Growing up on Long Island, when most kids I knew were listening to Z100 for their pop music fix, one of the only radio stations I could get to come in clearly in my room was KC101, a Top 40 radio station out of Hamden, Connecticut. On weekdays, I listened to the station's morning show while I got ready for school. And it was through "Glenn and Pat in the Morning" that I received my first bit of exposure to Glenn Beck. Obviously, I had no idea at the time that the co-host of the show would go on to become better known for his political views than he was for his morning show banter. I would have sooner predicted the successful careers of Channel One's Anderson Cooper and Lisa Ling, had I been the type to consider such things during my adolescence.
On the subject of impressions made on American youth, it seems Glenn Beck is looking to strike back at Glee. Or perhaps to find a way to tap into its influence with his own Glee-like show. TV Guide shared the video below, which is from a speech he did at the Faith & Freedom Coalition let week, and has Beck discussing his discovery of Glee a year ago, and his horrified reaction over "some of the things that they're teaching high schoolers." Tolerance? Self-esteem? Harmonizing? Not to text while driving? He doesn't mention what, specifically, he found horrifying, but he does sing the series' praises when it comes to the production of the series...
He talks about spending a year trying to put together a "push-back" with artists and music that wouldn't be the "stereotypically conservative" music.
It seems this he's serious about an attempt to develop a series. From what Beck told Buzzfeed, they're working with a rapper on what he's calling their "Oedipus project"…
"We are working with a rapper — I can't say who yet — but my audience and his audience will say, 'What?'" Beck said coyly. "We jokingly call this our Oedipus project because the left will be making out with me... and they'll have no idea. Somebody will say, 'Do you know that's...?' and they'll say, 'Oh I don't care, I just really like the music.'"
TV Guide says the show will be previewed at the "Restoring Love" event in Dallas this July. I'll admit, the sheer bizarreness of this has me intrigued. Whether or not there's any way he can "beat" Glee with his own quasi-sneak-attack on the left through some kind of Glee-alternative remains to be seen, but the attempt might be worth a tentative glance, should it make it to air.
