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.

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.

Bid on Will's Ride

Back in the spring of 1999, as the story goes, NBC was so happy with the performance of its freshman sitcom Will & Grace that, in a show of gratitude, it rewarded the show's four principal cast members each with a brand-new Porsche Boxster. After taking them to lunch, then-NBC president Scott Sassa surprised the four actors with sets of keys to their new wheels, valued at just under $100,000 each. (If you don't remember all the press on that, click here for a fun piece by my friend Dennis Hensley or here for a USA Weekend piece on Debra Messing.)

[By the way, as an aside -- NBC got a lot of ink for that apparently generous move. But in 2004, I found out while researching my book Will & Grace: Fabulously Uncensored that it wasn't the network at all who really ponied up for all that horsepower. Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick told me that, thirteen episodes into the run of the series, "James Burrows [the show's fabled director] had the idea that we should reward the cast early, and let them know that they are doing a good job. We did that by way of buying them all Boxsters. I like saying that we bought them, because we did -- we paid for them. NBC likes to say that they paid for them, but the truth is that the show paid for them. And we own the show, so we paid for them."]

Whoever truly did ultimately get the Porsche dealer's bill, we do know from subsequent photos and sightings that the four stars sure did seem to enjoy tooling around L.A. in their fancy new wheels. Now, Eric McCormack, fka Will Truman, has decided to share the ride, and all for a good cause. In an email circulated this morning by the L.A.-based charity Project Angel Food, Eric explains why he's willing to part with the car in order to provide funding for the preparation and delivery of meals to those suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening diseases.

As Eric notes above, the car is a 1999 Porsche Boxster, silver with jet black leather interior and gleaming chrome wheels. The odometer reads at only 24,601 miles. There are, he says, a few nicks and scratches -- each of which brings back memories.

"I hate to give it up," McCormack writes, "but Janet and I feel strongly that the sexiest kind of vehicle is the one that delivers meals to those who are in need."

As Grace Adler might say, "That Will -- what a mensch!"

To bid on Eric McCormack's Porsche Boxster

(plus a personalized message and autographed set of Will & Grace DVDs)

now through 3 PM on September 5, 2008:

Click here for CharityFolks.com, OR

Click here to bid via eBay (dual listing)