Brittany (Glee)

Brittany Susan Pierce is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series ''Glee''. The character is portrayed by actress Heather Morris, and first appeared in the show's second episode, "Showmance". Brittany was developed by ''Glee'' creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan. In ''Glee'', Brittany is a ditzy cheerleader, or "Cheerio", for the fictional William McKinley High School, and a member of the school's glee club led by Will Schuester. Morris was originally hired to teach Beyoncé's " Single Ladies" dance to the ''Glee'' cast. At that time, the series was looking for a third cheerleader, and Morris landed the role. Morris was upgraded to a series regular in the series' second season, in which Brittany is given a larger storyline, solos and dance routines to perform.

Morris plays Brittany as unconventional, often scatterbrained, but also entirely well-meaning and goodhearted. She has said that Brittany "love everybody, no matter who they are"; she is frequently smiling and being nice to people. Brittany's character traits include her finding recipes confusing, mistaking her nipples for pepperoni, thinking her cat, Lord Tubbington, is reading her diary, and not knowing her right hand from her left. These facts are often presented in one-liners delivered by Morris, many of which she has ad-libbed. Brittany's one-liners are regularly celebrated in reviews of ''Glee''. The character's perceived lack of intelligence, well-intentioned cluelessness, and entirely forthright manner of speaking mean, as Morris puts it, that "Brittany is used by the series' writers to say things no other character would". The character has also received positive reviews related to her romantic storyline with her closeted best friend Santana (Naya Rivera). While Brittany is bisexual, and is unashamed of that, Santana had trouble accepting her homosexuality. However, Brittany always supported Santana and urged her to be true to herself.

The character has been received favorably with television critics. Jarrett Wieselman of the ''New York Post'' compared Morris as Brittany to Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester and opined that she "emerged as one of the funniest second bananas on TV right now". Wieselman wrote that since her introduction, Brittany has been given "more and more to do ndless and less to think", and that the result has been "one of the most clueless characters that's ever figured out how to dress herself in the morning." Snarker called Brittany and Santana her "new favourite ''Glee'' pairing", and commented: "While Heather Morris (Brittany) and Naya Rivera (Santana) have had minimal screen time, they’ve made it count. Heather in particular has brought the laughs as the Cheerio least likely to get a Mensa invitation." Brittany has attracted comparison to Amanda Seyfried's character from the 2004 hit teen comedy ''Mean Girls''. Morris also received acclaim for her dancing and her portrayal as Brittany.

Storylines

Season 1

Brittany first appears in ''Glee'' during the show's second episode, as a member of William McKinley High's cheerleading team, the Cheerios. She joins the glee club, New Directions, with her friends and fellow cheerleaders Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) and Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera). Cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) then enlists the three of them to help her destroy the club from the inside. When the club is due to compete at the sectionals round of show choir competition, Brittany unknowingly leaks their set list to Sue, who leaks the routines to competing glee clubs. New Directions put a new set list together at the last minute, and go on to win the competition regardless. Brittany also reveals that she and Santana have had sex, but are not dating. Following the club's victory at sectionals, Sue renews her effort to bring them down, and enlists Brittany and Santana to break up co-captains Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) and Finn Hudson (Cory Monteith). They invite Finn on a date with the both of them, but ignore him throughout the evening and ultimately request that he sit in the car and leave them to finish their meal alone. She mentions in the episode " Bad Reputation" that she has made out with almost everyone in the school – guys and girls alike, and the school janitor. She also briefly dates Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) in the episode "Laryngitis" as he wants to appear more masculine to impress his father and he is the only guy she has not made out with in the school.

Season 2

In the second season episode "Duets", she asks Santana to be her partner for the duet competition while they are making out. Santana rejects her, so Brittany attempts to make her jealous by dating fellow glee club member Artie Abrams ( Kevin McHale). She sleeps with Artie, but Santana tells him that Brittany was just using him for his voice, so he breaks up with her, to Brittany's dismay. Brittany's relationship with Artie continues to develop; in "Never Been Kissed", he gets her to go out with him again. As of "Furt", they are officially dating. In "Sexy", following her performance of "Landslide" with Santana and Holly Holliday (Gwyneth Paltrow), Santana admits her true feelings for Brittany. Although Santana fears being ostracized by the McKinley High student body for being in a same-sex relationship, she confesses her romantic love to Brittany, feelings which are reciprocated. However, Brittany states that she loves Artie too, and would never do anything to hurt him, even if it means not being able to be with Santana. She says that if she and Artie ever break up, she would be Santana's, proudly so.

