The Glee cast is surprised they’re such a Hot Topic

As I said earlier, the Gleek Tour kicked off in Boston (well, Natick) yesterday, and we were on-hand to talk with Cory Monteith, Lea Michele, Amber Riley, Chris Colfer, Jenna Ushkowitz, Kevin McHale, Dianna Agron, and Mark Salling of the cast of Glee. No Jane Lynch in attendance, unfortunately.

Something that’s been bugging me (and probably a whole lot of people) about the show is the incredible hype surrounding the show after only one episode has aired. We’ve all seen our share of shows fail horribly after an awesome pilot (for me, The Nine comes to mind), so my guard is up with it comes to Glee. When we asked everyone about any fears they had, the answer was pretty unanimous: no fear at all. In fact, they all said the show only gets better from here on out.

Cory Monteith, in particular, said there were three or so episodes that simply stand out as incredible, one being the first episode when the show officially starts on September 9, titled “Showmance.” We couldn’t get out of him which other episodes he was talking about. I caught “Showmance” last night, and am happy to report that it’s really good. Great musical numbers, story, humor, and quotables galore. The third episode, though, does sag a little and starts to get a little too crazy at times, and it starts to test the dramatic waters a bit more.

In person, Dianna Agron was the polar opposite of her Glee character: open, cordial, and easy to talk to. We asked her if there were plans to have more of an American Idol tie-in to the show, seeing as it’s airing so close to the show. From what she had to say, it sounds like there’s definitely talk to have members of Idol appear on the show, though that would have to be if another group of episodes got picked up. But what about the reverse, having the Glee cast appear and perform on Idol? If that’s going to happen, the cast doesn’t know about it yet. Hey — Dianna thought it was an interesting idea.

Something I had a hard time believing was how surprised everyone was at the fan turn-out outside the Hot Topic. When we showed up, the line to get in was pretty significant. If you can believe it, the cast thought there were going to be ten people there to see them; 20 tops. I guess it takes reading and writing about TV so often to understand how vast the hype is for a show, when these guys seemed to have no idea. Just wait until they hit the other cities! The looks on their faces when they saw the crowd truly showed surprise.

One of the most common questions I heard asked (and have heard asked in other interviews) is what song they’d like to perform the most. Besides Agron’s answer of “Moon River,” the other answers were hard to keep up with because they seemed to change on the fly.

Most (all?) of the cast is using Twitter, and those I asked said it was something they fell into organically, though the producers and such did sort of encourage them to get accounts and make use of them to help the show out. At least a few of them are: @alittlelamb, @IJennaUsh, @druidDUDE, @MsAmberRiley, @msleamichele, and @chriscolfer. Something more shows are doing these days is creating accounts for the fictional characters on the show, like @QuinnFabrayGLEE, for example. At least Agron isn’t updating her character’s account herself, though I’m not sure of the others.

When we asked Cory Monteith about the early hype of the show, he came right out and asked us if we were sick of hearing about it. “Everyone CALM DOWN,” as he put it. Just the fact that he asked that question seems to indicate that, yes, these guys are (or at least Cory is) a little afraid that there’s going to be way too much talk about Glee even before it gets fully off the ground and then finds its footing. Sometimes there’s only so much you can take.

Remember when I asked them all what the most common question was that they get? Actually, it was “What’s ‘Glee‘ and who are you?” Sure, it sounds like they’re joking, but likely they’re not. While standing outside the Hot Topic near a hoard of screaming, singing fans, more than a few people came up to ask me what the show was. So while folks like me who read about TV every day have heard the praises of Glee sung multiple times daily, via blogs and Twitter, the casual viewer doesn’t know what Glee is, or who these people are performing in it. The challenge they face is making an impression on those people now, not the ones who’ve already made up their minds.

Thanks to FOX, Hot Topic and the cast of Glee for giving us the time to talk with everyone, and good luck with the rest of the season! So far it’s looking to not disappoint.

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Aug 18, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT