‘Will & Grace’ Gang Takes On Donnie & Melania – Tribeca TV Festival

They’re definitely back. The Will & Grace gang wasted no time at the Tribeca TV Festival before jumping into the present and taking a swipe at Donald Trump — just as quickly and easily as they seem to have fallen back into old their roles.

David Kohan, asked how he’d react if Trump called him “a son of a bitch” — that’s how the president referred to Colin Kaepernick last night — the W&G co-creator said without a beat, “I guess I would rather be a son of a bitch than the son of someone who was arrested at a KKK rally.”

Funnier, if no less pointed, was a quip by Megan Mullally’s Karen in a clip from an upcoming episode of the Will & Grace revival series. “Donnie is one of my oldest friends,” she says. “I helped him pick out Melania.”

Any doubts about the new series’ relevance in the Trump Era were assuaged. If you were offended by the show’s politics during its first go-round, you probably won’t rest any easier come September 28.

Tonight’s panel, which included Mullally, Debra Messing, Eric McCormack, Sean Hayes and co-creators/executive producers Kohan and Max Mutchnick, offered a few spoilers about the upcoming episodes. As previously reported, Harry Connick Jr. will be back for a visit, as will Leslie Jordan as Beverley Leslie (“I have him right here in my pocket,” said Mullally). Shelley Morrison, who played Karen’s maid Rosario, won’t — the actress has retired.

Bobby Cannavale, who played Will’s ex-cop boyfriend Vince, will stop by in Season 9, but the reunion won’t be permanent.

“In the finale,” said McCormack about the 2006 farewell, “I ended up Bobby Cannavale, who is magnificent — and expensive and booked.” So Will has a new — and much younger — boyfriend, to be played by 23-year-old Ben Platt.

And as for that finale, Kohan and Mutchnick decided early in the reboot process to ignore it (as does the upcoming revival of Roseanne). When viewers last saw Will Truman and Grace Adler in a series-ending flashforward, they had grown children (not with each other).

“If they had kids it would be an entirely different thing,” Kohan said, explaining that if the children were present, the series would become about Will and Grace as parents. If the kids were not absent, the show becomes Will and Grace aren’t parents.

“What works best about the show is these four talented actors standing in that apartment,” Kohan said.

Other revelations: No more “Just Jack” schtick.

“I got sick of it for him,” Mutchnick said about Hayes’ trademark jazz-hands move. “It’s like, put your f*cking hands down.”

By the end of the first new season, Will and Grace will be more than friends (no, not that way). They’ll be business partners.

“Will and Grace go into business together,” McCormack said. “I’m Grace’s lawyer — and I think that’s going to create a lot of hilarity.”

And yes, Karen is friends with the First Family. “She’s down at Mar-a-Lago a lot with Donny and Melania,” Mullally said. “I have a line that ‘Melania just called me after one of her night terrors.'”

Mutchnick also revealed, maybe jokingly, maybe not,  that an upcoming episode will find Grace and Karen doing their best Lucy and Ethel, underwater. Seems that after the 2006 finale, a depressed Mutchnick wallowed in an I Love Lucy marathon, and was struck by a scene with Lucy and Ethel trapped in a shower. (Ok, he was no doubt thinking of “Lucy and Viv Put in A Shower” from The Lucy Show, but his point’s taken).

“I thought, how could we not have done that,” Mutchnick said. “So watch Week 2.”

Will & Grace returns Thursday, September 28 at 9/8c pm on NBC.