The Quick 10: 10 Gleeful Facts

Hi, my name is Stacy, and I’m a hardcore Gleek. I’ve had “GLEE!” written in my planner for months now, so I was glad when Tuesday finally came this week. To celebrate the season two premiere, here are a few fun facts I’ve learned about the show. Not that I’ve obsessively researched it, or anything…

1. Matt Morrison (Mr. Schu), in real life, would have actually attended high school at the same time

as the Cory Monteith (Finn), Mark Salling (Puck) and Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike Chang). They are less than four years apart in age even though he plays their teacher.

2. Harry Shum, Jr. was one of the original iPod dancing silhouettes in the Nano ads.

3. Those song-and-dance numbers that look like they just randomly happen in the hallways? Well, they’re obviously not so random. Each episode can take up to 10 days to produce because the cast has to learn the choreography and record their vocals for the music tracks. On average, each episode costs $3 million to make.

4. Heather Morris (Brittany) was a backup dancer for Beyonce. In fact, that’s how she got her part on the show – the choreographer needed someone to teach the cast Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” dance, and since Morris had performed with her in concert, she was hired. She was so great they ended up casting her as Brittany the cheerleader, a recurring character, and now she’s a series regular. Morris also appeared on So You Think You Can Dance in 2006 but failed to make the final 20.

5. You probably know by now that the actor who plays Artie, Kevin McHale, isn’t really paralyzed

. In fact, he’s a dancer, and the cast has had to reshoot scenes on more than one occasion because he can’t help but tap his feet to the music. He was once in NLT (“Not Like Them”), a boy band that once opened for the Pussycat Dolls, but they’ve since broken up. If you have eagle eyes you can spot McHale in a couple of appearances on high-profile T.V. shows: he’s in an episode of

The Office

where Michael takes the pizza boy (McHale) hostage, and he’s in two episodes of

True Blood

(pictured).

6. If you think Fox doesn’t know how to milk a hit when they have one, well, you’d be wrong. It was announced in June that a whole slew of Glee merchandise is about to hit shelves: a Wii karaoke game, a karaoke machine, board games, trivia games, puzzles, Hallmark greeting cards, bags, stationery, clothing at Macy’s, accessories at Claire’s, young adult books and an “autobiography” from Sue. Umm. I love the show, but I might just get all show-choired out.

7. They may play enemies on the show, but in real life, Lea Michele (Rachel) and Dianna Agron (Quinn) lived together while filming the first season. In real life, Lea Michele is BFF with her on-screen ex, Jonathan Groff (Jesse St. James).

8. Chris Colfer auditioned for Artie – at the time, the character of Kurt didn’t exist. When he auditioned, the writers mentioned he looked like one of the Von Trapps. Colfer said that he had actually just come off of a production of The Sound of Music, playing, ironically, Kurt Von Trapp. They loved Colfer so much they created the character just for him, adding “Hummel” as a reference to the German figurines of chubby-cheeked little children.

9. Also, he’s secretly a ninja.

10. Amber Riley (Mercedes) auditioned for American Idol but didn’t even get far enough for Randy to say, “Dawg, I dunno, it just wasn’t for me.” She thinks it’s pretty funny now, noting that she now works for Fox and they pay her to sing.

If you’re wondering about the (not-so) sordid pasts of some of the other Glee cast members, check out Jenn Grabenstetter’s quiz.

Where my Gleeks at? What did you think of the show on Tuesday?