Fans will never forget the extremely popular situational comedy that was Will & Grace. Will & Grace was so beloved that it actually returned to television in 2017 with a revival series which ended officially in 2020. The revival however, is not necessarily what this column is about. The original TV series began airing back in the latter half of 1998 and ran for eight seasons before calling it quits. It racked up multiple nominations and awards during its tenure, along with growing a solid base that allowed them to return for three more seasons. Will & Grace: just another sitcom? Well, not quite.
Will & Grace is about best friends Grace Adler and Will Truman. Grace (straight) a designer, and Will (gay) a lawyer, live together in New York City whilst navigating their lives and respective dating scenes, along with Grace’s employee Karen and Will’s exuberant friend Jack. Normally, mentioning their sexual preferences would not be relevant. As it happens, this show revolves heavily around them. This major TV hit gave audiences a chance to see things from both perspectives, comically addressing homosexuality and heterosexuality without taking either too seriously. Hence why it’s important to note, this was not a typical situational comedy.
Will & Grace, like most sitcoms, operates in similar fashion.
Will & Grace, like most sitcoms, operates in similar fashion. The writing is formulaic in accordance with its themes, its style is representational, was filmed for a live audience, and blocked in mostly two dimensional form. The significance was in how the writers scripted the characters and the way the actors embodied them. Debra Messing was cheeky and vital as Grace, and Megan Mullally was king and queen of one liners and probably had the best timing. It’s the gay principle characters though, that made the difference when looking at the show through a cultural lens. Jack, played by Sean Hayes, was the epitome of the gay stereotype though Will was not. Jack was energetic, flamboyant, and slightly feminine. Will’s character changed the way gay men were viewed in TV and also in public life. Eric McCormack’s role as Will was arguably as masculine as any straight man. He played his part in a way that one would have to ask to even know. Yes both were gay, and both were open about it but their contrasting personalities showed audiences at the time that being gay isn’t a one size fits all circumstance. ‘Gay’ is ‘what’ they are, not ‘who’ they, and no better actors expressed that better than these two.
When everything is said and done, the show’s biggest goal was always to make people laugh. That it did, but it was and is more than that. Will & Grace was an important step in the right direction in how society understands homosexuality as well as how important it is, and really, how ‘not’ important it should be to anyone else. Gay people are just people, and the way the writers handled this series makes this clear without the need to overdo or over-explain it.
