Re: General Glee Discussion Thread--Part 6

[Ranwing]

does lea have any plans for summer concerts/tours?

I think she announced a 'worldwide' tour for this summer.

She made a general statment about touring this summer (think it was in a tweet), but so far we haven't heard a thing about any dates for Lea to be out performing. Considering that most of the venues are now booked for the season (summer being the busiest season for musical venues), if they don't have dates and venues already lined up, they're not going to get them now.

The problem for Lea is multifold. The first being time constraints, in that she only would have a few weeks to be out touring and it would end up being something along the lines of what Darren did. With her album sales being what they are, there is only so much that the label would want to pony up to pay for her to tour (and without touring, album sales will continue to slide) and she would likely be playing very small venues. Being a successful musican means hard work and a lot of touring which Lea is unable to do at this point. I just get the feeling that Lea is trying to use shortcuts, like counting on cross-promotion with the book and using her music videos as a substitute. We'll see in the coming weeks if it did any good to boost sales.

I'll be the first to agree that Lea's management isn't doing right by her and is steering her in the wrong direction. I think she needs to figure out what she wants to do (music, films, theater, etc) and focus. She needs to have people around her who are honest and upfront about what kind of offers she can get and help her weed out crap like Legends of Oz and steer her towards something that can actually propell her to a lasting post-Glee career. If she wants to be a recording artist, then she's got to be willing to do the hard work and tour her ass off in order to sell units and fill theater seats. Someone is giving her very bad advice and she needs less of "you're so wonderful" and more "sit down and focus".

[Ranwing]

Filming Glee in Late July makes the most amount of sense to me, I guess the biggie will be the announcement by FOX how many episodes are ordered.

I read somewhere that June 30 is the last date to announce someone as a regular on a show.

More than Chris, I'm thinking the bigger accommodation is to keep Jane and Matt viable on the show, so I suspect a "Lima" heavy focus somehow.  

It will all be over I suspect within 7 months regardless.

I'm expecting LA to be the primary focus at first, with NY and Lima taking a smaller portion of screen time. Without Chris, the real burden of carrying the show will fall to Lea and if they give her character a decent storyline then it could work. But given that this season they had her rocket from being a conservatory student to a critically acclaimed Broadway lead to setting out for LA to film a tv pilot, and her personality wildly veering from self-entitled diva to everyone's bestest friend, the odds of that happening are pretty damn slim.

If the show is picking up after a significant time jump, it will be very simple to explain Chris's absence. The show loves meta, so they can say that he's away working on a film (or touring with a show). They can have Blaine starting out professionally performing in NY to hold down that portion of the storyline. Artie never gets real focus, but they can have him out of film school and working in NY on a tv show or small film. Sam will carry Lima and work to rebuild ND and Rachel will continue her rise to superstardom in LA. It will be predictable and boring and won't take more than a few episodes before the whole thing grinds to a dull conclusion with everyone successful and happy and Kurt (gags) married to Blaine.

[fantastica]

glee is basically unwatchable for me and having to force myself to watch even the kurt edit (because now he's re-attached to blaine) is more or less torture, so for selfish reasons I don't care if glee will feature kurt/chris much less due to a shortened season.

[Buenos]

I think it's way, way too early based on what they've done so far to get a feel who is going to or not going to  be more successful post Glee.  Chris I admit has had the most outside success with his Land of Stories books, however I would also say Lea's national endorsement for L'oreal and I think Candies and other products, as well as her magazine covers shows that people think she's marketable and I have no doubt she will get other opportunities once Glee finishes.

The only one IMO who is in an image wise precarious position at the moment is Naya Rivera.  She was is/is not fired  (??) from Glee, was written off the Season finale, seems to have had her recording contract terminated and she was supposedly in a feud with Lea which hit even the traditional media.   I think Naya has to be careful post
Glee.  FWIW, I do think recording wise she has the most commercial appeal, (voice and persona) but the odds are daunting so like Ranwing, I think most of them are not going to get a major recording career. 

As to Lea and Darren, while most people here dont' like them, I'm sure they will get more than their fair share of offers and opportunities post Glee.  As well Kevin, Amber, Chord, etc.  The thing is , you just don't know whose opportunities will pan out best.  Say Kevin, gets a role in an ensemble TV show, a comedy and it becomes a huge hit, he could be the most successful of all.

