Will & Grace

Categories: Will & Grace | NBC network shows | 1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States

Will & Grace
Image:Willandgrace.jpg
Main cast of Will and Grace. (left to right) Sean Hayes, Debra Messing, Eric McCormack and Megan Mullally.
Format Sitcom
Run time approx. 0:23
(per episode)
Creator David Kohan
Max Mutchnick
Starring Eric McCormack
Debra Messing
Sean Hayes
Megan Mullally
Shelley Morrison
Country USA
Network NBC
Original run September 21, 1998 – present
No. of episodes 174

Will & Grace is an American television situation comedy focusing on Will Truman, a gay attorney and his best friend Grace Adler, a straight woman who runs her own interior design firm. The show takes place in New York City.

The show debuted on the NBC network on September 21, 1998, and steadily gained in popularity, culminating when it moved to Thursday night as part of NBC's Must See TV lineup. Since the sixth season, however, the show's ratings have declined.

In May 2005, the show was renewed for an eighth season. In July 2005, it was confirmed that the eighth season would also be the last season of the show. The final season premiere on September 29, 2005, was broadcast live.

Contents

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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Will & Grace's early relationship

Back in college at Columbia University, Will and Grace were actually boyfriend and girlfriend, with Will in denial about his sexuality. However, with the counsel of his new friend Jack McFarland, Will finally came out to Grace during a Thanksgiving weekend at her family home in Schenectady, New York, 1985. Grace was shocked, hurt and angry at the time, throwing him out of the house, but a year later they finally reconciled and renewed their friendship; they have been best friends ever since.

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As roommates

When the show debuted, the pair had just started living as roommates in New York City after Grace had come out of a long-term relationship with Danny which ended badly and needed an apartment. Will and Grace spend a lot of time with one another as well as with friends Jack McFarland, a flamboyantly gay struggling stage actor whose careers over the course of the show range from a Barneys New York and Banana Republic salesman to acting teacher to student nurse; and Karen Walker, a millionairess drunk and Grace's personal assistant. Another character who factored into the early stories was Will's client Harlin Polk, played by Gary Grubbs. At first he was given equal billing in the opening credits with the other four cast members, but interest in his storyline waned, and he was written out of the show early in the second season (it was said that Harlin dumped Will for a new lawyer).

The show follows both Will and Grace's attempts to establish romantic relationships without sacrificing their often co-dependent reliance on one another for emotional support. A common joke finds Jack and Karen referring to Will and Grace as "non-sexual life partners" or "sexless lovers." At the beginning of the second season, Grace moved into her own apartment (across the hall from Will's) in an attempt to put some distance between herself and Will, but then ended up moving back at the beginning of the third season. She moved out after getting married in the fifth season, but she moved back in with Will after getting divorced at the start of the seventh season.

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Relationships

Grace has had several lovers on the show, portrayed by actors such as Woody Harrelson and Gregory Hines. Frequently, her lovers feel frustrated by the closeness of her relationship with Will, worried that she is on some level still in love with him. (There's a great deal of support for this position: for instance, in the sixth season, when Grace meets her husband's former girlfriend, played by Mira Sorvino, she behaves quite maturely until she discovers that the ex is also the only woman Will had ever slept with, after which she becomes extremely jealous.) Eventually she married Leo, played by musician and actor Harry Connick, Jr.. Leo was unusual in that Grace's friendship with Will seemed not to bother him; at one point, when Grace was extremely upset about Leo's coming six-month absence, she asked if Will could sleep (platonically) with them, and Leo responded with good humor, saying, "I knew this was going to happen one day." They split in the finale of the show's sixth season after Grace discovered Leo had had an adulterous affair while working with Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) in Cambodia. Will has been less successful romantically, a fact lamented by many fans who long to see a gay man portrayed on television in a happy relationship. In the show's early seasons, Will did not have any long-term love interests, but this changed in the spring of 2004, when the character of Vince, a New York City police officer played by Bobby Cannavale, was introduced. Their relationship lasted until the spring of 2005, when the two decided to "take a break."

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Supporting characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Meanwhile, the supporting characters Jack and Karen have grown cattier and more spiteful, providing acerbic commentary on the neurotic behavior of the title characters. Jack, whose floundering one-man show and acting career has been established as a hopeless dream, found work in retail sales and married (and later divorced) Karen's maid and long-time friend Rosario Salazar in order to help her establish U.S. citizenship. It was also revealed that he had fathered a son many years prior (through artificial insemination with a woman played by Rosie O'Donnell). Karen is played as a woman who has made hard choices in life in order to live the carefree way she chooses. She sometimes reluctantly reveals intense emotion about rough situations (such as the death of her husband), although she usually prefers to put on a face of cruel indifference and obliviousness.

