‘For the People’ EP Tom Verica on That Time He Played Grace’s Ex on ‘Will & Grace’ (And If He Will Again!)
Devotees of Will & Grace recall in the show’s pilot that Grace left her no-good fiancé Danny at the altar. The dumping happened off-screen, but Danny (Tom Verica) popped up in the flesh in a subsequent episode in which Grace briefly renewed their dysfunctional dynamic.
And since we’ve seen several characters from the series’ original run pop up again — Leo (Harry Connick Jr.), Beverly Leslie (Leslie Jordan), Val (Molly Shannon), Smitty (Charles C. Stevenson Jr.) — maybe Danny will, too, when Will & Grace returns next fall.
TV Insider ran into Verica at an ABC press party earlier this year and asked the actor – who serves as executive producer of For the People – if he’d be open to reprising his sitcom role.
“I’d be back in a heartbeat,” Verica responded. “Debra [Messing] and I had such joy in fleshing out that relationship in the short period of time that we had, which was evidenced by Danny coming back for the wedding episode [in Season 4].”
Scandal, another Shonda Rhimes show that Verica helmed last season, aired opposite Will & Grace, so did he have a chance to check it out?
“I have,” he said. “It’s fantastic. It really has not lost a step in any way, shape or form. In the landscape of television now, it’s definitely one of the best.”
Will & Grace, Returns, Thursdays, Fall 2018, NBC