| "Bad Reputation" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Glee episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 1 Episode 17 | ||
| Directed by | Elodie Keene | ||
| Written by | Ian Brennan | ||
| Featured music | |||
| Production code | 1ARC16 | ||
| Original air date | May 4, 2010 (2010-05-04) | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| Glee(season 1) | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Bad Reputation" is the seventeenth episode of the American television series,Glee. The episode premiered on theFox network on May 4, 2010. It was directed byElodie Keene, and written by series creatorIan Brennan. In "Bad Reputation", cheerleading coachSue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) is publicly ridiculed when a video of her dancing toOlivia Newton-John's "Physical" is posted onYouTube. A salacious list about members of theglee club circulates the school, leading certain members to try to earn themselves a bad reputation. Newton-John guest-stars as herself in the episode, andMolly Shannon makes her first of two appearances (both in season 1) as a teacher at the glee club's school. Following their romance in the episode "Mash-Up", club membersRachel (Lea Michele) andPuck (Mark Salling) are reunited, a decision made by the producers due to the unexpected popularity of the pairing.
The episode featurescover versions of five songs, all of which were released assingles, available fordigital download, and two of which are included on thesoundtrack albumGlee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers. "Bad Reputation" was watched by 11.62 million American viewers and received mixed reviews from critics. Darren Franich ofEntertainment Weekly and Bobby Hankinson of theHouston Chronicle both considered it a return to form following disappointing episodes. Franich also praised the episode's cover version of "Ice Ice Baby" byVanilla Ice, which in contrast was criticized by Raymund Flandez ofThe Wall Street Journal and Gerrick D. Kennedy of theLos Angeles Times, with Kennedy deeming the performance his least favorite moment of the entire series thus far.
WhenKurt (Chris Colfer) steals a video of cheerleading coachSue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) performingOlivia Newton-John's "Physical" to aJazzercise routine, the glee club members decide to post it onYouTube as a prank. The video becomes a viral hit and Sue is mortified. In retaliation, she givesPrincipal Figgins (Iqbal Theba) a list she has found, called a "glist", which ranks the students in the glee club based on a scale of sexualpromiscuity. The list goes: Quinn, Santana, Puck, Brittany, Jesse, Finn, Mike, Matt and Rachel, from most to least. Figgins tells club directorWill Schuester (Matthew Morrison) that he must either find the creator of the list, or he will be forced to disband the glee club and suspend all of its members. Will reprimands the club members, and for their weekly club assignment, he has the students find songs with bad reputations and rehabilitate them, performingVanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" as an example.
Sue is laughed at by her co-workers, who have seen the video, and is mocked by new alcoholicastronomy teacher andbadminton coach Brenda Castle (Molly Shannon). Sue is reminded by her sister,Jean (Robin Trocki), who hasDown syndrome, that when they were hurt as children they would volunteer at ananimal shelter as a reminder there was always someone less fortunate than themselves. In light of her sister's advice, Sue decides to act as atherapist to guidance counselorEmma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays), informing her that Will has been unfaithful to her. Emma confronts Will in the teachers' lounge, publicly shaming him.
Kurt,Mercedes (Amber Riley),Artie (Kevin McHale), andTina (Jenna Ushkowitz) are upset over not being included on the list, whileBrittany (Heather Morris) is puzzled at not being listed among the top three, given that she has made out with everyone in the school: boys, girls, and the janitor. They perform a rendition of "U Can't Touch This" in the school library to cause a disruption in the hope of earning a bad reputation, but their plan backfires when the librarian asks them to perform it at her church's Sunday service. Next, Kurt confesses to Sue that he is the one who stole her video, expecting to be punished and also gain a more dangerous reputation. Instead, she thanks him, having recently been contacted byOlivia Newton-John, who had seen Sue's video and requested her help remaking the "Physical" video. The song's re-release gains Sue a position in the top 700 recording artists, which ends the ridicule of her colleagues. She donates her share of the profits to her sister's residential care facility.
After apologizing to Emma and presenting her with flowers, Will sees a depressed-lookingQuinn (Dianna Agron) in the hallway and realizes that she is responsible for the list. He confronts Quinn, who confesses. To prevent her from being suspended, Will lies to Figgins that no culprit has been found, but convinces him that as no new lists have been posted, the matter should be dropped.
Rachel (Lea Michele) asksPuck (Mark Salling) to assist her in the glee club assignment, creating a video forDavid Geddes' "Run Joey Run". But she secretly also recruits her ex-boyfriendFinn (Cory Monteith) and her current boyfriendJesse St. James (Jonathan Groff), triple-casting them in the role of her film boyfriend, Joey, in a bid to improve her glist rating. When Rachel plays the video in class, all three are surprised, offended and angered by her deception. Jesse breaks up with Rachel as a result, and she singsBonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as the club members walk out of the classroom, leaving her behind.
