The Purple Piano Project
Encyclopedia
"The Purple Piano Project" is the premiere episode of the third season
of the American musical television series Glee
, and the 45th overall. The episode was written by series co-creator Brad Falchuk
, directed by Eric Stoltz
, and first aired on September 20, 2011 on Fox
in the United States. It features the start of a new school year at McKinley High, and for its glee club, New Directions. Members of the club have left, and a recruitment drive is launched to bring the numbers back up. Blaine Anderson
(Darren Criss
), Kurt Hummel
's (Chris Colfer
) boyfriend, transfers from Dalton Academy to McKinley High, and Mercedes Jones
gets a new boyfriend. Sue Sylvester
is running for Congress.
The episode received mixed-to-positive reviews, with favorable notice being taken of the renewed focus on the core characters, though there was a lack of overall enthusiasm from several reviewers. The subplot with Kurt and Rachel Berry (Lea Michele
), and its introduction of Harmony (Lindsay Pearce
), garnered praise for all three performers. The musical performances were generally well-received, and the "Anything Goes" / "Anything You Can Do" mash-up
featuring Pearce was widely acclaimed. Five covers were released as singles, three of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100
and the Canadian Hot 100
. Upon its initial airing, this episode was viewed by 9.21 million American viewers and garnered a 4.0/11 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 age group. The total viewership and ratings for this episode were down significantly from the previous episode, "New York
".
(Matthew Morrison
) and guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury
(Jayma Mays
) are now sharing an apartment and a bed. Sue Sylvester
(Jane Lynch
), coach of the Cheerios cheerleading squad, is running for Congress but doing badly in the polls. Glee club member Mike Chang
(Harry Shum, Jr.
) is now a senior, while fellow members Tina Cohen-Chang
(Jenna Ushkowitz) and Artie Abrams
(Kevin McHale) are juniors. Club co-captain Finn Hudson
(Cory Monteith
), a senior, has no idea what to do about his future. Mercedes Jones
(Amber Riley
) has a new boyfriend (LaMarcus Tinker
); her former boyfriend Sam Evans
(Chord Overstreet
) moved to another state. Three New Directions members have left: Sam, Lauren Zizes
(Ashley Fink
), who also broke up with Puck
(Mark Salling), and Sam's ex-girlfriend Quinn Fabray
(Dianna Agron
), who has completely reinvented herself with pink hair, a nose ring and a tattoo; she has taken up smoking, and has made friends with a group of outcast girls called the Skanks. She refuses to rejoin either the Cheerios or New Directions.
To recruit new talent, Will places several purple pianos around the school and encourages the club to sing whenever they see one. When Mike and Tina play on one in a hallway, Sue interrupts them by snapping the piano strings with wire cutters, and is praised for doing so by an arts-hating teacher (Barbara Tarbuck
), who promises to vote for her. An inspired Sue goes on television and vows that, if elected, she will cut all funding for school arts programs until all students read at or above grade level. She makes Santana Lopez
(Naya Rivera
) and Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter
) cheerleading co-captains, to their mutual disgust, and gets their pledge to help her sabotage the glee club. After New Directions performs "We Got the Beat
" in the cafeteria, Becky starts a food fight that targets the club. Following lunch, Sugar Motta (Vanessa Lengies
) auditions, but cannot sing in tune. An agonized Will eventually rejects Sugar, but gains a new recruit when Kurt Hummel
(Chris Colfer
) convinces his boyfriend Blaine Anderson
(Darren Criss
) to transfer from Dalton Academy.
Kurt and Rachel see Emma about their plans to attend college in New York City. She suggests they consider a top school for the dramatic arts there, and the two of them attend an Ohio "mixer" for students interested in applying. They have rehearsed "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead", and expect to overawe the other attendees with the performance, but are instead intimidated by their performance of an "Anything Goes
" and "Anything You Can Do" mash-up led by Harmony (Lindsay Pearce
). Although badly shaken, they vow to persevere.
Blaine sings "It's Not Unusual
" to a large crowd in the school courtyard while a growing number of Cheerios, directed by Santana, join in as back-up dancers. As the number is ending, the Cheerios circle the purple piano, and they each sprinkle it with lighter fluid. Quinn flicks her lit cigarette onto the piano, and it bursts into flames. Will tells Santana that because of her sabotage she is banned from New Directions. Rachel breaks up the resulting pity party by singing the opening to "You Can't Stop the Beat", and they all perform the song in the auditorium, while Quinn secretly watches from above.
runner-up Lindsay Pearce
would be ideal for an already-written role in the episode, but the filming needed to take place before the project's finale was broadcast on August 21, 2011, upon which it would be revealed that she had won a two-episode prize. They "kept delaying" the shoot, and "snuck [her] into a soundstage to make sure no one recognized her." In aid of this secrecy, her name was omitted from the Fox press release for the episode. Once Murphy had cast Pearce, he made the musical number she was to appear in bigger. According to Lea Michele, the filming of the first episode ended on August 19, 2011.
Returning recurring characters that appear in the episode include ex-glee club member Lauren Zizes
(Ashley Fink
), Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba
), football coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones
), cheerleader Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter
), school reporter Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman
), and television anchors Rod Remington (Bill A. Jones) and Andrea Carmichael (Earlene Davis). Three new recurring characters were introduced: football player Shane (LaMarcus Tinker
), who is the new boyfriend of Mercedes Jones
(Amber Riley
), Sugar Motta (Lengies) and Pearce as Harmony. Effective with this episode, former recurring guest stars Harry Shum, Jr.
as Mike Chang
and Darren Criss
as Blaine Anderson
join the main cast, while Jessalyn Gilsig
and Mike O'Malley
, who play Will's wife Terri Schuester
and Kurt's father Burt Hummel
respectively, are no longer given starring credits. Gilsig was in the main cast for the first two seasons, and her change had been previously reported. O'Malley's had not, but he is listed in the Fox press release for the second episode as being a guest star, his credit in the first season. Barbara Tarbuck
guest starred as Nancy Bletheim, a geometry teacher at McKinley.
At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International on July 24, 2011, series creator Brad Falchuk
said that in the first episode of the third season, "The opening sequence is everybody saying what they want to do when they grow up, so you see everyone's anxieties." He also stated, "Come the first episode back, you see who the seniors and juniors are."
