brad Ellis as Brad the Pianist.
• Dawson Casting: All of the kids' actors are well in their 20's, with Cory Monteith (Finn), Mark Salling (puck), and Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike) being the oldest and only a couple years younger than their teacher. The closest exceptions are Chris Colfer (Kurt), Charice (Sunshine), and Damian McGinty (Rory), who were all in their late teens when their characters debuted.
  • Inverted in the case of Matthew Morrison, who was 31 when the series premiered (born 1978). Will's Nationals performance happened in 1993, when he was (presumably) 18, which would have made him born in 1975, and the character three years older than the actor.
    • During the first season, there was a lot of kerfuffle regarding some—ahem!—pictures of the cast appearing in a gentlemen's mag. The reason: despite the cast pictured being above the age of majority and hence able to appear in the magazine in fairly provocative poses, they were portraying high school students in the series, resulting in some mixed messages occurring.
    • However, the show didn't really have a choice due to the fact the cast works very long hours that would violate Hollywood's child labor laws.
• Directed by Cast Member: Matthew Morrison directed "Extraordinary Merry Christmas"
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Brittany's famous nonsequitors were originally ad-libbed. Other characters' confused reactions were real.
  • Dianna Agron (Quinn) and Cory Monteith (Finn) were not allowed to see the other actors performing "Lean On Me" in "Ballad" before the scene was shot so their reaction would be real.
  • In "Safety Dance," apart from the dancers, all of the extras were actual shoppers at the mall where it was shot.
  • Jayma Mays (Emma) didn't know about Will and Emma's kiss in "Journey" until it happened. Matthew Morrison (Will) and Brad Falchuk had planned it secretly.
  • In "Mash-Off" Cory Monteith didn't know Naya Rivera (Santana) was going to slap him, Brad mouthed it to Naya in the very last scene. Made better by the fact that the slap was in fact real.
• Executive Meddling:
  • "Candles," the duet between Kurt and Blaine at Regionals, is considered by many to be the weakest Warbler song due to way in which Kurt and Blaine's registers clash. Normally the songs are overseen by music producer Adam Anders, but writer Ryan Murphy intervened for this song and specifically requested that it be sung in those registers.
  • In the original draft for "Pilot," Rachel uses YouTube to upload her songs (as a normal person in the year 2009 would do) but in the actual show version she uses Myspace. Why the change? The fact that the same company that owns Myspace also owns Fox, the network that airs Glee in the US, probably has something to do with it.
    • In the flashback episode "2009", the show makes many jokes at Myspace's expense.
• Fan Community Nickname: "Gleeks" for the entire community.
  • Many fans of Chris Colferand Kurt call themselves "Kurtsies".
  • People who are fans of both Glee and Team Starkid are called "Stargleeks".
  • There's a sizeable group of Mercedes/Amber Riley fans called the "Mercedes Mafia".
  • Many of the ships have their own names. Klaine has Klainers, Niff has Nifflers, Brittana has "Gay Sharks" (after Brittany's meme-spawning quip), Kurtofsky has 'Pirates' (because fans have decided that it's a 'pirate' ship), Blainofsky has 'BatKids' and Sory has Sponsors (after Sam was Rory's Christmas sponsor, and agreed to be his Valentine's Day sponsor as well).
  • Obnoxious Klainers have earned themselves a nickname of their own, Klainer 12, where the twelve stands for the age, implying that they're immature.
• Fandom Nod:
  • Finn's mom and Kurt's dad getting together.
  • A lot of fans were disappointed that that the assigned Puck/Mercedes duet in Episode 10 never happened. So in Episode 18, they not only let them sing together but had them date as well.
  • Shelby Corcoran as Rachel's biological mother. Nicely they kept us off the trail by making her the rival coach and head faking toward another Love Interest.
  • Subverted in that a lot of people wanted an Odd Friendship to develop between Quinn and Rachel, especially for the homeless Quinn to move in with her. Such friendship and moving in did occur with Quinn-just with Mercedes.
  • In "Bad Reputation", Rachel told Puck that most of the school referred to them as "Puckleberry" while they were dating.
  • Pretty much the entire opening sequence of the second season premiere is a nod to the biggest complaints of the show. And it's awesome.
  • Various characters in Duet calling Kurt out on his previous behavior in Season 1. It's like the writers read the Just Bugs Me page.
  • Furt gives us Finn mentioning "Puckleberry," "Finchel," and "Furt."
