| "Dream On" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Glee episode | |||
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| Episodeno. | Season 1 Episode 19 | ||
| Directed by | Joss Whedon | ||
| Written by | Brad Falchuk | ||
| Featured music | "Daydream Believer" "Piano Man" "Big Spender" "Dream On" "The Safety Dance" "I Dreamed a Dream" "Dream a Little Dream of Me" | ||
| Production code | 1ARC18 | ||
| Original air date | May 18, 2010 (2010-05-18) | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| Glee(season 1) | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Dream On" is the nineteenth episode of the American television seriesGlee. The episode premiered on theFox network on May 18, 2010. It was directed byJoss Whedon and written by series creatorBrad Falchuk.Neil Patrick Harris guest-stars as formerglee club star Bryan Ryan. Working as a school board auditor, he threatens to cut the glee club out of the budget, bitter at never having attained his own show-business dreams.Rachel (Lea Michele) attempts to find her birth mother, andArtie (Kevin McHale) struggles with his desire to walk. The episode title is a reference toAerosmith's song "Dream On", also performed during the episode.
The episode featurescover versions of seven songs, four of which were released assingles, available fordigital download, and three of which are included on thesoundtrack albumGlee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers. "Dream On" was watched by 11.59 million American viewers and received generally positive reviews from critics.Maureen Ryan of theChicago Tribune, Bobby Hankinson of theHouston Chronicle, Gerrick. D Kennedy of theLos Angeles Times and Emily VanDerWerff ofThe A.V. Club all deemed it one of the best episodes of the season, while Aly Semigran ofMTV,Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack and Raymund Flandez ofThe Wall Street Journal praised the musical performances. Blair Baldwin ofZap2it in contrast felt that the songs were inconsistent, and while Harris' appearance was generally well received, Eric Goldman ofIGN felt that his storyline was lacking in impact.
Bryan Ryan (Neil Patrick Harris), a former McKinley High glee club member, arrives as an auditor from the school board. He speaks to the glee club, asking everyone to write their biggest dream on a piece of paper. He then takesArtie's (Kevin McHale) paper and tosses it into the trash, making a point that their dreams will never come true. Having failed to realize his own dreams, he intends to cut the glee club. Glee club directorWill Schuester (Matthew Morrison) convinces him that it is not too late to pursue his dreams and sings "Piano Man" with him. They both audition for the role ofJean Valjean in the local production ofLes Misérables, singing "Dream On" as a duet. Bryan decides not to cut the glee club, and even presents them with new costumes and sheet music, but changes his mind when cheerleading coachSue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) announces that Will landed the lead role. Will gives up his role inLes Misérables to Bryan in order to save the glee club.
Rachel (Lea Michele) confides inJesse (Jonathan Groff) of her lifelong dream to discover the identity of her mother. While they are searching through boxes of records from her basement, Jesse takes acassette tape from his jacket and pretends that it came from the box. The tape is labeled as a message from mother to daughter. Rachel refuses to listen to the tape, stating that she is not ready. Jesse later meets withShelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), the coach of Vocal Adrenaline, who reveals that she is Rachel's biological mother, but a contractual agreement with Rachel's two fathers prevents her from meeting with her until she is 18. Jesse reveals that though he had "befriended" Rachel just to get more acting practice, he had actually started liking her. She implores Jesse to convince Rachel to listen to the tape. Back at Rachel's house, Jesse starts the tape playing as Rachel enters her bedroom, then leaves her to listen to it. On the tape, Shelby sings "I Dreamed a Dream", leading to a duet with Rachel in a dream sequence, ending with Rachel back in her room in tears.
