dizzyizzy01

Even if this were true, it really doesn't necessarily mean anything. They aren't actual Paramount employees so they'd have contractor badges anyway. Contractor badges usually have to be reset in the system every so often (e.g., every 6 months or so depending on what's programmed). They don't have a need to be in on set right now, so nobody's probably bothered to update it. Being written out of episodes is a different situation, but badge access during a hiatus is whatever.

I want a thumbs down button.

True, but I don't think even ER did it by choice. I'm pretty sure those cast members wanted to leave the show, and I'm pretty sure the major cast members didn't all leave at the same time only after 3 seasons. It was always one or two at a time and very gradually over time. RIB voluntarily dropped half the existing cast with what appeared to be no real planning behind it. That decision along with the atrocious writing quite obviously killed the show and drove away the audience.

If the show used their name in the credits, than the actor as paid. This is a standard obligation in union contracts. This is done so that shows/producers can't take advantage of talent to use their name to promote a show and than not pay them. However, the new cast was probably given SAG minimums, which is probably not a ton of money in the larger budget, but it is still a waste. Also, I'm willing to bet that the producers did structure their deals to be a specific number of episodes and not the full 22 episode season.

Glee has never had a showrunner that had a cohesive vision. The closest was S1, but even then there were some problems there. They were less obvious and much more tolerable, but there was definitely problems. Adding staff writers without a strong showrunner doesn't do anything except that a greater variety of people are writing disjointed scripts.

Will was always kinda creepy but in a hilarious way, especially S1 Will. And while MM was completely wasted on this show, I think he's probably one of the more overall talented in the cast. His acting (he's probably a better dramatic actor than comedic) was good. He's the best male singer, and the best dancer (except for Harry). But really, there's only so much you can do when relegated to writing the lesson of the week on the white board.

I actually think the crux of the issue is that no one in that writer's room was capable of plotting things out long-term. They all seemed to have ADD when it came to plot-points, so I wonder if they even really discussed coming up with the "Friday Night Lights" strategy vs. the "90210" strategy. Everything they did seemed to be throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. The writers barely remember/care what happens from episode to episodes let along season long vs. series long arcs. I do agree that Ryan Murphy did have some misguided belief that he could make the newbies breakout stars like he did with the original cast, but as we've seen there was a significant miscalculation on his part there. I just don't think the writers room had enough depth in it to really be thinking about long-term story arcs, settings, etc. It was clear the original concept of the show had Lea/Cory/Matt as leads. I don't know what they were planning to do with Lea/Cory upon graduation and how they were going to continue to integrate Lea/Cory with MM/Lima. The lessened focus on Will was quite strange in season 2/3, and they missed out on a lot of opportunities there with the Rachel/Will relationship and to a lesser extent Finn/Will relationship as well.

The cast has been told that production starts up again in mid-July, which is a lot sooner than anyone thought given the episodes won't start airing again until 2015. I definitely think it'll be a much shortened season though.

Popular was pulling in pretty terrible ratings when it was cancelled. I think it was one of the lowest rated if not the lowest rated shows on the WB at the time. I think it was certainly pulling in lower ratings than anything that wasn't already cancelled. The cancellation for Popular wasn't really a surprise.

My mom wanted to watch a movie on Mother's Day and we wound up watching Legends of Oz. It was cute, but not great. It kind of had a direct to dvd quality about it. To be honest, the story was just kind of odd. I can see why it was in development purgatory for so long. It had a fantastic cast, and Lea was good as Dorothy. But the cast couldn't really save the poor story and the actually kind of sub par animation.

Also the residuals for the majority of the cast probably isn't great. They were all basically unknowns when they signed on and obviously the production didn't care too much about them when they let most of them leave or pushed them out of the door. Except for Lea, Chris, Jane, Matt and I guess Darren, they viewed the majority of them as disposable. It's not like the cast of friends or something big like that. I mean, I don't think they'd starve or anything, but they'd still probably need to work. Most people don't realize how much management, agents, etc. take out of earnings.

When they gave it a 2-year renewal there would be some guarantee on payment to the production company. It's generally not for the full order, but the network would be obligated to pay Murphy et al some amount regardless if the episodes are produced or not. It'll be a business decision on what's worse. Paying to produce episodes that air and are terrible in ratings that may generate less ad revenue than something else they can air in that time slot or paying and not getting anything in return.

Success is all relative and it depends on what people have been pursuing. Chris has done well with his books, and I think his future is probably more behind the scenes or a character actor rather than as a leading actor. His Hot in Cleveland gig should be fun. He's smart and talented so I think he'll find success in whatever he pursues. Dianna I think has struggled a lot to find good projects since leaving Glee. Her major studio releases both flopped pretty terribly and they were booked when she was still on Glee. She has some smaller movies in 2014 in post-production. I don't believe they are with any major studios (at least they're not projects I have heard of). Grant has landed a lead in a CW show, which is pretty good considering he was just a guest star on Glee and hadn't done much before that. That's a great job for him, but you can't compare what a guest star was able to do vs. what a regular cast member was going to do. Lea, Chris, Darren, Chord etc. are obviously not going to go after auditions for network pilots. The perceived success or non-success of Lea's album is still TBD. Her second video is slated to come out next week so we don't quite now yet how that will all play out. Her book is also coming out next week so that's another thing on the horizon. So in the last year, she's recorded an album, written a book, and landed some pretty high profile endorsement deals and countless magazine covers. That's pretty successful too. Sure she hasn't been in any blockbuster movies, but none of this cast has been and most of them probably never will be. I think the only absolute right now is the utter failure of Glee this season and probably next. The future success (or not) of the cast members is still TBD.

I thought Santana's characterization was awful and all over the place this season especially her last few episodes. She went from wanting success in acting/performance to abandoning everything to fly off with her high school girlfriend on a whim or supportive friend to psycho bully back to supportive friend. It gave me whiplash and made no sense. The fight with Rachel was completely stupid and unsatisfactorily resolved. Most of the characters have or had potential to be good and interesting, but the writing has severely failed in that respect. I don't think there's any hope of any good characterization left for any of the characters remaining or recently departed. Not from the writing anyway. The writers have absolutely killed the show.

I agree with tom87. Lea is business savvy and knows to stand by the network/show/party line. She's not going to bite the hand that feeds her. She's just constantly effusive when she's asked about anything she's involved in. She knows she gets shit for even the smallest perceived slight and gets blamed for the most ridiculous things. Even then, I feel like even she's been a little less of a cheerleader for Glee lately. She didn't even tweet about the season finale until after it had aired...