15 best Will & Grace episodes to watch while waiting for the new season

The Unsinkable Mommy Adler (Season 1, Episode 13)

The late, great Debbie Reynolds makes her first appearance as Grace’s mother Bobbi Adler in this season 1 episode of Will & Grace, and that reason alone is enough to make this episode iconic.

Grace prepares for a storm when her flamboyant mother announces she’s coming to town. Bobbi is over the top, fabulous, and highly critical of her daughter, and that’s why Grace is dreading it. Whenever she comes to town, she criticizes everything from Grace’s clothes to her business, and especially her love life.

Even though her visit stresses Grace out, her tendency to break into show tunes and her outrageous attitude makes her a hit with Will, Jack, and Karen. The fact that she makes fun of Grace nonstop makes them love her even more!

Bobbi loves to set her daughter up on blind dates, usually with eligible Jewish bachelors, and still tries to get Grace to marry Will, despite him being gay. Grace brings the outlandish idea up to Will, and he has the audacity to wince at the idea of being married to Grace. When Grace confronts him to ask why he wouldn’t want to marry her, even if he was straight, he tells her that she always has to be the “flower” in a relationship who is taken care of by the other person, meaning everything revolves around her.

That’s when it hits her: Grace is more like her mother than she ever realized.

Debbie Reynolds was perfect as the theatre-loving Bobbi, and every episode she appeared in was better because of her presence. It’s a shame she won’t be able to appear in the rebooted seasons.