| This article is about the ex-glee club director. You may be looking for Sandy (Waitress). |
Sanford Ryerson, commonly known as Sandy, is the former director of Rhythm Explosion and was the local drug dealer of William McKinley High School.
Sandy is a middle-aged man with a receded hairline. He is revealed to be gay in Season Two, but in Season One he claimed he had a long distance girlfriend. He collects porcelain dolls and has an effeminate house set-up. He has an eccentric dress sense and often gesticulates wildly while speaking.
Sandy also has a tendency to 'sit on the fence', often siding with whoever seems the most likely to win. He joins Sue in luring Rachel out of Glee Club in Preggers, but later helping Will in Funk.
He is portrayed by Stephen Tobolowsky.
Biography[]
Sandy Ryerson first appeared in Pilot, where he held the position of the Glee Club teacher, prior to Will Schuester. Sandy was fired after Rachel Berry informed Principal Figgins that he had been inappropriately touching a male student. Sandy was given a restraining order by the court to stay away from students, and immediately took up a 'job' selling marijuana to Ken and the kids off-campus. Sandy provides the pot that allows Will to blackmail Finn Hudson into joining the Glee club. In the uncut Pilot, his Glee Club is seen performing One from A Chorus Line. (Pilot)
Later when Will, Sandy and several other men form a musical group called the Acafellas, Sandy is kicked off, as Will and the others agree that he's just too creepy. Sandy manages to force himself back into the group by promising them that they could get their big musical break, due to Sandy supposedly convincing Josh Groban to attend a show using MySpace. He also tells them that Josh Groban is looking for a new opening act. Reluctantly, Will and the others agree. After the show, it is revealed that Groban only came to serve him a restraining order, as Sandy had been stalking him with disturbing pictures, messages, and intimate gifts. (Acafellas)
Sue blackmails Figgins into making Sandy the arts administrator. (Preggers)
After installing Sandy as head of the arts department, Sue orders him to give Rachel the lead in the school musical, in the hope that she will leave Glee and thus weaken the group. Sandy does as asked, but his own ego keeps him from being objective. He unfairly yells at Rachel and insults her skills, and rewrites the script, giving himself the role of Cleopatra in Cabaret. In the end, Sue has him fired again, as she too can't stand his disturbing ideas. (The Rhodes Not Taken)
In Wheels, Sandy is next seen giving a massive supply of pot to Noah Puckerman, who makes up a story about needing the drugs to deal with the pain of a shark attack. Sandy sympathetically sells a large amount of marijuana to him, unaware that Puck is not injured, but merely wants to lace the cupcakes for the Glee Club bake sale with drugs in order to sell more. (Wheels)
Sandy makes a brief appearance in Rachel's video for Run Joey Run as Julie's (Rachel) dad. (Bad Reputation)
Sandy is next seen in Funk. After New Directions' rivals Vocal Adrenaline scare the group into thinking that they are doomed to failure, Will also falls into a depressed "funk". He goes to Sandy in the hope of buying pot to pull himself out of it, but is rejected - Sandy refuses to sell pot to the depressed in case it causes Will to attempt suicide. In a surprising act of kindness, Sandy helps Will realize that although Vocal Adrenaline are a strong group, they do have a weakness. They can't perform funk - they're "soulless automatons". Sandy appears again at Sheets-N-Things, where he bullies Finn and Puck, who have got jobs at the store with Will's ex-wife Terri to pay off a debt they owe to Vocal Adrenaline for slashing their tires. Upon seeing Sandy, Puck immediately asks, in a bored and expectant manner, if he intends to molest them. (Funk)