  • "Silly Love Songs" gives a nod to a different fandom during the Warblers' rendition of "When I Get You Alone". At one point, Blaine and two other singers grab sunglasses from the Gap's sunglass rack; the glasses that Blaine wears are Darren Criss's iconic pink sunglasses.
  • "Rumours" has the club rattle off all of the fandom names for the official couples - and create two new ones. Pizes (Puck/Lauren) and Tina Cohen-Chang Chang (Tina/Mike). The actors themselves are in on it as Mark Salling gave Puck/Artie a name (Partie). Someone is reading these pages.
  • "The Spanish Teacher" acknowledges a common fan complaint that on the rare occasion we hear Will speak Spanish, his accent is appalling considering he's teaching it in a high school.
• Friday Night Death Slot: Fox moved Glee to Fridays at 9pm for its sixth and final season.
• Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • The deaf choir director is the Operative's first on-screen victim in Serenity
  • "Wheels" has Vork making a brief appearance.
  • Harry Freakin' Potter is Kurt's new friend from Dalton Academy.
  • Wendla is the overpowering student "leader" of the Glee Club.
  • The bohemian performance artist and misunderstood Wicked Witch of the West is the director of Vocal Adrenaline and Rachel's mom.
  • The perky blonde Good Witch is the perky blonde high school dropout and Will's short-lived romantic fling.
  • Will divorced with Meredith and now he's gonna be with Charlie.
  • Emma's new beau is Uncle Jesse.
  • Rory, the Season 3 Irish Exchange Student, is played by the Boy Wonder from Celtic Thunder.
  • Hmm. That nun judge resembled a certain high school music teacher...
  • Ivy is one of Quinn's "skank" crowd in Season 3.
  • Chewbacca in Artie's daydream was played by Peter Mayhew, the original Chewbacca.
  • Hey, what is Melchi Gabor doing in Ohio singing ACDC?
  • Zach Nichols is one of Rachel's dads.
  • Cam Winston plays her other dad.
  • Blaine's brother is Neal Caffrey. Let's hope none of the New Directions are missing their wallets.
    • He's also Bryce Larkin... Let's hope none of the New Directions wake up with all the US government's secrets in their heads.
  • If you have a really good memory for faces, you probably recognize Sugar as Vange from the second generation Midnight Society.
    • Or just as Roxanne from American Dreams
• Hey, It's That Voice! - The Japanese dub has LOTS of voice actors who are famous for being good singers in many anime series:
  • Will Schuester is Kyosuke Nanbu and Tekkaman Blade
  • Emma Pillsbury is Kikyo and Akane Tendo.
  • Finn Hudson is Itsuki Koizumi.
  • Rachel Berry is Hitomi Kanzaki.
  • Quinn Fabray is Fate Testarossa, Utau Hoshina and Hinata Hyuga.
  • Sam Evans is Sora, Saji Crossroad, young Kiritsugu, and Jinta.
  • Terri Schuester is Mylene Jenius.
  • Shelby Corcoran is Sumire Kanou, Risty and Marida Cruz.
  • Bryan Ryan is Ali Al-Saachez and Hiroshi Nohara.
  • Jesse St. James is Goh Saruwatari and Phoenix Wright/Ryuichi Naruhodo
  • The Principal Figgins is Bernand Monsha
  • And in a non-Japanese instance, Becky's Inner Monologue is voiced by Dame Helen Mirren.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Well, in the United Kingdom anyway, because people believe the DVD sets are Edited for Syndication versions.
• Lying Creator:
  • After Idina Menzel was cast, Ryan Murphy insisted she would not turn out to be Rachel's mother. Pretty much no one bought it.
  • Ryan Murphy also said that Finn and Rachel would stay together in Season 2. "Special Education" pretty much did away with that.
  • When he accepted a GLAAD award on behalf of the show, RM promised the gay audience that Kurt would never be the victim. Cut to Season 2, in which anti-gay bullying becomes a huge plotline. Of course, that was before the rash of well-publicized suicides due to bullying. Even those gay advocates who completely supported RM's initial standpoint agree that the way schools deal with homophobic bullying needed to be addressed, and that Glee did it perfectly.
    • YMMV on that "perfect" part.
  • The entire "who is going to be Kurt's boyfriend" debate is a perfect example of this trope. From implying it'll be Sam to saying "Chord is definitely not the boyfriend" to "BLAINEBLAINEBLAINELOOKATBLAINEVERYONE" to "We haven't decided yet" (with the latter two included in the same interview, no less), well, somewhere in there there's several lies, though it remains to be seen which statements are lies and which are truth.
  • As of "Original Songs", Kurt and Blaine are together.
    • Although as of "The Breakup", they are not.
      • They're married as of "The Wedding". This pleased the Klaine fanbase, and only them.
• Name's the Same: It's probably not the same McKinley as the one in the Final Destination series... though Cory Monteith did have a bit part in Final Destination 3.
• The Other Darrin: The actors who end up playing Rachel's dads are different from the photos in Rachel's locker that we see back in "Pilot".
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • The Glee Project, for Samuel Larsen and Damian McGinty.
  • Darren Criss is also an example.
• Reality Subtext: A couple.
  • Starting in the second season, Chris Colfer and Lea Michele's mutual adoration of each other has spilled over into an in-show closeness between their characters. In fact, their "Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy" duet is quite obviously not just Kurt and Rachel enjoying singing together, but Chris and Lea loving singing with each other. And don't even get us started on "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead"
  • Blaine sings the praises of Ohio State's football team. In real life, Darren Criss graduated from the University of Michigan. The rivalry between OSU and Michigan is on the order of the Yankees/Red Sox feud.
• The Red Stapler: Has occurred with a good chunk of the music on this show. One of notable example is Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". The effect on music is especially noticeable in the UK where the Glee music doesn't get radio plays but there is a significant increase in play time for the original versions of songs Glee has covered. When songs such as "Animal", which only just scraped into the top 40 on release, all of a sudden appear on a radio playlist the week the featuring episode airs in America, you KNOW this isn't a coincidence.
• Revival by Commercialization: Most songs featured in the show are discovered by newer audiences - and even reenter the charts!
• Scandalgate: The debacle of Chord quitting and/or being fired (the fandom has never received a straight answer) from the show after his option as a series regular was not picked up is commonly referred to as "Chordgate".
• Serious Business: Among the fandom, shipping is serious business. For example, within hours of "Never Been Kissed" being aired, there was already Fan Fiction, Youtube videos, photo collages, and arguments over the Portmanteau Couple Name for Kurt and Karofsky, plus Ship-to-Ship Combat with supporters of Kurt/Blaine.
• Stealth Pun: Dave Karofksy dresses as a gorilla in "Heart". What other gorilla has the initials D.K.?
• What Could Have Been:
  • Glee was at first conceived as a movie by Ian Brennan, he wrote the script in 2005 but it never got anywhere, in 2008 the script fell into Ryan Murphy's hands and he and Brad Falchuk (who worked with Ryan on Nip/Tuck) decided the concept would be better as a tv series
  • Originally the creators where going to include a character named Rajesh. However, Chris Colfer made such an impression at his audition (for Artie) that the character of Kurt was written specifically for him.
  • The producers originally wanted a black girl in the Britanny role (who was then only ever intended to be a background character) but Heather Morris was given the part after teaching Chris and Jenna the Single Ladies dance.
  • The Don't You Want Me duet between Blaine and Rachel shows what a lot of duets would have been like if Darren Criss was cast as Finn, the part he originally auditioned for.
  • Aaron Tveit also auditioned for the part of Finn. Some of the more Broadway-obsessed portions of the fandom wish he had gotten the part.
  • Max Adler also auditioned for one of the male leads, and after hearing him sing and seeing him act one wonders why he wasn't cast as one.
  • Sam was originally intended to be the Kurt's romantic interest, but at the last minute the writers decided Chord's chemistry with Dianna Agron meant he would be better as Quinn's boyfriend. At the end of season 2 he and Mercedes had a Relationship Reveal that was supposed to continue on into the next season, but unfortunately Chord declined to come back after his option as a series regular wasn't picked up.
    • It was relaunched though
  • Telly Leung (Wes' actor) originally auditioned for Blaine.
  • Samuel Larsen of The Glee Project (and eventual winner) auditioned for Sam.
  • Naya Rivera (Santana) had originally auditioned for the part of Mercedes

• Rachel and Quinn used to be real-life roommates.
  • The list turns out to be even longer. Lea Michele has lived with Dianna Agron, Jonathon Groff, Naya Rivera, Heather Morris, Chris Colfer and Jenna Ushkowitz.