Appropriately titled “It’s Time,” Will & Grace ended for the second time last night. The original run of the beloved NBC sitcom featuring a gay lawyer and his best friend came to a close in 2006. Now, after a three-season revival, Will and Grace and Jack and Karen said farewell to viewers again.
Will & Grace Says Goodbye
Created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, directed by James Burrows, Will & Grace starred Eric McCormack (Will), Debra Messing (Grace), Megan Mullally (Karen), and Sean Hayes (Jack). The series was nominated 91 times for Primetime Emmys, winning 18 times.
Here are five things we loved about the series final finale and one we weren’t so happy about!
5. Stanning Stan And Karen.
We never ever saw Stan, Karen’s husband, on Will & Grace, but the character made a big impact throughout the course of the show. The character was killed off and then later revealed to be alive. In the revival, Karen and Stan split up. But, in a romantic gesture, Stan invited Karen to meet him atop the Statue of Liberty. She agreed, and climbed a rope ladder up to a helicopter for a romantic reunion with her beloved “Stanley.”
4. Hello, Mother!
There were many wonderful guest stars on Will & Grace over the years, but scene-stealing Minnie Driver as Karen’s ex-step-daughter Lorraine Finster returned in the finale as a cab driver who took the quartet to Karen’s rendezvous. One of Lorraine’s trademark bits was getting Will and Grace’s names wrong. This time, she called them “Jim” and “Betty.” Behind the snark, Lorraine has a heart of gold, as evidenced by her urging Karen to reunite with Stan.
3. Jack 2020!
What’s a finale without tying a few things up in a nice pretty bow? One of Jack’s long-running goals was to take a bow on a Broadway stage. He finally got his wish fulfilled after enough understudies became ill. We smell a Tony!
2. The Real McCoy.
In the original Will & Grace finale, Will ended up with Vince (Bobby Cannavale) and their son Ben. In this reality, Will, who was expecting a baby via surrogate, reconnected with ex-flame McCoy (Matt Bomer), a newscaster who returned to New York — and Will’s life. There have been a lot of memorable lines in this series. McCoy’s to Will: “The gay guy gets to have his Prince Charming, too,” ranks among the best.
1. The Fab Four.
Like in the original ending, Will, Grace, Jack, and Karen all were together when the curtain closed. Instead of hanging out at a bar, they were off to the hospital as a pregnant Grace went into labor. “Everything’s going to be so different,” Grace said in the last moments. Will’s last act was to bid adieu to the apartment he shared with Grace for many years; he gave it one last wistful look before closing a chapter in his life.
Following the finale, McCormack hosted a half-hour tribute to the series, A Will & Graceful Goodbye, noting its social impact. Former Vice President Joe Biden told Meet The Press about the show’s impact in terms of gay society and issues: “I think Will & Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has ever done so far.”
And that one thing we’re not so crazy about? The fact that the show has once more ended! Will & Grace have left us wanting more. We want to meet Will and Grace’s babies, watch Karen criticize Grace’s outfits, and see what Jack’s next antic is going to be. While the show has said its final farewell, we can only hope we’ll see them again. Until then, we have reruns, streaming, and DVDs whenever we want — or need — to laugh.
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