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LUNCH & DINNER 7 DAYS CARRY-OUT & FAIL ORDERS 248-855-8429 $2 OFF Expires 12/15/01 (Of) Farmington Hills :4= j -14 10/19 2001 76 31005 Orchard Lake Road Just West of 14 Mile 248-855-4868 . ANY PURCHASE S10 OR MORE •Dine-in Only • Limit 1 • 1 Coupon Per Party • Not Valid With Any Other Offer .TN $3 OFF ANY PURCHASE S15 OR MORE •Dine-in Only • Limit 1 • 1 Coupon Per Party • Not Valid With Any Other Offer Expires 12/15/01 .TN Entertainment president, who suggest- ed they focus on the "he's gay-she's straight" relationship, the premise for Will Grace. Kohan and Mutchn- ick banged out a script and spent four tense months feverishly faxing Littlefield the grosses from hit films with gay characters such as The Birdcage and My Best Friend's Wedding. When the go-ahead finally came, they decided to name the show Will & Grace after a concept. in Martin Buber's Jewish philosophy book I and Thou. "Buber talks about how in order to have an `I-Thou' relationship in the presence of the Eternal ... one needs the 'will' to go after it and the 'grace' to receive it," Kohan says. He and Mutchnick concede that Ellen, which featured the first gay . primetime TV lead, helped pave the way for Will & Grace — though Ellen crashed and burned after the coming- out episode. Why Will escaped that fate, Kohan says, is because "our agen- da is entertainment, not politics." Mutchnick agrees: "We never stand on a soapbox." `INSIDE DATING' from page 74 ostensibly for dramatic conflict — Schwartz may be the first sitcom in which two appealing young Jews gener- ate romantic tension. For Engel, the reason is simple. "I'm Jewish, and the character is basically an exaggerated version of me," he says. Growing up Reform in New Rochelle, N.Y., the now 40-year-old Engel was as sports-obsessed as Schwartz. He shot hoops daily, fanta- sizing that he was a Knicks star and that sports announcer Mary Albert broadcast his every move. Every time a car drove past the hoop in his drive- way, he assumed it was a Knicks scout. "If I missed the basket, I- was, like, devastated," says Engel, who at 5-foot- 9-inches was too short to play on his high school team. At Tufts, the budding comedy writer made the Hillel team and taught a comedy writing course, but decided to attend NYU law school to please his parents. "I spent most of my 20s try- ing to convince my dad that I didn't want to be an attorney," says Engel, who wrote screenplays on weekends and got his first break penning a com- edy for producer Joel Silver. By 1991, he'd snagged a full-time writing job on HBO's Dream On, though he was too terrified to imagine Albert announcing his ditching of law But the sitcom has generated a few complaints — largely from Jewish viewers. They're pleased that Grace reminisces about attending Camp Ramah (Eisenberg went there) and being profiled in the Jewish Forward but gripe that she's never seriously dated a Jewish man. Kohan, for one, believes she proba- bly never will. "I'd love her to find a Jewish love interest, but that rela- tionship might actually work, and then there'd be no more Will & Grace," he says. Mutchnick faced a similar dilemma when Eisenberg married a Jewish man not long ago. "There's been a shift in our relationship," he admits. "But I fly to New York all the time to see her, and we've done a pretty good job of maintaining our friend- ship." He pauses, then adds, laughing, "Sometimes I even wonder where her husband is in all of this." Ill Will and Grace airs 9 p.m. Thursdays on NBC. with a trademark "Yessssss!" Nevertheless, Engel went on to co- executive produce Dream On, serve as a consultant for Mad About You and create the short-lived CBS series Work With Me, about married attorneys who are forced into the same practice. Inside Schwartz came about when Engel decided to experiment with the sitcom format and thought it would be funny to merge the grandiose field of sports with a person's private life. "Sports coverage is so pompous," he says, with a laugh. "It's like they're talk- ing about gladiators going into battle." Schwartz also allows Engel to poke fun at his dates from hell — and the talent agency that refused to sign him. Schwartz's hack agent, named after the William Morris agency, "carries himself like Mark Ovitz but has the client list of Broadway Danny Rose," Engel says. To satisfy NBC attorneys, the char- acter must always introduce himself as "William Morris, not affiliated with the William Morris Agency, the largest talent agency in the world." Engel's talent agency is Creative Artists Agency. "I could have named the character that, but it wouldn't have been as funny," he says. ❑ Inside Schwartz airs 8:30 p.m. Thursdays on NBC.