The episode features seven musical cover versions. Two are in the form of a mash-up of "Anything Goes
" from the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes
and "Anything You Can Do" from Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun
, with the lead sung by Pearce. The other five are "You Can't Stop the Beat" from the musical Hairspray
and "We Got the Beat
" by The Go-Gos, both performed by New Directions; "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" from the film The Wizard of Oz
(as performed by Barbra Streisand
and Harold Arlen
from Streisand's Duets
album), sung by Michele and Colfer; the Tom Jones
song "It's Not Unusual
" featuring Criss; and "Big Spender
" from the musical Sweet Charity
, performed by Lengies. All songs, except for "Big Spender," were released as singles, available for digital download.
premiere on CBS
, which garnered a 4.3/12 rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and also by the premiere of the new show New Girl that followed Glee on Fox, which brought in a 4.8/12 rating/share and 10.27 million viewers. The Glee numbers were down by over 25% from the season two opener, "Audition
", which was watched by 12.45 million American viewers and received a 5.6/16 rating/share, and down nearly as much from the season two finale, "New York
", which attracted 11.80 million viewers and a 4.6/11 rating/share.
In the UK, "The Purple Piano Project" premiered on digital subscription channel Sky1 with an overnight average of 639,000 viewers (2.8%), down by nearly 50% compared to the overnight rating of the season two finale, "New York", which aired on E4. Final ratings brought Glee up to 1.17 million viewers. It was the ninth-most watched show on cable for the week, down 55% from "New York" and 61% from "Audition", both of which were the top-ranked cable shows in their respective weeks of broadcast. The episode's Australian broadcast attained 760,000 viewers, which made Glee the twelfth most-watched program of the day, although viewership was down almost 30% from the 987,000 viewers of "New York". In Canada, 2.10 million viewers watched the episode, where it was the most-viewed show in its timeslot and outperformed its closest competitor by 183% in the 18–49 demographic. It was the tenth most-viewed show of the week, down three slots but up 16% from the 1.77 million who watched "New York".
. At one point, Glee cast member Kevin McHale tweeted "5 TT's! Woo woo!", indicating that five of the top ten slots were filled by Glee-related topics. The Hollywood Reporter
, in their story on the online reaction to the show, said that there were four of ten topics claimed by the debut rather than five: "#gleek", "Kurt and Rachel", "Sue Sylvester" and "Warblers".
Twitter was also used to advertise the show. To highlight the beginning of the third season and its move to a new channel, Sky was the first company to use Twitter's geographically targeted ad capability in the UK with a "promoted trend" that was displayed on September 22, 2011, the day that Glee debuted on Sky1.
approved of the "clear trajectory" set out for the characters, and noted that he looked forward to seeing their various storylines develop. Though AOL TV
Crystal Bell worried that clarfiying the teenagers' ages could result in the younger characters being overlooked in future episodes, she was glad that the premiere saw the show return to its roots: "underdogs, show tunes and Sue Sylvester." A similar sentiment was expressed by Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times
, who was hopeful that renewed focus on the core characters would lead to "a great year". The Huffington Post
Amy Lee observed that "Glee has a tendency to oscillate between sappy and nasty, sometimes without any warning", and opined that "The Purple Piano Project" was more tonally balanced than the majority of the second season. Anthony Benigno of The Faster Times
deemed the episode "admirably straightforward", unmarred by the sentimentality and inconsistencies which plagued previous episodes. His praised was tempered, however, and he wrote, "I wouldn't go so far as to call the episode good, it was oddly lifeless and the stakes seemed almost nonexistent at times. It has the feel of a show rediscovering itself, but, all things considered, Ryan Murphy and Co. handled the task relatively well."
James Poniewozik
of Time
took a more negative stance. He wrote that "The Purple Piano Project" "was not a particularly good episode of Glee", one which was hindered by the vast number of central characters, "but it did at least suggest where the third season of the show could find its strong core stories, and also ... the numerous ways in which it could get sidetracked into tangential ridiculousness." The A.V. Club
Todd VanDerWerff graded the episode "D+". He summarised it as "a handful of okay performances, one or two pretty good lines, and then a whole bunch of awful". Rolling Stone
Erica Futterman praised the episode's humor and plot development, but commented that it "didn't hit any of the emotional notes Glee is capable of." Robert Canning of IGN
rated it an "okay" 6.5 out of 10. He too found "there were still quite a few laughs to be had", but felt the episode suffered from its repetitiveness, as Sue's hatred of the glee club and New Directions' recruitment problems have been thoroughly explored before. The Dallas Morning News
Samantha Urban noted that Murphy failed to deliver on his promise to increase Mercedes and Tina's roles, and couldn't accept that Sue would be allowed to promote her congressional campaign on her local news commentary spot, but overall was "pretty impressed" with what she called "a solid episode of Glee that made [her] feel cautiously optimistic about the season ahead." Lisa Respers France of CNN
summed up the episode in a single word: "Meh."
The plot which involved Rachel and Kurt attracted uniformly favorable reviews. Fallon called it "one of the episode's strongest subplots", and Salon.com
Matt Zoller Seitz deemed it the episode's "most successful and affecting." Bell named Rachel and Kurt as her favorite Glee pairing, and Futterman wrote that their "friendship has grown from something catty into something genuine and relatable and their interactions are likely the most authentic for any aspiring musical theater performers among Glee viewers." Within his generally negative review of the episode, VanDerWerff noted that the NYADA mixer scene "features some of the best work Chris Colfer and Lea Michele have contributed to the show." In contrast, the adult storylines were generally poorly received. Zoller Seitz branded Will and Emma's relationship boring, and Abby West of Entertainment Weekly
disliked the fact the season began with them in an established relationship: "I feel like I missed a huge leap for Emma and we need to have it acknowledged." Fallon disparaged Will as being "insufferable", and attributed this to "Morrison's wooden characterization, the stilted writing [and] the flat purpose that the character serves on the show". Sue's storyline was described as nonsensical by VanDerWerff, who wrote that she "has decided to take her crusade against the glee club to a congressional district-wide audience, because, well, she was the most popular character in season one, and she will be again, via blunt force, if necessary." Reiter, however, found Sue to be "in perfect form in this episode, neither too mean nor too misty", and enjoyed her storyline.
The introduction of Harmony and Sugar garnered critical praise. VanDerWerff wrote that the former "may be the best new character ever", TVLine
Michael Slezak said she was "brillantly bought to life" by Pearce, and Fallon felt that her arrival boded well for the introductions of the other finalists from The Glee Project. He said that "she brought, which the best new characters do, fresh and exciting aspects in the show's established leads. Zoller Seitz described Sugar as "an entitled little snot", but a "great character" nonetheless, and one he hoped to see more of. West praised Lengies' performance and opined that with Sue otherwise occupied, "it'll be great to have another person as a thorn in the Glee club's side." Not everyone was thrilled with Sugar's advent, however; VanDerWerff called the character "awful".
"We Got the Beat" garnered praise for Brittany and Mike's dancing from Lee, though she described the vocals as AutoTuned, a comment echoed by Futterman, who was nevertheless glad that Brittany and Rachel "match[ed] the rawness of Santana's voice". Slezak and Benigno were pleased that Morris and Rivera received lead vocals, but while the former commended the number as a great musical start to the season and awarded it an "A" grade, the latter found it hard to differentiate between the Glee cover and the original, observed that it failed to advance the plot, and graded it "C". Respers France was entirely unimpressed with the routine. For her, Sugar's scene following it was one of the episode's few highlights, although she described Sugar as having "a horrible voice".
Rachel and Kurt's duet of "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" made Billboard
Rae Votta long for them to share more material. It encapsulated everything Futterman wanted in a duet between the two; she observed "it's effortless, charming, full of power musical theater vocals and Rachel gets to channel Barbra Streisand". Lee, however, felt the number was an odd choice to demonstrate their talent, and although Slezak graded it a "B", he contrasted it negatively with their previous duets. West opined that the song was too insubstantial and gave it a "B–". Its highest grade, an "A–", came from Benigno. He noted its lack of significance to the plot and wished that the vocal split had not been so strongly in Michele's favor, but called it "a fun, infectious number."
Criss's performance of "It's Not Unusual" attracted comparisons to comical renditions of the number in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but earned an "A" from West regardless. Fallon said the routine was "embarrassingly enjoyable" and lauded Criss's screen presence, and Benigno called it a "wonderful performance", but felt it was hampered by the simplicity of the arrangement and gave it a "B+". Futterman and Slezak both generally like Blaine as a lead vocalist, but felt the song was not his best: Futterman wrote that "some of the belting felt strained and the energy a little forced", and Slezak awarded the song a "B–".
The "Anything Goes" / "Anything You Can Do" mash-up was widely acclaimed. Respers France named Pearce's performance the best moment of the episode, and found that the character positively reminded her of "Glee of old". The song was also a favorite of Lee's, who wrote that the intensity of the actress was perfectly matched to the character's disposition. West, Slezak and Benigno gave the performance an "A"; the former called it an "outstanding rendition" which "felt like it belonged on a big stage or in a big-screen musical", and the latter two praised her vocal talent, which Benigno deemed unequalled on Glee. Futterman and Bell found Harmony a credible rival to Rachel vocally, and eagerly anticipated future competition between them. Urban called Pearce's performance merely "serviceable". Though she felt her acting was a weak point, she compared her favorably to season two guest star Charice and praised her vocals. Criticism came from New York
Lindy West, who did not understand Rachel's humiliation, as New Directions "sing way more elaborate and equally competent arrangements four to five times an episode". She elaborated, "This is a thing that drives me crazy about Glee. As a viewer, there's no knowing whether a performance was 'good' like 'Anything Goes,' or 'bad' like 'We've Got the Beat,' until Rachel starts crying or some cheerleader starts throwing spaghetti."
"You Can't Stop the Beat" was called a "perfect ending to a perfect season premiere" by Mullins. Futterman described it as a "standard Glee episode finale, full of inspiration and importance for the future, and catchy as all hell." Slezak enjoyed Rachel's slow opening verse, said the full performance "felt a lot like the shiny, happy Glee of yore" and gave it an "A–" as did Benigno, who also found it a typical final number but was less enthused by the familiarity. Votta's only disappointment with the rendition was that the televised version did not include the "adorable duet" between Kurt and Artie that is present on the single.
: "It's Not Unusual" at number sixty-five with 40,000 in sales, "You Can't Stop The Beat" at number sixty-seven, and "We've Got the Beat" at number eighty-three. On the Canadian Hot 100
, "You Can't Stop The Beat" charted highest at number sixty-five, with "It's Not Unusual" at number seventy-five, and "We've Got the Beat" at number eighty-three. Neither "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" nor the "Anything Goes" / "Anything You Can Do" mash-up charted on the Hot 100 in either country, though in the US each track sold 21,000 downloads, and were in second and third place respectively on the Hot 100 "Bubbling Under" chart. Total US sales for the five cover versions were 149,000, compared to 409,000 in sales for the five singles from the season two opener, "Audition", in their first week; for that episode, all five singles made the Hot 100, and charted between numbers twenty-one and fifty-one.
Glee (season 3)
A third season of the Fox musical comedy-drama television series Glee was commissioned on May 23, 2010 while the first season aired. It premiered on September 20, 2011, and is being produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Ryan Murphy Television, with executive producers Dante Di Loreto and...
of the American musical television series Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
, and the 45th overall. The episode was written by series co-creator Brad Falchuk
Brad Falchuk
Brad Falchuk is a television writer, director and producer. He is best known for his work on the television series Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story.-Early life:...
, directed by Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...
, and first aired on September 20, 2011 on Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States. It features the start of a new school year at McKinley High, and for its glee club, New Directions. Members of the club have left, and a recruitment drive is launched to bring the numbers back up. Blaine Anderson
Blaine Anderson
Blaine Anderson is a fictional character from the American musical comedy-drama television series Glee. Played by Darren Criss, Blaine was introduced in the sixth episode of the second season as the openly gay lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers, a rival show choir to New Directions, the...
(Darren Criss
Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and a founding member and co-owner of the theater company StarKid Productions. He currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay high school student, on the FOX television series Glee...
), Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan initially conceived of him as a fashionable gay countertenor who is routinely bullied at school...
's (Chris Colfer
Chris Colfer
Christopher Paul "Chris" Colfer is an American actor and singer known for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television series Glee, for which he won a 2011 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and was also nominated twice for an Emmy...
) boyfriend, transfers from Dalton Academy to McKinley High, and Mercedes Jones
Mercedes Jones
Mercedes Jones is a fictional character from the Fox popular musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Amber Riley, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Mercedes was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and...
gets a new boyfriend. Sue Sylvester
Sue Sylvester
Susan "Sue" Sylvester is a fictional character of the Fox musical comedy-drama series, Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jane Lynch, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Sue was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian...
is running for Congress.
