Leslie Jordan had everyone all excited earlier this week when he said the iconic ’90s sitcom Will & Grace would be returning to the small screen in 2017. Speaking to KPBS, the 61-year-old sweet tea thrower said: “It was a huge part of my life and then I won the Emmy and it’s back.”
Related: Behind The Scenes Of ‘Will & Grace’ Reunion Is A Heaping Dose Of Nostalgia
He continued: “Here’s the way it works (NBC) has ordered 10. It’ll be for next season, so it’ll go on in July and then they’ll add the guest cast.”
Leslie owes much of his career success to the show, which catapulted him to stardom when he was cast as Beverley Leslie, the sassy, sexually ambiguous rival of Karen, played by Megan Mullally.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Related: Do We Really Need A “Will & Grace” Revival?
Well now, the show’s star Debra Messing is throwing cold water on those reunion rumors. Yesterday, she tweeted:
Sadly Leslie was wrong. Nothing beyond talks. https://t.co/NDmKoH2Iql
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) January 2, 2017
Whomp, whomp.
Whispers of a possible series reboot were fueled back in September when the cast appeared in a get out the vote video for Hillary Clinton. According to sources, the show’s original creators and producers Max Mutchnick and David Kohan are fully behind the idea, as well as the cast. So it seems like it’s only a matter of when.
Here’s hoping it’s soon.
Related: WATCH: ‘Will & Grace’ Cast Reunite For Some Political Theater
Celtic
Comeback shoes most often are not nearly as good as their originals. I truly enjoyed the original series, but have no intentions at all of watching a rebirth.
faunmax
I wouldn’t waste my time on this show. Messing has become a political hag and I’d never watch anything she was in. She’s tried to ram her political views down everyone else’s throats and I just don’t care for that.
Thomas
I know I’m in the minority here, but I didn’t like the show. I didn’t like all the lovey dovey physical contact between Will and Grace, they were always touching, hugging and kissing. Again, maybe it’s just me, but none of the gay men I know touch, hug and kiss girls.
gregg2010
Gosh, I’m a gay man, and I hug and kiss my girlfriends all the time.
verbaltopman
I liked that show a lot, but there is no need for a reboot. Viewers would expect the same dynamics, but it’s years later — actors DO change as they age, as does everyone. A reboot would underline the changes, and fans would be disappointed.
nmharleyrider
Messing was the worst actor on the series anyway. She was downright awful when the series started and learned what acting she did during the series. Hopefully they will find a real comedienne in her place. It could only be better
droptopbm8
Lmfaooooooo
1firestorm2
@Thomas: I didn’t like the show, either, but for a much different reason: I simply did not like the characters of Will and Grace and did not want to spend even one half hour a week with them. Pretty much took care of that, although I’m glad it had a positive impact on a lot of people, especially straights.
OzJosh
d@1firestorm2: You’re not alone. The characters were all horrible people. And Will and Jack were both appalling gay stereotypes – shallow, snippy, bitchy, self-obsessed, brand-obsessed and almost fatally superficial. And they were never allowed the emotional or sexual lives that other sitcom characters – e.g. Friends – routinely enjoyed. So however slick some of the comedy writing might have been, the laughs were no compensation for the ongoing homophobia that the show embraced.
startenout
@OzJosh: All situation comedy is based on stereotype from Archie Bunker’s and George Jefferson’s prejudices on All In The Family and The Jeffersons respectively through the controlling Catholic mom on The Real O’Neals. Many, many urban gays knew and still know people who are exactly Will and Jack and all ththe other types of gay men showcased on Will & Grace. Remember when gay men had a sense of humor? Jack had a teenage son he didn’t know about. Will married a “straight acting” cop and had kids. So which stereotypes would you like to cut from the fabric of gay history so that we can be just as bland and banal as you view the rest of the world?
Paco
While the show was titled “Will & Grace”, it was really “Jack & Karen”.
Charlie in Charge
@OzJosh: If you are looking for startlingly realistic characters sitcoms are not going to be for you. In order to get into wacky hijinks the characters have to be zany and neurotic.
