I do remember when Glee first came on the air. I had no interest in watching it. I’m not sure exactly what it is about the show that turned me off. I love acapella music. I like underdog stories. I’ve known and liked members of choral and glee groups.

Perhaps it’s because I watch very little live TV. Maybe it’s because I’ve invested in many shows only to see them get cancelled early on in the first season. Possibly it’s because as much as I like underdog stories, I’m not a fan of martyrdom, especially overly dramatic “poor, unappreciated me” people. I do know quite a few singers and choral directors who seem to fall into that category. I dunno, I just wasn’t interested.

As my daughter has grown older, my wife and I have been looking for television shows we can share with her. At Paul Goebel‘s recommendation, I introduced her to The Middle (which she liked), and on my own last month I introduced her to Glee on Netflix.

The first episode was a little heavy, compared to my daughter’s usual Disney Channel/Nickelodeon fare, but my wife loved it and my daughter was interested and patient enough to give it a few more episodes. It’s now become one of their favorite shows, as they are averaging four episodes a week as they race to get to Season 2.

I admit, I’ve enjoyed it as well. It’s less acapella than I’d expected (and hoped), but it’s good. It gets a little whiny sometimes, but so far it’s pulled itself back just enough.

My concern, so far, is not the maturity of the themes (so far it’s been fine), it’s the constant references to the Glee kids as “losers.” They call themselves “losers”. Other people call them “losers”. It’s clear they are meant to be misfits, but it’s declared over and over again.

Now, my wife and I do talk about what we see on TV with our kids. So, we made a point of addressing this with our daughter. “The point of the show,” I said, “is that they’re really NOT losers, at all.” My daughter agreed, and we went on to discuss it in much more depth: What would you do? Has anyone ever treated you that way? What could this character have done? etc., .

It almost had me pull the plug. If my wife hadn’t immediately taken to the show and there had been a viable alternative, we might’ve given up on it quickly, but so far it remains in our Netflix Instant Queue.

I do find myself still looking for that perfect family show to share. The Nick and Disney shows are decently produced, but they have such snarky young characters and such dumb adults – not what I’m looking for. Yes, there are game shows and singing competitions we can watch. She’s still a little young for the Mythbusters/Top Shot/Chopped type shows we watch with our son, and I find myself still looking for a good family show to share with my wife and daughter.

For now, I’ll give in to Glee, but I wish I felt better about it.

As I matured, I, of course, realized that the difference between TV school and real school wasn’t just that most teachers were boring but there was also a strict set of rules that prevented most teachers from having the kind of relationship that Pete Dixon shared with Bernie.

The biggest revelation about the public school system hit me when I worked as a substitute teacher for a short time. The more time I spent teaching, the more I realized that today’s litigious society had no tolerance for violence or sexual situations in today’s schools.

As a parent, I was comforted to know that my children could go to public school without fear of unwanted advances of any kind from another student or an adult, but as a TV fan, my life was forever changed.

I could no longer watch any TV show set in a high school.

For some reason, a majority of TV shows that take place in a school setting have an inordinate amount of sex and violence involving students. A teacher on Boston Public had a sexual relationship with a student. Pacey did it with his teacher on Dawson’s Creek. The rich kids on Veronica Mars often terrorized Veronica and her friends. The worst offender, however, has to be Glee.

Not a month goes by when someone on Glee is getting a face full of chemical laden ice and syrup, and it seems that this kind of assault is the best you can hope for at McKinley High. Any student who isn’t viewed as strong or popular is in danger of being thrown in a dumpster, and God help you if you’re gay. Kurt was so scared he had to transfer to another school.

There was a gay kid in my high school that had to transfer because he told the police that a teacher, who also happened to be the wrestling coach, molested him. While the administration tried to keep the scandal under wraps, the entire school knew and you can probably guess that this kid didn’t get a scholarship to a private school where he found another gay student that he could sing auto-tuned duets with. Incidentally, that teacher was found guilty of molesting multiple students and was sent to prison, something that you would never see on the CW.

In one particular episode in the first season, Puck and the other jocks are in the process of shoving Artie into a port-a-potty with the intention of tipping it over with him inside. It seems to me that even a person with two working legs could seriously hurt by that kind of prank, but a kid in a wheelchair faces a real possibility of drowning in the feces and chemicals that only an Ohio construction site can supply. It was at that moment that I realized something that changed the way I watch Glee. William McKinley High is the worst school in America.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The school has an emasculated, ineffective principal. The cheerleading coach encourages girls to harm themselves in a variety of ways. There is little to no money for arts programs or extracurricular activities, and the only guidance counselor is unable to sort out any of her many personal problems – let alone those of the kids.

Once I accepted the conceit that McKinley High was a crappy school run by incompetent adults and attended by borderline criminals, I enjoyed Glee on a whole new level. Now when I watch the show with my kids, I can enjoy the mash-ups and laugh at the jokes and tell my kids how lucky they are to go to a decent public school.

Hear more from the King of TV on The Paul Goebel Show podcast and at his website, www.TheKingofTV.com. You can also follow Paul on Twitter @PaulGoebelShow.