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.
I loved how the original run ended, so I never watched any of the new eps. Shame the cast don’t get along though. I guess that’s typical of these types of revivals. Every time the spice girls get back together a new pair of them fall out!
Oh this actually makes me sad because I thought they were all great, well, Friends. I had no idea there had ever been tensions. They seem to do political ads and cool stuff together. Wow.
Is the only evidence here that they unfollowed each other on social media? Yep, the social media beefing is a thing now…
Why so salty? I think it’s cute teens are finding 90s shows to enjoy.
Everything is so salty and extreme here lately. It’s getting to be the only posts that don’t make me cringe are the Amazon referral posts. 😆
Yeah, seriously. I loved watching reruns of The Brady Bunch and Little House on the Prairie growing up, even though both of those shoes aired before my time. They were my favorite shows! Good tv is good tv,
Same. That’s how I came to know and love I Love Lucy, Bewitched, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. I can’t wait to show my kids some of the classics I grew up on.
Same. I watched Bewitched, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, old movies, and my all time favorite, The Monkees. Kids have always done this. And it’s something their parents probably enjoy bonding with them on. I know my parents did 🤷♀️
also, anyone old enough to snark on teens getting into 90s tv has definitely enjoyed things from before their own time as well, so have a little perspective. this is like gatekeeping and gatekeeping is lame.
True that! It was in the 90’s that I became a huge OG trekkie actually.
Really! I looooved The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Carol Burnett, Little House on the Prairie, Three’s Company… It’s part and parcel with syndication/reruns, hearing your parents talk about what they watched and digging in to a new/old era. Let them enjoy!
This didn’t hit me as salty. But these are salty times, friends. Anxious times. Everytime you look up, there are new red flags coming from the White House. Hopefully we can give each other some slack.
Watching reruns and nostalgia TV can be both fun and sometimes problematic. My feminist mom wouldn’t let us watch Three’s Company because she thought Chrissy’s dumb-blonde-sexpot thing wasn’t good for her young daughters. In college I never missed an episode of Friends when it originally aired, but watching it now with my kids? It totally has issues with homophobia and race. One of my sons loves watching I Love Lucy with me, which still holds up in most ways and also has issues with gender and race. I think understanding the context of when these shows were made is important, along with naming their problems.
Reboots are frustrating if they don’t have anything new to say. Into the Spiderverse gives us a POC teen Spiderman and Spider-Gwen, a female Spider-Person? Awesome. I’m totally there for new representation. Rebooting an old movie or series because it’s likely to be financially successful for the studio? Eh. Time to make way for new, diverse stories.
I’ll take Karen over Grace any day…she’s never been necessary to the show
The show really should be named Jack & Karen, they are the funny ones!
they were my favourite part of the show!
BINGO – I am one of the die hard fans that have watched the reboot. Before it aired I skim watched the previous seasons while getting ready for work and at bed time. It is clear this is what started the “tension” back in the 90s – EVERYONE LOVED Jack and Karen together but Karen even eclipsed that and more than eclipsed Messy Debra and Debra NO LIKEY!! The reboot has so little Karen and so much big-fat-mouth-messy-Grace it is no fun. You sit there, watching each episodes waiting for them to throw you a Karen bone, but it is clear that Messy just wasn’t having it. It’s like Karen isn’t there. The reboot SHOULD have been Jack & Karen with an occasional guest spot from Eric McCormack and others from the original like Baldwin, Cleese and anyone else who was effing Karen LOL!! Rosario!!
Also – Messing started this “let’s text” thing. So I get texts from her. She did this after she made an ass of herself on twitter recently – whatevs – I was curious so I bit. She is just not appealing, not funny, and an egomaniac who loves to hear herself spout.
I love love love Sean Hayes and used to see him at Mexicali rest. in Studio City occasionally and he was always kind so anyone giving him any shit better back off. Megan too <3 Eric went to the same quiet little schoolside park as my son with his son and their dogs in Studio City and he was pleasant and normal.
