Your love of 90s nostalgia just got triggered: the cast of Will and Grace has reunited for a video about how voting only matters in swing states, and it’s like the last 15 years have melted away and we’re all living in a world of sitcoms.
Check out the behind the scenes video below for shots of the cast together, holding iPhones that were just a twinkle in the eye of Steve Jobs back when the gang was originally on the air.
Seeing them gather around a table to read their scripts, hanging out on a recreation of their original set, and standing under ridiculous TV lights that look nothing like a real human environment is an unmitigated delight.
Also fascinating: the army of staff who assembled to make their video possible. So many camera people! Makeup people! To say nothing of post-production! Jim Burroughs is there to direct! Norman Lear is also evident hanging around on set, posing with the stars.
One question that remains unanswered: who paid for all this? It must’ve been crazy expensive to build this set, hire all these extremely expensive people, and edit the whole thing together. Where’d the money for this come from? With Norman Lear present, maybe it’s People for the American Way. But we may never know the truth.
Fun fact: students of gay marriage history will recall that back in 2000, the cast of Will and Grace shot an ad telling Californians to vote no on Proposition 22. At the time, it looked like Will & Grace might get cancelled, and the showrunners were afraid that the ad would anger NBC and so they pleaded with the No On 8 campaign not to use it. So instead of airing the commercial, the campaign simply put out a press release that the commercial existed, and that got them a ton of publicity without even having to put it on the air. Clever girls.
InCA
Here’s another fun fact. Will & Grace ended its iconic run in 2006, two years before the CA Supreme Court even overturned the ban on Marriage Equality, prompting the evil Prop 8.
rtripboy
I checked the set is on display at Emerson College. And the lights are probably part of the display as well.
Record Man
@InCA: I’ve got another one; the article mentioned Prop 22, and not Prop 8.
MacAdvisor
To note the difference. Prop. 22 created a law banning same-sex marriage, while Prop. 8 was a California Constitutional amendment that banned it. Prop. 22 passed in March of 2000 and it is what the California Supreme Court struck down that brought about Prop. 8.
InCA
Ok, but that’s not what the Article originally said.
InCA
@Record Man and @MacAdvisor – also, the article still references “No on 8” farther down in the Article. (That us until I’m assuming they will change that too without admitting their error). If they recorded this in 2000 for Prop 22, it makes no sense that they would beg with the No on 8 canpaign wouldn’t exist for another 8 years. Pretty bad coverup of their original screw up. Don’t blame you though if you didn’t read it before they tried to change the story.