STAGE TO SCREENS: A Chat with Emmy Winner Megan Mullally

By Michael Buckley
02 Sep 2006

Megan Mullally
Megan Mullally
Photo by George Lange

This month we chat with Megan Mullally, whose Broadway roles in two musical revivals — the 1994 Grease! and 1995's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying — preceded her fame on TV's "Will & Grace" (1998-2006).

As the sitcom's Karen Walker, she earned her second Emmy Award last Sunday, and beginning Sept. 18, she's host of "The Megan Mullally Show," a new syndicated TV-talk program (taped in L.A. and shown in New York on WNBC at 3 PM ET).

***

Emmy winner Megan Mullally,
Who's jovial, joyous and jolly,
Is starting a new gig
That we hope is as big
As once was Fran, Kukla and Ollie.

"There's a retro element to the show, but in a very modern concept," says the star. Were/are there any particular hosts that a determined will and grace to aspire might lead the lady? "Growing up, I loved Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dinah Shore, Dick Cavett. I'm trying to steal all my favorite things from them.

"I like the way Conan O'Brien always makes the guest look good. I like the silly non sequitur bits that Conan and David Letterman do, and I like the way that Letterman uses staff and crew as cast. I also like the way Jon Stewart is a correspondent, although his show's political — and ours is not. We want to bring a late-night feel to a daytime show."

Is it true, as I'd read, that Mullally has always wanted to do a talk show? "Not exactly," says she. "I always loved watching talk shows and variety shows. During the course of ‘Will & Grace,' I hosted a couple of things, and an idea began to dawn. But wanting to host a talk show was something like wanting to be an astronaut.

"It's so different from anything I've ever done: syndicated, rather than network; daytime, rather than primetime. ‘Will & Grace' was 24 half-hour episodes [per season]. Now, we're doing a 155, essentially live hour shows. But you're still providing entertainment for an audience.

"The show is talk/variety. We're doing sketches, and there's a band on the stage." Will Mullally be singing on the show? "Yes, but mostly within the sketches. Each show has one or two celebrity guests, but we also have non-celebrities.

"I'll be going out in the field [to meet people]. We have correspondents doing human-interest pieces. And I'm very excited about a really interactive website that we have. On the show, we'll be throwing out creative challenges, and viewers can get on the computer and be actively involved.

"We shot two test shows, and five shows that are called ‘evergreens,' which will air somewhere down the road when we need them. We start shooting the premiere-week shows on September 13th." Mullally confirms that the first show's celebrity guests are Will Ferrell and Jenny McCarthy.

Since talk shows require a host to be very much themselves ("That's a really big component of it") and most viewers know her as Karen Walker, are there similarities between actor and character? "Well, you know, that's part of the premiere. I'm not a lot like Karen as a person, but we both like doing comedy." Continued...