‘Glee’ Sends Out Casting Call for ‘Sarah Palin Type’

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

Since there are some Gleek fans here, this should be of some interest. Apparently, the show is now casting for a Sarah Palin/Tea Party type. Details within link.

Link: http://www.movieline.com/2011/02/casting-is-glee-about-to-take-on-sarah-palin-and-the-tea-party.php

Big Hollywood's John Nolte addressed the issue well:

Link: http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2011/02/18/glee-sends-out-casting-call-for-sarah-palin-type/

Given the Palin potshot precedent in the exit quotation below, I'm sure the end result will go as well as expected. (I'm grateful for the memory refresher, as I had forgotten if the show had done a Palin joke, or not.) As always, the reader makes the call.

Exit quotation: "“We’ve taken a couple jabs at the right wing this year,” Murphy told TV Guide last June. “So what I want to do with this character is have someone who Christian kids and parents can recognize and say, ‘Oh, look — I’m represented there, too!’ If we’re trying to form a world of inclusiveness, we’ve got to include that point of view as well.”

"Gleeks will recall that Sarah Palin was directly referenced last year in one of Sue Sylvester’s best quips to date. While reprimanding Santana and Brittany, the Jane Lynch character spat, “You may be two of the stupidest teens I’ve ever encountered — and that’s saying something. I once taught a cheerleading seminar to Sarah Palin.”"

Exit question: Per Ryan Murphy's right-wing jab comments in the exit quotation, has the show ever done the same to the Left? Just asking for the sake of fairness.

Update (2/20): The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Kathy Griffin will play Tammy Jean. To quote Allahpundit, "What could go wrong?" Special thanks to Big Hollywood.

Link: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kathy-griffin-loretta-divine-guest-157419

Update (2/21): Glo_unit in the Comments offers a essential correction:

The quote from Ryan Murphy came from an earlier article before the season started about a character he supposedly was going to add to the Glee club. That character has never materialized and if she ever will remains to be seen.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Glees-Blessed-Arrival-1019091.aspx

The quote was never about the Sarah Palin character and she was never intended to be the sympathetic conservative character.

Obviously, I misread the article whenever I first posted. Oh, well, been a while since I made such error. My apologies. At least, the Kathy Griffin casting should compensate things, albeit in a morbidly way.

Comments

[oronoda.livejournal.com]

My mom and I are both conservatives and enjoy Glee. However, there have been some jokes that made both of us wince. The Ann Coulter comment being linked to Britney Speirs and Lindsay Lohan was the big one.

I cannot think of an incident in which liberals were bashed. There was the affirmative action episode (which the icon above is from) in which the minorities were separated from the white kids to form their own Glee Club but that was Sue's doing to try to split up the club.

Also, Quinn gave her baby up for adoption and did not have an abortion even though it was briefly discussed.

There was also the episode about religion which I felt wasn't bashing religion or atheism.

While there are some wincing jokes at conservatives, I feel Glee does discuss the important issue known as unity and has broken ground in someways. The show also discusses issues in a way that I think some conservatives would agree with.

I hope this "Sarah Palin" type won't be overly ridiculous and bashed. But I do think Murphy is reacting to the criticism he has recieved for his conservative bashing.

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Oh, this makes me cringe. I don't watch the show but my nieces are CONSTANTLY going on about it, so much so that I've thought of watching it just to see what all the fuss is about!

But since you know they are not going to portray a 'Sarah Palin type' in a positive manner, I get to look forward to my own family enjoying something that makes fun of me - AND them, if they only realized it.

Sigh.

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, you'll be smart enough to point all that out to them, right?

That's why the Left's anti-business rhetoric doesn't work on me, being the son of two formerly successful businesspeople. I knew it didn't work pre-Obama, and it really doesn't work, now.

[bookwrm17.livejournal.com]

Even if they are sincere in their attempt to be inclusive and have a conservative character so that everyone will feel represented, I can't help but suspect that any and all positive character development she gets will make her less conservative. I just doubt that the writers will know how to make her sympathetic without moving her to the center.

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

I don't mind token conservatives, if written right or, at least, have genuine conservative actors, like "Law & Order"'s Fred Thompson and Angie Harmon. However, if you're doing it just for the token, and then you dump on their ideology, anyway, why bother? Other than to make them the Butt Monkey, like Wheeler on Captain Planet, maybe.

You raise a good point about "making her likeable by removing her conservatism," as Woody Allen and Aaron Sorkin have done in their fares. I'm not familiar with the Glee form of writing, so I don't know if you'd be correct, but you're not wrong.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I've just read they've cast Kathy Griffin, whose life mission is to attack the Palins at every opportunity, for this supposedly inclusive role.

Ryan Murphy is a dishonest, hateful, sick little creep.

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

Source? If so, isn't that the height of hypocrisy? Hah....

[glo-unit.livejournal.com]

I just looked it up, hmm.

Ironically that's what most Glee fans think too.

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kathy-griffin-loretta-divine-guest-157419

Confirmed. To quote Homer Simpson, "crap on a crutch."

[glo-unit.livejournal.com]

I don't know what point of this post is or if it even has a point, but I just wanted to point something out.

The quote from Ryan Murphy came from an earlier article before the season started about a character he supposedly was going to add to the Glee club. That character has never materialized and if she ever will remains to be seen.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Glees-Blessed-Arrival-1019091.aspx

The quote was never about the Sarah Palin character and she was never intended to be the sympathetic conservative character.

So I guess the point would be you are all pissed off for the wrong reasons.

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

In which case..., oops. Although, the cast of Kathy Griffin compensates matters slightly as a semi-valid reason to be pissed off.

Either way, I'll update with this new information.

[glo-unit.livejournal.com]

Thanks and once again this is something most Glee fans have been aware of for some time now: There will almost always be a reason to be pissed off at Ryan Murphy.

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

No worries, as I want truth, even if I screwed up.

Indeed. Which is why I should be glad I don't bother with the show. (That, and the show's hypersexualization.) I don't mind when a creator pisses off the fanbase, providing there is a good reason. Although, anymore, I'm starting to see why the fans' reasons to be pissed are valid.

Good to know, though.