Will & Grace star Eric McCormack reveals forbidden word that got show pulled off air

Will & Grace star Eric McCormack has opened up for the first time about why an episode of the hit show was pulled from broadcast.

Will & Grace stars Debra Messing and Eric McCormack.

Will & Grace broke TV barriers as one of the first network shows about openly gay men.

However, there was one episode that was never repeated again due to its risqué content, reports the New York Post.

New York City’s Paley Center for Media hosted a Will & Grace retrospective panel on Monday night, and star Eric McCormack divulged what went down.

The 60-year-old Canadian actor disclosed that there was an episode in the show’s second season where his Will Truman, a lawyer, meets Sean Hayes’ character, Jack McFarland, at the gym.

“He was being particularly gay,” McCormack said of Jack’s constant flashy persona, which irritates less-flamboyant Will. “And I called him the F-word. And they didn’t repeat that episode.”

“That’s the one episode that’s never ever been ever aired again,” he added.

The Perception actor went on: “But there was such truth to it. And [it’s] the only episode where we lost sponsors. So we did take that issue on.”

“But that issue, particularly, was within the gay community. There are levels and there were feelings, and we dared to show them,” he explained.

Debra Messing and Eric McCormack starred as the titular characters.

One of the producers revealed at the panel that there was another moment in the show that never made the broadcast.

In the series pilot, Grace and Will share a smooch. “They kiss at the end of the pilot. And Grace says to Will, ‘Anything? Anything?’ … That would never, ever fly today,” the showrunner said.

The NBC sitcom was part of the network’s ’90s block of “Must See TV,” and its initial run aired from 1998 until 2006.

In 2017, the show was revived and ran for three more seasons, finally concluding in 2020.

Will & Grace cast member Debra Messing, who portrayed Grace Adler, a straight interior designer and Will’s best friend, also spoke in the panel.

The show ran for 11 seasons.

Messing, 54, detailed how a former NBC president desired that Grace “have big boobs.”

While executive Warren Littlefield was head of the company at the time, the Smash actress didn’t name anyone specifically.

“The very first fitting, they had the chicken cutlets to make me bigger,” Messing said of the bust-enhancing bra inserts. “I just wasn’t a fan of, like, the whole idea of it.”

“I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t need that,’” she said at the panel. “And they’re like, ‘Well, it’s the president of the network [saying this].’ And I said, ‘If he wants it, then he needs to come here and tell me to my face.’”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission