PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA, THE: PALEYFEST 2018: WILL & GRACE {WILL AND GRACE} {PUBLIC SHORT VERSION}
Summary
One in a series of evenings and special screenings presented as part of The Paley Center for Media's 35th William S. Paley Television Festival in Los Angeles. Held this year at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, the festival celebrates the excellence and diversity of American television and is dedicated to television's creative community. This PALEYFEST 2018 seminar honors "Will & Grace," the comedy series about the friendship between Will Truman, a gay lawyer, and Grace Adler, a straight interior decorator, rebooted after an eleven-year hiatus.
Actor/producer Dan Bucatinsky moderates the following panelists: executive producer/creator/writers David Kohan and Max Mutchnick; executive producer/director James Burrows; and cast members Eric McCormack (Will Truman), Debra Messing (Grace Adler), Sean Hayes (Jack McFarland), and Megan Mullally (Karen Walker).
The panelists touch on such topics as: the twentieth anniversary of the pilot shoot, also directed by Burrows; Kohan and Mutchnick's surprise at receiving a call from NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt about the reboot, given their "complicated" relationship with NBC; the decision to omit Will and Grace's marriages and children from the reboot and "begging" the audience to go along with the change; the ease of returning to their characters and to the actors' friendships; Messing's surprise at receiving a bill from NBC after taking a set item home after the finale in 2006; Burrows' prolific directing career and views on the "fortuitous" success of "Will & Grace"; the positive reaction from the studio audience on day four of the pilot shoot; the decision to cut a fifth character of Will's law partner, played by Cress Williams, now star of The CW's "Black Lightning"; the increased episode order for season two and confirmation of season three; Hayes' gift for physical comedy, inspired by his theater background; Messing's genuine enjoyment of watching her co-stars' performances; whether Mullally shares Karen's decidedly right-wing political views; memories of the late Debbie Reynolds, who played Grace's outrageous mother Bobbi; McCormack's views on why Will has not yet "settled down"; the "meritocracy" in the writers' room in crafting the A and B stories for each episode; Burrows' honest comments when a joke or plot "doesn't work"; last-second rewrites and added punchlines; Messing and Mullally's confusion about their "Game of Thrones"-related quips; Mullally's praise for the heartfelt "Rosario's Quinceañera" episode, in which Karen's maid and friend Rosario, played by retired actress Shelley Morrison, passes away; the show being carried by four Emmy Award-winning lead actors; and Mullally's strong feeling that the show would return after their Election 2016 special, originally intended as a one-time event.
Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics, among others: memorable guest-stars, including Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, and Charles C. Stevenson Jr., who plays long-suffering bartender Smitty; a complicated tap-dance scene involving Hayes and an ailing Mullally, which was cut for time; Messing's memories of ruining many takes with her uncontrollable laughter during a scene with a ditzy young nurse (Jennifer Elise Cox) in a 2000 episode; whether there will be another live episode; rehearsing and pre-shooting the challenging scene in the ninth season's second episode in which Karen and Grace are trapped in a flooded shower; the actors' other memorable roles; and a subtle insider reference to "About Last Night …" (1986), also starring Mullally.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:44:50
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 131992
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Rene Reyes … Host
- Dan Bucatinsky … Moderator
- Megan Mullally … Panelist
- Eric McCormack … Panelist
- Debra Messing … Panelist
- Sean Hayes … Panelist
- James Burrows … Panelist
- David Kohan … Panelist
- Max Mutchnick … Panelist
- Alec Baldwin
- Jennifer Elise Cox
- Matt Damon
- Robert Greenblatt
- Shelley Morrison
- Debbie Reynolds
- Charles C. Stevenson Jr.
- Cress Williams