Will and Grace‘s friends, lovers, and other strangers aka their children are the subject of much speculation. How will they appear in the revival?
Simple answer — they won’t. Will and Grace creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan elect to erase the past and start fresh when the revival picks up in real time.
“That finale really caused us a lot of grief. You write a finale because a show is over. You never think that it’s coming back again,” Mutchnick tells EW.
When the series finale shut the door on apartment 9C the couples paired off with kids in tow. Will (Eric McCormack) and Vince (Bobby Cannavale) had their son Ben. While Grace (Debra Messing) and Leo (Harry Connick Jr.) raised Lilah in Brooklyn. If the series picks up in 2017, Will and Grace are in a fight. And they probably spend most of their time shuffling kids to and from soccer practice.
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Not exactly the show fans signed up for. Then again, is a complete reset the best way to go?
Absolutely.
Will and Grace works because it is a show about messy relationships. Their jobs (interior designer, lawyer, socialite, actor/singer/dancer) provide fodder for interactions with each other and the brilliant cast of guest actors. The issue of children, which took over an entire arc in seasons 4-5, was, at its heart, about Will and Grace’s relationship.
Season 8 built to a conclusion. Pair everyone off and end with a wedding. It worked for the show of 2006. For me personally, the finale was a bomb. It was not great and I don’t think I’ve watched it in at least 5 or 6 years.
There are some great moments in the final season — Leo and Grace reuniting over the Atlantic Ocean, Jack and Karen living together as old maids (with their old maid), Will trying to redefine himself. But there are also some tragic moments as well — Jack marrying Beverly Leslie to provide for Karen, Alec Baldwin’s longer than necessary guest role, the final fight.
And thus, the focus was of the show became muddled. Keep the focus on the core four. As James Burrows said to Hypable in an interview last year, “It was a fairytale literally and figuratively. It was not of the real world in a strange kind of way. These were exaggerated characters. Although they were grounded with Will and Grace, there was this exaggeration that made the stuff you could do and get away with on that show so extraordinary.”
Will and Grace can and will get away with it.