Megan Mullally Movies

 

This sitcom focuses on a group of struggling performers living in L.A., who pay the bills working for a catering company called Party Down as they wait for their respective big breaks. Working everything from swank Hollywood mixers to children's birthday parties, the group endure a wide array of humiliations, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase "paying your dues." ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

Distributed by NBC Universal Television, The Megan Mullally Show was a daily, hour-long vehicle for the comic actress who'd risen to fame as the annoyingly shrill rich-witch Karen Walker on the long-running sitcom Will & Grace. After guest-hosting David Letterman's chatfest in 2003, Megan Mullally proved so effective in this capacity that she was subsequently invited to interview Madonna for the VH-1 cable channel. Other hosting jobs followed, culminating in Mullally's own starring talk show, which entered syndication on September 18, 2006. Not surprisingly, The Megan Mullally Show was topheavy with celebrity guests, and also featured an abundance of music and comedy, not to mention offbeat "expert" guests and a daily Q-and-A session between the personable Mullally and her studio audience. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Will and Grace was supposed to have been cancelled at the end of its seventh season, but somehow managed to hang on for an eighth and final year. To improve its flagging ratings (the series had dropped from ninth place in 2001 to a miserable 61 five years later), NBC moved the show to a new timeslot, sequestered among the network's most successful sitcom offerings. As a ratings gimmick, two of the episodes--including the season opener--were telecast "live", a ploy that had worked wonders for such previous offerings as ER and Drew Carey. The festivities begin as gay attorney Will (Eric McCormack) tries to keep the snobbish but emotionally fragile Karen (Megan Mullally) from finding out that her wealthy ex-husband Stan, believed dead, is actually still among the living. At the same time, Will's erstwhile straight roommate Grace (Debra Messing) toys with the possibility of compromising her values by beginning an affair with her old flame Tom (Eric Stolz), who happens to be married. Also, Will's flamboyantly gay pal Jack (Sean Hayes) launches the latest phase of his checkered showbiz career as host of his own TV series, "Jack Talk". This last-mentioned device seems to have been contrived purely for the purpose of spotlighting Season Eight's most highly publicized celebrity guest star Britney Spears, gloriously miscast as an ultra-right-winger with whom Jack is forcibly teamed on the air. Other well-known actors passing through during this season are Andy Richter as one of Grace's blind dates, Richard Chamberlain as an elderly homosexual whom an altruistic Will "adopts", and Debbie Reynolds, who after a long absence returns as Grace's overbearing mother. This is also the year in which Will enters into a new romance with James Hanson (Taye Diggs), whom he meets at a Sound of Music singalong, and with whom he shares his first serious onscreen kiss (a piquant moment which, like the Britney Spears appearance, was noisily overhyped by the NBC publicity department). Though Will eventually returns to his police-officer boyfriend Vince (Bobby Cannavelle), Grace generously offers to marry the foreign-born James so he won't be deported--only to discover on the eve of the wedding that she is pregnant, the result of a one-night stand with her ex-husband Leo (Harry Connick Jr.)! Likewise receiving a visit from Mr. Stork are Will and Vince, the proud parents of baby Ben--actually the issue of a most surprising sperm donor. Season Eight's various and sundry loose plot strands are neatly wrapped up in the series' now-famous final episode, set twenty years in the future. Though Will & Grace was clearly on its last legs, the series still managed win two more Emmy awards, making a total of sixteen. The lucky recipients this year were supporting actors Megan Mullally and Leslie Jordan, the latter cast as Karen's perennial adversary, closeted Republican Beverly Leslie. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Season Seven of Will & Grace begins by tying up several loose ends from Season Six, notably the almost instantaneous breakup of nearly-weds Karen Walker (Megan Mullally) and Lyle Finster (John Cleese), while wedding singer Jennifer Lopez (as herself) hires--and fires--Jack McFarland (Sean Hayes) as her backup dancer. Fortunately for Jack, he quickly lands a job as executive at a new all-gay TV network, OutTV. Meanwhile, Grace Adler (Debra Messing) now knows full well that her doctor husband Leo (Harry Connick Jr.) has been cheating on her while doing charity work in Africa. Before long, the newly divorced Grace has inadvertently driven a wedge between her gay roommate Will Truman (Eric McCormack) and his police-officer boyfriend Vince D'Angelo (Bobby Cannavale, who would win one of the series' two Emmies this season). Amidst a seemingly endless parade of gratuitous celebrity cameos this season, Jeff Goldblum actually contributes something to the proceedings in the role of Karen's old high school enemy Scott Woolley, who spends half of the season vengefully sabotaging her designing career, and the other half trying to win her love! Likewise seen to good advantage are Lili Tomlin as Will's new law-firm boss Margot; Edward Burns as Nick, a handsome greeting-card writer who briefly dates Grace; Luke Perry as bird fancier Aaron, with whom Jack is fixed up in a double date; Sharon Stone as Will's therapist Georgia Keller; Seth Green as a nasty child actor who causes Jack to lose his TV job; and Alan Arkin as Grace's aloof father Martin Adler. As the season rushes to a conclusion Will experiences an epiphany and quits the legal world to become a writer, linking up with a well-connected gentleman named Malcolm (Alec Baldwin) who turns out to be a covert government agent; Grace rekindles an old flame in the form of Tom (Eric Stolz), who happens to be married; and Karen must publicly humiliate herself to avoid a lawsuit from her longtime adversary, closeted ultraconservative Beverly Leslie Leslie Jordan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Organized by New York's Museum of Television and Radio, this impressively assembled tribute to the funny women boasts a stellar all-female cast, drawn from half a century's worth of video entertainment. Hosted by Megan Mullally (Will & Grace), the special uses rare film clips and interviews to pay homage to such iconic figures as Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Bea Arthur, and especially the woman who started it all, Lucille Ball. A number of veteran comediennes are in attendance, along with the newer crop of "girls." Amidst the hilarity, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss (Seinfeld) offers a poignant paean to the late Gilda Radner. Great Women of Television and Comedy was originally broadcast by NBC -- which may explain the preponderance of guest stars from that network's then-current sitcom manifest. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Wild Things director James McNaughton explores the doomed efforts of young couple to salvage their failing marriage in a dark romantic comedy starring Bill Murray, James Spader, Jay Mohr, Melora Walters, and Catherine O'Hara. In the grand scheme of things their relationship has only just begun, yet everything seems to be falling apart for a once-loving couple whose marriage has hit the skids. Despite the best efforts of an insightful marriage counselor, a depression expert, and two well-heeled attorneys, what was once an attempt at preserving their relationship soon devolves into a heated series of random affairs. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Parenthood prospects fluster Will and Grace, who consider having a baby; a conjugal visit vexes Karen; a Broadway audition rattles Jack. ~ TV Guide, Rovi

