Will & Grace

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Template:Infobox television 

 | format = Sitcom
 | runtime = 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
 | first_aired = 1998-09-21
 | last_aired = 2006-05-18
 | num_episodes = 179 
 | imdb_id = 0157246

|}} Will & Grace is a popular American television situation comedy focusing on Will Truman, a gay attorney and his best friend Grace Adler, a straight Jewish 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 gradually declined before stabilizing in the eighth and final season.

In July 2005, it was confirmed that the eighth season would also be the last season of the show. The final season premiere was broadcast live on September 29, 2005. According to NBC Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly, the final episode will air May 18, 2006, with an hour-long show, coupled with a "look back" retrospective hour.

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, Grace was just ending a long-term relationship with her boyfriend Danny. She needed an apartment and moved in with her best friend, Will, in his apartment in New York City. 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, an alcoholic millionairess and Grace's secretary, a job she took to have time away from the home she shares with her husband Stan and his kids, Mason and Olivia. Another character who factored into the early stories was Will's client Harlin Polk, played by Gary Grubbs. At first he was given 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 another 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 married, "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 early 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, jealous of their personal jokes and ability to finish each other's sentences. 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 upcoming 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 Police Department officer played by Bobby Cannavale, was introduced. Their relationship lasted until the spring of 2005, when Vince lost his job and the two decided to "take a break." Will met James, supposedly by fate, at a Sound of Music sing-along and again in Los Angeles. He was played by Rent star Taye Diggs. To prevent James, a Canadian citizen, from being deported, Grace agreed to marry him, although she learned she's pregnant with Leo's child the morning after the wedding. Grace calls Leo to meet her so that she can tell him about the pregnancy, but Leo surprises her with news of his engagement to another woman, and so Grace decides not to tell him that she is pregnant. Meanwhile, Will realizes that James is heartless, he dumps him and gets Grace and James' wedding annulled.

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Supporting characters

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 and very wealthy 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, in season eight, he and Karen reconciled after she had a brief affair with a government agent (played by Alec Baldwin).

Template:Endspoiler

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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. Despite more than two dozen nominations, Will & Grace has never won a Golden Globe award (as of April 2006).

In the summer of 2005, Will & Grace was nominated for 15 Emmys, tied with Desperate Housewives as the series receiving the most nominations. Unlike Housewives, however, Will & Grace mostly received nominations during the 2004-2005 season for its guest actors and actresses. From these nominations, the series won two awards for the season; one of the two awards was for guest actor Bobby Cannavale.

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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 the same building as Will, Grace, and Jack; Val tends to get into fights with Grace, and has been known to stalk Jack
  • 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 relationship with Karen changes rapidly from friend to enemy and back
  • Nathan (Woody Harrelson) - Grace's neighbor and boyfriend (seasons three and four)
  • Barry (Dan Futterman) - Karen's gay cousin, who Jack and Will help transform from a slobbish man just out of the closet into a more confident and refined 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). He is also the father of her child (season eight).
  • 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:

  • Alec Baldwin (as Malcolm Widmark, a man hired by Stan to return Will to the legal profession)
  • Jack Black (as Dr. Isaac Hershberg, who examines Karen; he also is the brother of the occasionally-seen nurse, Sheila)
  • Beau Bridges (as Daniel McFarland, Jack's stepfather)
  • Edward Burns (as Nick, Grace's first serious boyfriend since her divorce from Leo)
  • Richard Chamberlain (as Clyde, an elderly man whom Will brings to game night, much to Grace's chagrin)
  • Glenn Close (as Fannie Lieber, a noted photographer who takes Will and Grace's picture)
  • Joan Collins (as Helena Barnes, a designer with whom Grace competes for a job)
  • Macaulay Culkin (as Jason Towne, the lawyer representing Karen in the case of her divorce from Stan)
  • Matt Damon (as Owen, Jack's heterosexual rival for a spot in the Manhattan Gay Men's Chorus)
  • Geena Davis (as Janet Adler, Grace's screwed-up sister)
  • Kristin Davis (as Nadine, Vince's straight female friend)
  • Ellen DeGeneres (as Sister Louise, a nun to whom Will sells Grace's old car)
  • Patrick Dempsey (as Matt, a sportscaster who becomes Will's boyfriend for a short period of time)
  • Taye Diggs (as James, Will's Canadian boyfriend whom Grace briefly marries in a green card wedding)
  • Michael Douglas (as Gavin Hatch, a somewhat closeted gay cop who becomes attracted to Will and has issues with seeing food stuck in people's teeth)
  • Minnie Driver (as Lorraine Finster, Stan's British mistress)
  • Edie Falco (as Deirdre, one of a pair of lesbian real-estate "flippers")
  • Victor Garber (as Peter Bovington, a former actor now working as a doorman)
  • Andy Garcia (as Milo, a restaurateur and boyfriend of Karen's)
  • Sara Gilbert (as Cheryl, like Will, a Barry Manilow fanatic, a.k.a. "fanilow")
  • Seth Green (as Randall Finn, a gay former child star)
  • Woody Harrelson (as Nathan, one of Grace's boyfriends)
  • Neil Patrick Harris (as Bill, the leader of a group of former homosexuals)
  • Stacy Keach (as Wendell Schacter, a former colleague of Jack's who usurps his acting class)
  • Hal Linden (as Alan Mills, an elderly gay man who briefly becomes Will's "sugar daddy")
  • Madonna (as Liz, Karen's roommate for a very brief period of time)
  • Lee Majors (as Burt Wolfe, a friend of Grace's father)
  • Camryn Manheim (as Psychic Sue)
  • Dylan McDermott (as Tom, a boyfriend of Will's who is very closely attached to his elderly mother)
  • Demi Moore (as Sissy, Jack's former babysitter)
  • Rosie O'Donnell (as Bonnie, Elliot's lesbian mother)
  • Luke Perry (as Aaron, a "hot gay nerd" bird-watcher on whom Jack develops a crush)
  • Suzanne Pleshette (as Lois Whitley, Karen's estranged mother)
  • Sydney Pollack (as George Truman, Will's father)
  • Parker Posey (as Dorleen, Jack's boss at Barneys New York)
  • Debbie Reynolds (as Bobbi Adler, Grace's mother)
  • Chloë Sevigny (as Monet, one of a pair of lesbian real-estate "flippers")
  • Molly Shannon (as the loony Val Bassett, who lives in Will and Grace's building)
  • Nicollette Sheridan (as Danielle Morty, a fellow doctor who comes on to Leo)
  • Jamie-Lynn Sigler (as Ro, Vince's lesbian sister)
  • Mira Sorvino (as Diane, an ex-girlfriend of both Leo and Will)
  • Britney Spears (as Amber Louise, a conservative Christian sidekick to Jack, on his talk show, featured on the fictional "Out TV" network)
  • Eric Stoltz (as Tom Cassidy, a college boyfriend of Grace's)
  • Sharon Stone (as Georgia Keller, Will and Grace's psychiatrist)
  • Rip Torn (as Lionel Banks, a man with whom Karen cheats on Stan during Stan's incarceration)
  • Tracey Ullman (as Anne, the instructor of a cooking class that Will and Jack attend)
  • Gene Wilder (as the mentally unstable Stein of Will's law firm, Doucette and Stein)

Guest stars playing themselves:

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Crew

Image:Will&graceseason7.jpg

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The DVDs

To date, the series has only been released on DVD in Region 1 and 2.

In the U.S. and Canada, Region 1, the first season was released on August 12, 2003. The second was then released on March 23, 2004, followed by the third on September 7, 2004, and finally the fourth season was released on DVD on August 16, 2005. No release dates have been set for the later seasons, although the series finale will be released on DVD in the days after its May 2006 airdate.

The first four seasons were released on DVD in Europe, Region 2, on August 30, 2004, with the fifth season being released on March 7, 2005, the sixth on August 15, 2005, and the seventh most recently on January 30, 2006. Since the eighth season has yet to be shown on television in this region, it is unknown when it will be made available on DVD.

The DVDs for the different regions feature different cover art and menu presentation.

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Broadcasters

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NBC broadcast history

All times listed are Eastern Standard Time.

  • 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-December 2005 – Thursday 8:30pm
  • January 2006-May 2006 – Thursday 8:00pm
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See also

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External links

Template:Wikiquote

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