Chris has several things ,  the LOS series which I suspect will sell even better this year, it seems to be building a core audience who will follow it and I don't think it will stop at five books, TBH.   The "Robo Dog" could be a franchise if successful.  OF course the riskiest but with the biggest payback (critically)  potentially is taking on the "Noel" movie in England.  Yet the final products are yet to be seen.

Look at the cast of Seinfeld.  Julia Dreyfuss after a few misfires is as hot as ever, but it's so hard to predict because even prestigious products or with good pedigrees can bomb.
We just don't know.

[fantastica]

a lot of time we assume that a particular actor has "disappeared" but he/she has still been able to find employment, just not in any high-profile ones.

i am sure most of the glee kids will find employment here and there.

[Buenos]

a lot of time we assume that a particular actor has "disappeared" but he/she has still been able to find employment, just not in any high-profile ones.

i am sure most of the glee kids will find employment here and there.

Mark Hamill of "Star Wars" fame is a perfect example.  He's had a very lucrative career doing mainly voice overs in animated series through the decades.

For myself, personally, I don't want to be type of fan who wishes ill on someone's post Glee career because of their fans, etc.  That's just me.  I wish them all well.

[Ranwing]

Buenos, I'm not going to disagree that it's too early to tell who's going to have the long-term career post-Glee and who wont. But there are some signs of who is, at least for now, off to a good start when we look not only at their potential, but what they've actually accomplished.

Lea - I think Lea has enormous potential if she choses the right jobs and channels her talents correctly. She's beautiful and talented both as a singer and actress. And she has gotten a good deal in the way of endorsements and magazine covers, but up until now everything about her marketing is done as Lea Michele from Glee. She hasn't had any big successes outside of Glee that allow her to be seen as a seperate entity from the show (an even bigger challenge since she is the main lead). What I would suggest is that she start selling herself as an independent and not just the star of a fading TV show. She also needs to really select the right projects because while I don't doubt that she's getting offers, it's picking the right ones that can really help her mainstream career. I think she also needs to really decide what she wants to be - it's possible to be an actress who sings or a singer who acts, but knowing where her concentration will be is going to go a long way towards helping her pick the right projects and try to reach the right audience.

Darren - I can't stand him and if I never have to see him or his name again after Glee is over, I'll be very happy. But I do recognize that he's the kind of performer that is easily marketable and should have a decent career. He'll never win awards, but he can find work doing the generic romcoms. He doesn't have the vocal chops to doing any part long-term on Broadway (and the honest reviews of his stint in HTSIB were modest to critical). There are much better singers and songwriters out there so he's not going to compete with John Legend or Bruno Mars. I think his best shot is doing film or tv and then it's best if they keep it to light comedy. He doesn't have the acting skills for anything more intense. The one thing that he's really got going for him is that he's halfway good looking and he's marketable. But he needs to jump on that right after Glee and get something lined up fast, otherwise he's going to be forgotten in favor of the next good looking young guy to come along. I would expect that he would try to use the summer break to do another small club tour and do something to keep interest and attention focused on him because he does run the danger of being forgotten quickly.

Naya - Naya, like Lea, has a lot going for her that should set her on the path to a long career. But the girl is a hot mess right now. We may never know what was going on behind the scenes on Glee that caused her to be cut out of multiple episodes, but it definately hurt her prospects. And with her single being 1) awful and 2) a flop, she really needs to get herself together and completely rehabilitate her public image before season 6 (however long it is) ends. I can see her staying with acting and having a modestly successful career.

Kevin - Next to Chris, I think that Kevin has the most potential out of the guys and we see that he is in demand right now and he's trying to squeeze in projects that work with his Glee schedule and is making connections. His talent range is broad and I think he's got enormous potential, but it's going to be (like everyone else) selecting the right roles. But the fact that he is doing outside projects at this stage really will help him.

Chord - I think of the guys, Chord is the one with the least potential but that doesn't mean that he can't do well. But there are some big warning signs. He's done no outside projects, however small since he's been on Glee except for appearing in a few music videos. It's telling that after quitting Glee over not being given regular status, he did nothing afterwards and returned to the show. Unless he really finds a way to set himself apart from Glee, I think this may be the last we see of him.

