It’s a little bit ridiculous to me that the youths – the teenagers and early-twentysomethings – are acting like Friends, The Office and even Will & Grace are new things to obsess over. Listen here, children: back in the day, there was this thing called “must-see TV” and we all truly tuned in at a specific time on Thursday evenings to watch these shows. Hearing people discuss plotlines from Friends in 2019 is, well, kind of ridiculous decades after the fact. All of which to say, I watched the original run of Will & Grace as it aired and it was fun and funny at the time. Has it aged well? Not particularly. Did it need a revival? No, it didn’t. I tried watching the revival when it first came on but I found kind of awful. So, no big surprise, this current season is going to be the final season, the “farewell season.” And apparently there’s drama:
It’s so like Karen Walker to keep us wanting more. Unfortunately, due to Megan Mullally’s temporary leave of absence from the farewell season of Will & Grace, viewers won’t get to see her sassy character for two of the final 18 episodes. EW has learned that Mullally took a couple of weeks off from the show but has now been back for a few weeks. TVLine first reported the news.
Earlier this year, fans took notice when Mullally and costar Debra Messing unfollowed each other on Instagram; Mullally has also stopped following costar Sean Hayes.
“Tensions were building for a while,” a source tells EW of what became a determining factor in deciding to end the series after its current season.
Representatives for Mullally did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment; NBC had no comment. This news arrives just before Will & Grace‘s 11th and final season is scheduled to debut on NBC. The Oct. 24 premiere date was revealed less than two weeks ago, coinciding with the network’s removal of newcomer Sunnyside from the prime-time schedule. The episodes without Karen will air later this season. Even with Mullally’s absence, the show has tapped some high-profile guest stars to appear for the last season, including Ryan Phillippe, Billie Lourd, and Demi Lovato.
Ryan Phillippe? Can we not. That upsets me more than the idea that Debra and Megan are fighting. Which I totally believe too. The cast of W&G got along well when the show first came on and it was a huge hit. But after a couple of years, you could feel some tensions building – I don’t think Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack were particularly close, and Hayes insinuated in an interview decades ago that it bugged him that Eric was a straight man playing this iconic gay character. Debra has leaned into politics and political work so heavily, I would imagine that would grate on people’s nerves too. But yeah… Megan and Debra fighting/beefing. I believe it.
Photos courtesy of NBC/Comcast and Getty.
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