On last night's Will & Grace, the title pals (Eric McCormack and Debra Messing) launched their plan to conceive a baby together. Sex wasn't an option — well, he is gay — so Will gave Grace a seed sample for artificial insemination. Then, the teasing cliffhanger left viewers wondering if the ovulating mom-to-be would reach her gynecologist in time to get preggers.
Actually, we're more curious to know why this daffy duo even wants a kid. "Two years ago, we talked about this kind of a storyline and it made me crazy," McCormack admits to TV Guide Online. "I thought, 'Oh my god, we're gonna be Mad About You.' At this point, it seems really logical — certainly in my life. I am having a baby in July.
"But I think it's a really exciting thing for a gay character in his late thirties — who's responsible and making money — to say, 'Look, I want romance, but I really want to be a father.' It's a great thing to explore. Whether we're going to do it or not, I don't know."
If the baby plotline does take, McCormack assures us that Will and Grace won't turn into some sort of domesticated, celibate quasi-couple. "We're not saying, 'Hey, we're never gonna get [sex], so let's have a baby,'" he notes. "This doesn't mean we're not going to be trying to find our knights in shining armor. I think it's good that we explore adult themes like this — or otherwise, all of a sudden, Will's gonna be 50 years old and still trying to get a date with this week's guest star!"
Indeed, this twist seems to be an effort to infuse some heart into a onetime critical darling that's recently devolved into a cartoon. "I think there's been episodes where that's true," McCormack concedes. "And there's episodes where you try to correct it by giving them a heavy story. We did 27 episodes this year, so there's always going to be a few where the balance is a little off. Even Karen and Jack need sentimental moments once in awhile to keep them real and grounded, otherwise they just slide off the planet."
