Catch me tonight on "The Story Behind: Will & Grace"

In 2003, I got an offer I couldn't refuse, to write the official companion book to NBC's groundbreaking sitcom Will & Grace.  Already obsessed with the show, I felt like Jack McFarland, when he was hired by his idol Kevin Bacon.

Tonight at 9PM Eastern/8 Central on Pop TV (formerly the TV Guide Network), catch me in The Story Behind:  Will & Grace, wherein I was honored to join members of the show's cast and crew to tell some fun behind-the-scenes tales.

For more info, including to find Pop TV on your cable/satellite system, go to www.poptv.com.

Below, a sneak peek at tonight's episode:

Gimme Shelter (Island)

On last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother, Ted and Stella proceed to the altar in her dream wedding locale, Shelter Island.

It wasn't the first time the island, "sheltered" in between the north and south forks of New York state's Long Island, was used as a sitcom setting. Back in 2002, the gang from Will & Grace invaded the normally peaceful place, when Will rescued Karen from certain humiliation at the hands of Beverly Leslie by providing her with a partner for their country club's annual "spotlight dance" at Valentine's Day. Then, three seasons later, they returned and integrated the place with homos, as Will danced with Jack, and two closeted lesbians played by Chita Rivera and Michele Lee dared to tango.

But if you've ever been to the actual Shelter Island, you know that both shows took some liberties and/or got some things a little bit wrong. The place has very few commercial establishments, save for a few restaurants and a supermarket in a strip at its center, and I think one small restaurant/hotel in the ritzy Heights section. So it's not too likely that there would be a hippie/vegan lodge of the sort seen on HIMYM last night, with its hellish prohibitions on meat and ale. Moreover, Ted and the other characters kept saying they were going "up" to Shelter Island, which would imply north -- but the Island is several hours due east of Manhattan. When we New Yorkers venture to Long Island, we say we're going "out" to the Hamptons, Shelter Island or Montauk, not "up."

And I think poor Robin would be a little more pissed than she seemed to be at having traveled all that way, only to be uninvited upon her arrival. Yes, she was relieved not to have to watch her ex get married. But not only did she spend 24 hours, as she said, on a flight from Japan, but then, being that she probably flew into JFK, she then also spent several hours in a car to either Greenport (on the North Fork) or North Haven (on the South Fork.) From there, she had to wait for the passenger/car ferry service (the show got this part right), which would dump her at the base of Shelter Island Heights. Then, it's a hard-to-find taxi to wherever that hippie-dippie hotel was. And then, Ted uninvites her? I was pissed for her!

Poor Ted. He never should have shlepped a funny guy like Jason Jones out to see Stella. And poor Robin. As she watched Stella and Tony hug it out, that must have been one long ferry ride home.

A Little Ditty About Jack and Karen

When I logged onto AOL this morning, I saw a teaser quoting a National Enquirer story which claims that NBC is eager to put together a pilot for a potential Will & Grace spinoff, to star Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally's characters Jack McFarland and Karen Walker.

Now I'm not one to believe the Enquirer -- or AOL's shoddy news reporting, for that matter. But let's take this seriously for a moment, and realize -- it sounds like a really bad idea. For every rare hit spinoff like Frasier was from Cheers, there's a Joey or reaching back even further, a Golden Palace or an AfterM*A*S*H.

And there are some good reasons to be skeptical about this rumor. For one thing, just last week it was announced that Megan Mullally has already signed on to star in an ABC pilot, In the Motherhood, opposite Cheryl Hines and Chelsea Handler.

Plus, there's the issue of Will & Grace's terrible series finale. Back in July, I asked Debra Messing at the Television Critics' Conference if there might ever be a Will & Grace reunion. Never say never, she basically said -- but she pointed out that the series finale wrapped up the show's storyline so far in the future that any reunion would be logically problematic, if not impossible.

The same can be said for Jack and Karen. Didn't we see Jack financially forced to marry Beverly Leslie, only to be thrilled when a freak windstorm swept the little guy off their balcony? And then we saw Jack and Karen, together again, living off Beverly's estate? Jack, with touches of gray in his hair now -- and Karen, hilariously looking exactly the same?

I had very mixed feelings about the Will & Grace series finale, because in its attempt to set up a "meet cute" for Will's son Ben and Grace's daughter Lila, the episode contradicted several key facts we already knew about our titular twosome. Despite the finale's assertion to the contrary, Will and Grace had not earlier been said to have been freshman hallmates; he was even probably a year or two ahead of her. Instead, it had been established, including during the two-parter where Grace married Leo, that Will and Grace first met at a party on a New York rooftop. But I digress.

It would probably be best to let Jack and Karen rest, in whatever boozy state they're lounging around in in the TV ether. But I want to make this clear: should these spinoff rumors turn out to be true, and the show does somehow get on the air, I'll be the first one to tune in and watch. And this time, I want to write for the show. Got that, Mr. or Ms. Showrunner?

Today in TV History: Will & Grace

On this date in 1998, Will & Grace debuted on NBC.

The first network comedy created with a gay lead character, Will & Grace took the mantle from Ellen, the ABC sitcom which had broadcast its final episode just months earlier. Ellen DeGeneres' title character Ellen Morgan had famously come out the year before, in 1997's codenamed "The Puppy Episode," and spent her fifth and final season on the air in a midlife search for lesbian love and acceptance. Now, in the fall of 1998, the road had been paved through primetime for two new iconic gay regular characters: Will Truman, a somewhat conservative gay lawyer, and Jack McFarland, his much more flamboyant actor friend and confidant.

Over the course of its eight seasons, Will & Grace would go on to win 16 Emmys, including awards for each of its four lead actors -- a feat previously accomplished only by All In the Family and The Golden Girls. Back in July, I attended a panel at the Television Critics Association conference in Los Angeles for W&G star Debra Messing's new series The Starter Wife, which premieres on the USA Network on Friday, October 10. Is there any hope, I asked her, for a Will-and-Grace-and-Jack-and-Karen reunion? "I
would be game," Messing said. But, she noted, "it's a little tricky because the finale
played with time, and they showed what happened 25 years
ahead. So it's a little difficult to see how that
would be possible."

When I interviewed her for my book, Will & Grace: Fabulously Uncensored (see photo below), I remembered Messing rhapsodizing about how much she misses living in New York City. It sounded at the time like she planned to head back East the moment Will & Grace took its final curtain call. But The Starter Wife miniseries was shot in Australia, and now the series version will be headquartered in L.A. So, I asked her, what happened?

"You know, life unfolds the way it's going to unfold. This was here, and so [New York] will just be postponed for a little bit," the actress explained. "I do still want to get back on stage, and I can't fathom the future without envisioning spending a significant amount of time in New York, because it really does feel like my home," she added. And so while now, at the time of the tenth anniversary of this hilarious show's debut, it sounds like there may never be another gathering of Will & Grace's four groundbreaking gays and gals, at least there will probably be a time in the near future when real-life New York City will get its Grace back.





At the Barnes & Noble Union Square, New York for a signing of my book, Will & Grace: Fabulously Uncensored, September 2004.

Photo by Scott Kahn.