The episode received mixed-to-positive reviews, with favorable notice being taken of the renewed focus on the core characters, though there was a lack of overall enthusiasm from several reviewers. The subplot with Kurt and Rachel Berry (Lea Michele
Lea Michele
Lea Michele Sarfati , known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American actress and singer. Michele began working professionally as a child actress on Broadway in productions such as Ragtime and Les Misérables. She originated the role of Wendla in the musical Spring Awakening and currently plays...
), and its introduction of Harmony (Lindsay Pearce
Lindsay Pearce
Lindsay Pearce is an American singer, actress, and reality TV personality. Pearce is best known for being one of the runners-up on The Glee Project, which gave her a recurring role on the TV show Glee.-Early life:...
), garnered praise for all three performers. The musical performances were generally well-received, and the "Anything Goes" / "Anything You Can Do" mash-up
Mashup (music)
A mashup or bootleg is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track of another...
featuring Pearce was widely acclaimed. Five covers were released as singles, three of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and the Canadian Hot 100
Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007...
. Upon its initial airing, this episode was viewed by 9.21 million American viewers and garnered a 4.0/11 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 age group. The total viewership and ratings for this episode were down significantly from the previous episode, "New York
New York (Glee)
"New York" is the twenty-second episode and season finale of the second season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 44th overall. The episode was written and directed by series creator Brad Falchuk, filmed in part on location in New York City, and first aired on May 24, 2011 on...
".
Plot
It is a new year at McKinley High. New Directions glee club director Will SchuesterWill Schuester
William "Will" Schuester, often referred to as Mr. Schue, is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Matthew Morrison and has appeared in Glee since its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Will was developed by Glee...
(Matthew Morrison
Matthew Morrison
Matthew James "Matt" Morrison is an American actor, director, musician, and singer-songwriter. He is best known for starring in multiple Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including his portrayal of Link Larkin in Hairspray on Broadway, and most notably for his Emmy and Golden Globe nominated...
) and guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury
Emma Pillsbury
Emma Pillsbury is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Portrayed by actress Jayma Mays, Emma has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Emma was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
(Jayma Mays
Jayma Mays
Jayma Suzette Mays is an American television and film actress, and singer. Mays' most prominent roles include that of Emma Pillsbury on the American television series Glee, recurring appearances on Ugly Betty and on Heroes as characters named Charlie.- Life and career :Mays was born Jamia Suzette...
) are now sharing an apartment and a bed. Sue Sylvester
Sue Sylvester
Susan "Sue" Sylvester is a fictional character of the Fox musical comedy-drama series, Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jane Lynch, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Sue was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian...
(Jane Lynch
Jane Lynch
Jane Marie Lynch is an American comedian, actress and singer. She gained fame in Christopher Guest's improv mockumentary pictures such as Best in Show and is currently best known for playing the role of Sue Sylvester in the television series Glee...
), coach of the Cheerios cheerleading squad, is running for Congress but doing badly in the polls. Glee club member Mike Chang
Mike Chang
Michael "Mike" Chang, Jr. is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor and dancer Harry Shum, Jr., and has appeared on Glee since the fourth episode in the first season, "Preggers", first broadcast on September 23, 2009...
(Harry Shum, Jr.
Harry Shum, Jr.
Harry Shum, Jr. is an American dancer, actor, and choreographer. He is best known for his role as Mike Chang on the FOX television show Glee. He has appeared in dance films such as Stomp the Yard, You Got Served, Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up 3D...
) is now a senior, while fellow members Tina Cohen-Chang
Tina Cohen-Chang
Tina Cohen-Chang is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jenna Ushkowitz, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Tina was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian...
(Jenna Ushkowitz) and Artie Abrams
Artie Abrams
Artie Abrams is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Kevin McHale, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Artie was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
(Kevin McHale) are juniors. Club co-captain Finn Hudson
Finn Hudson
Finn Hudson is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Cory Monteith, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Finn was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
(Cory Monteith
Cory Monteith
Cory Allan Monteith is a Canadian actor and musician, best known for his role of Finn Hudson on the Fox television series Glee.-Early life:...
), a senior, has no idea what to do about his future. Mercedes Jones
Mercedes Jones
Mercedes Jones is a fictional character from the Fox popular musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Amber Riley, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Mercedes was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and...
(Amber Riley
Amber Riley
Amber Patrice Riley is an American actress and singer best known for her role on the series Glee as Mercedes Jones.-Early life and career:...
) has a new boyfriend (LaMarcus Tinker
LaMarcus Tinker
LaMarcus Tinker is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as teenage football star Dallas Tinker on the NBC and Direct TV television drama Friday Night Lights, and as Kevin on the ABC comedy Cougar Town...
); her former boyfriend Sam Evans
Sam Evans
Sam Evans is a recurring fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Chord Overstreet, and appeared on Glee starting with the second season premiere episode entitled "Audition", first broadcast on September 21, 2010, and ending with that...
(Chord Overstreet
Chord Overstreet
Chord Overstreet is an American actor, singer and musician, best known for his role as Sam Evans on the television series Glee.-Early life:...
) moved to another state. Three New Directions members have left: Sam, Lauren Zizes
Lauren Zizes
Lauren Zizes is a recurring fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series, Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Ashley Fink, and has appeared in Glee since the season one episode "Wheels", first broadcast on November 11, 2009. Lauren was developed by Glee creators Ryan...
(Ashley Fink
Ashley Fink
Ashley Rae Fink is an American actress, known for her role as Lauren Zizes in the television series Glee, and also as Carter McMahon in Huge.-Personal life:...
), who also broke up with Puck
Puck (Glee)
Noah "Puck" Puckerman is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Mark Salling, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Puck was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian...
(Mark Salling), and Sam's ex-girlfriend Quinn Fabray
Quinn Fabray
Quinn Fabray is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Dianna Agron, and has appeared in Glee since its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. She is a former cheerleader at the fictional William McKinley High School in...
(Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron
Dianna Agron is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Quinn Fabray on the television series Glee.-Early life:Dianna Agron was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in San Antonio, Texas and San Francisco, California. She is the daughter of Mary and Ronald S. Agron, a general...
), who has completely reinvented herself with pink hair, a nose ring and a tattoo; she has taken up smoking, and has made friends with a group of outcast girls called the Skanks. She refuses to rejoin either the Cheerios or New Directions.
