The Morning After: Gotta Sing! Gotta Dance!

I have to say, it was both better and worse than I had thought it would be. (To be fair, I'm a musical buff, myself, so this was right up my alley.)
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Better: The musical numbers were fantastic & the Rehab one was exquisitely choreographed. Even the fakey ones for practice & auditions were fun (Sit Down, You're Rocking... comes to mind). The cast can really belt it out, and Rachel is perfectly played. And Finn's backstory was entertaining.
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Worse: Some of the funnier lines from the extended trailer were left out. Was that intentional? Or did they have to cut them due to time constraints? Otherwise, it was a slightly bizarre blend of earnest and comedic.
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In general, I'm going to take the wait & see approach. If nothing else, the musical numbers are enough to draw me back for a few more episodes.

I think we can all agree that the greatest pilot episode of all time was the pilot for Lost. Correct? I mean, it had a huge budget, was 2-hours, was completely different than anything we'd ever seen on television before, and incredibly introduced us to so many well-written characters without resorting to stereotyping, etc....in short, a phenomenal pilot.
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(And James, if you're looking for a summer discussion topic, maybe listing your favorite pilots of all time in preparation for pilot season in the fall might be fun....)
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So if Lost is the best/most-perfect pilot ever, than Glee was very, VERY good. The central focus of the show -- show choir or glee club -- was nailed perfectly as what it is: an activity that involves/requires incredible talent (see the other school's amazing version of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab") but is also inherently ridiculous and bizarre (see the lyrics to "Rehab," and the fact that those lyrics were being performed by a high school show choir in a bombastic/Broadway-style musical song and dance number). The talent on the show, both musically and acting-wise, is clearly there: Matthew Morrison as Will nailed the conflicted aspect of his character (provide for his family or do what makes him happy); Lea Michele is simply phenomenally talented, but brought a little Tracy Flick to Rachel Berry ("There is nothing ironic about show choir!") while hinting at the pain that the ridiculing cheerleaders cause; Cory Monteith as Finn seemed to be channeling a meld of Chris Klein's "Election" and "American Pie" characters; Jayma Mays was adorable; and Jane Lynch simply steals every scene she's in ("Gotta do a phoner -- that's a phone interview -- with a major media outlet. I'll probably do it on my iPhone."). They even found time for a guest spot by Stephen Tobolowsky! (Seriously, make him a regular!)
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So that was all awesome....but even better, they NAILED it with BOTH musical numbers -- showing the excellence of the other high school's "Rehab," while showing us the burgeoning talent of New Directions (no one is going to point out the pun in that name?) that still has a LONG way to go to compete at a top level with Don't Start Believing.
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Now where does Glee need to improve? They need to flesh the characters out to be a little more real. Obviously, pilots rely on shorthand and quick stereotypes, but for this show to be phenomenal, they have to progress into showing all of these characters as well-rounded people, albeit maybe a bit quirky in certain ways. Jessalyn Gessig, for example, is great, but I got no sense of why she and Will would be together. Make the kids more complex, and less stereotypes (sassy black woman/fashionable possibly gay kid/nerdy kid in wheelchair/meat-headed football player friend of Finn's). And, aside from this, SHOW US THE STRUGGLE -- the kids working hard, only to make incremental steps in improving. It's clear they have talent, but show us that talent isn't enough -- that to be the best, you need to work hard. Show us them working hard, failing, working harder, and ultimately winning.
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Overall, though, a great debut. It's on my DVR "do not delete" list, and will be for a long time.

My biggest problem with the pilot is the sense that the whole thing could turn into the "Rachel and Finn" show -- the finale (Don't Stop Believing) could, and should, have included solo turns by the entire cast; instead it marginalized the everyone else to concentrate on the two characters who already had been provided more than enough face time in the episode.
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I also think that the "glee clubs" are way too heavily choreographed -- the focus should be on the music, not the movement (especially if you have an important role for a wheelchair-bound character).
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and I'm uncomfortable with two other aspects --
1)an overall sense of homophobia that derives from "gay" being presented as weak (Kurt), corrupt (Sandy Ryerson, and stupid (Rachel's fathers)
2) the whole "bad marriage" angle, which seems both unnecessary and a potential distraction from what should be the focus of the show.

Raise your hand if you went to Itunes immediately after the show and downloaded "Don't Stop Believing"!

Really enjoyed it and must make time to watch it a second and maybe third time because their was so much character info to pick up on.

::Raises Hand:: (I definitely bought it.)

I thought the show was a lot of fun. It has a ton of potential. It was fun to watch a pilot of a show that made me want to watch again.

