01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 16, 2006

BY ANDY SMITH
Journal Television Writer

Eight years ago, when Debra Messing read the pilot for a sitcom called Will & Grace, which centered on the friendship between a straight woman and a gay man, she thought the script was fantastic.

But Ellen DeGeneres had come out of the closet the year before, to much national hoopla, and Messing said she was a little worried that all anyone would notice about Will & Grace were the gay characters and themes.

"I think we were all aware we were in a precarious position," said Messing, who grew up in East Greenwich. "But I figured that if people would just watch the first three episodes with an open mind, we would be OK."

And OK they were. Will & Grace became one of NBC's powerhouse Thursday night comedies, joining the likes of Friends, Cheers and Seinfeld.

It is one of just a handful of comedies in which all the principal actors -- Messing, Eric McCormack as Will, plus naughty scene-stealers Megan Mullally as Karen and Sean Hayes as Jack -- took home acting Emmys.

Thursday, Will & Grace says goodbye, first with an hour-long retrospective at 8 p.m., followed by the last episode, also an hour, at 9 p.m. on Channels 7 and 10.

Karen will swill her last drink, Jack will make his last catty observation, the final guest stars (Kevin Bacon and Harry Connick Jr.) will come and go.

Interviewed by phone from her home in California, Messing said it was "devastating" to say goodbye to the rest of the tight-knit cast, but the time was right.

At its peak in 2001-2002, Will & Grace was the eighth most-watched show on television, with more than 17 million viewers. This season it had an average of 7.8 million.

"We're a very close cast, and it was very important for all four of us that we go out at a time when we feel we were still creative and on the mark. Last year, we decided to do one more year, so everyone knew there was one more year to do it right," Messing said.

Finales are a tricky business, especially for comedies. People remember the shows that did it right (Newhart, The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and the ones that didn't (Seinfeld).

NBC did not provide any advance copies of the Will & Grace closer, but -- not surprisingly -- Messing promised it will be a winner.

In the show, Messing is pregnant thanks to an encounter with former husband Leo (Connick), and the big question is whether Will and Grace will raise the new arrival together.

"I'm very happy with the finale," Messing said. "When we looked at the script for it we all thought 'Wow! This is ambitious.' I think the fans will be happy and satisfied at the end."

Messing said she and her fellow cast members will be watching in New York City at the apartment of one of the show's executive producers, the end to a day of press appearances that will include ringing the bell that opens the New York Stock Exchange.

MESSING, 37, was born in Brooklyn but moved to East Greenwich when she was a toddler. Her father, Brian Messing, was a jewelry executive.

For a cover story this month, Messing told In Style magazine that watching her father write his to-do lists in the kitchen every morning got her in the habit of writing lists for herself.

"I loved growing up in Rhode Island. I think as an adult I have an even greater appreciation for it. I grew up on the ocean, and I was sailing from a very young age. It was a nice quiet, slow, natural environment to grow up in," she said.

But Messing said she gets back to the Ocean State only occasionally -- her brother also lives in California, and it's more common for her parents to come out West than for her to come back here.

The senior Messings were on hand when Debra won her best-acting Emmy in 2003.

"It was the one time I lugged my mother, father, brother and sister-in-law to an awards show," Messing said. "I had been nominated so many times, and lost so many times, I didn't even pay attention to the odds I always knew they were my good-luck charms, and that proved it."

Messing said she was pregnant at the time, but hadn't made the public announcement yet.

"I was newly pregnant, and my whole focus was on keeping my little tummy hidden and knowing the location of the nearest rest room," she said.

Messing, who won the Rhode Island Junior Miss contest in 1986, went to East Greenwich High School, then Brandeis University and New York University, where she got a master's degree in drama in 1993.

Beginning her career in the theater, she made her prime-time TV debut with a role on NYPD Blue, then played Stacey on the Fox sitcom Ned & Stacey, which ran for two seasons (1995-1996).

In 1998, just before Will & Grace, she played the lead on a short-lived ABC sci-fi series called Prey.

Now, after eight seasons on Will & Grace, you might think Messing would find a little time to relax. But no.

She's got promotional work to do for no fewer than three movies she's starring in -- a drama about poker, Lucky You, with Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore; a romance, Purple Violets, with Selma Blair and Patrick Wilson; and an animated movie called Open Season.

In the last, she voices Ranger Beth, who adopts a bear cub played by Martin Lawrence.

If that's not enough, Messing is also slated to do a film remake of The Women, the 1939 classic with Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell.

"I'm really tired. I'd like to just sit around and play with my son in the backyard," said Messing. (Her son, Roman, is 2.) "But interesting scripts come along when they come."

What about another sitcom? Messing said she has a "never say never" philosophy. But Messing said her current acting priorities are focused on film and theater.

"I'm hungry to go back to my roots in theater -- and also to get back to changing my characters a little more quickly than once every eight years," she said.

Not that Messing doesn't appreciate TV. Thanks to TiVo, she said, she's able to keep up with some favorites, even if that means watching at 2 a.m. On her TiVo at the moment: American Idol, Law & Order: SVU, ER, forensic crime shows on Court TV and Bravo's cooking competition Top Chef. ("I'm obsessed with that right now," Messing said.)

As for Will & Grace, Messing said she looks back with pride on a show whose primary mission was to entertain, but may have changed a few attitudes about gay people along the way.

"The number of shows with gay leading characters and gay themes has proliferated in a way that you couldn't imagine," Messing said. "If nothing else, it [Will & Grace] inspired dialogue."