It seems to be mostly adults fighting on social media these days. Has anyone seen the backlash on Facebook after the election in Canada? I live in Newfoundland where most voters voted Liberal, myself included. Now western Canada is calling us stupid and saying they should break off from Canada, they are literally calling it “Wexit”. It’s embarrassing and it’s grown adults doing it.
Dont worry. They’re not mad at you. They just blame Toronto for everything.
I hear ya, I am an NLer living in BC who voted NDP. I have cousins in Fort Mac that are calling me selfish and jealous because somehow that means I want them to lose their jobs.
I’m an NDP voter in Alberta (we won one riding!) and the “Wexit” rhetoric is breaking my heart. There are a lot of progressives here–especially in yeg–but it’s tough to feel like we’re so maligned by other Albertans and that the rest of the country thinks the whole province is UCPers (though there are a lot of them, sigh). There’s so much misinformation and anti-intellectualism from the conservative strategists that it’s hard to cut through the noise. In any case, know there are lefties here trying to make a difference!
It’s the Trump Creep – he has standardized bullying rhetoric to the point where it’s infecting the world.
@Bryn – I live in BC, and I voted Liberal. I can’t even tell my friends that without risking exile from our friend’s group because they all voted PC.
I voted Liberal because out of all of the parties, I mostly agree with the Liberal views. That doesn’t make me or any of us shitty and horrible people, everyone has different opinions.
This Wexit crap is BS. I don’t understand people these days honestly. The anger is mostly coming from Alberta and Sask at this point.
It’s not western canada its alberta. I’m in bc but was raised in alberta. I have a huge family in alberta that I love dearly but as soon as I saw the election results I knew what was coming and shut down my facebook. All of that wexit is just sooo I’m taking my ball and going home if I don’t get my own way. Makes me rage-ey and I don’t want to be rage-ey
I could be wrong but I swear I read somewhere that Megan and husband are Trump supporters..
That would absolutely surprise me. I follow both on social media and have never picked up on that. I think I even remember Nick Offerman saying people think he’s just like his Parks & Rec character and are stunned to realize he’s a liberal. Now I’m off to creep…
I’m glad this was covered. When I saw the story last night, I sad to hear this. They seemed to all get along very well.
I can’t even imagine that Megan and Ron are Trump supporters by looking at their Twitter feeds and listening to their audiobook. No way.
ETA: I totally called Nick Offerman Ron! Whoops but I’m leaving it.
false. they hate trump. HATE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlqbVldCAYQ
https://www.buzzfeed.com/keelyflaherty/ron-swanson-would-not-support-donald-trump
100 percent wrong. They are the opposite of trump supporters.
They are 100% not. Ron Swanson HATES Cheeto.
Definitely not true. Her husband may lean more Libertarian but they’ve both gone on record about despising Cheetolini
Please research before posting to avoid the spread of misinformation. That’s how we ended up with Trump.
In Sierra’s defense, she did say “I could be wrong.”
Sure, she “could be wrong.” But in the time it took to post that comment, she could’ve hopped on over to Google and fact-checked.
There was gossip blind item about “coke mom” on a gossip site years ago that was allegedly Debra and it always made me wonder if she’s a soul sucking narcissist. And Megan just lost her mom recently so wouldn’t be surprised if she’s feeling pretty raw and over shit, glad she took some time for herself.
There was also, I believe, a Twitter thread or some other reveal by a former assistant or PR person who implied that Messing was very demanding and needy.
But Megan also unfollowed Sean. So I don’t think it can possibly be this cut and dried, and also, that was Cdan and that site is just not real.
I wondered whatever happened to CDAN. I remember blind items that were totally wrong, like Ryan gosling and Emma stone dating and Ryan and Eva were just a cover yet Ryan and eva have two kids together but yeah they’re not together?
