Journey's "Don't Stop Believin’," became the unofficial theme song of "Glee" with the first episode in 2009, striking a perfect chord.
The karaoke anthem offered 1980s camp appeal to some and a youthful call to arms (and voice) to others. The pop tune helped set the tone for a show about a glee club at Midwestern high school where adults comically relive teenage battles, while student misfits use song to melt slushie facial onslaughts and to stoke dreams.
"Glee" deftly played on different levels: broad comedy, pathos and occasional genuine emotion, all wrapped into a hummable extravaganza. It worked – spectacularly – from the outset, spawning a generation of Gleeks, tours, albums and an Internet frenzy, not to mention one of TV’s most buoyant, singular sensations.
But “Glee” should have ended after Season 3 when Rachel, Kurt, Finn and other breakout characters graduated McKinley High. Plots, new characters and shtick became repetitive, and the ratings sank. “Glee” proved that staying in high school too long is akin to not knowing when to leave the stage.
The program quietly returns Friday for a sixth and final season with hopes of somehow ending on, well, a high note.
The Friday timeslot might seem like Fox’s attempt to bury the show as it fades. But perhaps network executives see an opportunity to pick up a younger, pre-Gleek audience, harkening back to the era when "The Partridge Family" proved memorable Friday night fare for the family and tween set.
The season premiere promises yet another reunion of the original New Directions crew – Puck, Santana, Mercedes, Kurt, Quinn, Brittany and Tina appear as Rachel returns from flopping in New York to try to revive the glee club in her Ohio hometown school.
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It’s too soon for “Glee” nostalgia – and it’s too much to expect a return to form. But fans can pine for at least for a final creative burst to remind us why we believed in the first place.
Jere Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multimedia NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.
