The Last Song: Glee Series Finale Tonight!

After six shocking, touching and groundbreaking seasons, FOX’s beloved musical comedy Glee comes to an end tonight. The series chronicled the lives of a talented group of outsiders as they came together in their high-school glee club, followed them as they ventured post-graduation beyond the halls of McKinley High to the bright lights of New York and then came full circle as they returned home to Lima.

Glee Series Finale

In tonight’s two-hour finale, Glee goes back in time to find out why the original members of New Directions initially signed up for glee club. Then, the show flashes forward to see how the character’s lives have progressed five years down the road.

Tonight’s Cast: Lea Michele as Rachel Berry; Chris Colfer as Kurt Hummel; Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson; Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans; Jane Lynch as Sue; Matthew Morrison as Will; Dot-Marie Jones as Coach Beiste; Lauren Potter as Becky; Becca Tobin as Kitty Wilde; Laura Dreyfuss as Madison McCarthy; Billy Lewis Jr. as Mason McCarthy; Samantha Ware as Jane Hayward; Marshall Williams as Spencer Porter; Noah Guthrie as Roderick and Iqbal Theba as Principal Figgins.

Tonight’s series finale also features Guest Stars: Geraldo Rivera as himself; Jonathan Groff as Jesse St. James; Andrew Rannells as himself; Mark Salling as Puck Puckerman; Kevin McHale as Artie Abrams; Amber Riley as Mercedes Jones; Jenna Ushkowitz as Tina Cohen-Chang; Jayma Mays as Emma Pillsbury; Dianna Agron as Quinn Fabray; Naya Rivera as Santana Lopez; Heather Morris as Brittany S. Pierce; Jessalyn Gilsig as Terri Schuester; Melissa Benoist as Marley Rose; Jacob Artist as Jake Puckerman; Alex Newell as Unique and Blake Jenner as Ryder.

Fans of the show, known collectively as “gleeks,” found a place of refuge and a source of strength and acceptance through the often-turbulent high-school and young adult years.

The series covered pop’s top songs, reimagined classic chart-toppers and tackled issues that press today’s teens, including pregnancy, homophobia, eating disorders and bullying. The show also handled the 2013 death of star Cory Monteith with remarkable grace. Which was your favorite Glee moment? Is there a song that you wished the song had covered? (Mine is Geronimo by Sheppard)

Glee turned some of Broadway’s biggest young talents — like Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison — into household names, featured glittering guest stars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Idina Menzel, Neil Patrick Harris and Britney Spears, and launched co-creator Ryan Murphy into a brand unto himself.

I remember watching the first episode of Glee with great anticipation. Any show that promises singing and dancing is a show I can get behind. I do remember being mildly wierded out by the idea of, “I have something I want to say, but to do so, we need to go into the auditorium where I’ve prepared a highly choreographed routine,” but I guess I learned to accept that as part of the show’s charm. I guess I expected them to randomly break into song — a la dream sequence — and then return to the scene already in progress.

Check out this cute photo of the cast from Season 1! –>

The show had lots of really fantastic performances but the one that stands out for me is the Season 1 face off between Kurt and Rachel for a solo.

I though Kurt’s performance of “Defying Gravity” (from the Broadway Musical Wicked) was inspired. (Here is an utterly terrible copy of the performance.) What was your favorite performance?

I also loved that the show’s popularity spawned the reality show, The Glee Project, where fans of the show could compete for a story-arc on the series. The series aired for 2 seasons on Oxygen and spawned characters: “Teen Jesus” Joe Hart (played by dreadlocked Christian Joe Larsen) foreign exchange Student Rory Flanagan (portrayed by Irish singer Damian McGinty Jr.) Rider Lynn (Glee Project Season 2 winner Blake Jenner), and even a few non-winners earned guest-starring story arcs, Lindsay Pierce, Alex Newell (who became a regular cast member due to the his brilliant gender-morphic character, Wade “Unique” Adams) and Ali Stroker.

Glee Series Finale > FOX > Friday, March 20 8pm ET