He is briefly mentioned by Puck in The Substitute as the various members of Glee club plead for then-principal Sue to re-hire Will Schuester. According to Puck, out of all teachers at McKinley, Mr. Schuester has been the only one to ever 'touch him', "besides Mr. Ryerson." (The Substitute)
Sandy returns in A Night of Neglect. He joins Sue's League of Doom to aid Vocal Adrenaline in winning Nationals and to destroy New Directions. He joins due to the grudge he still holds against Will Schuester because Will "took [his] job." Sue gives him the codename "Pink Dagger" and sets him to destroying the Glee club's benefit concert; he and Sue start the Heckling Club (Jacob Ben Israel, Azimio Adams, and Becky Jackson) to mock the performances. Their heckling causes Tina to cry for over an hour after her performance. As the Heckling Club leaves after Holly Holliday's lecture, Sue pulls him away during the intermission and tells him it's all up to him now. Sandy goes back to the auditorium determined to bring down the New Directions, but when Mercedes performs Ain't No Way, which happens to be one of his favorite songs, he just watches mesmerized, and in the end, donates fully to the purpose, saying that Aretha Franklin is his "kryptonite." This has been his final appearance in the show to date. (A Night of Neglect)Personality[]
Sandy is, as Will describes him, creepy. Oddly effeminate and vain, Sandy talks with an air of undeserved arrogance about his ability and purpose in life. He seems to believe himself extremely talented as a performer and will often do anything to get on stage, such as manipulating the Acafellas into letting him back in, and re-writing Cabaret to include himself in the role of Cleopatra (who of course has nothing to do with said show). Although he was fired from his job at the school, Sandy seems unconcerned as he feels his true purpose is selling drugs to teenagers. He shows Sue that he also collects porcelain dolls. He has been collecting since 1961 and they are his 'everything' (ironically, the collecting of porcelain dolls is often associated with the mentally unstable).
Sandy booing Tina Cohen-Chang off the stage as part of the goal of The Heckling Club
Although initially Sandy claims to have a girlfriend (in Cleveland), he is clearly attracted to the male gender. His tastes often seem to lean towards men much younger than he (touching a young boy inappropriately during choir practice), calling into question whether he is only a closeted homosexual or, furthermore, a pedophile. Sandy also has disturbing stalker tendencies, as demonstrated when Josh Groban accidentally friended him on Myspace, to which Sandy began to send him very intimate sexual gifts. Despite numerous requests that Sandy stop, Josh inevitably is forced to file a restraining order against him, which he delivers personally.
In A Night of Neglect, he seems to be quite open about his sexuality, although this is maybe because he was comfortable with the only witnesses being the other members of the League of Doom. He asks Dustin Goolsby if he is single, explaining that, despite Dustin's heterosexuality, he finds him "hunky" and he considers himself a "predatory gay."
Sandy's teaching methods leave a lot to be desired. Aside from touching male students inappropriately, he bullies female students (such as Rachel) by yelling insults and any sort of emotional abuse he can come up with. Sandy's behavior is often difficult for anyone to handle for long periods of time, as even Sue becomes disturbed by his behavior after A Night of Neglect.
It is revealed in this episode that his favorite song is Ain't No Way and is his "one only weakness."
The Brainiacs reveal to the rest of the Glee Club that Sandy has offered to pay for their $250 trip to Detroit to compete in the final quiz match.
