It’s probably safe to assume that Glee fans are going to experience an incredible amount of glee this week, as the popular show not only returns to FOX after a brief hiatus but also gets the star treatment on Bravo and BIO Channel.
The musical drama/comedy rejoins the FOX lineup Tuesday night (8pm ET) with an episode entitled “Big Brother,” which features the seniors ditching class to attend an amusement park. It’s probably also safe to assume we will find out what happened to Dianna Agron’s character Quinn, who was last seen in a horrible car accident that was caused while she was texting while driving. White Collar‘s Matt Bomer (pictured below) also guest-stars as Blaine’s (Darren Criss) older brother Cooper, a Hollywood big shot who teaches an acting master class to the glee club.
As if that’s not enough excitement to appease Gleeks everywhere, fans will be in all their glory with two specials airing this week that include interviews with the cast and behind-the-scenes looks at the show. It all kicks off tonight at 8pm ET with Inside the Actors Studio on Bravo (pictured at top of page), and we are treated to the revelation that co-creator Ryan Murphy was not fully dressed when he was handed the premise for Glee.
“I was at the gym, naked as a jaybird, and this guy came up to me holding a script,” Murphy told host James Lipton. “And he said, ‘I’m just guessing you were in glee club in high school.’ And I said, ‘Oh, God, was it that obvious, yes I was?’ So he gave me a script from a very talented man who is here (in the audience), Mr. Ian Brennan.”
Murphy said it was originally written as an independent film script with very dark overtones.
“Brad Falchuk and I, who were looking to do something together, called Ian in and said, ‘What do you think about turning this into a television show?’ He loved the idea, so we wrote it together; and the day we turned it in it got picked up … it was this very strange never-before-in-my-career effortless sort of birth.”
Perhaps most interesting is the fact that character Sue Sylvester — played by the scene-stealing Jane Lynch — was not included in the original version presented to FOX Entertainment President Kevin Reilly.
“Kevin Reilly said you failed in this script because there is no villain, and that’s not like you,” Murphy recalled. “We kept saying we need a Jane Lynch-type. And finally we just said let’s just go after Jane Lynch. What can we seduce Jane Lynch with? We have to write her character description so funny that she can’t say no. So Ian wrote this great thing that to this day describes Sue. And that was …”
Brennan: “She may or may not have posed for Penthouse but definitely takes horse estrogen.”
It will be tough for BIO Channel to top scoops of that nature, but it will try Tuesday night at 9pm ET with Glee: Keep On Believin’. In addition to interviews with Murphy, Falchuk, Brennan, Lynch and Agron, the special will talk to cast members Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Jayma Mays, Chris Colfer, Jenna Ushkovitz, Darren Criss and Mike O’Malley.
So get out your super-sized slushies, Glee fans, because your week of bliss has arrived. Now we just have to pray that those alleged Penthouse photos of Sue Sylvester never surface.
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Inside the Actors Studio: Credit Anthony Behar/Bravo
Matt Bomer/Glee: © 2012 Fox Broadcasting Co. Credit: Adam Rose/FOX