Recurring characters who appear in the episode are glee club membersBrittany (Heather Morris),Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera),Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.),Matt Rutherford (Dijon Talton) andJesse St. James (Jonathan Groff). Adults who appear in this episode arePrincipal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), former glee club directorSandy Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky), football coachKen Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher) and Sue's sisterJean Sylvester (Robin Trocki).[1]Mary Jo Catlett appears as recently widowed teacher Mrs. Carlisle,[1] andMolly Shannon makes her first appearance in a recurring role as new astronomy teacher and badminton coach Brenda Castle.[2] Special guest star Olivia Newton-John appears as herself,[3] portraying the "dark side" of herself; a "mixture of mean and diva".[4] She and Lynch produced an exact re-creation of the original "Physical" video, filming of which took twelve hours.[4] Series musical producer Adam Anders felt that Newton-John's appearance in the episode was organic, explaining: "The best part ofGlee is introducing new music to an older generation and old music to a newer generation. There's so much great music. We all listen to music in a vacuum, then we're exposed to things and love it. Olivia Newton-John is an example of that. It's a perfect marriage between the songs that were chosen and the storyline. When that happens, it moves people."[5]
"Bad Reputation" shows the reunion of glee club members Rachel and Puck.[6] The two first became involved inGlee's eighth episode, "Mash-Up", but at the time, series creatorRyan Murphy did not expect the pairing to be well received by viewers. He believed that viewers would find Rachel "far too irritating" for Puck,[6] and so was surprised by the positive fan response which emerged. Although Murphy described this response as "strange and bizarre", explaining that he had believed fans would prefer for Rachel to be with Finn, as a result he planned to revisit their romance later in thefirst season.[7] The first thirteen episodes had already been filmed by the time "Mash-Up" aired, and so Murphy wrote a special episode to air after the mid-season break, in which the characters could reunite in some way.[6] Despite the popularity of the pairing—referred to by the portmanteau "Puckleberry" in the media[8]—the series writers intend to retain Puck's "bad boy" persona, and ultimately plan on pairing him with most of the female characters.[9][10]
The episode featurescover versions of five songs: "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, "U Can't Touch This" byMC Hammer, Newton-John's "Physical", "Run Joey Run" by David Geddes and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler.[11] Each of the songs performed were released assingles, available fordownload.[12] "Physical" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" are also included on thesoundtrack albumGlee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers.[13]
In its original broadcast, "Bad Reputation" was watched by 11.62 million American viewers and attained a 4.9/13rating/share in the18-49 demographic.[14] In the UK, the episode was watched by 1.65 million viewers and was the most-watched show of the week on thenon-terrestrial channels.[15] In Canada, "Bad Reputation" was watched by 1.95 million viewers, makingGlee the eleventh most-viewed show of the week.[16] In Australia,Glee drew its highest-ever overnight audience with 1.31 million viewers, and won its timeslot in all key demographics.[17] Its consolidated ratings were adjusted up to 1.41 million, making "Bad Reputation" the 13th most-viewed program of the week.[18]
The episode received mixed reviews from critics. Darren Franich ofEntertainment Weekly praised the episode, writing that while there had been a "self-congratulatory quality" toGlee since its mid-season break, "Bad Reputation" was a return to "theGlee [he] fell in tormented love with." He graded the songs performed "C−" through to "A−", commending what he deemed "by far the greatest performance of "Ice Ice Baby" ever".[19] TheHouston Chronicle's Bobby Hankinson also felt the episode was a return to form. He praised the decision not to "apply meaningless rules to their musical selections", writing: "The freedom to not have to use songs by one artist let the storylines take priority, and not sticking to songs that share a common lyrical theme kept those choices from feeling too forced."[20] Dave Itzkoff ofThe New York Times recapped the episode positively, describing it as: "pack[ing] more camp into an hour's worth of television than most kids will get all summer."[21] Emily VanDerWerff ofThe A.V. Club graded "Bad Reputation" "B+", writing that she: "enjoyed the episode quite a bit, even as [she] found some of it rather messy." Though VanDerWerff felt that not everything in the episode worked, she stated: "the stuff that did reminded me that what I like about the show is its all-out embrace of a crazy mishmash of tones."[22]
Raymund Flandez ofThe Wall Street Journal criticized most of the musical performances in the episode, calling "Run Joey Run" the highlight of an otherwise "slow, forced show". Flandez opined of "Ice Ice Baby": "Will, kicking it old school, doesn't cut it with his '80s-flashback moves because a.) he takes himself too seriously and b.) he looks like he's in aJ.Crew mag, not part of2 Live Crew."[23] Gerrick D. Kennedy of theLos Angeles Times wrote that he hated the episode, similarly calling "Run Joey Run" his favorite song, but noting that that was "not hard considering the songbook that was offered". Kennedy deemed the "Ice Ice Baby" performance his least favourite moment of the entire series thus far. He concluded: "Each of the musical numbers felt about two minutes longer than they should have been. I love Newton-John’s walk-on cameo, but I don’t want them to fall into the habit of re-creating music videos frame by frame: It was cute - once. It sounds harsh, but I could have completely done without the episode. It was almost as if they needed filler just to showcase the "Physical" video."[24] In December 2012,TV Guide named their rendition one ofGlee's worst performances.[25]