HALL OF FAME: WILL AND GRACE

Hey everyone – it’s Hall of Fame time again. And this week we’re not going too far back – in fact this show only finished its run in 2006.

I’m talking about Will and Grace, the straight girl / gay guy comedy that was pretty much the last gasp success of NBC’s once triumphant Thursday comedy block.

As a proud member of the gay community I remember being extremely excited about Will and Grace months before it launched, really hoping the show’s producers would get the mix right and deliver a show that was both laugh out loud funny and representative of gay life (and gay / female friendships). And by and large they did. Will and Grace made me laugh – a lot – but it also struck home with me in a way that other network sitcoms like Friends and Frasier never did.

For most of its run Will and Grace delivered belly laughs week after week. Will was neurotic and anal. Grace was flighty, impulsive and clumsy. Together actors Eric McCormack and Debra Messing just zinged off one another. No wonder the two remain friends in real life – you can’t fake chemistry like that. Their relationship was so real and heartwarming – and on a personal level it reminded me of my own ‘Grace’ back in London – who also happens to be an interior designer (and I am kind of anal!)

Of course Will and Grace wasn’t just a two-header show. The show struck comic gold with its two co-leads, Sean Hayes’ Jack and Megan Mullally’s Karen. Jack played the bitchy, shallow queen to the straight acting Will – but the character was always likable and funny even at his worst (take note Glee producers – this is how Kurt SHOULD be!)  And as for Karen – well she was just a force of nature. Rude, bullying, snappy and always fabulous – she said the most outrageous things year after year and was pretty much a guaranteed laugh-fest every time she opened her mouth.

When the four leads appeared together the show was truly comedy gold. Remember the episode where Karen’s husband Stan ended up in hospital and her friends placed bets on who she would be the first to break down to? Or the funeral where Jack and Karen had to go cold turkey on coffee and booze? Or that fantastic Sound of Music episode in the final season?

Of course Will and Grace wasn’t perfect. The show eventually bore the brunt of a rotating roster of guest stars imposed by the NBC bosses. Some were terrific – Matt Damon scored major laughs in his appearance and Minnie Driver was terrific as the recurring Lorraine Finster. But many celebrities just appeared for street cred or to plug their latest movie – remember Madonna’s underwhelming guest spot or Josh Lucas or Sharon Osbourne’s blink and you’ll miss it appearance.

And then there was that last episode in which Will and Grace fell out and didn’t speak for almost 18 years, before finally reuniting at the end of the show. I remember being so angry by this finale and the careless way it treated its characters. For 8 seasons we’d become invested in Will and Grace’s friendship – and to see that relationship casually tossed aside was heartbreaking. Plus it effectively killed off any potential TV movie reunion down the line. Just ridiculous.

But overall Will and Grace will always retain a place in my heart as a true TV classic. Gay characters on TV were so few and far between before the show debuted and a year earlier, when Ellen came out, it effectively torpedoed her self-titled sitcom. For years Hollywood had assumed that a gay lead would be the death of a show. But Will and Grace’s 8 seasons and numerous awards – all four of the main cast would go on to win Emmys – proved how wrongheaded that notion was. Now we have many more gays on network TV – Kurt (Glee), Cameron and Mitchell (Modern Family), Bob and Lee (Desperate Housewives), Kevin and Scotty (Brothers and Sisters), Teddy (90210) and many more if you head to cable. I think Will and Grace played a huge part in this evolution…

So welcome to our Hall of Fame, Will and Grace – and thanks for all the laughs. And here’s a few reminder of some of those great moments…