Season 3

Brittany runs for senior class president in the third season, starting in " I Am Unicorn", and wins the election in "I Kissed a Girl", defeating Kurt in the balloting. She and Santana join the Troubletones, a rival all-girls show choir at McKinley, and formally begin dating; after Santana is outed by Finn, they are open about their relationship. The two rejoin New Directions after the Troubletones lose to them at Sectionals. Santana sends Brittany a singing valentine in "Heart", and the two publicly kiss afterward. In "Saturday Night Glee-ver", concerned about Santana's future plans, Brittany gets the idea to ask Sue to arrange for Santana to get a full scholarship to the top college cheerleading program in the country. After a year of being a do-nothing class president, Brittany puts on a dinosaur-themed senior prom. In the season finale, Brittany reveals that her grades are so bad she is not graduating, but will have to repeat her senior year.

Season 4

In the first episode of the fourth season, Brittany competes to become the lead singer of New Directions, but loses to Blaine (Darren Criss). She then loses to him again when she runs to be a second-term senior class president. Santana formally breaks up with Brittany because she feels that their long-distance relationship is not working, though the two remain friends.
She then becomes 'blonde buddies' with Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), and then starts to date him. Santana comes back to try and break them up, however fails. Brittany visits MIT, where she is dubbed a mathematical genius. Returning to Lima, she becomes arrogant, refuses to perform at Regionals, leaves the Cheerios, and breaks up with Sam. After Will and Sue fail to get Brittany to change her attitude, Sam gets Santana to return to Lima to intervene. After talking with Santana, Brittany decides to perform at Regionals. Brittany reveals to the glee club she has been offered early admission to MIT and delivers an emotional goodbye, as she will be leaving after Regionals.

Season 5

Brittany returns to McKinley in "100" along with other New Directions alumni following the closure of the Glee club. Brittany states her unhappiness at being a math genius and kisses her ex-girlfriend Santana. In " New Directions", Brittany agrees to dropping out of MIT before going on a trip to Lesbos with Santana. Santana asks Brittany to go with her to New York after their trip, and Brittany accepts. Brittany finally graduates in the episode, one year late. Brittany returns to New York in the last episode of the season "The Untitled Rachel Berry Project" but she finds out that Santana is out of town shooting another Yeast-I-Stat commercial.

Season 6

At the beginning of season six, Brittany returns with Santana and the rest of Glee club alumni to McKinley High School in "Homecoming" to help Rachel and Kurt recruit for New Directions. In " Jagged Little Tapestry", while the alumni stick around for another week, Brittany is surprised by Santana's marriage proposal and gladly accepts. Brittany and Santana then return in "What The World Needs Now" to deal with Santana's disapproving grandmother Alma – with whom she hasn’t spoken since coming out as a lesbian. Brittany takes matters into her own hands and tries to invite Alma to the wedding, but Alma's prejudice is too strong and she rejects their engagement, and Brittany tells her off for doing so. Later the New Directions serenade them in an attempt to be invited to their upcoming wedding. Brittany and Santana are wed in a double ceremony with Kurt and Blaine in the eighth episode " A Wedding". Before the ceremony, Sue arrives with Alma, who she has helped to realize that although she may not believe females should marry each other, family is the most important thing, leading her and Santana to reconcile. Brittany and Santana return briefly in the last minutes of the series finale " Dreams Come True" for a last performance with the rest of the Glee Cast to take a bow.

Creation and casting

Brittany first appears as a guest character in the second episode of the first season of ''Glee''. She was brought in as a member of William McKinley High's cheerleading team, the Cheerios. Brittany is regularly played by actress Heather Morris. Morris grew up with a strong background in choreography. She was taking acting classes and actively pursuing an acting career when she was offered a spot on recording artist Beyoncé Knowles world tour as a dancer. Morris, however, turned down the job. Shortly thereafter, she was asked by ''Glee'' choreographer Zach Woodlee to teach the choreography for Beyoncé's " Single Ladies" dance to the ''Glee'' actors. At the same time, the show was looking for a third cheerleader, they originally wanted to have the third be African American, but Morris ended up landing the role of Brittany Pierce. Initially a background character who hardly ever spoke, the role grew as writers discovered Morris had a gift for delivering one-liners. In an interview with Brandon Voss of '' The Advocate'', Morris said of her casting:

Brittany's role in the show was initially intended to be minor, but grew towards the end of the first season. She does not have any solo musical performances during season one, but Morris hoped she would have one in the second season. On April 27, 2010, Michael Ausiello of ''Entertainment Weekly'' reported that Morris would be upgraded to a series regular for season two. Speaking to E!, Morris commented: "It's so fun. I literally just stand there and doze off and then I'm like, 'Oh yeah, I have to speak now! At the 2010 Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour, Murphy stated that Brittany would have "big storylines" in the new season, as viewers want to know more about her.