Two buddies find themselves doing some very wrong things for perfectly right reasons in this broad comedy. John (Jason Lee) is a nice guy who is responsible and hardworking; his best friend Duff (Tom Green), however, is his polar opposite, a layabout who is constantly getting in some sort of trouble. John is very much in love with his longtime girlfriend Elaine (Leslie Mann), and wants to marry her, but true to form, he has pledged not to make the walk down the aisle until he has saved up to 30,000 dollars so they'll be able to afford a down payment on the house they've always wanted. After years of saving, John has finally put 30 grand in the bank, and has set the date with Elaine. However, as John's big day approaches, he gets word from his sister Patty (Megan Mullally) that her daughter Noreen (Tammy Blanchard) has been accepted into Harvard University -- and years ago, John promised her if she got into the prestigious college, he'd pay the tuition. Making good on John's pledge to his niece would leave him with a mere 121 dollars in the bank, but he doesn't have the heart to say no to Noreen, or tell Elaine of his dilemma. John does tell Duff about his problem, who comes up with a typically hare-brained solution -- turning to a life of crime for the next two weeks in order to steal another 30,000 dollars. Stealing Harvard costars Dennis Farina and Chris Penn; Bruce McCulloch, a member of the comedy series The Kids in the Hall, served as director. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Fans of Will & Grace were taken aback by the series' fifth season, in which plotlines bordered on the ludicrous and the main characters became more wildly inconsistant--and much, much, more abrasive. For starters, longtime friends and roommates Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing) (he's the gay lawyer, she's the straight interior designer) have a bitter falling out when she decides not to bear his child by artificial insemination, choosing instead to impulsively marry a handsome Jewish doctor named Leo Markus, played by singer-composer Harry Connick Jr.) (the fact that TV journalist Katie Couric is present at the ceremony would seem to prove beyond doubt that the marriage was preplanned as a fall-sweeps ratings stunt, rather than a logical outgrowth of Grace's character). At the same time, Grace's business partner Karen (Megan Mullaly) goes into full harpie mode when her wealthy incarcerated husband Stan throws her over for prison cafeteria worker Lorraine Finster (Minnie Driver), reducing Karen to homeless destitution (for a while, she lives in the family limo!) And Stan's flamboyantly gay buddy Jack (Will Hayes) morphs from harmless eccentric to menacing stalker when he spots Kevin Bacon (one of several celebrities playing themselves) strolling down the avenue. Guest actors this season include Gene Wilder, whose performance as Mr. Stein, the long-missing, hyperneurotic senior partner of Will's law firm won the actor one of the series' four Emmy awards for 2002-2003 (another Emmy went to star Debra Messing, and about time!); Rosanna Arquette as a masseuse who evidently has the "hots" for Grace; Dan Futterman as Grace's gay cousin Barry, only recently and very awkwardly "outed", who briefly becomes the object of affection for both Will and Jack; and Madonna as Karen's new, high-maintenance roommate. As the season winds down, Stan starts divorce proceedings against Karen, who is incensed to find that Will is representing her husband (HER attorney is a greenhorn played by Macauley Culkin)--but the courtroom proceedings are interrupted by some shocking news about Stan. Everything comes to a head in the season's cliffhanger finale, which takes place during an ocean voyage, wherein Grace weighs the possibility of moving to Guatemala to be closer to husband Leo. . .until she finds out about Leo's sexy coworker (Nicollette Sheridan). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This feverishly energetic comedy combines stop-motion animation and live action from director Henry Selick, creator of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and James and the Giant Peach (1996). Brendan Fraser stars as Stu Miley, a cartoonist who created a randy monkey character called Monkeybone that has taken off in popularity, making him a celebrity. Stu's set to launch a TV series based on Monkeybone and marry his beautiful fiancée Julie (Bridget Fonda) when he's injured in a freak accident that puts him in a coma. He travels to Dark Town, a holding area for the comatose who wait to either regain consciousness or move on to the afterlife with the help of Death (Whoopi Goldberg). Dark Town is also a realm where fictional characters reside and before long Stu has met the vulgar Monkeybone, who travels back to the land of the living to inhabit Stu's body. Aided by Kitty (Rose McGowan), Stu must find a way to reclaim his body and put Monkeybone back in his place before the raunchy primate ruins his charmed life. Monkeybone is based on the cartoon graphic novel Dark Town by Kaja Blackley. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi