One person who should have remained a cameo was Harry Connick Jr, who smeared himself over the showвЂ™s latter half like Vaseline, dulling everyoneвЂ™s shine. The fifth season alone featured toe-curling appearances from Madonna (as KarenвЂ™s flatmate), Demi Moore (as JackвЂ™s old babysitter) and Elton John (as Elton John) while Janet Jackson and Jennifer Lopez were also crowbarred into later episodes. Firstly, the producers assumed one way of halting declining viewing figures was to chuck in as many celebrity cameos as possible. Season five ushered in two massive shifts, however. Confident in its lead characters, the early seasons relied sparingly on a small supporting cast, only adding in guest stars to add backstory (Debbie Reynolds as Bobbi, GraceвЂ™s mortifying mum, for example). Thankfully, there are enough thinkpieces retrospectively appraising Will & Grace to leave the real issue open to dissection: when did it lose its shine? The showвЂ™s central story arc вЂ“ two very single old college friends turned roommates living unhealthily codependent lives in New York being charmingly berated by two responsibility-free daydreamers вЂ“ worked for the first four of the showвЂ™s eight seasons, the spark between the quartet fizzing spectacularly. Starting in 1998, its representation of gay men was seen as both a breakthrough вЂ“ in 2012, then-vice president Joe Biden said it had helped educate America on same-sex marriage вЂ“ and heavily criticised for presenting its gay characters as either unthreatening and neutered (Will) or the physical embodiment of what the predominantly straight viewership assumed all homosexual men were like (Jack). Somewhere at the back of your mind, perhaps near Spin City, lurks Will & Grace, a sitcom about an uptight, straight-acting gay lawyer (Will, played by the straight-in-reality Eric McCormack) his shrill, insecure best friend (Grace, played by Debra Messing) and, thankfully for the humour quota, two supporting characters in the shape of Sean HayesвЂ™s Jack (gloriously camp, perpetually uninterested in being an adult) and Megan MullallyвЂ™s Karen (chronic drunk, perpetually uninterested in being an adult). T hink 90s sitcoms and you think Friends.

Debra messing will and grace season 1