Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
So America's favorite boozy socialite floozy wants to talk.
Yes, we know. While she happily inhabited the colorful sitcom life of campy Karen Walker on "Will & Grace" for eight seasons, Megan Mullally was beloved for her bodacious alter ego's twisted wit and blissfully randy repartee.
But it's not Karen who wants to chat up America on a daily basis.
It's Mullally herself, who is switching show business gears this fall to join the daytime talk show carnival with "The Megan Mullally Show."
"I've just been trying to prepare myself mentally for the drastic change in the intensity of the work," says Mullally.
"It's so consuming because it's a talk show. As opposed to being an actor, where you just have to learn your lines, come in and stand there and try to be funny.
"This is every person I meet, everything I see on television, everywhere I go," she says. "Everything is a potential segment for the talk show. So you kind of never stop thinking about it."
Like the down-to-earth, more lighthearted daytime talk shows hosted by Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell, "The Megan Mullally Show" will be a mix of talk and variety, featuring celebrities, real people, music and comedy.
"I'm basically stealing my things from all the talk shows I've liked over the years," jokes Mullally, citing everyone from David Letterman and Johnny Carson to Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore as influences. "For example, the way Letterman uses all his crew and staff I like the backstage stuff.
"We're also going to do a lot of field pieces," she adds.
"We're going to have correspondents, à la Jon Stewart, although not political. So we'll have people out around the country all the time, which is great."
There's also a pretty fair chance that Mullally, 47, a seasoned stage actress who has appeared in Broadway revivals of "Grease" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," occasionally will share her musical flair with the daytime audience.
That may even include an appearance with her band Supreme Music Program, a cabaret and concert combo that allows Mullally to keep in touch with her inner chanteuse.
"It's my favorite thing. It's the least commercial band in the history of music," she says.
"We do all covers ¿ pop, rock, blues, jazz, country, you name it. We even do some crazy classical stuff, some art songs."
It's been a rapid transition from prime-time sitcom to a daytime talk show, but it's helped Mullally recover from the emotional break up of "Will & Grace" after an eight-year run.
Within days of filming the series finale last spring, the show's familiar apartment sets had been taken down.
"It was brutal. I had personally prepared myself for the worst, and it exceeded my wildest expectations," says Mullally.
"It was so sad. It was kind of like going to high school and college with the same group of people for eight years. And not only all graduating at the same time, but then they burn the school down."
Now Mullally is about to occupy a whole new TV schoolhouse.
@1-Bytitle: Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
postCount('K04VMullally02TV4963009'); | postCountTB('K04VMullally02TV4963009');
To see more of InsideVC.com, or to subscribe, go to www.InsideVC.com.
� 2006 InsideVC.com. All Rights Reserved.
