Interviewer:  I know when the show first debuted, it was surrounded in a bit of controversy.  It was cutting edge for what was happening on network tv five years ago.  But did you really think that a story about two gay guys and a single gay man living with a single straight woman would develop as it did?
Debra Messing (Grace):  We were facing the press corps, and we were going to be introduced as, you know, a new fall sitcom.  So, the whole purpose was for us to discuss the show with the press, and so this was a briefing prior to that, so, I think they anticipated that we were just going to be barraged with all these very aggressive--
Interviewer:  But it never really happened--
Megan Mullally (Karen):  You know, the gay thing to me, just personally, it never really occurred to me that it would cause some kind of weird splash or something because I don't consider it odd to be gay or lesbian or bisexual or straight.  I mean...it just doesn't...in my world.  But of course, then, you know, you go two feet beyond this door and everyone else does.  But it hadn't really occurred to me.  But then we were taken to NBC for this whole, like, "briefing."---this, like, top secret briefing about all the, you know, the shit that was gonna come down and how we were all gonna be, like, you know, crucified and this and that.  And then we kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it never did.
Eric McCormack (Will):  I think it was a smart thing on the part of the network and of our producers that just...as opposed to going out of the gate with just 'hey, we're gonna have a gay old time!' it was more like just a show about friends...it was in the middle of Monday night...we kinda crept in and it was--
Megan:  It was a funny show about friendship--
Interviewer:  Friends who have everyday problems and live everyday lives--
Eric:  And...and  you know, I think a few people said 'well, it's a cop out,' and we said 'no, it's not a cop out'...if we lead with our nose, it's gonna get cut off to spite our face, and then show's off the air, and nobody--
Sean Hayes (Jack):  And we never really...we never really, you know, made controversy of the show, so there is no controversy there.  You know--
Megan:  The issue wasn't politicized because the two gay characters had been gay, and comfortably so, for years and years.  They weren't coming out and having to deal with, like, 'oh, do I tell my parents, do I not?'  I mean, none of that entered into the picture.  It was just four people who know who they are who are, you know, sorting out their lives.
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