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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: August 15, 1968
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: If you’re ever looking to utterly confound a group of homosexuals (perhaps they’re advancing on you in a pack, uniformed in tank tops and skinny shorts, ready to make you feel bad about your body), ask them whether they actually like Debra Messing. It’s a complicated question! One that would probably take a lot of honest soul-searching and questions about the balance of irony and sincerity that we keep for ourselves. Never has an actress more openly courted a community only to have her neediness for acceptance by said community met with revulsion (try-hard!) and mockery (the entirety of her run on Smash). She’s the Anne Hathaway of television: an undeniably talented performer whose ultimate need to be loved as a personality pushes the very fanbase she’s most fervently courting away. (You could probably write a pretty great term paper on how Sarah Jessica Parker walks right up to this line but never quite crosses it.)
This use of Debra Messing as an arch punchline tends to overlook just how good she was on Will & Grace (a show that has its own peculiar standing among gay fans; was it a trailblazer? offensive in its broad portrayals? both?). A lot of the time it seemed like half her job was trying to hang on while Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally went crazy, but she really had her moments.
But Grace Adler’s try-hard personality got grafted onto Messing’s public persona, and soon enough, everything she did started to seem as overdone as Grace’s singing voice. People love to watch Debra Messing about as much as they love to make (gentle yet persistent) fun of her. For how insanely-written her Smash character was. For the silly premise of The Mysteries of Laura. And yet she seems incredibly game to have fun with her celebrity, whether it’s on Hollywood Game Night or being yanked around Manhattan by Billy Eichner hollering, “IT’S DEBRA MESSING, YOU GAYS.”
I’ve always maintained that Messing won’t get to become a real gay icon until she’s in her 60s, by which point all actresses start to develop either a flinty weariness or a kind of Baby Jane burlesque (Melanie Griffith at this year’s Oscars: which were you?). Until then, she’s just going to keep on trying. And we’ll go on making jokes about scarves and lauding Julianna Margulies and Jessica Lange and women who likely care a whole lot less, and that’s generally how cool works, so it’s fine. Until then, happy birthday, Debra Messing. One year closer to becoming the Debbie Reynolds that you deserve to be.
[Will & Grace isn’t streaming anywhere, but you should demand it. The Mysteries of Laura is available on Hulu. Smash is available on Amazon Prime.]
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