One picture I remember being posted on the site was a bus stop ad for a different show with Debra messings face and in sharpie someone wrote over the ad,’i work on this show, she is an awful person’
Meg, apparently cdan became a huge Q conspiracy site, believe it or not! That is what the twitter people tell me. Crazy, right?
CDAN just writes up whatever tips they get, even if it’s obviously complete nonsense. That and they just write up whatever was in the news the previous day, and call it a blind.
I think they still get a few actual scoops here and there from real sources and not just randoms writing fan fiction, but you have to sort through hundreds of garbage posts to find them.
Yeah, her late mom’s birthday would have been OCtober 2… right about the timeframe that she would have been taking that short leave of absence. As someone who lost a parent recently, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if she needed some time off around her mom’s birthday. Days like that hit unexpectedly hard when you’re grieving, and she and her mom were VERY close.
There have been stories for years about the cast. Eric is still primarily Canada based so I can see him not being in the middle as much.
But years ago during the 1st run there were stories about Debra being extra going around. Apparently she was not happy that she was the very last of the core to win a Emmy and the studio and network were not doing enough to promote her. Megan and Sean did have the stronger track record and that probably had to sting as well. So the rumor is that when Debra did win, Megan at a after party to someone, ‘Now she can be f***ing happy at work’.
This has been steaming for years and I am not surprised it is surfacing again. But I was surprised they all agreed to the revival. The money had to be real good.
There have been rumors for years that Debra is pretty mean and only talks to “those that matter” on set and around town. Megan comes from theater world which tends to be more hard working and down home. This almost always happens when theater people brush up against TV or Movie divas.
Debra Messing seems like an incredibly irritating person to me. I can only imagine hanging around with her for 20 years has to break a person in half.
Spot-on post. I work in a library on a college campus, and I was snickering because these two girls, probably 18 or 19 years old, got on the elevator with me and were talking about how they just “discovered” Friends. I eavesdropped on their in-depth conversation about their favorite cast members. I guess it’s not that different from how women my age (late 20s/early 30s) got hooked on the Golden Girls, probably from watching it with our grandmothers.
Its not really the same thing if we watched it the first go round – but cheesy tv like Friends is cheesy tv and that’s fun so I get it.
Absolutely I got hooked on the Golden Girls because of watching it with my grandma, this comment just made my day.
I love the Friends resurgence. I remember watching the finale in my college dorm room. I work as a research coordinator at a University and I love being able to talk to our young students about Friends, The Office etc and hearing their take on it! I also loved learning about what was popular in the generations before me! 🙂
Am I the only one that could not stand Friends?I am 56 now but that show just annoyed me.The only good thing was the Rachel and that was just a haircut.
They should never have brought this show back. The revival is awful. Outside of that it’s sad that Megan and Debra don’t get along, but Debra seems like a LOT at times just based on what she’s like on Twitter. And Sean Hayes just seems flat out like a diva. I remember hearing rumblings about him when he had that really bad NBC sitcom some years ago.
While I believe that co-workers can get annoyed with one another, my post-weinstein reaction to stories of cast infighting is to side-eye any story that characterizes a professional woman as irrational, petty, or unreasonable. I don’t know much about the situation because I have not ever and do not now watch the show, but these things are almost ALWAYS about money, not petty grievances.
I’ve also heard horror stories about Debra Messing in that she is difficult and unpleasant unless you matter in her eyes. Megan Mullaly has the stronger and more well rounded career of the two and imagine their loathing of Trump is about all they have in common.
I like new Will and Grace. It’s not deep or always particularly funny but it’s nostalgia for me. I turn on an episode (streaming in Paris) and it takes me back to childhood. I love it. I am blissfully happy, transported to my childhood living room, for 30 minutes. It’s sad to hear there is a finale season (again). It’s not like any of them is doing anything that has the same mainstream power. It’s almost like They got the redo to live their glory tv days and squandered it again. Except perhaps maybe they realized that’s why they quite the show in the beginning (hated each other). Sad all around. You never hear stories from ensembles that actually like each other.
