Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox. It focuses on a high school show choir (also known as a glee club) set within the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. The pilot episode of the show was broadcast after American Idol on May 19, 2009, and the first season began airing on September 9, 2009. On September 21, 2009, Fox officially gave the series a full-season pick-up.

The show was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan, after being originally envisioned as a film rather than a TV series. Murphy selects all music featured within the series himself, and intends to maintain a balance between show tunes and chart hits. Songs covered in the show are released on iTunes during the week of broadcast, and a series of Glee albums will be released through Columbia Records, beginning with Glee: The Music, Volume 1, which was released on November 3, 2009.

The broadcast of the pilot episode averaged 9.619 million viewers. Critical response was mixed, with The New York Times' Alessandra Stanley highlighting the episode's unoriginality and stereotyped characters, but praising the showmanship and talent of the cast. The Daily News's David Hinckley opined that the show was imperfect and implausible but "potentially heartwarming", while USA Today's Robert Bianco noted casting and tone problems, but commented positively on the show's humor and musical performances. Mary McNamara for the Los Angeles Times wrote that the show had a wide audience appeal, calling it "the first show in a long time that's just plain full-throttle, no-guilty-pleasure-rationalizations-necessary fun."