To recruit new talent, Will places several purple pianos around the school and encourages the club to sing whenever they see one. When Mike and Tina play on one in a hallway, Sue interrupts them by snapping the piano strings with wire cutters, and is praised for doing so by an arts-hating teacher (Barbara Tarbuck
Barbara Tarbuck
Barbara Tarbuck is an American actress born in 1942 in Detroit, Michigan. She is usually seen interpreting Lady Jane Jacks in General Hospital.-Biography:...
), who promises to vote for her. An inspired Sue goes on television and vows that, if elected, she will cut all funding for school arts programs until all students read at or above grade level. She makes Santana Lopez
Santana Lopez
Santana Lopez is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Naya Rivera, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Santana was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
(Naya Rivera
Naya Rivera
Naya Marie Rivera is an American actress and singer known for her role in the musical comedy television series Glee, as cheerleader Santana Lopez.-Early life:...
) and Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter
Lauren Potter
Lauren Potter is an American actress best known for her role as Becky Jackson on the hit show Glee.-Biography:Lauren was born May 10, 1990 in Inland Empire, California, U.S.A. She is currently 21 years of age...
) cheerleading co-captains, to their mutual disgust, and gets their pledge to help her sabotage the glee club. After New Directions performs "We Got the Beat
We Got the Beat
"We Got the Beat" is a song recorded by the American rock band The Go-Go's. Written by the group's lead guitarist Charlotte Caffey, the band recorded the song in 1980 and it was released in May as a single in the UK on Stiff Records. The song's single release brought the Go-Go's underground...
" in the cafeteria, Becky starts a food fight that targets the club. Following lunch, Sugar Motta (Vanessa Lengies
Vanessa Lengies
Vanessa Lynne-Marie Lengies is a Canadian actress best known for starring in the drama American Dreams as Roxanne Bojarski...
) auditions, but cannot sing in tune. An agonized Will eventually rejects Sugar, but gains a new recruit when Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel
Kurt Hummel is a fictional character and one of the male leads in the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Series creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan initially conceived of him as a fashionable gay countertenor who is routinely bullied at school...
(Chris Colfer
Chris Colfer
Christopher Paul "Chris" Colfer is an American actor and singer known for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television series Glee, for which he won a 2011 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and was also nominated twice for an Emmy...
) convinces his boyfriend Blaine Anderson
Blaine Anderson
Blaine Anderson is a fictional character from the American musical comedy-drama television series Glee. Played by Darren Criss, Blaine was introduced in the sixth episode of the second season as the openly gay lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers, a rival show choir to New Directions, the...
(Darren Criss
Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and a founding member and co-owner of the theater company StarKid Productions. He currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay high school student, on the FOX television series Glee...
) to transfer from Dalton Academy.
Kurt and Rachel see Emma about their plans to attend college in New York City. She suggests they consider a top school for the dramatic arts there, and the two of them attend an Ohio "mixer" for students interested in applying. They have rehearsed "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead", and expect to overawe the other attendees with the performance, but are instead intimidated by their performance of an "Anything Goes
Anything Goes (song)
"Anything Goes" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for his musical Anything Goes . Many of the lyrics feature humorous references to various figures of scandal and gossip in Depression Era high society...
" and "Anything You Can Do" mash-up led by Harmony (Lindsay Pearce
Lindsay Pearce
Lindsay Pearce is an American singer, actress, and reality TV personality. Pearce is best known for being one of the runners-up on The Glee Project, which gave her a recurring role on the TV show Glee.-Early life:...
). Although badly shaken, they vow to persevere.
Blaine sings "It's Not Unusual
It's Not Unusual
"It's Not Unusual" is a song written by Les Reed and Gordon Mills, first recorded by a then-unknown Tom Jones after having first been offered to Sandie Shaw. Jones recorded what was intended to be a demo for Shaw, but when she heard it she was so impressed with Jones' delivery that she declined the...
" to a large crowd in the school courtyard while a growing number of Cheerios, directed by Santana, join in as back-up dancers. As the number is ending, the Cheerios circle the purple piano, and they each sprinkle it with lighter fluid. Quinn flicks her lit cigarette onto the piano, and it bursts into flames. Will tells Santana that because of her sabotage she is banned from New Directions. Rachel breaks up the resulting pity party by singing the opening to "You Can't Stop the Beat", and they all perform the song in the auditorium, while Quinn secretly watches from above.
Production
The first day of filming for the episode was August 9, 2011, though some cast members were called the day before to begin recording musical numbers. Murphy realized that The Glee ProjectThe Glee Project
The Glee Project is an American reality television series from Oxygen. It serves as an audition for the FOX TV series Glee. Although originally planned to begin broadcasting in late May 2011, The Glee Project premiered on June 12, 2011...
runner-up Lindsay Pearce
Lindsay Pearce
Lindsay Pearce is an American singer, actress, and reality TV personality. Pearce is best known for being one of the runners-up on The Glee Project, which gave her a recurring role on the TV show Glee.-Early life:...
would be ideal for an already-written role in the episode, but the filming needed to take place before the project's finale was broadcast on August 21, 2011, upon which it would be revealed that she had won a two-episode prize. They "kept delaying" the shoot, and "snuck [her] into a soundstage to make sure no one recognized her." In aid of this secrecy, her name was omitted from the Fox press release for the episode. Once Murphy had cast Pearce, he made the musical number she was to appear in bigger. According to Lea Michele, the filming of the first episode ended on August 19, 2011.
Returning recurring characters that appear in the episode include ex-glee club member Lauren Zizes
Lauren Zizes
Lauren Zizes is a recurring fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series, Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Ashley Fink, and has appeared in Glee since the season one episode "Wheels", first broadcast on November 11, 2009. Lauren was developed by Glee creators Ryan...
(Ashley Fink
Ashley Fink
Ashley Rae Fink is an American actress, known for her role as Lauren Zizes in the television series Glee, and also as Carter McMahon in Huge.-Personal life:...
), Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba
Iqbal Theba
Iqbal Theba is a Pakistani-American actor. Theba currently has a recurring role as Principal Figgins in the show Glee.-Life and career:Theba became a familiar face in the 1990s when he appeared in various TV shows and commercials in the United States....
), football coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones
Dot Jones
Dorothy-Marie "Dot" Jones is an athlete and actress who has had multiple roles in television. She attended California State University, Fresno, where she set records for shot put. Jones is also a 15-time world arm wrestling champion...
), cheerleader Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter
Lauren Potter
Lauren Potter is an American actress best known for her role as Becky Jackson on the hit show Glee.-Biography:Lauren was born May 10, 1990 in Inland Empire, California, U.S.A. She is currently 21 years of age...