“I Love Lucy” is still one of my all time favorite shows and it was way before my time. Nothing wrong with that so I don’t see why anyone would mind anyone discovering an old show and enjoying it years later.
I have no interest in seeing these new W&G episodes. Actually I’ve never seen any episodes of any revival show no matter how much I loved the original series… (Murphy Brown).
And the history of Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance will make what is going on with Debra and Megan seem quaint.
I saw NIck and Megan on their book tour in San Francisco. My sister and I were so disappointed. It was so low energy, it seemed like she did not want to be there at all and Nick was just slightly more involved. We paid quite a lot of money to attend and were big fans and to have them not even try to act like they were interested in being there put a bad taste in our mouth.
Well, her mom just died. And was probably going downhill for a while. It’s hard when you still have public appearances to make and are dealing with that in your private life –
I’m a former dance teacher and had a recital where I had to perform and be onstage the same week I found out my mom was dying (she passed away st age 58). It was a contractual appearance and I did my best but afterwards, no joke, some of the moms complained to the studio owner that I wasn’t smiling the whole time and didn’t look “peppy.” Meanwhile, I’d just been trying to hold it together and not sob onstage.
Sometimes you show up because you have to and, no, you don’t want to be there, but you want to support your fans/audience, in my case my students, but it’s really flipping hard. I guess I’m trying to say cut her some slack?
I have compassion for the death of her Mom. But instead of doing a cash grab and taking money from the fans for a paid appearance. They could have canceled the event and refunded everyone’s money. Giving her time and space to grieve properly.
I liked Will and Grace back in the day but I absolutely could not stand Debra Messing’s character. Grace was so self-centered and expected Will to drop everything for her all the time. Sort of like Carrie on Sex and the City, another character I cannot stand. The rest of the cast were stand outs and well I can understand why it took Debra Messing awhile to win an Emmy. The character was unlikeable and annoying and while I’m sure she did what she could with the material she was given, the other characters were far more interesting than Grace. I refuse to believe Megan Mullaly is a huge pill… though maybe she is. But she and Nick Offerman come across as so sweet and hilarious so I’m just going to guess when you have to be around certain people a lot of the time, people will annoy each other and have falling outs. It’s inevitable.
I can’t completely hate Debra Messing. Anyone who has the balls to go toe-to-toe with batsh!t Susan Sarandon deserves some kudos in my book.
this.
No one ever said that you had to be personal friends with your coworkers. You just have to be professional and work together to make an acceptable final product (i.e., do your job). It’s called “acting” for a reason.
Ugh – as someone who worked in the professional theatre for many years, I know how delicate artistic egos work (believe me, I dealt with the best and the worst of them). But at 8 pm (and two times a week at 2 pm), everyone went onstage, and did their jobs. And if they didn’t, they were fired. Get it together, people! Even Patti LuPone got canned from Evita for being a diva.
Is no one else confused by Megan’s face? Looks like she got some major work done…What is going on there?? I didn’t recognize her!
to me that’s the real story here.
she looks so much younger that she doesn’t look like herself anymore, it’s super weird & disorienting
Maybe in the past everyone tolerated Messing because W&G was so innovative. She doesn’t have a solid reputation of being a nice person on set. But nearly a decade later and people’s patience is wearing thin having to deal with her up and down emotions. Mullaly put with her, along with other cast members, as best as they could. It seems to me Messing is a high-strung, thin skinned woman who’s easily offended. The world revolves around her and all must tip toe lightly or face her wrath. No one is a saint here, but all roads seem to head straight to Messing.
I’m cracking myself up because I clicked on this story wondering why these two would be beefing – do they even know each other?!? And I watched Will & Grace. Just completely forgot the whole thing.
In my defense, Megan as Karen looks nothing like her header pic (that could be Alanis Morrissette) , and I’m super exhausted after the work week, so I didn’t make the connection.
Also haven’t watched the Will & Grace revival, so my frame of reference is out of date.