Information about Will & Grace

Will & Grace
Created by	David Kohan Max Mutchnick
Starring	Eric McCormack Debra Messing Sean Hayes Megan Mullally Shelley Morrison
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	194 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 0:23 (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	September 21, 1998 – May 18, 2006
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Will & Grace is a popular Emmy Award winning and Golden Globe nominated American television sitcom that was originally broadcast from 1998 to 2006. The show focused on Will Truman, a gay lawyer, and his best friend Grace Adler, a straight Jewish woman who runs her own interior design firm, as well as Karen Walker, a very rich socialite, and Jack McFarland, a struggling gay actor. 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 line-up. When the show lost Friends as its lead-in at the end of the 2003-04 season, however, it began shedding viewers and slipped out of the Top 20.

The eighth season premiere was broadcast live on September 29, 2005, as was another episode in early 2006. The hour-long final episode aired May 18, 2006, preceded by a one-hour retrospective. The final broadcast drew in an estimated 18.1 million viewers.

Will & Grace was filmed in front of a live studio audience (most episodes and scenes), at Stage 17 in CBS Studio Center, a space that totals 14,000 sq. ft.

Plot

Main article: List of Will & Grace episodes

Will & Grace's early relationship

Will and Grace first met at Columbia University in 1985, living across the hall from one another in a co-ed dorm. They instantly connected and soon begin dating. Will then throws a Dorm Party which Jack crashes, and after the party is over he accuses Will of being in denial about his sexual orientation. After proposing marriage to Grace (as a way to postpone sleeping with her) Will finally comes out to her. Grace throws him out of her family's house and they do not speak for a year (Grace having moved off campus), but accidentally they run into each other again on Thanksgiving the following year (1986) at D'Agostino's supermarket. This meeting spurs a reconciliation and they become best friends. (These events are seen as flashbacks during the third season of the show).

As roommates

In the pilot episode of the show, Grace was about to get married to her boyfriend Danny. When Will disapproved, she became angry and planned to get married secretly anyway. However on the way to the wedding she realizes that Will was right, and she leaves Danny. Needing an apartment, she moved in with Will, in his apartment on the Upper West Side in NYC. Will and Grace spend a lot of time with one another as well as with friends Jack McFarland and Karen Walker. Jack is a flamboyant, gay, struggling stage actor singer, dancer who, over the course of the show, has a range of jobs including cater waiter, acting teacher, back-up dancer for singers like Jennifer Lopez and Janet Jackson and TV producer. Karen is an alcoholic multimillionaire and works as Grace's assistant, 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 episodes of Will & Grace 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 (Harlin, rather reluctantly, fired Will and hired 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 again 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.

Relationships

Grace has had several lovers on the show, portrayed by actors such as Woody Harrelson and Edward Burns. Frequently, her lovers feel frustrated by her relationship with Will, jealous of their closeness, 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 in Cambodia. In the series finale (May 2006), however, Leo tells a heavily pregnant Grace that he loves her. They subsequently remarry and raise their daughter, Lila, together.

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. He did have a seven-year relationship with a man named Michael, but this partnership ended before the series even began. Will does not have any more serious long-term love interests until the spring of 2004 when the character of Vince, an Italian-American 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. However in the final season, Will was reunited with Vince.

Jack, whose floundering one-person show and acting career has been established as a hopeless dream, eventually finds work in retail sales and married (and later divorced) Karen's maid and long-time friend Rosario Salazar in order to help her gain US residency (green card). It was also revealed that he had a teenaged biological son named Elliott, played by Michael Angarano. Elliott was conceived through artificial insemination and mothered by Bonnie, a lesbian played by Rosie O'Donnell. Jack's longest relationship is with Stuart Lamarack (Dave Foley), which lasts several months during the sixth season, until Jack cheats on Stuart.

Karen's husband, Stan Walker, is described as an extremely wealthy and 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, who went uncredited). 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). However, by the end of the show, Karen leaves Stan for good, at which point it is revealed that much of everything he owned was on loan, hence her huge settlement was worthless.

Conflicts

In season five, Will and Grace experience their first big fight since the series began. Will and Grace decided to have a child together via artificial insemination. However, she meets and falls in love with Dr. Leo Markus and becomes unsure about continuing with the plan. Will and Grace argue about if she still wants to have the baby and she decided against the idea. Will then accuses Grace of being a flake. The two argue heatedly, deciding to end their friendship. Karen and Jack scheme to make Will and Grace friends again, eventually succeeding.

