‘Glee’ Is Coming to Disney+ and Hulu This June

Gleeks, our long nightmare is over. Glee will officially be returning to streaming this summer. Starting June 1, the beloved Fox dramedy from co-creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy will be available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu just in time for Pride Month.

Almost from the moment of its premiere, Glee was a pop culture sensation. Created by Murphy, Ian Brennan, and Brad Falchuk, Glee’s pilot premiered on May 19, 2009, months before the rest of the season would drop. That first standalone episode attracted 9.619 million viewers. A subsequent broadcast of the director’s cut saw 4.2 million viewers. And that was only the beginning.

Over the course of its six-season run, the series was nominated for 32 Emmys, nine Golden Globes, 30 Teen Choice Awards, three Writer’s Guild of America Awards, and three Director’s Guild Awards. Of those nominations, the show took home six Emmys, four Globes, 14 Teen Choice Awards, and two GLAAD Media Awards. Then there was the music. In 2009 alone, Glee had 25 singles chart on the Billboard Hot 100. At the time, that was the most singles an artist had on the chart ever since The Beatles had 31 songs in 1964. It was a colossal hit that inspired a spinoff reality show, four bestselling musical albums, a karaoke game for the Wii, a live concert tour, and a theatrically released film that was based on the aforementioned concert tour. If it was the 2010s, you couldn’t escape Glee.

But the series’ true legacy rests in how it handled social issues. As wild, funny, and over-the-top as Glee always was, it paved the way for how serious and progressive topics would later be handled on television. Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) were one of the very first gay couples to be given the same amount of screen time and emotional weight as their straight counterparts. Thanks to Kurt’s father Burt (Mike O’Malley), the series taught its audience about safe sexual practices in the LGBTQ+ community, a topic that was hardly ever mentioned at the time and a potentially valuable resource to closeted teenagers in America. Similarly, Santana’s (Naya Rivera) coming out story was authentically messy without ending as a sob story. Glee certainly missed the mark on several occasions. But it also had several tremendous and emotionally resonant storylines about teen suicide, trans issues, gender identity, mental illness, poverty, people with disabilities, and racism long before these covering these issues became the norm.

Glee managed to deliver all of that while providing audiences with some of the most unhinged musical performances ever imagined. Have you ever wanted to see Jane Lynch pretend to be Nicki Minaj? What about Cory Monteith serenading a sonogram? Sarah Jessica Parker singing a mashup of “Let’s Have a Kiki” and “Turkey Lurkey Time” No? No one has ever wanted any of those things? Too bad, Glee had them all and more. That was just the sort it was. It gave and gave and gave, and when you thought it had done it all, it just gave us even more. No wonder it’s so popular on TikTok. Glee practice is back on Wednesday, June 1 on Disney+ and Hulu.