RIP Cory Monteith

[jvcarroll]

Not to derail the conversation about poor Cory and his family, but I have to ask:

If MUPPET fans are not watching Glee (a show about singing and dancing and a huge cast of witty, brightly coloured characters). Who IS?

I watch the program. Sure, it's cheesy and showy and absolutely craptastic at times. So are a lot of the programs, particularly cartoon shows, praised by many here. I could name them, but won't. To each their own tastes.

The point is that it's a popular show and that's why Fox keeps it on the air. They're not known for keeping sluggish shows around for very long. Glee's largest market seems to be among some of the musical theater crowd and LGBT friendly folk. Cardboard as it can be, the program represents more real people than most any other show. No other show embraces the handicapped, gays, transgendered, obese, learning disabled, obsessive compulsives, etc as main players rather than disposable characters for one-off episodes.

Some episodes are better than others. The one thing that bothers me is its grasp on reality. The show tends to lose its voice sometimes and it plays against its own logic. I admit to be growing tired of seeing many of the old characters retrace their steps again and again. Finn was one of the characters that was particularly poorly written last year. They're reportedly changing things up this year, but I won't be unhappy if this is their last bow. Something radical needs to change in order for the program to remain relevant.

Anyway, it's a tragedy that Monteith lost his life. Addiction is a very real thing that can touch any life. I hope that is delicately addressed in the program. It probably will be.

 

[Drtooth]

The one thing that bothers me is its grasp on reality. The show tends to lose its voice sometimes and it plays against its own logic. I admit to be growing tired of seeing many of the old characters retrace their steps again and again. Finn was one of the characters that was particularly poorly written last year. They're reportedly changing things up this year, but I won't be unhappy if this is their last bow. Something radical needs to change in order for the program to remain relevant.

That's why I couldn't get into it. It wants to be a darker, more realistic thing than High School Musical, Then it takes a sharp turn in between smug self-awareness and complete cartoonishness. I'm glad they gave Sue some sort of depth at some point. Otherwise, instead of having a disabled girl as her sidekick, she might as well have a raggedy brown dog that likes medals and wheezes when he laughs. I admit that I could watch it in 5 minute intervals when someone forces me to... but overall, it rubs me the wrong way.

 

[FrackleFan2012]

(Sorry for the late reply)

My parents told me the news the day that Cory died. A shock to all Glee fans everywhere.

 

[snichols1973]

There was always a lack of creative freedom. This isn't new. The Dick Van Dyke show came out of the network not wanting a show just about writing for a show, and they demanded a family element.

At first the producers objected to Mary Tyler Moore wearing Capri pants on the Dick Van Dyke Show because it didn't fit the "average housewife" image, yet M.T.M. ultimately told the producers that most of the housewives she knew wore pants, which would start a fashionable trend, and just a little more than a decade later, the old-fashioned stereotypes of women being "housewives and/or mothers" would soon make way for the feminist movement as women would seek equal status in regards to careers, financial opportunities, etc.

They forced the 1960's Batman show to get a HUGE budget cut that made the show not campy bad, but actually BAD bad. They wouldn't let the cops from C.H.i.P.S. use their guns. And like I said in another thread, they would not let anything on kid's television that wasn't a Smurf knockoff or some classic cartoon character's lame son. Networks always had their say. Sometimes they were really hands off, sometimes their meddling made the show better.

It seems harsher now because no one really watches TV anymore, but it's always been the same story

Later cable sitcoms, such as It's Garry Shandling's Show, The Larry Sanders Show et al. managed to borrow the "show within a show" concept from the Dick Van Dyke show, and had success without "watering down" the shows' content, making it more suitable for older audiences to watch, in contrast to the days of yore when the FCC watchdogs monitored the programs to make sure they were in conformity with the conservative network standards of the time.