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[Quick Post] Glee: “The Spanish Teacher”

You know I love to nitpick, but with "Glee", I've learned to accept that those kids live in supermagicland where rival schools have song battles in parking garages and a football team can play a championship game with a roster full of girls and a kid in a wheelchair and somehow keep it close enough for the "regular team" to come out in the second half and win. I've learned to concede that maybe JUST MAYBE a club with a bunch of attractive people, football players, and cheerleaders would still get mocked on a regular basis in high school.

But this just got me.

Last night, in "The Spanish Teacher", Kurt visits Finn in the locker room carrying some college brochures. I notice right away the Adelphi one, mainly because Adelphi is a Long Island school, a neighbor to Hofstra University, where I went to school. I don't know at that point that they're college brochures or folders or - since it's Kurt - a fashion accessory or some kind of hat. I go back to half-focus, assuming a prop is a prop.

But no - Kurt puts down the brochures next to Finn, recommending he take a look. Finn stops to look and reads off the schools: Fordham, NYU, Adelfee...

Wait - WHAT? Did he say "Adelfee" (or if you prefer, "Adelphee")?

Quick rewind, and yep, that's what he said. Kurt quickly says (re: Adelphee) "that one's in Long Island", so yeah - that's the Adelphi that I know. I wait for Kurt to politely correct Finn as to the correct pronunciation (as Kurt would), but no - Kurt just mentions that it's close to Manhattan and that they have a football team and that all have musical theater programs.  I waited through that whole scene, and nothing.

So I'm left to wonder - why Adelphi? Someone put it in the script, but no one in the cast or production team had apparently ever heard of it, otherwise they would have corrected it. It's a minor sound edit - would have taken a minute. Adelphi has an acting program, but it's not necessarily well known compared to NYU (good luck getting in there, Finn) or Fordham even.

UNLESS...

Adelphi wasn't the first choice. Script writers search for musical theater schools in the NYC area that also have football teams (preferably non-Division I since it's implied that Finn isn't getting recruited for football). Fordham is one - great theater program, Division I-AA football program. NYU has a great theater program, but hasn't had football since 1952. But Kurt only really mentioned Adelphi as having football (possibly a selling point to a Long Island school in contrast to NYU which was actually in Manhattan and therefore closer to Rachel).

My guess was that the writer/research person came up with Hofstra as the "Long Island school" and put it into the script. Hofstra has a very good theater program, and even has a minor in musical theater. The script was written with Hofstra in place, then someone realized Hofstra - which used to have a football team until about two years ago - doesn't have a football team anymore. Instead of re-writing Kurt's whole ramble, they just looked for another Long Island school close to the city that had a theater program AND a football team. Boom - Adelphi.

And in case you started to second-guess yourself and wonder whether or not it really was "Adel-phee", let this Adelphi-produced video about Adelphi tell you. LET'S CHECK IT OUT [awkward hand wave]:

EDIT: As Rebecca pointed out in the comments, Adelphi has no active football team. The college, which became  exclusively for women in 1912, began to readmit men after the end of World War II. In 1947, the college's increasing male enrollment spurred the creation of several men's sports on campus, including football. The team played one game in the '47 season (a 46-0 loss against the Merchant Marine Academy), then played a seven game schedule in both 1950 and 1951. The team then played a single game in 1952 before the team was discontinued in 1953. It started up again as a club basis in 1965, became a half-varsity sport in 1968 and was discontinued for good in 1971. So I don't know what the hell the Glee people were thinking.

[thanks to Ashley Paterno and College Football Reference for additional info!]