), school reporter Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman
Josh Sussman
Josh Sussman is an American actor, best known for his role as Hugh Normous in Wizards of Waverly Place and his role as Jacob Ben Israel in Glee.-Biography:Sussman grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey...
), and television anchors Rod Remington (Bill A. Jones) and Andrea Carmichael (Earlene Davis). Three new recurring characters were introduced: football player Shane (LaMarcus Tinker
LaMarcus Tinker
LaMarcus Tinker is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as teenage football star Dallas Tinker on the NBC and Direct TV television drama Friday Night Lights, and as Kevin on the ABC comedy Cougar Town...
), who is the new boyfriend of Mercedes Jones
Mercedes Jones
Mercedes Jones is a fictional character from the Fox popular musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Amber Riley, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Mercedes was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and...
(Amber Riley
Amber Riley
Amber Patrice Riley is an American actress and singer best known for her role on the series Glee as Mercedes Jones.-Early life and career:...
), Sugar Motta (Lengies) and Pearce as Harmony. Effective with this episode, former recurring guest stars Harry Shum, Jr.
Harry Shum, Jr.
Harry Shum, Jr. is an American dancer, actor, and choreographer. He is best known for his role as Mike Chang on the FOX television show Glee. He has appeared in dance films such as Stomp the Yard, You Got Served, Step Up 2: The Streets and Step Up 3D...
as Mike Chang
Mike Chang
Michael "Mike" Chang, Jr. is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor and dancer Harry Shum, Jr., and has appeared on Glee since the fourth episode in the first season, "Preggers", first broadcast on September 23, 2009...
and Darren Criss
Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss is an American actor, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and a founding member and co-owner of the theater company StarKid Productions. He currently portrays Blaine Anderson, an openly gay high school student, on the FOX television series Glee...
as Blaine Anderson
Blaine Anderson
Blaine Anderson is a fictional character from the American musical comedy-drama television series Glee. Played by Darren Criss, Blaine was introduced in the sixth episode of the second season as the openly gay lead singer of the Dalton Academy Warblers, a rival show choir to New Directions, the...
join the main cast, while Jessalyn Gilsig
Jessalyn Gilsig
Jessalyn Gilsig is a Canadian actress known for her roles in the television series Boston Public, Nip/Tuck and as Will Schuester's ex-wife Terri Schuester in Glee...
and Mike O'Malley
Mike O'Malley
Michael Edward "Mike" O'Malley is an American actor and playwright who has appeared in films and television series. He hosted Nickelodeon GUTS, and he starred in the CBS comedy Yes, Dear...
, who play Will's wife Terri Schuester
Terri Schuester
Terri Schuester is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actress Jessalyn Gilsig, and has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Terri was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian...
and Kurt's father Burt Hummel
Burt Hummel
Burt Hummel is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor Mike O'Malley, and first appeared on Glee in the fourth episode of the first season, "Preggers". Burt was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan...
respectively, are no longer given starring credits. Gilsig was in the main cast for the first two seasons, and her change had been previously reported. O'Malley's had not, but he is listed in the Fox press release for the second episode as being a guest star, his credit in the first season. Barbara Tarbuck
Barbara Tarbuck
Barbara Tarbuck is an American actress born in 1942 in Detroit, Michigan. She is usually seen interpreting Lady Jane Jacks in General Hospital.-Biography:...
guest starred as Nancy Bletheim, a geometry teacher at McKinley.
At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International on July 24, 2011, series creator Brad Falchuk
Brad Falchuk
Brad Falchuk is a television writer, director and producer. He is best known for his work on the television series Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story.-Early life:...
said that in the first episode of the third season, "The opening sequence is everybody saying what they want to do when they grow up, so you see everyone's anxieties." He also stated, "Come the first episode back, you see who the seniors and juniors are."
The episode features seven musical cover versions. Two are in the form of a mash-up of "Anything Goes
Anything Goes (song)
"Anything Goes" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for his musical Anything Goes . Many of the lyrics feature humorous references to various figures of scandal and gossip in Depression Era high society...
" from the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes
Anything Goes
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London...
and "Anything You Can Do" from Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun
Annie Get Your Gun (musical)
Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley , who was a sharpshooter from Ohio, and her husband, Frank Butler.The 1946 Broadway production...
, with the lead sung by Pearce. The other five are "You Can't Stop the Beat" from the musical Hairspray
Hairspray (musical)
Hairspray is a musical with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues...
and "We Got the Beat
We Got the Beat
"We Got the Beat" is a song recorded by the American rock band The Go-Go's. Written by the group's lead guitarist Charlotte Caffey, the band recorded the song in 1980 and it was released in May as a single in the UK on Stiff Records. The song's single release brought the Go-Go's underground...
" by The Go-Gos, both performed by New Directions; "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" from the film The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
(as performed by Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
and Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...
from Streisand's Duets
Duets (Barbra Streisand album)
Duets is the 42nd album by Barbra Streisand. It is a collection of some of Streisand's duet performances recorded both in the studio and live between 1963 and 2002. The album contains two newly recorded songs, one with Barry Manilow and one with Josh Groban...
album), sung by Michele and Colfer; the Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
song "It's Not Unusual
It's Not Unusual
"It's Not Unusual" is a song written by Les Reed and Gordon Mills, first recorded by a then-unknown Tom Jones after having first been offered to Sandie Shaw. Jones recorded what was intended to be a demo for Shaw, but when she heard it she was so impressed with Jones' delivery that she declined the...
" featuring Criss; and "Big Spender
Big Spender
"Big Spender" is a song written by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields for the musical Sweet Charity, first performed in 1966. It is sung, in the musical, by the dance hostess "girls"; it was choreographed by Bob Fosse for the Broadway musical and the film...
" from the musical Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity
Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon. It is based on Federico Fellini's screenplay for Nights of Cabiria...
, performed by Lengies. All songs, except for "Big Spender," were released as singles, available for digital download.
Ratings
"The Purple Piano Project" was first broadcast on September 20, 2011 in the United States on Fox. It garnered a 4.0/11 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and received 9.21 million American viewers during its initial airing. It was beaten in its timeslot by the NCISNCIS (TV series)
NCIS, formerly known as NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is an American police procedural drama television series revolving around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S...
premiere on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, which garnered a 4.3/12 rating/share in the 18–49 demographic, and also by the premiere of the new show New Girl that followed Glee on Fox, which brought in a 4.8/12 rating/share and 10.27 million viewers. The Glee numbers were down by over 25% from the season two opener, "Audition
Audition (Glee)
"Audition" is the second season premiere and 23rd episode overall of the American television series Glee. The episode was written by Ian Brennan, directed by Brad Falchuk, and premiered on the Fox network on September 21, 2010...
", which was watched by 12.45 million American viewers and received a 5.6/16 rating/share, and down nearly as much from the season two finale, "New York
New York (Glee)
"New York" is the twenty-second episode and season finale of the second season of the American musical television series Glee, and the 44th overall. The episode was written and directed by series creator Brad Falchuk, filmed in part on location in New York City, and first aired on May 24, 2011 on...
", which attracted 11.80 million viewers and a 4.6/11 rating/share.
In the UK, "The Purple Piano Project" premiered on digital subscription channel Sky1 with an overnight average of 639,000 viewers (2.8%), down by nearly 50% compared to the overnight rating of the season two finale, "New York", which aired on E4. Final ratings brought Glee up to 1.17 million viewers. It was the ninth-most watched show on cable for the week, down 55% from "New York" and 61% from "Audition", both of which were the top-ranked cable shows in their respective weeks of broadcast. The episode's Australian broadcast attained 760,000 viewers, which made Glee the twelfth most-watched program of the day, although viewership was down almost 30% from the 987,000 viewers of "New York". In Canada, 2.10 million viewers watched the episode, where it was the most-viewed show in its timeslot and outperformed its closest competitor by 183% in the 18–49 demographic. It was the tenth most-viewed show of the week, down three slots but up 16% from the 1.77 million who watched "New York".
Social media
The night the episode debuted, several topics related to the show appeared in the top ten trending topics on TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
. At one point, Glee cast member Kevin McHale tweeted "5 TT's! Woo woo!", indicating that five of the top ten slots were filled by Glee-related topics. The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, in their story on the online reaction to the show, said that there were four of ten topics claimed by the debut rather than five: "#gleek", "Kurt and Rachel", "Sue Sylvester" and "Warblers".
Twitter was also used to advertise the show. To highlight the beginning of the third season and its move to a new channel, Sky was the first company to use Twitter's geographically targeted ad capability in the UK with a "promoted trend" that was displayed on September 22, 2011, the day that Glee debuted on Sky1.
Critical response
"The Purple Piano Project" received a mixed-to-positive response from critics. Jenna Mullins of E! Online called it "a perfect season-starter of an episode". The Atlantic Kevin Fallon appreciated that it tackled some of the show's biggest problems, such as the surfeit of central characters and their previously un-addressed ages. He was particularly pleased that the episode focussed on typical high school life, rather than the adult characters or more serious issues. Bobby Hankinson of the Houston ChronicleHouston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
approved of the "clear trajectory" set out for the characters, and noted that he looked forward to seeing their various storylines develop. Though AOL TV
AOL TV
AOL TV was the name of both a thin client which uses a television for display , and the online service that supports it, both of which were launched in June 2000 to compete with WebTV....
Crystal Bell worried that clarfiying the teenagers' ages could result in the younger characters being overlooked in future episodes, she was glad that the premiere saw the show return to its roots: "underdogs, show tunes and Sue Sylvester." A similar sentiment was expressed by Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, who was hopeful that renewed focus on the core characters would lead to "a great year". The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
Amy Lee observed that "Glee has a tendency to oscillate between sappy and nasty, sometimes without any warning", and opined that "The Purple Piano Project" was more tonally balanced than the majority of the second season. Anthony Benigno of The Faster Times
The Faster Times
The Faster Times is an online newspaper launched by Sam Apple on July 9, 2009. Many print newspapers were going out of business and reporters were losing their jobs. The New York Times reported that in this climate, Apple was able to recruit professional writers guaranteeing them 75% of revenue...
deemed the episode "admirably straightforward", unmarred by the sentimentality and inconsistencies which plagued previous episodes. His praised was tempered, however, and he wrote, "I wouldn't go so far as to call the episode good, it was oddly lifeless and the stakes seemed almost nonexistent at times. It has the feel of a show rediscovering itself, but, all things considered, Ryan Murphy and Co. handled the task relatively well."
James Poniewozik
James Poniewozik
James Poniewozik is an American journalist and television critic. He writes Times Tuned In column and has a blog with the same name.Originally from Monroe, MI, Poniewozik attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, graduating with a BA in English. He subsequently attended the graduate program...
of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
took a more negative stance. He wrote that "The Purple Piano Project" "was not a particularly good episode of Glee", one which was hindered by the vast number of central characters, "but it did at least suggest where the third season of the show could find its strong core stories, and also ... the numerous ways in which it could get sidetracked into tangential ridiculousness." The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
Todd VanDerWerff graded the episode "D+". He summarised it as "a handful of okay performances, one or two pretty good lines, and then a whole bunch of awful". Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
Erica Futterman praised the episode's humor and plot development, but commented that it "didn't hit any of the emotional notes Glee is capable of." Robert Canning of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
rated it an "okay" 6.5 out of 10. He too found "there were still quite a few laughs to be had", but felt the episode suffered from its repetitiveness, as Sue's hatred of the glee club and New Directions' recruitment problems have been thoroughly explored before. The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...
Samantha Urban noted that Murphy failed to deliver on his promise to increase Mercedes and Tina's roles, and couldn't accept that Sue would be allowed to promote her congressional campaign on her local news commentary spot, but overall was "pretty impressed" with what she called "a solid episode of Glee that made [her] feel cautiously optimistic about the season ahead." Lisa Respers France of CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
summed up the episode in a single word: "Meh."
The plot which involved Rachel and Kurt attracted uniformly favorable reviews. Fallon called it "one of the episode's strongest subplots", and Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
Matt Zoller Seitz deemed it the episode's "most successful and affecting." Bell named Rachel and Kurt as her favorite Glee pairing, and Futterman wrote that their "friendship has grown from something catty into something genuine and relatable and their interactions are likely the most authentic for any aspiring musical theater performers among Glee viewers." Within his generally negative review of the episode, VanDerWerff noted that the NYADA mixer scene "features some of the best work Chris Colfer and Lea Michele have contributed to the show." In contrast, the adult storylines were generally poorly received. Zoller Seitz branded Will and Emma's relationship boring, and Abby West of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
disliked the fact the season began with them in an established relationship: "I feel like I missed a huge leap for Emma and we need to have it acknowledged." Fallon disparaged Will as being "insufferable", and attributed this to "Morrison's wooden characterization, the stilted writing [and] the flat purpose that the character serves on the show". Sue's storyline was described as nonsensical by VanDerWerff, who wrote that she "has decided to take her crusade against the glee club to a congressional district-wide audience, because, well, she was the most popular character in season one, and she will be again, via blunt force, if necessary." Reiter, however, found Sue to be "in perfect form in this episode, neither too mean nor too misty", and enjoyed her storyline.