After Bryan's discouraging speech,Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) retrieves Artie's paper from the trash and learns that his biggest dream is to become a dancer. Tina would like to dance with Artie, but he falls off hiscrutches when he tries to stand up from his wheelchair. Tina comforts Artie by showing him some of the latest research in spinal cord injury treatments. While waiting for Tina to buy pretzels at the mall, Artie fantasizes about being able to stand up from his wheelchair and dances to "The Safety Dance" in aflash mob dream sequence. He later asks guidance counsellorEmma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) for advice on how to cope with the possibility of walking again in light of the new research, but is disappointed when Emma tells him that such treatments may not become available for a long time. Tina continues to offer to dance with him but he declines, insisting that she choose another partner but agreeing to sing during the dance. Tina choosesMike (Harry Shum, Jr.) as her dance partner as Artie leads the glee club into "Dream a Little Dream of Me".
"Dream On" was filmed in March 2010.[1] In October 2009,Michael Ausiello ofEntertainment Weekly reported that20th Century Fox, the studio behindGlee, had approachedJoss Whedon about directing an episode during the show'sfirst season. Series creatorRyan Murphy is a fan of Whedon's work, and praised themusical episode of his seriesBuffy the Vampire Slayer, commenting: "Joss directed one of the great musical episodes in the history of television onBuffy, so this is a great, if unexpected, fit. I'm thrilled he'll be loaning us his fantastic groundbreaking talent."[2] Whedon deemedGlee his favorite television show, but downplayed his influence over the episode. Asked by Ileane Rudolph ofTV Guide whether the episode would feature songs fromBuffy, or his 2008 musicalDr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Whedon replied: "I would have to say a resonant 'no way.' The episode isn't about me. It's the next episode ofGlee. Hopefully my hands will be invisible on the show."[1] Whedon felt that his job was to be anonymous: "to find the most compelling way to present a story without calling attention to himself." He acknowledged his proclivity for killing off fans' favorite characters, jesting that he planned to murderPrincipal Figgins (Iqbal Theba).[3]
Whedon feels the episode's title is pertinent to the storylines, explaining that the aim was to examine the desires at the core of the central characters, including Will's desire to perform, Rachel's desire to find her biological mother and Artie's desire to walk again. He stated: "I was really lucky because there's a real phonetic coherence of the episode that brought them all together on an emotional level. For me, it was just a question that they dovetailed and didn't feel random and you understood why these three stories were all in the same show."[4]
Kristin Dos Santos ofE! Online commented on Whedon's tendency to work repeatedly with the same actors, and hoped thatDr. Horrible starNeil Patrick Harris might appear in the episode.[3] Four months later, in February 2010, Dos Santos reported that Harris had signed a contract to appear onGlee.[5] Murphy created a role especially for the actor, who received clearance fromCBS to appear on Fox for the episode.[6] Ausiello reported that Harris would play Bryan Ryan, a former high school rival of glee club directorWill Schuester (Matthew Morrison), now a member of the Lima school board, intent on revenge for never having fulfilled his own potential by cutting the school arts program.[7] Morrison stated that Harris' character is two years older than Will, and "got all the girls and the good songs" during their high school days.[8]
Recurring characters who appear in "Dream On" are glee club membersSantana Lopez (Naya Rivera),Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris),Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.),Matt Rutherford (Dijon Talton) andJesse St. James (Jonathan Groff), astronomy teacher Brenda Castle (Molly Shannon, appearing alongside herKath & Kim co-star,John Michael Higgins), and Vocal Adrenaline coach Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel).[9] The episode featurescover versions of seven songs. Will and Bryan duet on "Dream On" byAerosmith,[10] and "Piano Man" byBilly Joel.[11] Bryan also sings "Daydream Believer" byThe Monkees,[12] and aLes Misérables auditionee played by Wendy Worthington sings "Big Spender" fromSweet Charity.[13] Artie performs "The Safety Dance" byMen Without Hats and "Dream a Little Dream of Me" byThe Mamas & the Papas, and Shelby and Rachel sing "I Dreamed a Dream" fromLes Misérables.[11] Each of the songs except "Piano Man", "Big Spender" and "Daydream Believer" were released assingles, available fordigital download,[14] and "Dream On", "The Safety Dance" and "I Dreamed a Dream" are also included on thesoundtrack albumGlee: The Music, Volume 3 – Showstoppers.[15] "I Dreamed a Dream" charted at number 36 on theIrish Singles Chart.[16]