Amber - Amber is not the best actress on the show, but she's got one of the best voices and she is extremely personable. I would think that after Lea that she's got the most potential as a recording artist, but with the door seeming to close on the Glee cast putting out albums, I think that she can do well in light comedy films and possibly doing musicals like After Midnight. I think that if she can get some successful musicals under her belt after Glee, she'll have a good shot at putting out an album.

Heather - If she wants to work as a dancer, I don't see her having trouble finding work. The question is if she wants to given now that she has a baby. As an actor, she's weak and she's worse as a singer so for her, like Harry, dancing will be her ticket.

[fantastica]

i am sure they will all find some sort of employment. i wouldn't worry about any of them begging on the street one day.    they will likely all do much better than i ever will.

[Ranwing]

I think that it's going to be interesting to see how they manage not only their post-Glee careers, but what the expectations of those careers should be. Being on a hit tv show that gets lots of media focus and awards (or at least did at one point) is a really heady thing for a young actor. For some like Chris and Amber, this is their first professional job and to have it be on a show that garnered Emmy and SAG nominations can distort what they might think they should expect once the show is over. Not all of them are going to be huge stars after Glee is done. I expect that they'll all be working in some capacity, but most will not be doing projects that are as high a profile as what Glee was.

I think that for me, the difference between what Lea vs Chris are looking for after Glee is indicative of this. Lea, I believe, wants to be a star. Like Rachel now, it doesn't seem to matter how she achieves that. Whether she becomes a pop star or a movie star or a tv star, she wants the fame and the projects that she picks seem to be aimed at making her a star. Even her book is little more than a self-promotion vehicle. Not that there is anything wrong with what Lea wants, but it helps to clarrify what she is striving towards.

Chris, on the other hand, comes across as someone who wants to be a serious actor and I think that stems from his storyteller nature. He wants to tell interesting stories with interesting characters. The fame, for him, is a biproduct of his acting work and not the goal in and of itself.

Think of the difference as Kevin Spacey vs Tom Cruise. Tom is hugely lucrative and his movies sell out theaters even when they're not particularly good. He is capable of some really excellent performances (like in Born on the Fourth of July), but for the most part he's doing films that are aimed at huge box office business and won't win him any awards. Kevin takes on deeper, more serious roles in films that might not be huge box office hits, but he's known as one of the best actors out there.

[sheny]

Question: Any word on how long Glee’s final season will be? —Terry

Ausiello: Discussions regarding the exact episode count continue, but I hear it’ll be roughly 13 episodes.

tvline

[fantastica]

^ it would be a jackpot if they indeed get 13 episodes. i wish it's only 3.

[Ranwing]

13 is a lot more than Glee deserves at this stage, but if they get that many, then I doubt that Chris will be given grief about missing a few.

[fantastica]

will it be possible that the filming may actually be delayed? i mean, if half a season starts earlier next year, then they can easily start filming as late as october or something.

[valkeakuulas]

will it be possible that the filming may actually be delayed? i mean, if half a season starts earlier next year, then they can easily start filming as late as october or something.

No matter how many episodes they'll get, the one thing is true to Glee makers in general: they never plan ahead. If they'd get 6 episodes of even just a TV movie to wrap things up, they'd be late, because they finish a script two minutes before production begins.

So my guess is, if they get 13 eps, is that they will drag the production all the way to late fall.

[Glorfindel]

^True, and this might be where planning the filming around Chris' absence will be difficult, as they won't have multiple scripts ready at the end of July when they can shoot possible Kurt scenes before Chris as to go to London.

I think that it's going to be interesting to see how they manage not only their post-Glee careers, but what the expectations of those careers should be. Being on a hit tv show that gets lots of media focus and awards (or at least did at one point) is a really heady thing for a young actor. For some like Chris and Amber, this is their first professional job and to have it be on a show that garnered Emmy and SAG nominations can distort what they might think they should expect once the show is over. Not all of them are going to be huge stars after Glee is done. I expect that they'll all be working in some capacity, but most will not be doing projects that are as high a profile as what Glee was.

I remember Chris saying in an interview after he won the Golden Globe that he would hate it if he was already peaking, that he'd hoped he'd get some recognition some day but didn't expect it so soon, and that winning that Globe might be the best it would ever get for him.
I know he meant it as a bit of a joke, but still..... that thought was in his mind already.

