Visit the world of "Will and Grace"

Every year, thousands of tourists visiting Boston swing by Beacon Street to toss back a brew with the ghosts of Cheers. Saddling up to the bar where Sam, Diane, Norm and Frasier once stood (or at least, the bar that inspired the soundstage where Ted Danson, Shelley Long, George Wendt, and Kelsey Grammer once stood) makes fans feel closer to characters they loved and a show that made them laugh, as though it remains frozen in time - perpetually paused, and given new, eternal life in 3-D hi-def.

But gay television viewers have their own reason for a pilgrimage to Boston: though they can't saddle up to the kitchen counter for a martini with Karen, or plop on the couch to trade quick quips with Jack, they can see the original set of the landmark series Will & Grace as it sits, meticulously reassembled in painstaking detail, behind glass at the student library of Emerson College. Shortly after the show ended, co-creator and Emerson alum Max Mutchnick (class of '87) donated the set to the college, where it was installed as a permanent display last year.

Nearly three years to the day after Will & Grace aired its series finale on May 18, 2006, Bay Windows was allowed to go behind the glass, step onto the set of the show, and snoop through Will Truman's old Manhattan apartment. Everything, it seems, is exactly how the sitcom's foursome left it, from the plush blue couch where Will and Grace held heartfelt chats, to the raised kitchen counter where Karen clutched her umpteenth glass of champagne. And on one wall, the apartment door is left permanently ajar - as specifically arranged by the installation team - its chain latched and straining as if trying to keep out Jack and his latest dose of gossip. The effect is sweet but sad, like poking through a loved one's belongings after they've passed on to the big syndicated series in the sky.

The Emerson ethos

Of course, the notion of loss is partly the inspiration behind the Will & Grace set's new, permanent home in a poignantly circuitous return to where one of its creators first began honing the craft of award-winning television.

"I was standing there in the last couple of weeks of the series, and I thought how I was going to be so sad that all of this was going to be dismantled - that there would be no tangible evidence of this show other than what's on DVD," says Mutchnick by phone, speaking of the set donation.

"Marc Graboff [co-chairman, NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio] and his team were gracious enough to gift us with the set," adds Mutchnick, who in turn gave it to his alma mater.

Mutchnick seems to have great affinity to his former school. He was appointed to Emerson's Board of Trustees in 2005, and in 2006 The Max Mutchnick Campus Center (known colloquially as "The Max") was erected following a major gift to the school. Mutchnick, who studied the television arts, credits an "ethos" at the school for fostering creativity and ambition that has served him well in his career.

"The thing I owe to Emerson is [that there was] an ethos more than anything else," says Mutchnick. "You absorb that drive to play an active, ambitious role in the media. ... That ethos, that sense, that drive, I give all the credit to my experience at Emerson. The school is set up in a way that it gives you a sense of how things are going to go in the real world." And though Mutchnick was only out to a small group of friends while he was in college - "I came out in a much more significant way when I got back to Los Angeles," he admits, citing Will & Grace co-creator and longtime friend David Kohan as one of the first people he told after graduating - he says that the climate of the college was nonetheless a progressive one, even in the late 1980s.

"Gay? Who told you I was gay?" laughs Mutchnick. "It wasn't rare to show up to Emerson in the closet, but you took one sip of the water and it was over. ... You can go to Emerson and it's a college where you know you're going to be around likeminded people and find a community where you can feel comfortable and safe. I think the school has ferreted an identity as far as equality for gay men and women, and it really was known as that place when I went there [though] it wasn't named as such."

"The way it was put to me by my [high school] counselor was - and it was more subtext the way it was put to me - 'Max, I think you would like Emerson,'" he chuckles. "'A lot of the students march to the beat of a different drummer, and that seems like something you would appreciate.'"

Hanging onto history

The set was installed at Emerson's Iwasaki Library over the course of 10 days last summer, said Christopher Harwood, Will & Grace's set decoration lead man, in an e-mail. Harwood personally supervised the installation at Emerson alongside John Joye, the show's set dresser.

Harwood says the original set was approximately 10 feet wider and 16 feet deeper than the space available in Emerson's library, and two modifications were made to accommodate the smaller confines: shuttered double doors close off the area that would have led to the small library/TV sitting area in the rear of the set, and because the hallway leading to the bedrooms could not be included, the window that was at the end of that hallway was moved upstage to fill the missing space.

The original set was also taller - by several feet in some places - so the set walls were cut down to accommodate and, once reassembled, crown molding was added to finish off their connection to the ceiling. Of course, that was after getting the walls into the building, which required cutting them into smaller pieces, hoisting them up a stairwell, reassembling the pieces like a jigsaw puzzle and having a paint crew come in to match the original colors and aging. Emerson College installed track lighting in the space, allowing the installation team to light the set in a way that was similar to the original television lighting. Aside from the crown molding, all other components of the set are original and were recreated using set photos and a 2D floor plan.

"As far as Karen goes, I believe she just put her hands over her chest, fell out a window backwards, turned into bats and flew away." - series creator Max Mutchnick on where Karen Walker is now.
Of course, no finale is complete without mining a few nostalgic souvenirs, and Will & Grace was no exception. Mutchnick says that the four main actors and the core members of creative team all took home a little something to remember their days with the show: offhand, he recalls that Debra Messing kept Grace Adler's office door, while he opted for the brass "Will Truman, Esq." plaque that once adorned the law office set.

Who could resist hanging on to a piece of history? The numbers speak for themselves: eight seasons and 16 Emmy Awards, including at least one for each of the main actors (only the third show in television history to achieve that feat, after All in the Family and The Golden Girls). The show also picked up seven GLAAD Media Awards.

More importantly, countless hearts were touched, multiple minds affected, and numerous preconceptions about the LGBT community challenged. Some even say that the history of gay television, perhaps even gay representation in popular culture, can be divided into two clear epochs: before and after Will & Grace.

Mutchnick is mum on the show's achievements. Or maybe just humble.
"I have done my best to stay out of that area," he says, when asked to reflect on the legacy of the show. "It's not for us to make those kinds of grand statements about what Will & Grace has or has not done to pop culture, to society at large and how [the public] views sexuality.

"I leave it up to guys like you to write," he adds. "I'm proud to be associated with your opinion, but I don't think it's healthy or my job to say what I have done or what Dave [Kohan, co-creator] has done. It's too grand a statement."

But when asked to reflect on what he believes the characters he's created would be doing now - three years after we bid them farewell - Mutchnick pauses, reflects just a moment, and scripts their lives with authority:

"I'm certain Will would be happy in his relationship, raising his children and being a good dad."

"I think Grace has already separated from Leo, and [is] back to work raising her child on her own and living the life that most women in NYC live."

"I think Jack got back into acting ...

... and as far as Karen goes, I believe she just put her hands over her chest, fell out a window backwards, turned into bats and flew away."

So Will is busy being responsible, Grace a harried single, Jack a ham and Karen a total bloodsucker?

Some things never change.

The original set of Will & Grace is currently on display at Emerson College's Iwasaki Library (Walker Building, Floor 3 at 120 Boylston St., Boston). The set may be viewed by the public between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday and between Noon and 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, beginning Thursday, May 28 and ending June 30, 2009. Visitors must present a government-issued photo ID and sign in at the security desk at the entrance to 120 Boylston St.