Characterization

Some of Brittany's most memorable lines are unscripted, and are instead devised by Murphy during filming, or improvised by Morris. Morris portrays Brittany as being "literally insane". She is used by the series' writers to say things no other character would, to the point that Morris considers some of her lines nonsensical. Brittany's character traits include her finding recipes confusing, cheating off intellectually disabled classmates, thinking her cat is reading her diary, and not knowing her right hand from her left. She is friendly towards all the other characters, and Morris has explained that Brittany "love everybody, no matter who they are", so she is frequently smiling and being nice to people. Morris bases her portrayal of Brittany on the character Karen Smith from the film ''Mean Girls''. She plays Brittany as being very innocent, rather than stupid. In the episode "A Night of Neglect", Brittany participates in an academic decathlon as a seat warmer, but surprisingly ends up contributing to the win due to the fact that she is somewhat of an idiot savant on the topic of cat diseases. It is also revealed in "Britney/Brittany" that Brittany is also "Britney Spears" as her middle initial is "S" making her "Brittany S. Pierce".

At the Paley Festival ''Glee'' panel in March 2010, Murphy stated that Brittany and Santana would be seen to make out during the show's first season. Morris and Rivera only became aware of this after reading a Paley Festival report online. When they asked Murphy about the development, he claimed to have made the statement "to get a kick" out of the "dirty guy" asking about them. Murphy told Morris and Rivera that ''Glee'' would not push relationships to appease the show's fans, but would only pursue those which were "organic and natural." While there are moments on the show which depict Brittany and Santana as being very close to one another, Morris attributes these to her close relationship with Rivera: "that is just Naya and I joking around with each other and being really close. It's always her and I just messing around and they end up using it."

Later in 2010, when interviewed by After Ellen and discussing the large lesbian audience of Glee, Ryan Murphy confirmed that season two would contain at least one kiss between Brittany and Santana. In January 2011, several months after Brittany and Santana are seen in bed together, Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk further confirmed that "Brittana is on. Brittana was always on."

Musical performances

Brittany performs in many of the series' musical numbers, though she does not have a solo line until the second season. In that season's second episode "Britney/Brittany", Brittany performs " I'm a Slave 4 U" as a solo and "Me Against the Music" as a duet with Santana. Songs by Morris as Brittany have been released as singles, available for digital download, and have also featured on the show's soundtrack albums. Brittany sings lead for Kesha's " Tik-Tok" in the episode "Blame It on the Alcohol". Candace Bulter of ''ScreenCrave'' praised the New Directions performance of the song and wrote, "Ke$ha might be able to out-drink the ''Glee'' members, but their cover of her song was phenomenal." She went on to praise Brittany's choreography and voice, calling it "mad" and "awesome". Sandra Gonzalez of ''Entertainment Weekly'' praised all of the musical performances and covers of that episode. In the season finale, she sings solo lines in the glee club's Nationals performance of the original song " Light Up the World". In the third season, Brittany's first major performance was in the third episode "Asian F", where she sings lead on Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)", which garnered superlatives from many reviewers including Kevin Fallon of ''The Atlantic'', who wrote, "Brittany's performance of 'Run the World (Girls)' was thrilling. It was the most adrenaline-pumping musical number the series has produced: intricately choreographed, expertly shot and edited, perfectly woven into the story, and performed exquisitely by Heather Morris." She also performs a duet with Santana on "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" in the Whitney Houston tribute episode "Dance With Somebody".

Critical reception

Jarrett Wieselman of the ''New York Post'' has compared Morris as Brittany to Lynch as Sue, and noted that she has "emerged as one of the funniest second bananas on TV right now". Wieselman wrote that since her introduction, Brittany has been given "more and more to do ndless and less to think", and that the result has been "one of the most clueless characters that's ever figured out how to dress herself in the morning." E! Online's Megan Masters has also compared Brittany to Sue, and stated that Brittany's one-liners "easily rival" Sue's. She deemed Brittany "brainlessly brilliant", and thanked the ''Glee'' producers for creating her: "Never before have we had the pleasure of enjoying such a ridiculously dumb—yet always loveable—character on television." When a promotional clip for the episode "Sectionals" indicated that Brittany and Santana had slept together, Dorothy Snarker, when writing for lesbian entertainment website AfterEllen, praised the pairing and referred to it by the portmanteau

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