| "Marry Me a Little, Marry Me a Little More" | |
|---|---|
| Will & Grace episodes | |
 Scene where Will (Eric McCormack) walks Grace (Debra Messing) down the aisle and hands her to Leo (Harry Connick Jr.). | |
| Episode nos. | Season 5 Episodes 8 and 9 |
| Directed by | James Burrows |
| Written by | Jeff Greenstein Bill Wrubel |
| Featured music | Time of the Season by The Zombies |
| Production code | 100 |
| Original air date | November 21, 2002 |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"Marry Me a Little, Marry Me a Little More" is the eighth and nine episode of the fifth season of the American television series Will & Grace, and the 106th and the 107th episode overall. It was written by Jeff Greenstein and Bill Wrubel and directed by series producer James Burrows. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on November 21, 2002. Guest stars in "Marry Me a Little, Marry Me a Little More" include Harry Connick Jr., Katie Couric, Judith Ivey, and Debbie Reynolds.
The episode focuses on Grace (played by Debra Messing) impulsively accepting a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Leo (Harry Connick, Jr.) despite that the two have only known each other for a short time. They get married and tell their friends about the news, despite Grace's best friend Will's (Eric McCormack) unease about the whole idea. Grace and Leo decide to host a wedding reception for themselves, but at the festivity, Grace learns unsettling details about Leo, which gives her reason to wonder if she has made a mistake.
Before the episode aired, some critics worried that bringing Leo into the storyline would disrupt the friendship between Will and Grace. Co-creator David Kohan, however, believed the two characters had to "move on forward in their lives in some way",[1] and sought to assure the worrying critics that a third individual added to the mix would be unlikely to replace Will as the best friend of Grace. NBC was also in full support of creating a triangle between the three characters, stating that it was a way for the producers to find a new "spark" for the series.[2]
Once the episode aired, it received generally mixed reviews from television critics. Despite this, "Marry Me a Little, Marry Me a Little More" was watched by 24.3 million households in its original airing, according to Nielsen ratings. The episode also garnered Will & Grace's second-largest audience ever among adults aged 18 to 49. The Nation magazine commented that this was the first time that a prime-time sitcom showed a Jewish protagonist (Grace) marrying inside the faith.