Songs[]
Unreleased Songs[]
- For He's a Jolly Good Fellow (Acafellas)
Appearances[]
| Glee: Season 1 | |||||||||||
| "Pilot" Appears |
"Showmance" Absent |
"Acafellas" Appears |
"Preggers" Appears |
"The Rhodes Not Taken" Appears |
"Vitamin D" Absent |
"Throwdown" Absent |
"Mash-Up" Absent |
"Wheels" Appears |
"Ballad" Absent |
"Hairography" Absent | |
| "Mattress" Absent |
"Sectionals" Absent |
"Hell-O" Absent |
"The Power of Madonna" Absent |
"Home" Absent |
"Bad Reputation" Appears |
"Laryngitis" Absent |
"Dream On" Absent |
"Theatricality" Absent |
"Funk" Appears |
"Journey" Absent | |
| Glee: Season 2 | |||||||||||
| "Audition" Absent |
"Britney/Brittany" Absent |
"Grilled Cheesus" Absent |
"Duets" Absent |
"The Rocky Horror Glee Show" Absent |
"Never Been Kissed" Absent |
"The Substitute" Absent |
"Furt" Absent |
"Special Education" Absent |
"A Very Glee Christmas" Absent |
"The Sue Sylvester Shuffle" Absent | |
| "Silly Love Songs" Absent |
"Comeback" Absent |
"Blame It on the Alcohol" Absent |
"Sexy" Absent |
"Original Song" Absent |
"A Night of Neglect" Appears |
"Born This Way" Absent |
"Rumours" Absent |
"Prom Queen" Absent |
"Funeral" Absent |
"New York" Absent | |
Trivia[]
- Sandy shares the same last name as Stephen Tobolowsky's character in the film Groundhog Day, Ned Ryerson.
- He sent Josh Groban locks of hair, photos, food baskets, and messages, and then received a restraining order from him.
- He is attracted to Dustin Goolsby. Ironically, Stephen Tobolowsky is in real life a straight man, whereas Cheyenne Jackson (who plays Dustin Goolsby) is a gay man.
- He is described by Blaine as "a really horrible person." (A Night of Neglect)
- He may be an emotional eater, as is evidenced in Preggers, when he tells Sue that he ate nine cans of aerosol whipped cream the previous day.
- He writes "Desperate Housewives" fanfiction.
- He is a fan of Kenny G.
- Like Hank Saunders, Puck mentions in The Substitute that Sandy once touched him inappropriately. It is unknown as to why Puck didn't report this immediately.
- He has a collection of porcelain dolls, having collected since 1961.
- Sandy wears touches of make up, as implied in A Night of Neglect, where he notes to Sue "I was applying a light coat of powder and practicing catchphrases to use when I really take someone down a peg."
- He is a fan of Aretha Franklin.
- In A Night of Neglect, he mentions having a court-appointed therapist. This implies that Sandy has been arrested.
- Sandy's bathroom is apparently "rose pink."
- According to Will, Sandy is responsible for the Glee club's demise since taking over from Lillian after her death in 1997.
- In the uncut version of the Pilot, he denies the fact that he is gay when Figgins fires him.
- He plays Bridge games every Friday.
Gallery[]
Quotes[]
| “ |
This looks like barf. I guess I have to do everything myself... |
” |
—Sandy to Sheets-N-Things employee, Pilot | ||
| “ |
Figgins: My hands are tied, Sandy, we can not afford another lawsuit. Please continue to pack up your decorative centerpieces. |
” |
| “ |
Who is Josh Groban?! Kill yourself! |
” |
| “ |
No, William, I am not allowed within fifty feet of children. |
” |
| “ |
Oh, please, my life is a disaster, with no creative outlet, other than writing my Desperate Housewives fanfiction. |
” |
| “ |
I have two words for you: Josh. Groban. |
” |
| “ |
He is an angel sent from above to deliver us platinum records. |
” |
—Sandy to Howard, Acafellas | ||
| “ |
He's here! He's here! Josh Groban is here. Front row. Big brown eyes. Cute as a butter milk biscuit...I barfed. |
” |
| “ |
I'm living in a cocoon of horror. Yesterday, I ate nine cans of aerosol whipped cream. |
” |
—Sandy to Sue, Preggers | ||
| “ |
Sandy: Are you single? Dustin: Uhm... I'm not gay. Sandy: I don't care, you're hunky and I am what they call "predatory gay." |
” |
—Sandy Ryerson and Dustin Goolsby, A Night of Neglect | ||
| “ |
You just got poked! Poked by the Dagger! |
” |
—Sandy Ryerson, A Night of Neglect | ||
| “ |
Aretha is my Kryptonite. |
” |
—Sandy Ryerson, A Night of Neglect | ||