We Count Down The Best Guest Stars in Will & Grace!

Will & Grace

Will & Grace is coming BACK. We’re not sure when. The cast don’t seem to be sure either. But it’s definitely coming back.

Now, we’ve got a special place in our hearts for Will & Grace. Sure, the old episodes are now hopelessly dated, and stuffed with questionable jokes about lesbians. But there are also moments of absolute genius.

And come on, you ALL remember watching it secretly on low volume while your parents were out of the room, being all scandalised by Jack’s jokes about bottoming. Like it or loathed it, it paved the way for gays on TV, and is part of the reason why we’re here today. So THERE.

While Will, Grace, Jack and Karen (mostly Karen) were obviously the stars, it was also known for its many, varied and often insane guest roles and recurring characters.

So, from Madonna organising her CD rack, to Rob and Ellen freaking out over the Olive Garden, here, in no particular order, is our list of THE BEST PERIPHERAL CHARACTERS. We’re becoming quite known for our TV show peripheral character features. Some people (QX staff writer Joe Holyoake) think that these are “filler pages”. Well they’re NOT. They’re GREAT.


Rosario Inés Consuelo: Yolanda Salazar

It’s arguable that Rosario was not really a peripheral character, as from season three onward she was actually added to the principal cast list. But our favourite maid (with a degree in clinical psychology) from El Salvador started as a bit part. It’s a testament to actress Shelley Morrison’s ability to nail every sardonic one-liner she was given that she stuck around until the end. We loved that Rosario was apparently a school teacher in El Salvador before she met Karen whilst selling cigarettes in a nightclub in 1985. She had a love of Subway’s chicken parm, Members-Only jackets and earned $350,000 a year working for Mrs Walker. And she was the only person that could go toe-to-toe in a verbal battle with her. Oh Rosie.

 


Val

VAL! Crazy Val! Played with neurotic, hair-pulling brilliance by Molly Shannon, Will and Grace’s unhinged neighbour pops up every season, whirling into their flats, throwing cushions around and generally terrorising everyone. It’s BRILLIANT. At one point she becomes obsessed with Jack, hiding in his bed and wearing his used bath water in a vial around her neck. It culminates in him dragging her from his flat while she yells “NO! NO!” It’s actually quite a distressing and unexpectedly dark scene, and the laugh from the audience takes on a certain nervous quality. In other episodes, she gets into physical fights with both Grace and Karen, throws pea soup at Grace, coerces Grace into joining alcoholics anonymous and tries to steal Will. Strong work Val. 10 points to Slytherin.

 


Liz

In perhaps the most jaw-dropping guest appearance on a sitcom ever, MADONNA rocked up in season 5 as Liz, a washed up middle-aged music exec with “two people working under me”. The premise alone is absolute genius. Her office specialises in hit compilation CDs (“hits of the eighties, ladies of the eighties…the nineties”) and Liz has a quirky loser quality about her that makes Karen love her. That is, until they go after the same man in a bar. Our fave Liz bit is when she says cut to me. “Cut to me, flat on my back on his futon.” Oh Liz! We love it when you do cut to me!

 


Nurse Sheila

Played by one of the show’s principle writers Laura Kightlinger, Nurse Sheila pops up at pivotal moments in the show to deliver a sassy aside or jarringly mad medical advice. At one point Will bumps into her at a fertility class and she jokes that she used his sperm to get pregnant. She then reveals she went with a married Irish guy instead because “I want to get drunk with my kid.”

 


Bobbi Adler

Brought to us by the late, great Debbie Reynolds, Grace’s mum Bobbi Adler is such a show stealer, that the episodes she appears in are the most critically acclaimed and highest rated of the whole show’s run. She embarrasses, nags and twirls her way into Grace’s life at the worst possible moments, flinging scarves around her shoulders and saying things like “What are the boys kissing to these days? Is it still Judy?” Our favourite thing about her is “The told ya so dance” which she does whenever Grace is wrong about anything. “Told ya so! Told ya so! TOLD YA, TOLD YA, TOLD YA SO!”

