‘This Is Us’ clues viewers in, brings big star
‘Will and Grace’ reunite with old pals after 11 years
The following are highlights from the Television Critics Association summer press tour.
This Is Us will BEVERLY HILLS provide some early answers about the death of Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) when it returns for Season 2 on Sept. 26.
Some fans were disappointed that they didn’t learn how (and when) Jack died in the first-season finale of the time-shifting drama.
“If that is a question that’s haunting people, in the course of the second season they will get all the answers they need,” executive producer Dan Fogel- man said. “The first episode has a big, giant piece of the puzzle that will essentially set the Internet abuzz.”
Viewers also can expect at least one big guest star, Sylvester Stallone, and a short time-jump forward for the characters in the Emmy-nominated drama. The present-day story will pick up a month or two after the Season 1 finale, as the three adult children hit their 37th birthdays.
Stallone, a friend of Ventimiglia, will have “a huge part on the show,” as a father-figure co-star in Kevin’s (Justin Hartley) film, Fogelman said.
The show’s earlier timeline will pick up the day after the seasonending fight between Jack and Rebecca that led to the couple’s separation. Randall’s (Sterling K. Brown) birth father, William (Ron Cephas Jones), who died last season, will be back, too.
Brown talked about Us’ ability to influence perceptions. Randall is a good father, which runs counter to “a perception that black men are absent. ... To be on a show that is on network television (where) you see a black man who loves his wife to the core ... that’s a wonderful image to put up in the world,” Brown said. Viewers “get a chance to see Randall and say, ‘That’s a man I can identify with.’ ” ‘WILL AND GRACE’ RETURN After an eight-year run and an 11- year absence, groundbreaking sitcom Will and Grace returns to NBC for a 16-episode run on Sept. 28, followed by a second, 13-episode season.
When Will first aired, NBC asked the writers to stress the friendships among the characters and downplay the fact that two of them, Will and Jack, were gay.
That’s all changed, says star Eric McCormack. “Now the message is ‘we are us,’ and we represent a lot of people in the country, gay and straight; we’re not apologizing for who we are.”
If you saw the original series finale, you may remember that it ended with Will and Grace happily partnered and raising children. Well, when the show returns, the partners and the children will be forgotten.
“That was more or less a fantasy,” says co-creator David Kohan. “It was a projection into the future. ... What we missed was the dynamic between the four of them more than we missed the possibility of seeing what they were like as parents.”