Tyler Golden/FOX(NEW YORK) — After six seasons and hundreds of songs, the cultural phenomenon that is Glee takes its final bow Friday night on Fox.
Friday’s series finale is a two-parter. The first part, titled “2009,” flashes back to the show’s beginnings, and shows how all the characters came to audition for New Directions.
The second part, “Dreams Come True,” flashes forward five years. Lea Michele’s Rachel will take her final solo on an original song called “This Time,” written by Darren Criss, who plays Blaine. The show’s final number is a fitting one: “I Lived,” by OneRepublic.
When Glee first debuted in 2009, it was new and different: a dramedy set in high school with a largely unknown young cast, incorporating multiple musical performances of songs old and new — from the latest chart hits to standards — all of which were made available for digital download each week. Also different was the show’s embrace of LGBT and differently-abled characters, and its message of loving yourself, no matter what.
Glee’s impact on the charts over the past six years speaks for itself: the show has sold close to 69 million singles and more than 13 million albums worldwide. In addition, the Glee cast now holds the record as the act with the most chart entries on the Billboard Hot 100: a whopping 207. The most popular was the show’s de facto theme song, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which hit #4 on the chart, and has gone platinum plus. Four different versions of the song were performed throughout the show’s run.
Glee proved that the concept of making songs available each week from a scripted show — as opposed to from a reality singing competition — could work, and the model has been used for Smash, Nashville and Empire, among others.
With a few exceptions, most musicians were happy to allow Glee to cover their songs, because it usually resulted in a boost to their back catalogs. Over the years, the show aired episodes devoted to the music of Britney Spears, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, Madonna, Billy Joel, Lady Gaga, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Glee also attracted musicians as guest stars, including Britney Spears, Ricky Martin, Olivia Newton-John, Adam Lambert, Demi Lovato, and Gloria Estefan. Actors and actresses who could sing were also featured frequently, from Neil Patrick Harris and Kristen Chenoweth, to a pre-Frozen Idina Menzel and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Over its run, Glee turned its young cast into teen idols, inspired two tours, a 3-D movie, and a boatload of merchandise. It also collected six Emmys, four Golden Globe Awards, six Teen Choice Awards, a People’s Choice Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
However, it never recovered from a major tragedy: the 2013 death of star Cory Monteith. Three months later, after an episode dedicated to his memory, “The Quarterback,” aired, Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy announced the show’s sixth season would be its last.
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