Megan Mullally

Megan Mullally plays Karen Walker on Will & Grace, the 1990s farce David Kohan and Max Mutchnick put on Thursday without turning the gay lead into a civics lesson. McCormack, Messing, Mullally, and Hayes sold door-slam comedy as a culture. Karen is the nuclear sidekick: wealth as a punchline, timing as a blade, a voice that treats manners as optional equipment.

Megan Mullally holds Karen Walker on Will & Grace through NBC's the 1998–2006 run, 1990s television that still needs a body in the chair. Door-slam comedy as culture, not a PSA. Megan Mullally's Karen Walker is a viewing problem with a pulse, not a museum card. The file is simple on purpose: Megan Mullally, Karen Walker, Will & Grace. Megan Mullally remains Karen Walker on Will & Grace (NBC, 1998–2006), the temperature the hour still uses.

Megan Mullally gets an honest start at s01e01: Love & Marriage as the door slam: gay lawyer, straight designer, two nuclear sidekicks treating restraint as an insult. Megan Mullally hardens at s02e01 — Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner — Thursday farce already behaving like a culture shift, not a special episode. Megan Mullally still occupies the chair at s03e01. New Will City: the ensemble at concert pitch, McCormack-to-Hayes chemistry already Must-See Thursday furniture on NBC.

Must-See TV needed a woman who would not whisper. Mullally made the supporting chair louder than the plot. On TV Flash she is 1990s sitcom voltage — the Walker who made a martini look like architecture, and the reason the hour still photographs as farce instead of a landmark plaque.