'Glee' school shooting episode upsets some viewers
The Fox musical TV show 鈥淕lee鈥� upset some by focusing their newest episode around what was believed to be a school shooting.
The gunshots heard by students and teachers inside the school were an accident, but 鈥淕lee鈥� characters hid in classrooms and bathrooms, some crying and recording messages to loved ones. A disclaimer before the episode advised viewer discretion because the episode 鈥渁ddresses the topic of school violence.鈥�
A resident of Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six faculty members were killed during a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, told the newspaper that he wished the team behind 鈥淕lee鈥� had warned those in Newtown about what would be coming on the show. Andrew Paley is friends with Michael Slezak of TVLine.com, who saw a screener of the episode and warned him the storyline might be too much for those in the town.聽
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 terrible that the writers and producers of that show didn鈥檛 think to contact someone in Newtown to let us know this was coming,鈥� Paley said. 鈥淎 lot of people watch that show. They shouldn鈥檛 be upset by it.鈥�
The Newtown Action Alliance posted a message on the group鈥檚 Facebook Thursday warning members what would be happening in the episode.
An anonymous Fox source told the that the episode had been planned since before the Newtown tragedy.
鈥淕lee鈥� creator Ryan Murphy about the episode last week, writing that 鈥渋t is the most powerful emotional Glee ever. So proud of the cast & crew.鈥�
However, some on Twitter were unsettled by the episode鈥檚 content.
One user named Ximena Covarrubia () tweeted, 鈥淚 was crying like a baby while watching shooting star!!鈥�
Amanda () retweeted a story by an NBC Connecticut affiliate about the reaction of residents of Newtown to the episode and added, 鈥淓xactly why I shut it off鈥� Inconsiderate.鈥�
