Following its (second) series finale, Will & Grace co-creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan have commented nearly-directly on the long-rumored feud between stars Debra Messing and Megan Mullally.
And while the on-set tension may not have been the reason for the show’s end, it sounds like it certainly didn’t help.
Related: Brian Jordan Alvarez on landing his wondrous role on ‘Will & Grace’
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the show’s creators looked back on their enduring labor of love. They were able to film the finale episode back in pre-lockdown December, for which Mutchnick said they have Messing’s “pain-in-the-ass” contract to thank:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“Oh my God, thank God. It would have been the most unfinished feeling to not get to the end of this season. Thank God Debra had it in her contract that we had to be done by Christmas. I finally found the silver lining in that really pain-in-the-ass clause.”
EW later asked Mutchnick about the rumored “tensions” and whether they affected the show’s storytelling.
“We always work under this kind of motto that everything’s about the work. It’s just about the work. And so if we stay true to that, then we just keep you guys out of whatever happened on the set this year because it would have done nothing but get in the way of the stories that we wanted to tell.
It was not an easy year, but the permanent legacy of the show is much more important to us than any temporary squabble that would take place on the stage.”
Eric McCormack told US Weekly last year that the feud rumors are “crazy.”
“It is crazy! I think people worried about that entirely too much. The four of us get along like a house on fire, we always have.”
Related: How ‘Will & Grace’ creator Max Mutchnick is changing the world with humor & love
NBC co-chairman Paul Telegdy also half-addressed the rumors last year, denying there was any ‘there’ there:
“Some things come to a natural end,” he told TVLine. “Max and David told the story they wanted to tell. Just wait for the finale. It’s epic; it ties together so many threads. It is coming to a great, natural end.”
The 11th and final season of Will & Grace premiered on October 24 and ran for 18 episodes, welcoming guest stars like Gus Kenworthy, Matt Bomer, Patton Oswalt, Chris Parnell, Joel McHale, Ryan Phillippe, Billie Lourd, Vanessa Bayer, Aileen Quinn and Demi Lovato.
Cam
Normal folks have to work with co-workers, or deal with neighbors they hate all of the time. For the money those two were making you’d think they could pull it together.
One thing it does show, is that the guy who played Will and the NBC co-chairman have absolutely no problem lying. lol
Mattster
“For the money those two were making you’d think they could pull it together.”
They DID pull it together, or are you unaware that the show ran for successfully for years, and was successfully revived?
Creamsicle
The show would have ended either way. It didn’t get great ratings. They tried to go in too many different directions for a while. They set up Grace having a young employee or intern and dropped it after maybe 3 jokes. Then they went back to gags and stories between the 4 main characters and it was decent, but the humor isn’t as edgy in 2017 as it was in 2005. In a way, it’s great that so much of gay culture has been normalized that a show can’t lean entirely on gay lexicon jokes.
Cam
@Mattster
“For the money those two were making you’d think they could pull it together.”
They DID pull it together, or are you unaware that the show ran for successfully for years, and was successfully revived?
__________________________________________
The fight took place this season.
Bromancer7
I don’t believe it. Max and David have come out and said there is no chance of another revival because they never want to do it again. It was a hit show. Twice. Making tons of money. The only reason you’d abandon that and “never want to do it again” would be if the aggravation of making it was out of control. For example, if your stars didn’t get along.
Mattster
Why is it so impossible to believe that think they’ve done pretty much all they can or want to do with the show, its characters, setting, etc?
The revival went better that anyone could have hoped and they decided to go out on top before resorting to “very special episodes” or other gimmicks to fill up the episode count.
I’d rather not see an episode with Karen jumping the shark, or worse yet a tired “Christmas Carol” parody.
If the aggravation of making it were so out of control I doubt the show would have been successful or lasted in the first place, let alone been revived.
Honestly, how many shows get a revival, let alone a successful one?
frapachino
Messing is a nasty piece of work everyone in Hollywood knows this she is the modern day equivalent of McCarthyism!
Cam
Translation: The right wing troll account can’t talk about the actual topic, because it has to attack somebody who is a well known Democrat who speaks out against Trump.
The fact that she’s a woman, just makes the troll account hate her even more.
HankHarris
I loved Will & Grace as much as anyone else, and I think it did a lot to change minds about gay people. That said, I didn’t have any interest in watching this second run, it just felt like such a cash grab to me.
Woteva
Yep. The first ep of the revived show and I asked myself ‘How long is this gonna last?’
I’m so glad they can’t ever reunite the Golden Girls, especially after the hot mess of the Golden Palace.
SoloMcDaniel
This recent season you could tell something was up with the cast. They rarely had an episode where the four main cast members were in the same scene and Megan Mullally was totally missing from several episodes.
Overall, the whole “revival” seasons were terrible. And the finale basically said that the only way for gays to be happy is to have kids and move in with a woman. Totally wrong message.
Creamsicle
It was weird that the show ended with Will & Grace committing to a lifelong dysfunctional relationship.
Dick Gozinia
‘Will & Grace’ co-creators finally address rumors of testy on-set feud
Not really. They basically said ‘no comment’.
nm4047
apart from the show title including Grace, the show wouldn’t have noticed the absence of the character. Clearly the re-boot was purely for a $ reason and I’d suggest Messing was the biggest winner from this, she is a bit of a one trick pony & I think she flogged it for what it was worth.
Cam
She’s had a few series since as a lead. I would argue she’s had more success since than either “Karen” or “Will”.
Jack Meoff
How about expanding the article a bit to let us know what the rumours were and who was feuding for those of us who are not in the know.
CityguyUSA
Seemed to me to be a giant remake using very similar lines as in the original.
ScottOnEarth
I would love to know what their feud was about. I went to a taping of one of the original episodes and Megan Mullally was SO unfriendly and snotty. Sean, Deborah and Eric were really friendly and spoke with the audience, while Megan didn’t acknowledge that there even was an audience and ignored all of us the entire time.
dustychiffon
The show ended for two reasons.
1) The stories and gags didn’t shine anymore, and the writing was bordering on terrible. This last season seemed sloppy with continuity issues and fuggy smoothing filters.
2) The ratings steadily declined from the initial revival rollout. They never went back up, which is a death sentence to ANY production-especially expensive ones. I was actually surprised they brought it in for one more LONG season.
-The fact that Deborah and Megan didn’t care for each other didn’t matter either way. There are countless shows in Hollywood who’s principal talent can’t stand each other, but they’ll get through it if pop culture (and paychecks) keep ringing.
It had it’s fun moments, and ensemble casts that play well with each other and have charisma are rare- but the fruit has to fall off the tree at some point.
There was whispers that Jack might be getting a spin off (Just Jack!) when he tries to move out to Hollywood. Something tells me that may not happen.
Onecaddy13
Messing’s a mess, comedy’s not her thing. She did much better at more serious roles. They truly based the series majority on Jack & Karen’s characters since they were a hit with the viewing audience. They were great and just threw the Will & Grace characters in to let every know what the title of the show was. I do believe money was a big issue. (Always is)