In my LMNT with GLEE

That’s awful. I know. I’m sorry, really, but when I get on this subject I get really giddy and all pre-teeny and stuff. Notice I didn’t say “tween.” I think those critters are a different breed than what me and my adolescent cohorts were. All you have to do is look at the clothing we were wearing in the mid-90s and what the kids are wearing these days. There was a marked difference between what we were buying and what your average middle-aged prostitute donned on any given evening. Not so much anymore.

When the ads first started coming on for GLEE and the internet began buzzing I knew that it was the kind of show I’d like to watch. I’ve participated in a little show choir in my day. Shoot, I’d like to be in one now.

There was something about the commercial that seemed familiar and at first, I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I remembered.

Schuester.

It was him. I stared at the TV. Could it really be?

Suddenly, all the memories came rushing back and I was 14 again. Sitting in the middle of Mr. B’s health class, doing nothing but listening to our Discmans and whatever new boy band CDs we were passing around that week. Or if you were the girls who sat over in the back corner, Marilyn Manson. I’m just saying.

Around that time there was a show that me and most of my friends were watching — Lou Pearlman’s Making the Band. In case you don’t remember, Lou Pearlman is the shady producer who treated both the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC not so nice. As in, he took their money. But no matter. Every night that this show was on I was right in front of the TV, waiting to see the latest drama that would unfold with a house full of guys who want to be in a boy band living under the same roof. The premise seems hilarious now, but back then? Someone come and fan me, please.

Long story short, the show produced the band O-Town and without them the world would be bereft, left to go on without this gem:

Heh. Heh-heh-heh. Heeee. (I’m sorry.)

There was more drama and one of the guys that was originally supposed to be in O-Town split off and there was another boy band formed — LMNT.

(Should I mention that by this time I was 16 and should have STOPPED being into this stuff?)

Around about this time, we got the internet at my house. Woooooo-doggies! So I was keeping track of all this stuff on Yahoo groups with other 12-16-year-old girls. LMNT had its first three members (3 guys who didn’t make the cut for O-Town), but they were looking for a fourth.

It is impossible to find any visual evidence of Matthew Morrison being a part of this band, but I promise you, he was. I was familiar with him from his time spent onstage in the Broadway production of Footloose (there’ll be more on that tomorrow!) and this development was terrific for me. Apparently not so much for him, since he’s quoted as follows:

It was the worst year of my life. You know when you’re a performer and you’re out there on stage and you’re embarrassed that you’re doing something wrong. It was pretty bad.

Sheesh, dude.

So there was that, but his time in the band was short. And for years I did not see him. Until the 2005 Tony Awards.

And now…he’s on the TV again. Seeing the first commercial for GLEE was a little bit like things had come full circle for 14-year-old me. That is why it’s a good thing I never had a vocal teacher who looked like him. My voice teacher? Well…