Glee’s NZ air date and time slot announced

American critics have hailed the series as one of the best new shows of the season, and audiences agree… Now Glee is hitting New Zealand screens with the season premiere screening on Friday, November 6th at 7:30pm on 3.

The brainchild of Ryan Murphy, the creator of Nip/Tuck, Glee is about a group of social outcasts, misfits and rejects who come together to form a less than respected Glee club. With the help of their enthusiastic teacher – their aim is to make it to the state champs and become stars.

This could sound like a giant cliché, but under Murphy’s direction, Glee is anything but. In fact, Glee is one of the standout gems of the American spring season.

It is packed full of quirky but complex characters and teams an innocent purity with a rather off beat and at times cutting sense of humour. Murphy says, “The show really is about underdogs, and I think the key to the tone and the heart of the show is that people will love them because they are underdogs.”

After the success of Nip/Tuck, Murphy says he wanted “to do a show that appeals to everybody. I’ve done a cable show and that to me was a big challenge.”

Glee is a huge change in direction for Murphy, “I’ve done sort of eight years of darkness and really adult stuff, and I was like, OK, I want to try something different. I want to do a show that has a bigger heart and is kinder, but make no mistake. It still has an edge, and they’ve [Fox, Glee’s production company] been supportive of that.”

While Glee is jam-packed full of magical musical numbers, it certainly isn’t The Sound of Music. “I was interested in doing a musical, but I wanted to do sort of a post-modern musical” Murphy explains. He says that he wasn’t interested in doing a show where people suddenly burst into song. Murphy had three rules; characters could sing when they are performing, when they are in the rehearsal room or in fantasy sequences.

“I think that, for me, gave it some sort of life and structure, and I think that makes it more accessible to people.” The cast of Glee won’t be found singing when they should be talking!

Murphy summaries Glee by saying, “I wanted it to be snarky, and I wanted it to have attitude, and I also wanted it to have heart, and I wanted the musical numbers to be spectacular.”

And if the critic’s comments are anything to go by, Murphy has achieved his aim! Make sure not to miss Glee, premiering on Friday, November 6th at 7:30pm on 3.

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