A Will & Grace reunion took place on NBC’s Today Show Thursday morning when the comedy’s lead stars united to promote GLAAD’s Spirit Day.
Debra Messing and Eric McCormack both wore purple ribbons while speaking with Today’s Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie.
On Spirit Day, supporters take a stand against bullying and show their acceptances of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth by wearing purple. The annual October 17 event started in 2010 following a string of highly-publicized bully attacks in the United States.
The segment on Today began with an overview of Will & Grace’s best moments, and then Messing and McCormack fondly reminisced over the success of the show which just celebrated its 15th anniversary.
“It does not feel like it was 15 years ago. I was just saying, that pilot feels like it was just two years ago,” said Messing. In response, McCormack added a fun story: After filming the pilot, the actor had a feeling that they had a big hit on their hands. When he told his co-star this after shooting their very first episode, Messing was superstitious and held off on believing in its potential.
McCormack also spoke about what Will & Grace did to bring homosexuals into the mainstream. “What I’m most proud of is we always treated Will’s desire for the perfect man as equal to Grace’s desire for the perfect man, and I think that’s where it was subversive. Particularly in this day and age of marriage equality, that that was the real message that came out of the show.”
Sean Hayes (who has a new comedy on NBC right now) and Megan Mullally were unfortunately not in attendance, but McCormack and Messing spoke highly of their co-stars and said they occasionally still get dinner together.