Series finale and conclusion

Grace becomes pregnant with ex-husband Leo's baby, the result of a one-night stand on an airplane, but Leo currently lives in Rome and is about to marry someone else, unaware of Grace's pregnancy. When Will and Grace go out to dinner with their other best friends Rob and Ellen who are facing a very happy divorce, they find Vince working there as an undercover detective, and Will and Vince reunite as friends. Will's father, George Truman, then dies of a heart attack just two days after he and Will have a huge fight over Will's homosexuality and Will's decision to someday have kids. At George's funeral, Vince shows up. Will's mother tells him that he should be completely honest about his feelings. Will then tells Vince that he misses him even though he's seeing someone, but Vince surprises Will by telling him that he misses him too, and he's not seeing anyone because of it, and they reunite. But just two episodes later, they break up because Will's commitment to raising Grace's baby with her interferes with Vince's idea of the two of them moving in together. After that, Grace shows up saying that she talked to Leo's best man from the wedding who said that Leo called the wedding off. Convinced that he still loves her, she wants to go to Rome and talk to Leo about the pregnancy. Will asks if he called to say that he loves her, but Grace doesn't respond. She is shocked when she hears that Will broke up with Vince and that it was the hardest thing to do, but he did it for her. So, a week later, when Grace is home alone, Leo shows up, declaring his love for her, and the two of them kiss when Grace reveals her pregnancy. She goes with Leo to Rome. Will and Grace don't speak for two years. During this time, Will gets back together with Vince, and the two move in together and adopt a baby, Ben, thanks to Will's sperm and "a sad little girl who sold her eggs for rent money." Grace, meanwhile, gives birth to a girl, Lila, and one year later, she and Leo eventually move back to their old place in Brooklyn. Jack and Karen plot to reconcile Will and Grace and use lies and manipulation to get them to meet up. They make up and try to rekindle their friendship, but they are unable to return to their previous level of closeness.

Meanwhile, when Karen and Jack are celebrating Will and Grace's reunion, there's a problem with her credit card. When she goes off to see about it, Beverley Leslie (Leslie Jordan) makes advances towards Jack but is rejected, even though he offered to share his vast fortune with him since Beverly and his former "business associate", Benji, have broken up. Karen is shocked to learn that her divorce settlement is worthless because all of Stanley's wealth was borrowed money. However, when Karen hears about Beverley's offer to Jack, she forces him to get into a relationship with Beverley, stating that she has been supporting Jack for all these years and that it was only fitting for him to support her now. Later, when Karen visits Jack, Rosario makes her see how unhappy he is in the situation, so she tells him that she doesn't want to force him to keep the relationship up. Jack leaves with Karen. Beverley then enters the room looking for Jack and, not seeing him, thinks he's hiding out on the balcony. However, when he opens the door, he's whisked off by a sudden gust of wind and apparently dies, leaving Jack incredibly wealthy.

Will and Grace's friendship remains distant (at best) for another 20 years until they bump into each other again when their children, Ben and Lila, move in to the same college dormitory. Flash forward a few years, when Will and Vince's son, Ben, gets engaged and plans to marry Grace and Leo's daughter, Lila. Karen and Jack's story arc ends with them growing old and rich, living happily together in Jack's luxurious apartment, and with Karen providing care for a wheelchair-bound Rosario. Later on, Will and Grace reunite with Karen and Jack for a drink. The group remarks that even though a lot of things have happened, they are still pretty much the same.

The closing scene shows the main cast having aged accordingly, all but Karen who looks as young as the first episode, it is assumed that this is due to the extensive cosmetic surgery she has had.

The finale theme song was You're My Best Friend by Queen. The series finale ranked fairly well, and it was the first time in over two years that an episode ranked in the top 10. The episode scored 18.1 million viewers and ranked #7 for the week.

