Over the course of six seasons run, “Glee” introduced a generation of fans to musical theater and catapulted much of its young cast to stardom. But the show’s co-creator has some surprising thoughts about its conclusion.
In an appearance on the “And That’s What You REALLY Missed” podcast this week, Ryan Murphy said he now believes “Glee” should have ended in 2013 following the sudden death of actor Cory Monteith.
“If I had it to do over again, we would have stopped for a long time and probably wouldn’t have come back,” six-time Emmy winner Murphy told podcast co-hosts Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz , both “Glee.” veterans.
Monteith was a member of the main cast of “Glee” when the series premiered in 2009. He played Finn Hudson, a football player who discovers a passion for music when he is forced to join his high school’s Glee club. In July 2013, the actor died at the age of 31 from a combination of drug and alcohol toxicity.
At the time, “Glee” dealt with Monteith’s death with a special fifth-season episode titled “The Quarterback,” in which Finn’s character died of an unspecified cause. The series itself ended in 2015 after the conclusion of its sixth season.
Murphy now admits it wasn’t the best approach.
Jason LaVeris via Getty Images
“It happened so quickly, with no warning… It’s an episode I could watch once and never watch again,” Murphy explained. If he faces a similar situation in one of his current Hollywood projects, he added, “I would say, ‘This is the end.’ … Because you can’t really recover from something like that.”
Ushkowitz, who played Tina Cohen-Chang on “Glee,” agrees.
“It felt like we were all pushed into an impossible corner,” he said. “There is no good or bad.”
Interestingly, the episode “The Quarterback” came up several times in the recent “Glee” talk. Actor Lea Michele, who played Finn’s girlfriend Rachel Berry on “Glee” and was Monteith’s girlfriend, touched on the episode at a July concert in Washington, DC.
When Michele introduced her rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love,” he recalled performing the first song while paying tribute to Monteith. However, he went on to remark that he never saw “The Quarterback” in its entirety.
“He’s the only one I haven’t seen,” he said. “Because I think if I don’t look at him, it looks like Finn is still there. So this [song] it is very special”.
Listen to Ryan Murphy’s interview on “And That’s What You REALLY Missed” below.
I’m a passionate and motivated journalist with a focus on world news. My experience spans across various media outlets, including Buna Times where I serve as an author. Over the years, I have become well-versed in researching and reporting on global topics, ranging from international politics to current events.