Will & Grace almost had a fifth wheel.
The first episode of the new podcast Just Jack & Will saw the show’s Eric McCormack and Sean Hayes reveal that the pilot featured them, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally, and – wait for it — Cress Williams.
“There were five characters as regulars,” McCormack recalled. “And the fifth was my partner at my small law firm.” Describing the character as a “straight guy” who was “probably written as Jewish” initially, McCormack claimed that Will’s friendship with Williams’s character was meant to be “just as important” as Messing’s Grace and Hayes’s Jack.
That lasted a beat.
Director James Burrows told Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick that five people was too many. “I felt so terrible,” McCormack said. “It was nothing he did or didn’t do… It just didn’t fit what the show is supposed to be.”
Williams recovered nicely from being dropped. He was on ER for several seasons, and then became The CW superhero Black Lightning.