Criticism

The show garnered a fair amount of criticism and negative reviews upon its debut in 1998, most of which compared the show to the recently canceled ABC sitcom Ellen. One such review said, "If Will & Grace can somehow survive a brutal time period opposite football and Ally McBeal, it could grow into a reasonably entertaining little anomaly-- that is, a series about a man and a woman who have no sexual interest in one another. But don't bet on it. If it's doomed relationships viewers want, they'll probably opt for Ally." ^[1] As much as the show's eventual appeal disproved much of its initial criticism, the show continually dealt with the criticism for having a limited view of the gay community and for reinforcing stereotypes when it should have torn them down. ^[2]

Awards and nominations

Will & Grace had been nominated for 83 and won 16 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 as Folk, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Boy Meets Boy. Will & Grace has won several GLAAD Media Awards for its advocacy of the gay community. Despite more than two dozen nominations, Will & Grace never won a Golden Globe award.

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 received many of its 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 Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, won by Bobby Cannavale for his role as Vince, Will's boyfriend.

In the summer of 2006, Will & Grace was nominated for 10 Emmys for its final season, including a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress for Debra Messing, Outstanding Supporting Actor for Sean Hayes, and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Megan Mullally. Mullally won the award for her category (her second win out of seven nominations), and Leslie Jordan won the award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his recurring role as Beverley Leslie.

Will & Grace is one of only three sitcoms in which all actors playing the main characters (McCormack, Messing, Hayes, and Mullally) have each won at least one acting Emmy. The other two are All in the Family and The Golden Girls.

Each with three awards, both Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally hold the record of winning the most Screen Actors Guild Awards for the categories Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy Series and Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy Series, respectively, for their roles in Will & Grace.

Preceded by Ally McBeal	Emmy Award - Outstanding Comedy Series 2000	Succeeded by Sex and the City

Cast and crew

Regular characters

• Will Truman (Eric McCormack)

A gay lawyer and long time best friend of Grace. He has a very neurotic side, especially when it comes to cleaning (in a manner similar to the character Monica from Friends). Several characters have commented that his relationship with Grace is more like a couple than two friends.

• Grace Adler (Debra Messing)

An interior designer with an apparent obsession with food. Grace is one of Will's oldest friends. They were a couple in the 1980s before Will realized he was gay after meeting his friend Jack.

• Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes)

One of Will's best friends but incredibly effeminate and superficial. Jack is a struggling actor who is a Cher fan. Early on in the show he strikes up a bizarre friendship with Karen.

• Karen Walker (Megan Mullally)

An alcoholic and the wife of the wealthy (but never seen) Stan Walker. Karen also has a dependence on prescription drugs, she "works" as Grace's assistant but does more harm than good. She also takes great pleasure in pointing out how awful Grace looks.

• Rosario Salazar (Shelley Morrison) (2-8 - Regular)

Karen's feisty maid from El Salvador who gives as much abuse to her mistress as she gets. Rosario was briefly married to Jack so that she wouldn't get deported.

• Harlin Polk (Gary Grubbs) (Season 1)

A client of Will's, although initially a main cast member, Grubbs appeared in only half the episodes of season one, and then returned in one episode in season two. Although a minor character, he makes a key observation early in the series: after watching Will and Grace exchange catty remarks, he asks Will, "Are you sure you're gay? You and Grace act just like me and the Mrs." This began a string of jokes about their relationship throughout the series.

• Elliott (Michael Angarano) (Season 4, Guest star in Seasons 3, 5, 6, & 8)

Jack's biological son from a donation to a sperm bank.

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

Recurring characters

Main article: 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 estranged 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 from college 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 married couple with an adopted daughter, Hannah. Beverley Leslie (Leslie Jordan) - a closeted, staunchly Republican, very short and very wealthy 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 slobby 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 (starting in season five) and eventual husband; their marriage ended (season seven) after he cheated on her. He is also the father of her child (season eight) and in the series finale they have remarried and are raising their daughter, Laila.

