The episode was written by series co-creator Brad Falchuk, directed by Eric Stoltz, and first aired on September 20, 2011 on Fox in the United States.
New Directions glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) and guidance counselor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) are now in a relationship.
When Mike and Tina play on one in a hallway, Sue interrupts them by snapping the piano strings with wire cutters, and is praised for doing so by an arts-hating teacher (Barbara Tarbuck), who promises to vote for her.
She makes Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) and Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter) cheerleading co-captains, to their mutual disgust, and gets their pledge to help her sabotage the glee club.
An agonized Will eventually rejects Sugar, but gains a new recruit when Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) convinces his boyfriend Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) to transfer from Dalton Academy.
Blaine sings "It's Not Unusual" to a large crowd in the school courtyard while a growing number of Cheerios, directed by Santana, join in as back-up dancers.
Rachel breaks up the resulting pity party by singing the opening to "You Can't Stop the Beat", and they all perform the song in the auditorium, while Quinn secretly watches from above.
[8] Returning recurring characters that appear in the episode include ex-glee club member Lauren Zizes (Ashley Fink), Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba), football coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones), cheerleader Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter), school reporter Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman), and television anchors Rod Remington (Bill A. Jones) and Andrea Carmichael (Earlene Davis).
[7] Three new recurring characters were introduced: football player Shane (LaMarcus Tinker),[9] who is the new boyfriend of Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley), Sugar Motta (Lengies)[7][10] and Pearce as Harmony.
[13] At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con on July 24, 2011, series creator Brad Falchuk said that in the first episode of the third season, "The opening sequence is everybody saying what they want to do when they grow up, so you see everyone's anxieties."
[33] The Hollywood Reporter, in their story on the online reaction to the show, said that there were four of ten topics claimed by the debut rather than five: "#gleek", "Kurt and Rachel", "Sue Sylvester" and "Warblers".
To highlight the beginning of the third season and its move to a new channel, Sky was the first company to use Twitter's geographically targeted ad capability in the UK with a "promoted trend" that was displayed on September 22, 2011, the day that Glee debuted on Sky1.
[37] Bobby Hankinson of the Houston Chronicle approved of the "clear trajectory" set out for the characters, and noted that he looked forward to seeing their various storylines develop.
[39] A similar sentiment was expressed by Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times, who was hopeful that renewed focus on the core characters would lead to "a great year".
[40] The Huffington Post's Amy Lee observed that "Glee has a tendency to oscillate between sappy and nasty, sometimes without any warning", and then noted that "The Purple Piano Project" was more tonally balanced than the majority of the second season.
He wrote that "The Purple Piano Project" "was not a particularly good episode of Glee", one which was hindered by the vast number of central characters, "but it did at least suggest where the third season of the show could find its strong core stories, and also ... the numerous ways in which it could get sidetracked into tangential ridiculousness.
[44] Rolling Stone's Erica Futterman praised the episode's humor and plot development, but commented that it "didn't hit any of the emotional notes Glee is capable of.
He too found "there were still quite a few laughs to be had", but felt the episode suffered from its repetitiveness, as Sue's hatred of the glee club and New Directions' recruitment problems have been thoroughly explored before.
[46] The Dallas Morning News's Samantha Urban noted that Murphy failed to deliver on his promise to increase Mercedes and Tina's roles, and couldn't accept that Sue would be allowed to promote her congressional campaign on her local news commentary spot, but overall was "pretty impressed" with what she called "a solid episode of Glee that made [her] feel cautiously optimistic about the season ahead.
"[48] "The episode's most intriguing development ... was the revelation that new characters such as the Aspergers' exploiter and the eccentric, funny, super-talented kids who performed the medley could hold my attention as strongly as the original cast of Glee.
If Murphy, Brennan and Falchuk are clever enough, they could start integrating new freshmen and sophomores into the existing cast, and make them so lively and distinctive that when the founding characters graduate—as they eventually must—we won't think that Glee is overstaying its welcome by continuing to produce new episodes."
"[45] Within her generally negative review of the episode, VanDerWerff noted that the NYADA mixer scene "features some of the best work Chris Colfer and Lea Michele have contributed to the show.
"[50] Fallon disparaged Will as being "insufferable", and attributed this to "Morrison's wooden characterization, the stilted writing [and] the flat purpose that the character serves on the show".
[37] Sue's storyline was described as nonsensical by VanDerWerff, who wrote that she "has decided to take her crusade against the glee club to a congressional district-wide audience, because, well, she was the most popular character in season one, and she will be again, via blunt force, if necessary.
VanDerWerff wrote that the former "may be the best new character ever",[44] TVLine's Michael Slezak said she was "brilliantly brought to life" by Pearce,[51] and Fallon felt that her arrival boded well for the introductions of the other finalists from The Glee Project.
[38] Though Benigno criticized the song selection for being too focused on Broadway tracks, which he felt limited its appeal for younger viewers,[42] Urban called the choices "outstanding"[47] and VanDerWerff commented that the wide range represented progress from season two.
[52] It encapsulated everything Futterman wanted in a duet between the two; she observed "it's effortless, charming, full of power musical theater vocals and Rachel gets to channel Barbra Streisand".
[50][52] Fallon said the routine was "embarrassingly enjoyable" and lauded Criss's screen presence,[37] and Benigno called it a "wonderful performance", but felt it was hampered by the simplicity of the arrangement and gave it a "B+".
[47] Criticism came from New York's Lindy West, who did not understand Rachel's humiliation, as New Directions "sing way more elaborate and equally competent arrangements four to five times an episode".
"[45] Slezak enjoyed Rachel's slow opening verse, said the full performance "felt a lot like the shiny, happy Glee of yore" and gave it an "A−"[51] as did Benigno, who also found it a typical final number but was less enthused by the familiarity.