But I think the point was even after all that, they're still connected. This was even mentioned in the pre-finale special when they were talking about the serious arguement they had when he threw her out a few seasons ago.

Thought it was funny about George Clooney being back on ER since in the first episode Will mentioned Clooney too.

i felt bad for the audience.... they were really into everything being funny.... the only thing i liked was the piano thing.... after that... everything tanked like their ratings...

I found that funny because it is 25 years later and ER is still on!

Wasn't the Beverly Leslie thing also a rip-off of Las Vegas? And no one has done the "fast forward thing" better than Six Feet Under in their finale.

Talked to a bunch of guys my age. We were all affected by it in a similar way and all either were crying when it was over or had tears in their eyes. W&G helped a lot of us out of the closet and/or made the blow to our respective families a little...or even A LOT easier. Will was a character that I could actually relate to and feel proud about. It's kinda like great friends leaving your life forever. Definitely a bit strange.

Yes, it did help gays to some extent and it may have helped people out of the closet but, that doesn't change the fact that this last episode was still pretty uninspiring.

Depends. Actually, i found it VERY inspiring. Will finally got into a relationship, got married and had a kid. That's the epitome of "inspiring" in my world. Everyone was happy in the end.

I didn't see the finale (got the synopsis from the wife) and I haven't watched the show in a few seasons, but I'm glad to hear Sean Hayes got to show off his piano chops one last time.

I don't really count that since it was only a 5 minute musical montage at the end and not having anything to do with the plot of the episode like this one.

And it took all how long for Will to finally have a ongoing relationship?
A nice little pat ending that is great, I agree but felt a little "Series finale" to me.

Did anyone see the retrospective that aired before the finale? It made me laugh everytime they talked about the quality of the scripts and how they are going out at the right time. Have they been watching the same show I have for the last 3 or 4 years?

Forgive my ignorance here because I never really watched the show, but I did catch about 10 minutes of the finale as I was flipping around and was confused. Anyway, so did Will "turn" straight and get get married to a woman or did he stay gay and just father a child with a woman or adopted and that's where his son came from? Sorry if my terms aren't pc, but I don't really know how else to ask the question.

I thought W&G stopped being funny and relevant about 4 years ago, but sadly no one told NBC. In the early days of the show, I did watch on a semi-regular basis and found it likable and funny. But it became terribly formulaic over the last few years, with the four characters seemingly repeating the same joke (or a variation thereof) every single show (at least as far as I could ever see on the occasions when I would tune in).

I'm not gay so I can't speak to what emotional impact the ending of the show had on that part of the audience, but I just never found the whole theme of an ongoing "will they or won't they stay together" platonic relationship between a gay man and a straight woman all that emotionally compelling. I thought it was good that there was a show on network TV that (sort of) portrayed gays as normal people with normal, occasionally funny problems, and didn't seem too patronizing in doing it. But overall, I guess it just didn't resonate for me the way it did for some people, so I found the whole sendoff episode mawkish and silly.

A random women (who he said needed rent money) sold her eggs, and Will and Vince fathered a child (not sure who's sperm they used) named Ben.

The show got bad when Harry Connick Jr joined the cast.
Even his appearance last night the audience barely laughed at his lines.
Most sitcoms only have a 5 year shelf life, Will & Grace was no exception.

Anyone know the name of the song used at the end of the retrospective?

Ok. Thanks.

It's interesting that everyone brings up that 5 year mark with W&G.

That's exactly when the creators of the show left and the lawsuits with NBC began. Before that, they were heavily involved in the show and script-writing.

I can't even imagine how great it would have been for the last 4 years had they stayed.

I think NBC knew. They just didn't have anything else.

It wasn't really funny but the ending seemed appropriate. The show definitely went beyond the point of being funny anymore but it still had its moments in the last 4 years. With that said, I won't miss it.

Yeah I had to admit that as much as I like Harry, I didn't like his role on this show. I think it woulda been 100x's cooler if Grace had ended up with one of the 3 listed: Woody Harrelson , Ed Burns , or believe it or not....Andy Richter . Too bad Gregory Hines died.....

You say, Huh? Why Richter? His character and Grace had a lot in common. The whole joke, IIRC, was that although he wasn't a hunky man, he was almost Grace's male doppler.

Is there a natural "true ending" to the series around when the original creators left, so that those of us who see a definite "line in the sand" between when the show rocked and when it started stinking know when to consider our version of W&G ended?

From what I know, they left at the beginning of season 5. I don't know if there is a specific episode or if they left before it even started. Even if they left early, there might have been script meetings about where the show went.

IIRC, season 5 was when the "guest star" thing exploded.

He had a weather radar?