Vince D'Angelo (Bobby Cannavale) - Will's first long-term boyfriend in the shows run, whom he eventually marries and raises his son, Ben, with (seasons six through eight) 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); occasionally showcased Hines' real-life tap-dancing skills Mrs. Freeman (Jo Marie Payton) - Ben Doucette's secretary whom always "mmm-hmmm"s at Will and refers to Jack as Will's boyfriend. (seasons two to three). Zandra (Eileen Brennan) - Jack's acting coach, who later kicked him out of her 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. According to the sixth-season episode "The Accidental Tsuris", she was raised as a girl despite being genetically male or perhaps hermaphroditic. Eleanor Markus (Judith Ivey) - Leo's mother and a noted author of three books on theatre, she meets Grace during brunch alongside her husband, and attends both their weddings. She also is the first to tell her new daughter-in-law her son's actual name, Marvin. Michael (Chris Potter) - Will's first long-term boyfriend, whom he dated for 7 years and is often referred to (unseen) in Season 1. He appears in one episode of Season 2. Jamie (John Ducey) - Jack's station manager at OutTV. Malcolm Widmark (Alec Baldwin) - a man hired by Stan to return Will to the legal profession; he also dates Karen for a short period of time. James (Taye Diggs), Will's Canadian boyfriend who Grace briefly marries in a green card wedding.

Notable guest stars in character roles

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

Shohreh Aghdashloo (as a Jewish Iranian hired by Grace) Alan Arkin (as Martin Adler, Grace's father, not featured in the series until its seventh season) Rosanna Arquette (as Julie, a masseuse who lives in the same building as Leo and Grace) Jason Biggs (as Baby Glenn, a former local celebrity and a guest at Will's auction) Roscoe Lee Browne (as Linus, an African American owner of a landmark gay bookstore about to be turned into a gym) Jack Black (uncredited) (as Dr. Isaac Hershberg, who examines Karen; he is also the brother of the occasionally-seen nurse Sheila, played by show writer and Black's girlfriend at the time, Laura Kightlinger) Beau Bridges (as Daniel McFarland, Jack's stepfather) Edward Burns (as Nick, Grace's first serious boyfriend since her divorce from Leo) Veronica Cartwright (as Judith McFarland, Jack's mother) Richard Chamberlain (as Clyde, an elderly man who 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) Tim Curry (as Marion Finster, Lyle Finster's brother) Blythe Danner (as Marilyn Truman, Will's mother) Matt Damon (as Owen, Jack's heterosexual rival, pretending to be gay to vie for a spot in the Manhattan Gay Men's Chorus) Geena Davis (as Janet Adler, Grace's screwed-up, elder sister) Kristin Davis (as Nadine, Vince's straight female friend) Ellen DeGeneres (as Sister Louise, a nun to whom Will sells Grace's (now deceased) Uncle's old car) Patrick Dempsey (as Matt Moshay, a sportscaster who becomes Will's boyfriend until he refuses to come out to his boss) Michael Douglas (as Gavin Hatch, a somewhat closeted gay police detective who becomes attracted to Will and has issues with seeing food stuck in people's teeth) 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 lover of Karen's) Sara Gilbert (as Cheryl, like Will, a Barry Manilow fanatic, a.k.a. "fanilow") Jeff Goldblum (as Scott Woolley, Karen's self-proclaimed nemesis, who initially wants to ruin her but ends up falling in love with her) Seth Green (as Randall Finn, a gay former child star) Clark Gregg (as Cameron, Jack's wealthy boyfriend who becomes Grace's client) Neil Patrick Harris (as Bill, the leader of a group of former homosexuals) Gregory Hines (as Ben Doucette, Will's boss who becomes Grace's boyfriend) Stacy Keach (as Wendell Schacter, a former colleague of Jack's who usurps his acting class)