 


Sandra Bernhard

Much-loved celesbian and respected actor slash writer slash comedian slash singer Sandra Bernhard, does a great turn as herself, when Will and Grace come to view her apartment. Lots of ridiculousness ensues, including Grace secretly taking a picture of Sandra’s toilet, and them all singing “Midnight Train To Georgia” which ends in Grace getting too carried away and yelling “I GOT to go, I GOT to go, I GOT to go, I GOT to go.” Oh Grace.

 


Tina

Played, hilariously, by Teri Hatcher’s mum Lesley Ann Warren, Tina is the sparrow-thin, tiny-bladdered mistress of Will’s father. She giggles ear-splittingly at meals, pees in limos and is generally just a neurotic mess in a series of low-cut sweaters.

 


Bob & Ellen

This pair of sad sacks are apparently the gang’s friends, but all they do is get abuse from…well, everyone. For one thing Karen calls them Blob & Yellen and claims they’re a suitable alternative to a sleeping pill. Rob shagged Grace once in the 80’s and Ellen was so steamed that she tried to seduce Will as revenge. However, she did so by juggling her breasts and exclaiming “Get a load of these torpedoes” so if Will wasn’t queer before, that must have sealed the deal. They are obsessed with the culinary graveyard that is the Olive Garden, terrified of Grace in general and have been told in no uncertain terms (again, by Grace) that they can never get divorced as “nobody else will have them”. Ah well, better settle for a lifetime of Lobbbsters filled with Cheeez at Olive Garden. Oh and FYI Ellen is NOT balding. She started plucking the greys and she just couldn’t stop! (NB: Rob and Ellen were apparently such forgettable characters, that we couldn’t find any pictures of them.)


Zandra

Old crotchety acting teacher Zandra is basically what we should all aspire to in our twilight years. Upon first seeing her students assembled in the classroom, she said “If someone had told me that one day I’d be working with young actors like you….I would’ve hanged myself.” Dear Christ. Though it’s not hard to see why when Jack decides to share his “dramatic monologue”, a spoken word version of “I Will Survive”, which she cuts short by screaming “What the hell is THIS, bitch?” Other shining moments include screeching “YOUTHINKYOUCANDOBETTERTHANME?” at an indignant Jack questioning her methods and telling Grace she reminds her of Lucille Ball. Because she HATED Lucille Ball. Too bad she ended up a vegetable in a wheelchair eating her own hair.

 


Lorraine Finster

In another bizarrely wonderful celebrity cameo, British actress and country music crooner (I’m serious, Google it) Minnie Driver popped up as the bitch who stole Karen’s husband’s heart. Stole it whilst ladling mashed potato into Stan’s prison food tray that is, as Lorraine was a lunchlady in the state penitentiary. She attempted to steal Karen’s wealth and even worse, her pet fag! Fickle little Jacky was taken in by her stories of being a dancer (stripper) in London and her wanton disregard for other people. In an odd twist, Karen ended up marrying her father Lionel (played, inexplicably, by John Cleese) and Lorraine became her step-daughter. She also lost Karen’s limo in a bet and attended every wrap party for the Boy George musical Taboo, “They have them every night, just in case”. A girl after our own heart, Lorraine was last seen smuggling jewellery out of the mansion in every possible orifice.

 


Beverly Leslie

Well, well, well….if it isn’t teeny closeted billionaire Bev Lez, Karen Walker’s arch nemesis and male counterpart. Bev was rich, drunk and deeply attached to his wife Crystal’s wealth, in fact he loved Crystal so much that, at her funeral, there was even a cake that said “See ya!” Most famous for; ringing the bell during a gay rodeo bar fight, trying to win Rosario in a pool duel and referring to the girls as “Karen Walker and her Jewess”. Oh and let’s not forget his “business associate”, Benji. They just loved to laugh and clutch at each other and roll around and clutch at each other and… talk about business.

 

• So that’s that for now! There are of course loads more… Cher as herself and Britney Spears as a mad, ditsy Republican (not a huge stretch then) to name but two. Watch this space foxr part two!

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