Karen's husband, Stan Walker, has remained an unseen character over the course of the show. He is described as an extremely overweight man with some unusual sexual tastes, who gives a lot of business to Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Jailed during season four for tax fraud, Stan was released in season five, but Karen soon caught him sleeping with his British mistress Lorraine Finster (played by Minnie Driver), whom he met when she worked in the prison cafeteria. During Stan and Karen's divorce proceedings at the end of season five, Stan dropped dead, and season six saw Karen explore other avenues of dating, culminating in her 20-minute-long marriage to Lorraine's father, Lyle (played by John Cleese). At the end of the seventh season, it was revealed that Stan faked his death and will likely return in season eight.

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Awards and nominations

By 2005, Will & Grace had been nominated for 49 and won 12 Emmys. From 2001-2005, Will & Grace was the second-highest-rated sitcom among adults 18-49, second only to NBC's own Friends, which usually preceded it on the Thursday-night schedule. It has also been heralded as responsible for opening the door to a string of gay-themed television programs, such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Boy Meets Boy. Will & Grace has won several GLAAD Media Awards for its fair and accurate representation of the gay community.

In the summer of 2005, Will & Grace was nominated for 15 Emmys, tied with Desperate Housewives as the series receiving the most nominees. It won two.

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Cast and crew

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Regular characters

In the opening credits, McCormack and Messing are billed together, with the name that goes on top alternating between episodes.

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Recurring characters

For a more extensive list, see the article on Supporting characters on Will & Grace.

  • Stan Walker (unseen character) - Karen's obese husband
  • Olivia Walker (Hallee Hirsh) - Karen's stepdaughter
  • Mason Walker (unseen character) - Karen's stepson, whom she calls "the fat one"
  • Lois Whitley (Suzanne Pleshette) - Karen's mother
  • Bobbi Adler (Debbie Reynolds)- Grace's entertainer mother
  • George Truman (Sydney Pollack) - Will's father
  • Marilyn Truman (Blythe Danner) - Will's mother
  • Tina (Lesley Ann Warren) - Will's father's mistress
  • Rob (Tom Gallop) and Ellen (Leigh-Allyn Baker) - two of Grace and Will's closest friends and regular charades buddies, a married couple with three children
  • Val Bassett (Molly Shannon) - a slightly crazy, alcoholic, divorced woman who lives in Will and Grace's building who tends to get into fights with Grace
  • Joe (Jerry Levine) and Larry (Tim Bagley) - two of Will and Grace's close friends, a gay couple with an adopted daughter
  • Beverley Leslie (Leslie Jordan) - a possibly closeted, staunchly Republican, very short socialite whose relationsip with Karen changes rapidly from friend to enemy
  • Nathan (Woody Harrelson) - Grace's neighbor and boyfriend (seasons three and four)
  • Barry (Dan Futterman) - Karen's cousin, who Jack and Will help transform from a slobbish closeted straight man into a gay man, and then both fall for him
  • Lyle Finster (John Cleese) - the father of Stan's mistress (Lorraine), briefly engaged and married to Karen (season six)
  • Dr. Marvin "Leo" Markus (Harry Connick Jr.) - Grace's boyfriend and eventual husband; their marriage ended after he cheated on her (seasons five through seven)
  • Vince D'Angelo (Bobby Cannavale) - Will's first long-term boyfriend in the show's run (seasons six and seven)
  • Stuart Lamarck (Dave Foley) - a client of Will's and boyfriend of Jack's (season six)
  • Ben Doucette (Gregory Hines) - Will's boss at Doucette & Stein and occasional love interest of Grace (seasons two to three)
  • Zandra (Eileen Brennan) - Jack's acting coach, who later kicked him out of the class and eventually was retired to an Actor's Nursing Home
  • Lorraine Finster (Minnie Driver) - Stan's mistress (and therefore one of Karen's many rivals), a cafeteria worker at the prison, and Lyle's daughter
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Guest stars

Will & Grace often has high-profile guest stars appearing on the show. This list is by no means complete. Guest stars in character roles:

Guest stars playing themselves:

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Crew

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The DVDs

On 30 August 2004, the first four seasons (series) were released in the UK, the fifth on 7 March 2005. The sixth is expected on 15 August 2005. The first four seasons are currently available in the US on DVD -- the first released on 12 August 2003, the second on 23 March 2004, the third on 7 September 2004, and the fourth on 16 August 2005. The UK and US editions feature different cover art and menu presentation.

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Broadcasters

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NBC broadcast history

  • September 1998-November 1998 – Monday 9:30pm
  • December 1998-March 1999 – Tuesday 9:30pm
  • April 1999-May 1999 – Thursday 8:30pm
  • September 1999-May 2000 – Tuesday 9:00pm
  • October 2000-January 2004 – Thursday 9:00pm
  • January 2004-April 2004 – Thursday 8:30pm
  • April 2004-September 2004 – Thursday 9:00pm
  • September 2004-June 2005 - Thursday 8:30pm
  • June 2005- Thursday 8:30pm
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See also

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External links

es:Will & Grace fr:Will & Grace it:Will & Grace ja:ふたりは友達? ウィル&グレイス pt:Will & Grace zh:威尔与格蕾丝