RT25 First Reviews Flashback: Will & Grace

RT25 First Reviews Flashback: Will & Grace

Rotten Tomatoes launched 25 years ago in August 1998, bringing the iconic Tomatometer into households nationwide. Certified Fresh was born six years later and, in 2013, we began aggregating reviews and dishing out scores for TV series. In celebration of our 25th birthday, we’re taking a look back at some of the most impactful TV shows that premiered the same year we did. We previously shined a light on Dawson’s Creek, Felicity , Sex and the City, and now we look back at Will Grace. Will Grace stars Megan Mullally, Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, and Sean Hayes (Photo by Bill...

Rotten Tomatoes launched 25 years ago in August 1998, bringing the iconic Tomatometer into households nationwide. Certified Fresh was born six years later and, in 2013, we began aggregating reviews and dishing out scores for TV series. In celebration of our 25th birthday, we’re taking a look back at some of the most impactful TV shows that premiered the same year we did. We previously shined a light on Dawson’s Creek, Felicity , Sex and the City, and now we look back at Will Grace. Will Grace stars Megan Mullally, Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, and Sean Hayes (Photo by Bill Reitzel/NBCU Photo Bank) Will Grace is a sitcom about the long-standing friendship between meticulous gay lawyer Will Truman (Will McCormack) and neurotic straight interior designer Grace Adler (Debra Messing). Similar to the format of ’90s sitcoms like Seinfeld and Friends, the series’ story is set in New York City and follows the hilarious exploits of the duo and their outlandish besties: rich socialite Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) and struggling actor Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes).
Max Mutchnick and David Kohan created the series, basing the story concept on Mutchnick’s real-life childhood friendship with New York casting agent Janet Eisenberg. With the help of legendary television director James Burrows, snappy dialogue, comedic timing, and the talented cast, Will Grace rose in the small-screen ranks to inevitably find its home on NBC’s coveted Thursday night “Must See TV” lineup.
“The concept is more credible than it might sound thanks to clever scripting, an appealing cast, and the masterful hand of James Burrows,” Tom Jicha from South Florida Sun-Central wrote about the first episode. “Getting Burrows to direct your pilot is the equivalent of having your house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.” Will Grace stars Hayes, Messing, McCormack, and Mullally in a scene from season 5 (Photo by NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection) Will Grace’s success was made on this core group of friends, and the way in which the sitcom normalized having gay characters in lead roles on TV is a big part of its legacy, with gay representation on TV in the 1990s being sparse and seen as risky.
Take Ellen (the 1994-98 ABC sitcom, not the later talk show), for example. The popular series starred Ellen DeGeneres as bookstore owner Ellen Morgan. In the season 4 episode, titled “The Puppy Episode,” DeGeneres’ character came out as a lesbian. An array of advertisers boycotted the episode, and the backlash grew from there. A year later, just months before Will Grace would first premiere, Ellen was canceled. McCormack and Messing in a promotional image for Will Grace season 3 (Photo by NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection) Will Grace wasn’t a smash hit out the gate, but employed the tried-and-true sitcom formula that bolstered NBC’s comedy slate. The fact that two openly gay characters were front and center in every episode and were welcomed into homes across the country, was a very big deal.
Even President Biden celebrated the series for opening the door to the public’s acceptance of gay rights.
But it wasn’t all rave reviews. Considering the fact that LGBTQIA representation in the media was so meager, the ways in which Will Grace brought the general public into this community were deemed by some as one-dimensional and watered down.
Terry Jackson at the Miami Herald contended that the character of Will was written to make his character more palatable for viewers: “He doesn’t date and seems to have been crafted as a good-looking masculine gay guy whom homophobes can accept. That cop-out takes a lot of potential bite out of the show.” The Will Grace revival in 2017 (Photo by NBCUniversal) Throughout its initial eight-season run, Will Grace grew on audiences and the subject matter progressed with time. The Television Academy awarded the show 18 Emmys during that run.
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