Michele Lee (as Lanore, one of the lesbians who ended up dancing with both Will & Jack) Hal Linden (as Alan Mills, an elderly gay man who briefly becomes Will's "sugar daddy") Natasha Lyonne (as Gillian, Grace's intern, who decides to turn into the spitting image of Karen) Madonna (as Liz, Karen's room-mate and lesbian lover for a 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) Julian McMahon (guy in elevator who Grace flirts with) Demi Moore (as Sissy, Jack's former babysitter) Rosie O'Donnell (as Bonnie, Elliot's lesbian mother) Sharon Osbourne (as a bartender in No Sex N' in the City) Peter Paige (as a gay INS officer whom Jack tries to convince his marriage with Rosario is real.) Scott Patterson (as Grace's former high school crush in Das Boob) Luke Perry (as Aaron, a "hot gay nerd" bird-watcher on whom Jack develops a crush) Bernadette Peters (as Gin, short for Virginia, who is Karen's sister with one leg shorter than the other) Jeremy Piven (as Nicholas, Grace's ex, who asks Grace if she wants to join him in a threesome with his current lover) Sydney Pollack (as George Truman, Will's father) Parker Posey (as Dorleen, Jack's moody, drug-addicted boss at Barneys New York New York) Debbie Reynolds (as Bobbi Adler, Grace's mother) Brandon Routh (as Sebastian in the episode A Gay/December Romance) Chloe Sevigny (as Monet, a wealthy lesbian real-estate agent that falls for Will) Nicollette Sheridan (as Dr. Danielle Morty, a fellow doctor who wanted Leo sexually) Jamie-Lynn Sigler (as Rose, Vince's lesbian sister) Tom Skerritt (as Jay Markus, Leo's father) Mira Sorvino (as Diane, an ex-girlfriend of Leo and one night stand of Will's, and is the one woman Will has ever slept with) Britney Spears (as Amber Louise, a conservative Christian and a "hardcore lesbian" as she describes herself, 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 therapist) Lily Tomlin (as Margo, Will's boss who makes him partner) Rip Torn (as Lionel Banks, a man with whom Karen almost cheats on Stan during his incarceration) Stuart Townsend (as Edward, Karen's "pansexual" pastry chef, who ends up "sexing" Will, Karen, and Rosario) Tracey Ullman (as Anne, the instructor of a couples' cooking class that Will, Jack, and Jack's current boyfriend Stuart attend) Gene Wilder (as the mentally unstable Stein of Will's law firm, Doucette and Stein)

Notable guest stars playing themselves

Guest stars playing themselves:

Kevin Bacon Candice Bergen Cher Sandra Bernhard Katie Couric John Edward

Rudy Galindo Hall & Oates Deborah Harry Janet Jackson Elton John James Earl Jones

Matt Lauer Jennifer Lopez Josh Lucas Patti LuPone Barry Manilow Martina Navratilova

Bebe Neuwirth Al Roker George Takei Rip Taylor

Crew

Max Mutchnick - Creator, Writer David Kohan - Creator, Writer David Flebotte - Executive Producer (Season 7) Alex Herschlag - Executive Producer David Kohan - Executive Producer

Jhoni Marchinko - Executive Producer Max Mutchnick - Executive Producer Jeff Greenstein - Executive Producer James Burrows - Executive Producer and Director -- Burrows directed all 194 episodes of the series, which has since become a directing record.[3]

Nielsen Ratings/NBC Broadcast History

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Will & Grace on NBC.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. All times listed are North American Eastern Standard Time.''

Season	Timeslot	Première	Finale	TV Season	Rank	Viewers (millions)
1	Monday 9:30 P.M. (September 21, 1998 - November 30, 1998) Tuesday 9:30 P.M. (December 15, 1998 - March 23, 1999) Thursday 8:30 P.M. (April 8, 1999 - May 13, 1999)	September 21, 1998	May 13, 1999	1998-1999	#40	12.3
2	Tuesday 9:00 P.M.	September 21, 1999	May 23, 2000	1999-2000	#44	12.0[4]
3	Thursday 9:00 P.M.	October 12, 2000	May 17, 2001	2000-2001	#14	17.3[5]
4		September 27, 2001	May 16, 2002	2001-2002	#9	17.3[6]
5		September 26, 2002	May 15, 2003	2002-2003	#11	16.8[7]
6	Thursday 9:00 P.M. (September 25, 2003 - January 22, 2004) Thursday 8:32 P.M. (February 10, 2004 - April 8, 2004) Thursday 9:00 P.M. (April 22, 2004 - April 29, 2004)	September 25, 2003	April 29, 2004	2003-2004	#16	15.2[8]
7	Thursday 8:30 P.M.	September 16, 2004	May 19, 2005	2004-2005	#44	10.0[9]
8	Thursday 8:30 P.M. (September 29, 2005 - December 8, 2005) Thursday 8:00 P.M. (January 5, 2006 - May 18, 2006)	September 29, 2005	May 18, 2006	2005-2006	#61	8.7[10]

Broadcasters

Australia - Seven Network (free to air), Arena(Australian cable) Austria – ATV Argentina - Sony Belgium - Kanaal Twee Bosnia and Herzegovina - OBN Brazil - Sony, Play TV Bulgaria - [Nova TV http://www.ntv.bg] Canada - OnTV (1998-99), Global (1999-2006) Chile - Sony Colombia - Sony Croatia - Nova TV Denmark - Kanal 4 Finland - MTV3, SubTV France - Canal+, Canal Jimmy, TF1 Germany - Pro 7 Greece - Star Channel Hungary - Viasat 3 Italy - Italia 1 (Mediaset), FOX Life Japan - NHK, FOX India - Zee Cafe Ireland - TV3 Israel - Yes Plus Latin America - Sony

