April 9, 2012 05:00 PM PDT

First Look: Glee Pays Homage to Whitney Houston and Saturday Night Fever

by Megan Masters

Glee is going tribute-crazy this April, with New Directions paying homage to two major influences on pop culture: Saturday Night Fever and late musical icon Whitney Houston.

First up, “Saturday Night Glee-ver” (airing April 17) finds the Glee gang honoring the soundtrack to John Travolta’s 1977 dance flick — and that’s not all. The installment also features the debut of Glee Project finalist Alex Newell, who is kicking off his arc as a mystery man named Wade.

Meanwhile, “Dance With Somebody” (set to air April 24) will use Houston’s heartfelt tunes to help the graduating seniors cope with their impending goodbyes.

The Glee Project Season 2: Meet the Cast, Pick an Early Fave and Give ‘Em a Storyline!

Flip through the hot shots below, and then hit the comments with your thoughts on Glee‘s upcoming tributes!

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GLEE: Alex Newell ("The Glee Project" finalist) guest-stars as Wade in the "Saturday Night Glee-ver" episode of GLEE airing Tuesday, April 17 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2012 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Adam Rose/FOX

Tags: Glee, Saturday Night Fever, Whitney Houston

Comments (39)

What happened to the promises to avoid theme episodes? Ugh.
Comment by katie – April 9, 2012 05:04 PM PDT Reply To This Post
- Normally I’d agree, but it’s kind of hard to fault them for wanting to do a Whitney Houston episode right now.
  Comment by wordsmith – April 9, 2012 06:15 PM PDT Reply To This Post
- For the 1000th time, he was referring to the first 12 episodes and you can’t fault them for wanting to be timely and pay tribute to an icon like Whitney.
  Comment by dude – April 9, 2012 06:33 PM PDT Reply To This Post
- Whitney Houston is one thing, but Saturday Night Fever?? Unnecessary. I join you in your annoyance at the theme episodes.
  Comment by Paige – April 10, 2012 07:04 AM PDT Reply To This Post
- Ratings slipped and they are getting (more) desperate. Plus, it saves them from having to worry about those silly things called plot lines.
  Comment by Josh – April 10, 2012 07:19 AM PDT Reply To This Post
  - What is a plot line?
    Comment by Meg – April 10, 2012 07:33 AM PDT Reply To This Post
I hope Alex is a one-time visitor. It looks like they may have abandoned the idea of making him Mercedes’ transvestite brother which is a relief. If they stick to that idea I will not be watching.
On another note, Heather is absolutely the best dancer in the show and ‘Dance with Somebody’ sounds like the perfect tune to highlight her abilities.
Comment by Ana – April 9, 2012 05:17 PM PDT Reply To This Post
- Yeah, wasn’t he suppose to be the star of Vocal Adrenaline or something? He was going to get all these scenes with Jonathan Groff? I guess he still could be but it doesn’t look like it.
  Comment by dude – April 9, 2012 06:34 PM PDT Reply To This Post
  - He’s probably a conniving spy from Vocal Adrenaline. I wasn’t crazy about him, but maybe he’ll make some kind of impact when he’s on the show, so far none of the other Glee Project winners have, save maybe for Lindsay with her brief appearances.
    Comment by dan – April 9, 2012 07:32 PM PDT Reply To This Post
    - Lets hope he doesn’t make an impact. and he won’t be Maercedes’ transvestite brother but there is a picture of him doing drag. so expect that.
      Comment by Russ – April 16, 2012 04:28 PM PDT Reply To This Post
People need to calm down about ‘Glee’ going back on what was said earlier. Running a show is a fluid process and things change, so complaining about something that was said before the creators even started Season 3 is juvenile. Get over it already.
Comment by TL – April 9, 2012 05:23 PM PDT Reply To This Post
- I agree – thanks for this post. They only said they weren’t going to do themed epis for the first half of the season, they said nothing about the second half. I like the themed epis.
  Comment by songbyrd86 – April 9, 2012 05:35 PM PDT Reply To This Post
- I agree with this comment!! It gets really annoying reading posts complaining about guest stars and tribute episodes. Just try to enjoy the show
  Comment by Jessica – April 9, 2012 05:56 PM PDT Reply To This Post
  - Finally! I have gotten so frustrated with all the comments I’ve stopped going on this site so often. Thank you for saying that.
    Comment by Anna – April 10, 2012 03:39 AM PDT Reply To This Post
  - We ARE trying to enjoy the show, but I find that it’s more difficult than it used to be. Especially when compelling (realistic) stories are replaced with themed episodes, story arcs just for the sake of fitting in a guest star, etc.
    Comment by Paige – April 10, 2012 07:06 AM PDT Reply To This Post
    - I see where you’re coming from, but ‘Glee’ has never been realistic. It seems like people forget about the horrible fake baby storyline from the of so great first 13 episodes or how Finn thought he could get someone pregnant in a hot tub. I get that people are not happy with the show’s current direction, but claiming that “realistic” stories have been replaced is a tired complaint.
      
      As for themed episodes not having compelling stories, I thought that “Power of Madonna” had some interesting stuff to say about empowerment and men treating women with respect, oh and the importance of females having ownership over their bodies and sexuality. That being said, “Britney/Brittany” and “Michael” (to a lesser extent) were misfires.
      
      And don’t get me started on ‘Glee’ using guest stars because every show does it, and every time said guest star gets more of the spotlight. It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, so taking ‘Glee’ to task for it is a bit unfair.
      