The introduction of Harmony and Sugar garnered critical praise. VanDerWerff wrote that the former "may be the best new character ever", TVLine
TVLine
TVLine is a website devoted to information, news and spoilers of television programs.-History:In late 2010, Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello announced that he would be leaving EW after nearly two years in their employ to establish a TV-centered website with MMC, the media company founded by...
Michael Slezak said she was "brillantly bought to life" by Pearce, and Fallon felt that her arrival boded well for the introductions of the other finalists from The Glee Project. He said that "she brought, which the best new characters do, fresh and exciting aspects in the show's established leads. Zoller Seitz described Sugar as "an entitled little snot", but a "great character" nonetheless, and one he hoped to see more of. West praised Lengies' performance and opined that with Sue otherwise occupied, "it'll be great to have another person as a thorn in the Glee club's side." Not everyone was thrilled with Sugar's advent, however; VanDerWerff called the character "awful".
Music and performances
The episode's musical numbers were generally well-received. Hankinson appreciated that they "felt to proper scale", with a realism which the previous season's "over-the-top" performances lacked. Though Benigno criticized the song selection for being too focused on Broadway tracks, which he felt limited its appeal for younger viewers, Urban called the choices "outstanding" and VanDerWerff commented that the wide range represented progress from season two. He noted that there were no performances he disliked, but found some "shockingly poorly motivated for dramatic purposes". Canning enjoyed the songs both vocally and visually: "Everything was upbeat, familiar and fun. The dancing was entertaining and most of the performances were group numbers, which added plenty of visual flair.""We Got the Beat" garnered praise for Brittany and Mike's dancing from Lee, though she described the vocals as AutoTuned, a comment echoed by Futterman, who was nevertheless glad that Brittany and Rachel "match[ed] the rawness of Santana's voice". Slezak and Benigno were pleased that Morris and Rivera received lead vocals, but while the former commended the number as a great musical start to the season and awarded it an "A" grade, the latter found it hard to differentiate between the Glee cover and the original, observed that it failed to advance the plot, and graded it "C". Respers France was entirely unimpressed with the routine. For her, Sugar's scene following it was one of the episode's few highlights, although she described Sugar as having "a horrible voice".
Rachel and Kurt's duet of "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" made Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
Rae Votta long for them to share more material. It encapsulated everything Futterman wanted in a duet between the two; she observed "it's effortless, charming, full of power musical theater vocals and Rachel gets to channel Barbra Streisand". Lee, however, felt the number was an odd choice to demonstrate their talent, and although Slezak graded it a "B", he contrasted it negatively with their previous duets. West opined that the song was too insubstantial and gave it a "B–". Its highest grade, an "A–", came from Benigno. He noted its lack of significance to the plot and wished that the vocal split had not been so strongly in Michele's favor, but called it "a fun, infectious number."
Criss's performance of "It's Not Unusual" attracted comparisons to comical renditions of the number in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but earned an "A" from West regardless. Fallon said the routine was "embarrassingly enjoyable" and lauded Criss's screen presence, and Benigno called it a "wonderful performance", but felt it was hampered by the simplicity of the arrangement and gave it a "B+". Futterman and Slezak both generally like Blaine as a lead vocalist, but felt the song was not his best: Futterman wrote that "some of the belting felt strained and the energy a little forced", and Slezak awarded the song a "B–".
The "Anything Goes" / "Anything You Can Do" mash-up was widely acclaimed. Respers France named Pearce's performance the best moment of the episode, and found that the character positively reminded her of "Glee of old". The song was also a favorite of Lee's, who wrote that the intensity of the actress was perfectly matched to the character's disposition. West, Slezak and Benigno gave the performance an "A"; the former called it an "outstanding rendition" which "felt like it belonged on a big stage or in a big-screen musical", and the latter two praised her vocal talent, which Benigno deemed unequalled on Glee. Futterman and Bell found Harmony a credible rival to Rachel vocally, and eagerly anticipated future competition between them. Urban called Pearce's performance merely "serviceable". Though she felt her acting was a weak point, she compared her favorably to season two guest star Charice and praised her vocals. Criticism came from New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
Lindy West, who did not understand Rachel's humiliation, as New Directions "sing way more elaborate and equally competent arrangements four to five times an episode". She elaborated, "This is a thing that drives me crazy about Glee. As a viewer, there's no knowing whether a performance was 'good' like 'Anything Goes,' or 'bad' like 'We've Got the Beat,' until Rachel starts crying or some cheerleader starts throwing spaghetti."
"You Can't Stop the Beat" was called a "perfect ending to a perfect season premiere" by Mullins. Futterman described it as a "standard Glee episode finale, full of inspiration and importance for the future, and catchy as all hell." Slezak enjoyed Rachel's slow opening verse, said the full performance "felt a lot like the shiny, happy Glee of yore" and gave it an "A–" as did Benigno, who also found it a typical final number but was less enthused by the familiarity. Votta's only disappointment with the rendition was that the televised version did not include the "adorable duet" between Kurt and Artie that is present on the single.
Chart history
Three of the five cover versions released as singles debuted on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
: "It's Not Unusual" at number sixty-five with 40,000 in sales, "You Can't Stop The Beat" at number sixty-seven, and "We've Got the Beat" at number eighty-three. On the Canadian Hot 100
Canadian Hot 100
The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007...
, "You Can't Stop The Beat" charted highest at number sixty-five, with "It's Not Unusual" at number seventy-five, and "We've Got the Beat" at number eighty-three. Neither "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" nor the "Anything Goes" / "Anything You Can Do" mash-up charted on the Hot 100 in either country, though in the US each track sold 21,000 downloads, and were in second and third place respectively on the Hot 100 "Bubbling Under" chart. Total US sales for the five cover versions were 149,000, compared to 409,000 in sales for the five singles from the season two opener, "Audition", in their first week; for that episode, all five singles made the Hot 100, and charted between numbers twenty-one and fifty-one.