Lithuania - Tango TV Macedonia - Sitel Mexico - Sony, Canal 5 Televisa Nepal - Zee Cafe, ETC Netherlands - NET 5 New Zealand - TV3 Norway - TVNorge Pakistan - Super Comedy, Paramount Comedy Channel Philippines - Studio 23, ETC Entertainment Central Poland - FOX Life, HBO, Wizja Jeden Portugal - TVI, FOX, FOX Life Serbia - Studio B, B92 Slovenia - Kanal A South Africa - SABC 3 South Korea - GTV (1998-2001), On Style (2002-2003), FOX (2004-2006) Spain - TVE2, FOX Sweden - Tv4+ Switzerland - SF 1 Thailand - True Series Turkey - ComedyMax United Kingdom - LivingTV, Channel 4 (reruns) United States - First run on NBC, reruns on Lifetime and in syndication.

DVD releases

Main article: List of Will & Grace DVD releases

Running gags

• Before a short argument starts, both Will & Grace will simultaneously say the same words.
• Grace would claim that she has a striking resemblance to certain red-haired celebrities, such as Julia Roberts, Rita Hayworth and Nicole Kidman.
• Karen continually mocks Grace's sense of style.
• Aside from Jack and Karen, Will and Grace's friends such as Joe, Larry, Ellen, and Rob would make jokes about the lead characters being a married couple.
• Karen claims that scenes from movies (e.g., Speed, To Sir With Love, Norma Rae) or literature (e.g., Heidi) are her own experiences.
• Jack constantly makes jokes about Will's hair loss and obesity (even though Will is clearly not fat nor losing his hair).
• Grace displays an odd love of food throughout the series.
• Karen's constant run-ins and close calls with the law are often used as topics for clever jokes.
• Karen and Rosario always get into short, heated arguments, with one talking over the other. The argument always ends with both compromising and hugging while confessing their love for each other.
• Grace's small breasts are mentioned and made fun of throughout the series, in contrast to Karen's ample bosom. Debra Messing has stated that although, "There have been many jokes made along the way about me having small breasts." "I'd never get implants, because that's just not me. Certainly it's a popular trend, but it is an American beauty ideal that I don't subscribe to."^[11]
• Will is borderline obsessive compulsive, often being referred to as something clever like "anal annie" or mocked for the fact that he often follows people around his apartment with a mini-vac.
• Whenever Karen is at a bar and in need of advice, the bartender "Smitty" (as Karen calls him) would always reply with a sad story of loss in his own life. When he finishes his stories, Karen always laughs heartily and tells Smitty that he's always there to cheer her up.
• Karen has a "secret" alias Anastasia Beaverhausen which she often uses while "slumming" in a place where she'd prefer not to be identified.
• Karen regularly projects the false idea that Grace has romantic feelings for her.
• Jack would giggle if he or somebody else utters a word homophonic to a filthy word (i.e. bone, heinous, cometh, walnuts, pianist, ball, rectory).
• When fighting with Beverley Leslie (Leslie Jordan), Karen will always come back at him with a reference to his size, such as "Baby Gap", "Teacup Poodle" or "Keebler Elf".
• Stan's face has never been seen by the audience, only his feet or hands have been shown.
• Karen's maids often show fear towards her, as they are shown to scurry away when Karen enters a room saying 'I can see you' or 'I'm approaching'. This also may mean Karen doesn't want to see her staff.
• Aside from Rosario and Will, Karen usually refers to her employees by their occupation, rather than by name. Examples are; "Driver", "Pharmacist", "Chef".
• It is shown many times, that when Jack and Karen hold out their arms to hug each other, they change their minds and put their arms down and turn away before they have even hugged.
• Jack's revulsion with heterosexuality and Lesbianism.
• Karen doesn't see her alcoholism and pill popping habits as an addiction.