Whatever happens, I'm glad that Chris seems to have a good, realistic grip on things He's smart, level-headed and very down to earth when it comes to his career prospects.
That's actually the main reason why I don't worry that much about him. Chris loves the art and craft: he isn't mainly doing it for the glory or the fame. He'll probably always work in showbusiness, whether bts or in front of the camera or on stage.
It only depends on how successful he becomes in the public eye how much we, his fans, get to see of his work on our screens. But I think Chris will be just as happy if his fame fades away but he'll still have a steady job in showbizz, with sometimes getting the opportunity to do his own projects, or write his books and scripts.
Although some more success and awards would be appreciated, no doubt.  

[tanita_mors]

well, when filming is concerned, they can go in two directions. either film now, that is when they usually film (july-august) and be done with the whole show till the new year, the whole thing in the can and they can all go to new projects, or start the filming later, say november/december and go on with it when the show starts to air in late february/early march of 2015 (my guess for the air date).

[Buenos]

The crew has mortgages, etc so I'm thinking they would not want to delay filming; better to have a paycheck while planning what to do in 6 months time.

Can't see them resuming after the Winter break for just one or two episodes to film; FOX would want to cut costs.

It's going to be over in a flash.

[ChrisColferFan1]

13 is a lot more than Glee deserves at this stage, but if they get that many, then I doubt that Chris will be given grief about missing a few.

Good point and hope so.

[Divalicious]

While they still haven't said how many episodes there will be, I do believe there was a statement that when they were shown they would be all in a row. That can be taken as a blanket statement, but if it is true, and I don't think any network shows 13 weeks of anything, let alone a lame duck, I still feel there will be six episodes to wrap it up. I don't really care, because other than approximately 1 episode a year they rarely really focus on Kurt. It will be 80 % Rachel/whomever supports her story 9.5% Blaine and 0.5% everyone else.

[ColferInspired]

By Lea's tweet (though I am sure she got this from Ryan and not Fox) they will be filming early July to early 2015.

Chris has his book tour so he won't be filming.

Then he has "Noel".

The fact there is no new press release from Fox, I will say Lea thinks she knows what is going on when really she doesn't.

She probably still believes they are shooting 22 episodes.

[Buenos]

By Lea's tweet (though I am sure she got this from Ryan and not Fox) they will be filming early July to early 2015.

Correct he if I'm wrong but wasn't it just July and ending in early 2015?    Kevin is off to the UK to film 8 episodes of his new series and a Matt Morrison is off filming a move so I'm suspect that filming starts in early July.  

I'm guessing third week of July at the earliest.

ETA:

[Buenos]

"I know what I will be doing; I know what Darren will be doing; and I know what Chord will be doing, and Jane. [Ryan] has told us individually our stuff. I’m very close with Darren and Chord, they’re like my best friends. So we always go to eat, we go out together a lot for dinners. The other night we were at dinner and I was like ‘what do you know?’ We all shared our stuff and then we put all the pieces together and then we figured out what’s happening next year."
— Lea Michele on Glee Season 6 (x)

Oh my Lea... 

You have a thousand "favorite songs" and a thousand "best friends"....

You just have to love her for it...(well, I know many of you don't but I do....)   

[tanita_mors]

i'm generally ok with lea. it's that some times she comes of rather fake. but, no one's perfect.

[Buenos]

i'm generally ok with lea. it's that some times she comes of rather fake. but, no one's perfect.

Actually I think she's sincere about having a thousand favorite songs and a thousand best friends, but that's just me.

She says that Jenna and Amber text her to say they love her, that she thinks of the Glee cast (for the most part) as her family, that she hung out at Kate Hudson's house after Cory died, and we know how she feels about Chris and Jonathan Groff, so....

[tanita_mors]

and what kind of dick ass move is to tell everyone what they will be doing next year with out the whole picture. this show has no freaking direction any more. frankly, they should do like 13 different finals next year and be done with that. a happy ending for everyone, or everyone fails and are washed up by the age of 30, a veronica mars ending with all other them crashing in a bus or a plain, a sf ending with aliens,.... i could go on and on. that crazy shit i'd watch. the boring shit rib will serve me, not so much.

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