      I’m not saying that people need to love where ‘Glee’ is at today because it has lost a step, but using the same old examples over and over again have grown tiresome. We get it, it’s not the same show it was two seasons ago, now move on already.
      Comment by TL – April 10, 2012 11:49 AM PDT Reply To This Post
- You can’t fault people who have been let down by the writers and creators of the show. Let’s not pretend like Ryan Murphy spends a lot of time making up storylines for the show. I’m pretty sure he took every after school special and just pulls plotlines when needed.
  Comment by Josh – April 10, 2012 07:21 AM PDT Reply To This Post
  - Pretty sure it’s always supposed to be somewhat of an after school special with an edge and music, so you can’t blame the show for being just that. The issues seen in those kind of programs are still relevant when focusing on high school aged characters, so why are we surprised that ‘Glee’ uses them? It’s like complaining that ‘Bones’ focuses on murder or ‘House’ talks about diseases. Somethings are just inherent based on the genre.
    Comment by TL – April 10, 2012 11:55 AM PDT Reply To This Post
I am interested to see what happens with this Wade character….
Comment by Spencer – April 9, 2012 05:28 PM PDT Reply To This Post
Based on that picture of Blaine, I’m guessing he’s covering “It’s Not Right, But It’s Okay?” That’s either going to be really amazing or totally awful.
Comment by DDB – April 9, 2012 05:38 PM PDT Reply To This Post
I hope we see Quinn and im looking foward to these epiosodes
Comment by Josh – April 9, 2012 05:38 PM PDT Reply To This Post
I think they have become better at doing the theme episodes to where they aren’t to overwhelming. I thought the Michael Jackson one was pretty good and as long as it isn’t every week we are good.
Comment by Mere – April 9, 2012 05:50 PM PDT Reply To This Post
I can’t wait for this episode, and I need to see and hear the Brittany/Santana duet right now. I’m curious about the Santana/Rachel one and the Mercedes solo. I hope the Glee project kid won’t have a lot to do because I don’t care about any of the glee project characters that are on the show.
Comment by Iya – April 9, 2012 05:54 PM PDT Reply To This Post
I love Brittana pics. As for Alex, hate him in The Glee Project, probably gonna hate him here too.
Comment by Leo – April 9, 2012 06:51 PM PDT Reply To This Post
of course Blaine got to be in every set of promo photo and has got to have a solo every episodes…seriously the show needs a break from him imo
Comment by ggny – April 9, 2012 06:58 PM PDT Reply To This Post
- Darren Criss Can’t act so they give him a song in every episodes, seriously his storyline in “big brother” is in three songs.
  I don’t know if makes me angry or makes me laugh.
  Comment by xxx – April 9, 2012 09:30 PM PDT Reply To This Post
If you hate Glee, the tributes, the special guest stars Don’t tune the show and leave the gleeks alone. This is the last year of our gleeks in Mckinley… Enjoy it because the next year it will be the end of our wonderful show. I hope not
Comment by Fabricio – April 9, 2012 07:26 PM PDT Reply To This Post
- I second that.
  Comment by yep – April 10, 2012 12:46 PM PDT Reply To This Post
This will be such a mess of an episode…not looking forward to the music (may only be able to stomach Lea and Amber singing)
Comment by llws – April 9, 2012 07:44 PM PDT Reply To This Post
The thing about Glee tributes is that they fall in to catergories: good where the music pushes the character development along or the bad where the music is the main character not the characters. I hope these two fall in to the first because I would much rather see a Rumours again rather than a Britney
Comment by Laura W – April 9, 2012 08:07 PM PDT Reply To This Post
Dammit, I was hoping Alex would just not show up….Didn’t work with Lindsey so I suppose I shouldn’t have expected it with Alex either.
Comment by FairyTaleLover – April 9, 2012 10:40 PM PDT Reply To This Post
Brittana! Yeyeyeye I’m just going to enjoy these last episodes as much as I can before the concept changes! However, I still don’t like the gleeproject winners… Suggesting there’s a new season of the glee-project soon to be aired, they’ll be there next year too (
Comment by Freyoda – April 9, 2012 11:03 PM PDT Reply To This Post
I love tribute episode especially MJ tribute , so i’m excited that they do a WH tribute
Comment by j – April 10, 2012 03:00 AM PDT Reply To This Post
As long as they do it correctly the Saturday Night Fever ep. could be really fun. Personally lookin’ forward to the Whitney episode.
Comment by Anna – April 10, 2012 03:43 AM PDT Reply To This Post
- It is an episode where Shue uses the music of Saturday Night Fever to help those who don’t know what they want to do after graduation. A learning and inspirational lesson for those in doubt of their futures to reach out and find a passion. Before all haters with self-professed psychic abilities condemn this episode try it on first.Then if it is as lame as you pre-destined it to be then after its airing then fire away. Until then keep your negativity to yourselves. I enjoy this genre of music as classic rock/pop and when you hear the lyrics it could be very interesting where the story goes. I’m going to be positive about it.
  Comment by yep – April 10, 2012 12:58 PM PDT Reply To This Post
Heather Morris is HOT.
Comment by Nat – April 10, 2012 04:21 AM PDT Reply To This Post
This looks tacky and stupid. Another Mercedes solo – ick. More Santana singing in every song – double ick. I am so tired of Ryan and his pets! Or his ridiculous themes and guest stars!
Comment by Lisa – April 10, 2012 06:38 AM PDT Reply To This Post
where are the pictures of Mark Salling aka Puck?I like Darren Criss but think the original cast should get more screen time esp as this may be the last season for some of the seniors
Comment by carrie – April 10, 2012 07:17 AM PDT Reply To This Post
I don’t care much for any of these couple of episodes since Damian McGinty reportedly isn’t in them.
Comment by Delie Q – April 10, 2012 01:49 PM PDT Reply To This Post

First Look: Glee Pays Homage to Whitney Houston and Saturday Night Fever

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