@Chaddogg didn't we recently do best pilots ever? I thought we did that a few months ago. Lost was my vote also. I shared an amusing anecdote! Everyone agreed it was the perfect comment.
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I may have some of this wrong...

**raises hand** It's number 2 there!

Just finished watching the Pilot - so good! Loved everything about it. I really liked how the soundtrack was made of people singing. Now the anticipation for the rest of the season is probably gonna kill me. XD

@Rorschach -- we probably did do best pilots ever, and I'm losing my memory. Still, the point is -- Glee has a good one, although one that has very minor imperfections. Fix those (indeed, FOX may repackage the pilot and change it in minor ways for the fall re-premiere) and the pilot could go from good to great. If not, so long as those changes are made eventually, the SERIES will be good.

So an ambitious series trying to have satire, parody and straight underdog drama. Largely in fine voice although, as Randy would say, it was a bit pitchy.

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The best thing-Lea Michele as Rachel. Not only a great singing talent, but she gets this character, gets the satire down cold. It is very hard to play excessive ambition and find a heart to the character and she does both, superlatively well. We can mock her and root for her at the same time. To a lesser degree, the same can be said of the male lead, the lunkhead football player. And in its satirical purpose of people wanting to get ahead, the show is not afraid to puncture its hero: the strongest non performance scene was Will framing one of his students.

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The parody works especially with the Jane Lynch character ("You think this is tough, try being waterboarded") but the whole idea of subverting high school cliches (making the lunkhead have a singing voice, for example) only works if they are real, and not TV/movie high school cliches. In real life, high school is not that starkly clique stratified. The captain of the football team can be the best honors student and cheerleaders aren't cruel and vapid. So the stereotypes are created by the show itself, following a long line of American teen pop culture. Referring to it to deflate it then becomes self-reflexive. Finn's speech at the end about doing both glee and football becomes not a brave, rousing point for the character but a "well, duh" moment for the audience.

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And if this officially called a preview instead of a pilot, I can understand why. Everything felt rushed. In their desire to introduce characters, set up New Directions, show practice, show doubt, show the contest, and everything with Will's dilemma, and do it all in one hour (really, 42 minutesish), they slightly sacrificed emotion. So at Journey's end, when we see them coming together and doing great for the first time, we feel good but not soaring uplift, like we're meant too. Good for Murphy and Co. for packing in as much as to make us interested in what happens next; I just wish we could have slowed it down a bit so we could really feel the coming together of a team. (It's like a movie about process--like Cast Away or a Werner Herzog film: the fascination and drama lies in seeing something created or done no matter what it is or how long it takes)

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I agree with everybody here in that the wife has to go. Why would he marry her if she is manipulative (like it looks like she will get), mean and addicted to pottery? Also, the central problem of this episode wasn't really plausible to me. The school didn't look like it was hurting financially too much. And how can that be if the cheerleading squad is nationally (?) known. So why would a teacher not be able to make enough to support a small family especially when starting over at a new job (I forget what it actually was only that the company name combined H.W Bush and H.L Mencken. Shudder) would knock him lower in salary? But I did like Lynch and Charlie in a parallel universe became an adorable germophobe teacher. Yay! Overall, a good start.

@rosseau: "So at Journey's end, when we see them coming together and doing great for the first time, we feel good but not soaring uplift, like we're meant too."
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Maybe I'm missing your point (and I certainly might be), but I don't take the "Don't Stop Believing" as an uplifting moment, per se, or even as New Directions (really? Nude Erections? No one else saw that?) doing great -- what we WERE supposed to see (or, at least, I chose to see) was that these kids did have talent, and with hard work and the right people "believing" in them (aka Will), they could tap into that talent and take it to incredible places. So we got a somewhat lamely choreographed finale that Will gives a "9" quite appropriately -- they're good, and have clear talent....but getting from 9 to 10 is going to be a big struggle (that hopefully will play out all season/series long).

Loved it!!!

@Chaddogg: Yeah, the moment was a step in the ultimate process culminating in--if every underdog movie/TV show ever made is to be believed--the scene where they win the competition, where the true uplift occurs. But to me, the the end of the episode was the culmination of the group getting together and seeing what, if anything, they had. After the first few bumps, when they mesh together in this scene, it is, I think, a moment where we in the audience feel good that they CAN do this, and we feel uplifted. (The we of course is me). And the song choice is, in lyric and music, such a happy, inspiring one, so all of that led me to say that if they had witheld the moment a little longer, showed more of the trials and tribulations, then it would have been a more soaring scene

Wow. That is a great catch with the name.