Did anyone else notice Debra Messing sort of lost her charm post Season 5? I guess it was the pregnancy and work load. She sort of lost her prettiness and her flare as Grace, I'm watching Season 6 right now and I'm really noticing it. I think her scenes were rushed and done in a few takes because she was busy or something.
You, a salty water ocean wave.
Knock, me down and kiss my face.
Funny you say that considering I'm watching season 6 currently and I have to agree. She's just "there"...kind of vacant almost.
shareMegan, Sean and Eric all seemed to get more into their characters and became funnier with each Season, but Debra seemed to really slow in Season 5 and Season 6. Then in Season 7 she picked up a bit but it still wasn't the same.
You, a salty water ocean wave.
Knock, me down and kiss my face.
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Yes I noticed this. She was definitely only there in body for some of the later seasons.
Also, did she change her voice? During these episodes her voice seemed lower and almost as if she was trying to whisper her lines and she had no spark, no real tone or character to her voice - kind of like she was phoning them in.
I agree. The character became pretty insufferable. Grace was always selfish but in a funny way. By the last couple seasons, she became very unlikeable and it was difficult to see why Will would have stuck by her.
As for Debra Messing, after she had her baby, she gained a lot of weight (compared to earlier seasons when she was extremely skinny) and that seems to have really made her sluggish. Like she just didn't care anymore.
I remember reading that Deborah had a very difficult pregnancy. I think she seems off because she was having health problems .
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Here's the thing: When Debra Messing got noticeably pregnant (season 6), she couldn't work the long rehearsals so James Burrows cut down on rehearsal time for the entire cast. A very large percent of the former very extensive and rigorous rehearsal time simply got removed.
The thing about comedy -- especially comedy at this level of quality -- is that it needs extensive rehearsal, and under someone as rigorous and as perfectionistic as Burrows.
So the quality of the shows immediately started to decline, due to lack of rigor and lack of rehearsals.
(That's also when they started loading up on guest stars, to replace Messing in her absence.)
Unfortunately, even when Debra Messing returned to the show after her maternity leave and so forth, the show kept that short and lax rehearsal schedule because the entire cast had gotten used to it and gotten lazy.
So standards went out the window, and the show never recovered the level of excellence it had prior to Messing's pregnancy. Sad but true.
I kind of blame Burrows for this. He could have kept up the standards and the rigorous rehearsal schedule if he had wanted to -- but he didn't. I guess he got lazy too.
To me the last watchable season is S6. The seasons after that are just boring, or cringe-worthy, or both.
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is there a reason you posted this twice? lol.
I very much doubt Messing's pregnancy is responsible for literally the entire deterioration of quality of the latter seasons, though it's an amusing idea.
Debra Messing's pregnancy did slow her down a little and meant that she couldn't do much of her physical comedy she was known for in earlier seasons; but other than that I couldn't see much else wrong with the show. I liked Season 7 and 8, of course they don't really compare to the glory days of the first few seasons but the writing never stopped being consistently funny and despite a few adjustments they made to fit the actors' personal lives, I thought they all did remarkably well, both the writers and the actors.
But hey, that's just my opinion. It's all subjective.
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I posted it twice because there are endless threads and posts on this board speculating why the series went downhill in the last seasons, but nobody had posted the correct reason.
It seems you missed the point too -- it wasn't the change in Messing, it was the change in rehearsal time.
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I didn't miss the point, but you cited Messing's pregnancy as the sole reason the show went downhill. Your post was literally entitled "The REAL reason the show went downhill in the last few seasons",
Unless you actually worked on set and know the ins and outs of every single thing that happened behind the scenes, I don't think your arguments have much foundation.
There is no "correct" reason - your theory is speculation just like everyone else's. For example, my theory is that any show that runs for as long as "Will & Grace" did, is bound to slow down a little and maybe lose its charm, so to speak. So have fun speculating, but take everything you hear with a grain of salt. :)
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No, I cited the change in rehearsal time as the sole reason the show went downhill.
If you want to read more, get the book, Will & Grace: Fabulously Uncensored: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FILL9G.
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