Hello Gleeks from the Paley Fest

The FOX musicomedy Glee was saluted at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills as part of the 27th Annual Paley Fest on Saturday, March 13. This annual event spotlights some of the most popular shows of each television season and this night’s event was the highlight of the whole event because it had the largest attendance of the entire 2010 festival.

Ryan Murphy and Dianna Argon at Glee's Paley Festival event / Wireimage

The night started off with the Paley Festival’s introductory video followed by a clip from the Center’s archive inspired by the series Glee. Oddly enough the clip was a musical number from The Brady Bunch Hour, which brought a great deal of laughter from the capacity crowd.

As always, the Paley Center’s Executive Director Craig Hitchcock kicked off the evening with the greeting, “Hello, Gleeks,” which received a huge round of applause. He then stated that with only 13 episodes under its belt Glee has become an international phenomenon. He soon introduced Debra Birnbaum from TV Guide, who served as the host for the night’s event. Debra spoke briefly on the show stating, “It’s a comedy, it’s a musical, it’s Jane Lynch”. After the cheers lessened for this great actress, Debra introduced the director’s cut of the episode that will air on April 13.

After this superbly entertaining and extremely funny episode, Debra returned to the stage to bring out the night’s moderator – Marc Malkin from E! Entertainment Online. In turn, Marc began the lengthy introduction of all the cast and crew, including Executive Producer Dante Di Loreto, Co-Creators and Executive Producers Ian Brennan and Brad Fulchuk; new multi-episode guest star Jonathon Groff (who was featured in the screened episode) joined cast members Jessalyn Gilsig, Jenna Ushkowitz, Kevin McHale, Dianna Agron, Mark Salling, Jayma Mays, Chris Colfer, Amber Riley, Cory Monteith, Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison. Rounding out the panel was Co-Creator and Executive Producer Ryan Murphy.

NOTE: Lea Michele (who plays Rachel) could not attend the night’s event.

The first question from Marc was where did the idea for the show come from to which Ryan stated that he surprised FOX executives when he told them he wanted to do a family musical as his next project as a follow-up to his dark series Nip/Tuck. Ryan further explained that Ian had written a feature script that was dark, but which caught his attention. They rewrote the script for television and it became the series we now know it to be. Ryan also stated that much of the show was born out of his childhood.

Kevin McHale, Ian Brennan and Amber Riley at Glee's Paley Festival event / Wireimage

Ryan was then asked about all the cover songs that have been featured in the episodes thus far; and he surprised the audience by stating that, “we are going to do an episode during the second season that has original music.”

The talk then turned to the audition process with the following being shared:

Ryan: “We went all over the country for four months” (to cast the roles) and spent a lot of time in New York. “Everybody who auditioned had to act, sing and dance.”

Cory: He didn’t actually audition by singing, but played the drums and, ironically, that was “what got him the part.”

Matthew: He played the ukulele and sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

Jane: “I didn’t have to audition” as Ryan revealed that the part of Sue Sylvester was written especially for her.

Chris: He actually auditioned for the part of Artie (which is played by Kevin McHale), but Ryan ended up writing the part of Kurt especially for Chris. To which Chris noted that “a lot of people (who) weren’t so nice to (me) claim to have been (my) best friend, which I found fascinating because I don’t forget easily”.

Jayma Mays and Matthew Morrison at Glee's Paley Festival event / Wireimage

Amber: She shared that her not making American Idol was the best thing to happen to her because she ended up on Glee instead.

Mark: He auditioned with the Mohawk and they kept it; however, the Mohawk was gone during the panel and Ryan explained that Mark wanted a change.

Marc then brought up the risqué dialogue that seems to get past the censors to which Ian explained that the network’s  Standards and Practices are “actually on their side, are actually not that bad and protect them from the groups who want to boycott the show.”

Obviously talk turned to all the music featured in the show with Ryan explaining that Steve Perry got behind the script for the first episode which featured the Journey classic “Don’t Stop Believin’” and that got the ball rolling for songs featured in future episodes. Ryan did explain that while they all contribute to the song selection, they are getting calls now from artists who say, “Please can you put my song on the show?” Notably, Matthew was the first to mutter that Coldplay is one of the artists to say “No!” to their songs being covered on the series and then Ryan shared that Bryan Adams has also said no.

A few artists who have NOT said no to their songs being featured on the show include:

• Neil Diamond whose song “Sweet Caroline” was featured with Mark Salling (Puck) singing and playing guitar. It was also revealed by Marc (the moderator) that he learned Neil Diamond actually “tweeted” about the song being featured in the episode;

Jane Lynch and Cory Monteith at Glee's Paley Festival event / Wireimage

• Madonna, who will have a tribute episode dedicated entirely to her with10 of her songs being featured, including a just finished “makeover sequence” where Sue (aka Jane Lynch) remakes the entire “Vogue” video in black & white with replicas of the same costumes used in the original video;

• Billy Joel and Aerosmith will be featured in the episode guest starring Neil Patrick Harris (and being directed by Joss Whedon) as Will’s nemesis from high school who is out to destroy New Directions; and,

• Lady Gaga who will also have a song featured in an upcoming episode.

Some of the other highlights of the night included:

Ryan revealing that Rachel and Puck – affectionately known as Puckleberry on set – will be back together; in fact, Puck “has an affair with nearly every lady on the show”.

Accidents were prevalent during the “Wheels” episode, but Kevin still has spills when in Artie’s wheelchair. Also, Amber had a pretty bad fall off the stage in the wheelchair during the filming of the “Proud Mary” sequence. There were also a lot of accidents during the making of the pilot as it was a bit like “boot camp” for all them in the making of that episode.

Chris Colfer and Dianna Agron at Glee's Paley Festival event / Wireimage

Kurt and his father are actually based on Ryan and his father. It was Ryan’s hope for Kurt to be an inspiration to other gay teens. He also confirmed the reports that Kurt will be getting a boyfriend and he hopes they become the “power couple” of McKinley High.

Rachel’s gay fathers will not be seen this season.

Jayma joked that fans feel compelled to tell her about their issues in relation to her character Emma’s germaphobic issues.

A lot of American Idol contestants have asked to be featured on the show, including ones from 4 or 5 seasons in the past. Ryan has stated he hasn’t said no to them, but has asked they submit a tape.

Also as reported earlier in the press, a website will soon be up where auditions can be uploaded, allowing for 3 to 4 new actors to be added to the show next season.

People actually come up to Ryan “pretty much every day” breaking out in song and dance.

One audience member asked if Finn’s mother and Kurt’s father would ever be paired together and Ryan revealed they already shot an episode with that exact story idea.

After being asked by an audience member, who is a teacher, if there were teachers who inspired the cast, Matthew spoke about one of his English teachers. He mentioned that the porcelain wiener dog that can be seen in the classroom on the show was taken from this teacher and it is there in dedication to him.

The panel was reluctantly brought to an end because of the lateness of the evening; and as the fans descended on the stage, nearly all of the cast members stuck around to sign autographs for the crowd.

The next new episode of Glee can be seen on FOX on April 13 at 9 PM.