Will & Grace in pop culture

• At the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, while delivering the Dutch voting results, Paul de Leeuw made a reference to Will & Grace, saying that the two hosts, Sakis Rouvas and Maria Menounos, looked like the main characters. Before de Leeuw finished, he supposedly gave Rouvas his mobile number, but there is no proof that it was his real mobile number.
• In the South Park episode "South Park Is Gay!", at one point they are watching NBC and the announcer says, "You're watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy! Coming up next is Will & Grace, followed by The Love Boat... with Men!"
• On the sitcom Scrubs, Dr. Cox once referred to J.D. and Elliot as Will and Grace, calling J.D. Grace, continuing his habit of calling J.D. by girls' names.
• In "The Wandering Juvie" episode of The Simpsons, the Simpsons wanted a lonely prison warden to have dinner with them, but he had his bachelor day planned out, and it included making a tuna sandwich, watching Will & Grace and crying himself to sleep.
• Karen Walker was featured as #11 on E!'s "50 Most Wicked Women of Primetime" special.
• When Donald Trump hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, he tried to fire the man who runs NBC, but he said he can't be fired because "he has the Will & Grace to run the network, right, Friends?" When Megan Mullally hosted, she sang a song, and in it was the words, "Forget Will & Grace, call it Jack & Karen!"
• Debra Messing is the only main cast member who hasn't hosted Saturday Night Live during the entire run of Will & Grace.
• One of the categories in the game show Jeopardy! was "Will & Disgrace."
• On The Charlotte Church Show, Charlotte Church did a comedy sketch with Eric McCormack called Hywl & Grwys, a Welsh version of Will & Grace.
• Besides the Sony dubbed version, the Will and Grace concept was exported to Spanish speaking countries as the Mexican-made sitcom Diseñador Ambos Sexos, starring Hector Suarez Gomis and Chantal Andere.
• In the song "The Future Freaks Me Out" by the band Motion City Soundtrack, they ask "What's up with Will & Grace?"
• In the Clone High episode "Homecoming: A Shot in D'Arc", JFK tells his foster parents he wants to watch Will & Grace instead of his normal sports. Later in the episode, he says, "So long Will & Grace. Hello Dharma & Greg!
• In the song Couch Potato by "Weird Al Yankovic",the singer's TiVo device assumes he's gay because he watches Will & Grace.
• In an episode from the final season of 3rd Rock From The Sun, the Solomons travelled to an alternate world where Harry is the CEO of NBC. One of Harry's decisions to improve the channel's TV ratings is to change the format of Will & Grace by making it "one night 'Will' and one night 'Grace'".
• "Will & No Grace" is the name of an episode of Australian Soap Opera "Neighbours".
• In the American Dad! episode, "Failure is not a Factory-Installed Option", when Stan Smith is inspecting the man in the beginning of the episode, he claims "the look in his eye states that he's not sure what Eric McCormack is going to do after Will & Grace either".
• In the Family Guy episode, "Airport 07", after Peter tells Lois he'll talk to Quagmire about leaving the house, there is a quick parody of the opening montage of "Will and Grace" with Peter and Lois as Will and Grace and Brian and Stewie presumeably as Jack and Karen.
• In The Office episode "Gay Witch Hunt", reacting to the recent outing of a coworker, homophobe Angela says that she sometimes watches Will & Grace but it makes her want to throw up.
• In Men In Trees episode "nice girls finish first", it turns out that Buzz's son is gay. When Mai founds out about this, she becomes happy since now she can have a gay friend, just like Karen.
• In a skit from The Chapelle Show, Clayton Bigsby, an African-American white supremacist tells his followers at a rally, "If you don't like Will and Grace, that don't mean there's something wrong with you. It means there's something wrong with Will! He's a homosexual."

See also

• List of Will & Grace episodes
• ''Supporting characters on Will & Grace
• List of guest stars on Will & Grace
• List of awards won by Will & Grace
• List of television shows with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered characters

References

External links

• Official NBC Site
• Will & Grace SPAIN
• Fansite with Episode Guides
• Will & Grace Theme Song
• Will & Grace at aboutgaymovies
• Official Canal+ Site (French Broadcaster)
• Will & Grace World

•  • [ e] Will & Grace
Characters: Will Truman | Grace Adler | Jack McFarland | Karen Walker | Rosario Salazar | Leo Markus | Bobbi Adler | Supporting Characters
Other articles: Episodes | Awards | Guest Stars | DVDs