Kevin McHale reveals that utterly insane ‘Glee’ holiday episode was “an actual breaking point”
Glee didn’t learn this lesson soon enough, and its fourth & final holiday episode—season 5’s utterly batsh*t and controversial “Previously Unaired Christmas”—is a big old lump of coal.Long dubbed problematic by even the most ardent Gleeks, it’s recently come to light that, yes, much of the cast now acknowledge what a mess the episode was and, no, they didn’t have fun filming it either!Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.On a recent edition of And That’s What You REALLY Missed, Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz’s popular Glee rewatch podcast, the stars reminisced on a time when all was not merry and bright.
In fact, McHale—who played wheelchair-bound Artie Abrams—referred to the episode as “an actual breaking point.”“I was so angry in everything in this episode,” Ushkowitz, who played fellow McKinley High student Tina Cohen-Chang, admitted.To be fair, “Previously Unaired Christmas” was at least trying to push the envelope.
In the timeline of the show that season, it wasn’t even close to the holidays, but as the last episode to air before the end of the year (on December 5, 2013), Glee concocted a fake set-up to explain why the were still delivering a Christmas-themed story.In a meta intro, star Jane Lynch addresses the audience as herself, warning that what we’re about to see is the holiday episode they attempted to air last season, but the network deemed it too controversial to broadcast, and it would only now be making it to air after “several edits.”Whether there’s any truth to that or not is unclear, but what’s certain is that “Previously Unaired Christmas” is a certifiably insane episode of television where it’s obvious that the show had already covered the most iconic and beloved holiday songs, leaving this one with seasonal scraps.
It’s the equivalent of unwrapping your White Elephant gift only to find an old candle that’s already been used.As progressive as the show was for.
