Talking with Ryan Murphy, the creator of the upcoming musical sitcom Glee, is like talking to Johnny Depp; he is impossibly cool, he speaks in prose and strings together endless interesting ideas, and he never makes you feel like you're not as good as him because he doesn't have to. You know you aren't.
Murphy spoke with us in a conference call Friday about how he came up with the show (to premiere fittingly after American Idol on May 19th with the full season debuting this fall) his musical stylings, and the inevitable AI influence.
As Glee is the first musical sitcom within the last 20-or-so years--and with the runaway success of American Idol and High School Musical--it seems like this show's premise is long overdue. We're just sad we didn't think of the idea first.
Glee is the classic tale of high school underdogs--in this case the glee club--taken under wing by a big hearted professor following his passion--in this case song and dance. For example, in the pilot and first few episodes, some unsuspecting popular kids will jump on board and the group will cover Journey's "Don't Stop" in a modern, groovy fashion and voila--the musical magic begins.
"All the episodes, we're writing them thematically," Murphy said. "Obviously you don't do that for a pilot because a pilot is just sort of an origins tale, but it really just comes down to stuff that I like and stuff that I think fits the characters and moves the story along. And also, with every episode, we do between five and eight music numbers, and my goal is to really try and give the audience something for everybody."
Murphy was mum when it came to what specific musical numbers could be expected, and would only say that the songs would be ones that people know, mirroring the American Idol 'comfort food' playlist.
But Glee won't just be old fashioned, Brady Bunch family sing-alongs around the TV.
"I've always been hesitant to do a network show," said Ryan, who previously created FX's raunchy Nip/Tuck, about as far you can get from the PG fare of Glee. "I've never had much luck with it just because I think my voice is pretty specific and a little bit subversive. But I wanted to do a show that appeals to everybody. I want to do a show that has a bigger heart and is kinder--but make no mistake, it still has an edge, and Fox has been supportive of that."
Murphy said, naturally, that American Idol was a bit of an inspiration for the show.
"I was very inspired by the American Idol idea just because I think the key is to do songs that people know and interpret them in a different and unusual way," he said. "So people always say, are you nervous about doing a musical on television? I always say, well, not really because the most successful TV show in the history of television is a musical, and the most successful TV show on right now is a musical, and that's American Idol, and I think that we've sort of learned some lessons from why that show works, and hopefully adopted them to sort of post-modern thing that we're doing."
Murphy is doing what so many have done before him, taken a great idea and skewed it for his own ends (notable mention: the Snuggie, as stolen from the original idea, the blanket). Well played, sir, well played.
Will you watch Glee? What classic TV shows could be remade into modern television goodness? Flipper, anyone?
We already got a sneak peek at the show's pilot. To see if you should tune in, check out our review of the pilot later this week.