Arconcyyon
Series film humur very last good .
dean089
I didn’t really care for the show because it perpetuated stereotypes. Jack was the ubiquitous flighty bar queen and Will, despite allegedly being ‘out,’ lived a relatively closeted life with his common-law wife. We saw Will being FAR more intimate with Grace than any of the small handful of boyfriends he had over the years. Yeah, we like gay people as long as they ‘act straight’ and remain celibate OR if they’re good for a laugh. The first time someone asked me “Are you Will or are you Jack?” I didn’t think much of it, but by the 20th time I was really annoyed with the question. For some reason people asking that question didn’t see anything wrong with it.
Mandrake
Debra is so correct! Will & Grace is DATED. It’s 2016. Times have changed!
He BGB
They’re all ready for Social Security and Medicare now so it would be a completely different show, more like the Golden Girls.
GaybyGod
Put some color in there. How’s about Cristella Alonzo. Her series “Cristella” had us rolling! Wil could be Nick Jonas.
James
@He BGB: Oh, I don’t know. The Golden Girls weren’t as old as you think they were. Or rather, people today don’t allow themselves to be “old” as early as they did in the 80s. The “Hot in Cleveland” ladies were about the same age as the original Golden Girls (and it still had Betty White!). As for Will & Grace, Debra Messing and Eric McCormack haven’t aged much. But they have the finale to deal with (it spelled out their future), and they’d have to park Will in a marriage with children, Grace too if I remember right. It would be a different show.
oz1967
To the haters out there who do or did not like the show it was made in a time where being gay was a big no no, but lead character being gay was just not on, ask Ellen. It broke ground and yes like many sitcoms it is full of stereotypes, but it laid the groundwork for more acceptance. So get off your high whores and just have a fucking laugh for christ sake.
DarkZephyr
I am getting really tired of people complaining about gay stereotypes. The effeminate man is a stereotype to be avoided at all cost. That’s really starting to piss me off. It’s starting to see more and more like the so-called “masc” guys are gladly benefiting off of the pioneering work other feminine gay man and all the ass kicking they had to Indore but now that it’s more acceptable to be gay they want to exercise our more feminine brothers from everything. “Thanks for making being gay more acceptable so I can live my life out of the closet…now go away!” That disgusts me.
And to those who are complaining about how the show was designed back in the 1990s, I would assume that they would update that now for the present. I’m sure that we would finally be allowed to see Jack and Will have intimacy with the men in their lives.
DarkZephyr
@DarkZephyr: endure*, excise*
Jack Meoff
Messing would be wanting this to happen because she hasn’t been involved in anything good or successful since Will & Grace finished.
John
@He BGB: Maybe they could re-boot and call it “The Golden Gays” put Will and Jack as roomies with a guy who does drag and one who wears leather.
The first couple of seasons it was fine, then it was no longer relevant (as most sit-cons)
Bromancer7
@DarkZephyr: No one ever asked or wanted the effeminate gay stereotype to be the de-facto face of gays on TV. That was a decision made by TV executives, much to our chagrin and displeasure. So to say those of us that clamor for a more true representation of gay men on TV should be thanking TV execs for making the world think we’re all screaming queens is absolutely absurd.
And what makes you think if the show is rebooted that Will and Jack would have any kind of legitimate and intimate relationships? There are painfully few genuine gay characters on network TV, and even fewer in sitcoms. And a rebooted Will and Grace isn’t going to be the one that breaks the mold. As far as TV execs are concerned, shallow, queeny, and/or neurotic gay men are comedy gold.
Heywood Jablowme
@Bromancer7: In this case you’re overstating the role of “TV executives,” I think. One of the creators of W&G was a gay man (Max Mutchnick) and the characters were based, more or less, on himself (as Will) and friends he knew. So W&G had roots in *someone’s* reality, however unrepresentative it may have been. After that it had to be pitched to the nefarious TV executives who didn’t know for sure if it would fly with the 1990s audience. I’ve read that Warren Littlefield wasn’t sure it would be popular, but thought it was funny.
As opposed to “Modern Family” which I suspect was created by, and is written by a troupe of meth-addicted chimpanzees.
If you go back WAY before the 1990s, the earliest gay male characters on TV were designed to be very NON-stereotypical in order to shock certain other characters (and the audience). For example, the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” where Phyllis had no idea her own brother was gay, and “All In The Family” where Archie had no idea a butch gay guy was gay.
goofyjoemoore
Don’t mess with it, leave it alone. Anything now would be pandering and feel as fake/bad as Fuller House.