Unaired Pilot

This differences between the aired pilot and the unaired, original pilot are few but important.

-Instead of opening with Sue and the Cheerios, this pilot opens with a flashback to Will at the 1993 Nationals. I hate that they cut this for several reasons: 1. It adds depth to Will's character to actually see him at his happiest and adds poignancy to his contemplation of the Nationals trophy and the memorial to Lillian Adler, 2. It makes it easier to understand the kind of Glee club that Will envisions New Directions becoming (his team was a lot like Vocal Adrenaline), and 3. Because we actually get to see Will's mentor, the source of the "Glee is about opening yourself to joy" quote, and the scene really lays out Will's beliefs about the benefits of Glee much more clearly than in the ultimate pilot.

-There's a brief scene between Rachel, Quinn, and Santana in the girls bathroom, which sets up the bullying storyline. This is less important than the previous scene, but I still wish it hadn't been cut. It adds a new dimension to their relationship, gives Naya Rivera a speaking line, and paints Rachel as less of a victim. She resolutely ignores their barbs, but also gets her own back by spraying hair spray into their faces. It's a good scene.

-There is a very, very brief cut (but again important), showing Will literally run out of his Spanish class as soon as the bell rings. This shoulda been kept into further show how stuck and bored he is with his life.

-The overall structure is different. It begins with the "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat" rehearsal, and then explains how Will came to run the Glee club via flashback and voiceover. Not necessarily better or worse than in the aired pilot, but an interesting variation. And there's a lot to the story that got cut, which I'll get to in a moment.

-Will's VO: "Rachel's right. We do suck. We might be the worst Glee Club in the state. How did Glee fall so far so fast? You know, I guess it all started a few years back with Ms. Adler's replacement, Sandy Ryerson. [Cut to a fairly large Glee Club, doing a number with stools. Sandy is his usual lovely self.] With Sandy holding the reigns things went downhill fast. McKinley became the bottom-feeders of the Glee world. We were a stool choir. Slowly but surely anybody who could do a jumping jack defected to McKinely High's nationally ranked cheerleading squad, the Cheerios. [Cut to Cheerios practice, and Sue] Led by Sue Sylvester the Cheerios had placed third at Internationals at Pyongyang and twice appeared on Fox Sports Net. There was a rumor that sue had posed for Penthouse magazine and took horse estrogen. ...But that was only a rumor. [Cut to Sandy and a Glee Club member, the incident which gets him fired.] Glee languished, but still...the school didn't care as long as Sandy came in under budget. You know Sandy would probably still be running the club instead of me...if he had been able to control himself. [There's a brief scene of Sandy being fired by Figgins. The first cut that I can completely live with, although it's still quite hilarious.] There was a vacancy, and Fate called on me to fill it."

-Extremely minor, but interesting: The Cheerios cyber-bullying messages are a lot harsher in this cut. "Why don't you die already?" instead of "If I were your parents, I'd sell you back"; "Your videos make me want to kill my entire family" instead of "I'm going to scratch my eyes out"; only "Please get sterilized" made it to the final cut.

-A brief scene of the Glee club dressed in the same outfits from Will's 1993 Nationals squad. Literally, the same ones. Mercedes is extremely sassy, and Rachel storms out of rehearsal again.

-After that, it's pretty much the same as the aired pilot. This pilot ends with Vocal Adrenaline's performance, however, and doesn't go into Terri's pregnancy or Will almost leaving. On the level, the aired pilot is definitely much more complete. But they had to cut a whole lot of good stuff to make way for that little bit of suspense and drama.