Why Will & Grace is the Best Sitcom on Television

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Research Paper, Annotated Bibliography, and Reflective Essay
Part 1: Research Paper
Introduction
Sometimes it becomes essential to bring social and political issues to the public attention. For this purpose, television channels can come forward and play their roles. They are responsible for providing the audience non-stop entertainment and to keep them updated regarding what’s going on in the world. With a large number of ways of watching television, we can now access a plethora of inappropriate and quality shows. In today’s fast-paced and competitive environment, it becomes necessary for all of us to escape worries and get rid of tensions temporarily. We love spending time with our family to fresh our minds or read books and novels before going to bed. Besides these ordinary activities, we love watching our favorite shows or movies on the television screen, and this experience has no alternative. Television enables us to share our cultural experiences and social problems with the world and acts as a catalyst to get children reading. Shows like Will & Grace can transform our lives to an extent and make us realize how important it is to respect everyone without any discrimination (Abwanzo 13). The television show I am going to talk about in my research paper is Will & Grace, and my research question is why Will & Grace is the best sitcom?
Literature Review
Developed by David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, Will & Grace is one of the most popular American sitcoms to date. It was set in New York and primarily focused on the relationship between a gay attorney and an interior decorator. Debra Messing played the character of Grace Adler and Eric McCormack appeared as Will Truman. According to Benjamin N. Abwanzo, the show was aired on NBC from 1998 to 2006. Its brand new season was started on the same channel in September 2017. When the show was being aired, a lot of people criticized it due to its portrayal of homosexual characters, but the author claims that the show was informative and had a lot to learn from. The society we live in hardly accepts same-sex marriages. Gays and lesbians are often pushed behind the competition and ignored in all walks of life. Once the final episode of Will & Grace was aired, this show was credited for helping people understand the value of life. We have learned a lot of lessons from Will & Grace, the best being how to give respect to the LGBT community. Former President Joe Biden claimed that Will & Grace had educated people about the LGBT issues and was a far better move than any social media campaign or television advertisement (Abwanzo 42).
Why Will & Grace is the best sitcom? According to Ewa Jaska, Will & Grace is one of those few shows that staked their claims as important comedic voices. The sitcom’s portrayal of a gay was slightly out of context, but the expert feels that Will & Grace helped me understand the problems of lesbians and gays. These are among the most disrespected people in the world. They are injured, harmed and killed by heterosexuals who consider them a threat to the society. But the fact is that homosexuals are ordinary people. Their only mistake is that they fall in love with the same gender’s person (Jaska 24).
Charlotte Bühl-Gramer writes in their article titled Antique Shows on TV – History as a Commodity that when Will & Grace was premiered, the then-daring show became the first to define social issues openly, without any hesitation. Over the course of its seasons, Will & Grace helped tackle multiple LGBT issues and was praised for its content quality and uniqueness. Will & Grace’s main characters were gay white men who developed a strong relationship with time and did not care much about what people think or say about them. Generally, television channels avoid airing such shows, and the production houses do not cover such issues in their series, but the makers of Will & Grace took a bold move and dared to speak of their mind. In addition to Will & Grace, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Superstore and Modern Family were the shows in which a solid message was delivered in a happy mood (Bühl-Gramer 65).
It is a common observation that lesbians and gays are not provided with proper healthcare facilities. They are kept away from availing education facilities and insurance policies. According to Eleonora Benecchi, a large number of gays and lesbians are killed on the name of religion, race, class, and gender, and it is not only the problem of the United States but also of other countries. After watching Will & Grace, we can understand that how important it is to provide lesbians and gays with timely medical assistance and other facilities. The state and federal governments should implement strategies that could ensure their wellbeing, prosperity, and health. If we will continue ignoring them and prevent them from raising their voices, then we may never be able to understand the real meanings of humanity. As a human, it is your responsibility to give respect to everyone around, regardless of what their gender, age, class, religion or values are (Benecchi 312).
As a pioneer for the LGBT community, Will & Grace took the responsibility to let the world know about how sensitive the issue of same-sex marriage is. Michael M. Kocet and Jennifer Curry mention in their article titled Finding the Spirit Within Spirituality Issues in the LGBT Community that the show did not devote itself to the privileged white Americans at the expense of inclusivity. Instead, it depicted its story from an entirely different, unique angle, and that’s why Will & Grace gained significant media and public attention. In this program, Karen Walker’s political or social point of view was simply admirable. She appeared as an upper-class woman who accepted the fact that she had married someone for the sake of money and that she had run her company with no ounce of integrity (Kocet & Curry 160).
In 2013, Ronald L. Attrell published an article titled Death and Intimacy Issues in the LGBT Community: A Gay Perspective Death and Intimacy Issues in the LGBT Community in which it was mentioned that Will & Grace has beautifully depicted the issues related to dating, divorce, wedding and casual sex. It looks like the future of the LGBT community is dark as the lesbians and gays are mostly left helpless or are forced to live a miserable life. In the United States, according to the author, more than 60 percent of the population calls itself liberal, meaning they have nothing to do with the religion, caste, age, gender and race of a person, and they believe that respect and value should be given to every human being. However, the way the LGBT community or lesbians and gays are treated raises a lot of questions. Are they not a part of this society? Do not they have a right to live their lives as per their desires? Just because they have chosen their life partners from the same sex does not mean they are not humans and should be treated oddly. It has also been argued that policies in their favor need to be implemented. They should be provided with jobs, and be given as much freedom as is given to other people. Will & Grace depicts the issue in an impressive way and is the first show that dares to create awareness among people regarding one of the most sensitive issues in the society. The entire team worked really hard and did justice with their particular roles or characters (Attrell 75).
A similar article was published by Jack Drescher in 2005 in which it was mentioned that Eric McCormack who played the character of Will Truman in this show appeared to be the most pro...