In its original broadcast, "Dream On" was watched by 11.59 million American viewers and attained a 4.8/12rating/share in the18–49 demographic.[17] In the United Kingdom, the episode was watched by 1.54 million viewers and was the most-watched show of the week on thenon-terrestrial channels.[18] In Canada, it was watched by 1.86 million viewers, makingGlee the tenth most-viewed show of the week.[19] In Australia,Glee drew its highest-ever overnight audience with 1.30 million viewers, and won its timeslot in all key demographics.[20] Its consolidated ratings were adjusted up to 1.56 million, making "Dream On" the eleventh most-viewed program of the week.[21]
The episode received generally positive reviews from critics. Maureen Ryan of theChicago Tribune deemed "Dream On" a "highly enjoyable", "emotionally satisfying" episode, and possibly her favorite since thepilot. Ryan praised Whedon's directing, writing that it is clear "Whedon really gets what this show is good at when it's working".[22] Lee Ferguson ofCBC also called "Dream On" one of his favorite episodes of the season, commenting that: "NPH easily outperformed some of the other recent celebs (including Molly Shannon andOlivia Newton-John) who've stopped by the show", and hoped that his character would return in the future.[23]
CNN's Lisa Respers France praised both the Artie and Rachel storylines, and wrote that: "Harris' Bryan Ryan character had it all: timing, great singing and a crazy chemistry with Jane Lynch's character, Sue Sylvester."[24] James Poniewozik ofTime deemed the episode "exceptional in ways that went beyond guest appearances", noting: "it was not just good compared with recent episodes, but entertaining, arresting and moving in an unqualified sense."[25] Bobby Hankinson of theHouston Chronicle called "Dream On": "one of the best episodes in one of the greatest freshman seasons in recent history",[26] while Gerrick D. Kennedy of theLos Angeles Times similarly deemed the episode one of the best of "an already stellar freshman season",[27] and Emily VanDerWerff ofThe A.V. Club graded the episode "A" and called it "one of the two or three bestGlee episodes ever. Hell, it might be THE best."[28]
Aly Semigran ofMTV reviewed the episode's musical performances positively, calling "Piano Man" the series' "most realistic musical number" and writing that "nothing even came close to the amount of awesome" that was the "Dream On" duet. Semigran noted that McHale's songs "proved he was a force to be reckoned with", and called the "I Dreamed a Dream" duet "goosebump-inducing", observing: "Pretty sure that's what musical theater lovers' dreams are made of."[29] Raymund Flandez ofThe Wall Street Journal called Michele and Menzel's number "one of the most touching duets in the show so far", stating: "the vulnerability they both convey is stunning in its simplicity and perfection."[30]Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack wrote that the "Piano Man" duet was so good he wished it had been released for download. He rated the songs performed "B+" through to "A" and called "Safety Dance" one of his favorite moments of the episode, deeming it a "joyous, huge performance—definitely one of the most elaborate numbers the show has done before."[31]
Blair Baldwin ofZap2it wrote that while the "Dream On" performance began perfectly, Harris "killed the song" with an "ear-wrenching" lead-in to the chorus. Baldwin also highlighted synchronization problems with the "Safety Dance" choreography, and wrote that Shum's dancing to "Dream a Little Dream" was "terrible" and "sloppy". Baldwin did enjoy the "I Dreamed a Dream" performance, and hoped for greater consistency in the future.[32] Eric Goldman ofIGN rated the episode 7.7/10, writing that while he had expected the episode to be "freaking awesome", instead it was merely "okay". He felt that the musical numbers "failed to really resonate", and called Harris' character "amusing in theory" but ultimately "one-note" and lacking in impact, with a storyline that "fizzled out".[33] In December 2012,TV Guide named the "Safety Dance" rendition one ofGlee's best performances.[34]
In August 2010, the 62nd Primetime Creative Emmys awarded Harris an Emmy (out of two total)[35] in the 'Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series' category for his "Dream On" appearance and performance.