Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are staging 2/3 of a 9 to 5 reunion over on Netflix in their upcoming, 13-episode comedy Grace and Frankie. This is wonderful news, especially if they can work in a Dolly Parton cameo somewhere. Here’s the plot:
The single-camera comedy centers on nemeses Grace (Fonda) and Frankie (Tomlin), whose lives are turned upside down when their husbands announce they are in love with each other and plan to get married. The women, much to their dismay, find that their lives are permanently intertwined and, much to their surprise, find they have each other.
And the news gets even more wonderful, especially for all the Law & Order/West Wing slash-fiction enthusiasts out there, because their adulterous lovebird husbands will be played by Sam Waterston and Martin Sheen. That’s right … JACK MCCOY AND PRESIDENT BARTLET ARE GETTING MARRIED, Y’ALL.
Waterston will play Sol, Frankie’s husband, who has been keeping a secret from Frankie for 20 years. That changes when he announces he’s gay and has been having a secret affair with his law partner, Robert (Sheen), since 1994. And now that it’s legally an option, they want to get married.
JACK MCCOY: These place settings are a travesty and an affront to everything America stands for! No deal! The wedding is off!
PRESIDENT BARTLET: Our union is too strong to be destroyed by something as trivial as place settings. In the wise words of Abraham Lincoln, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Let’s keep the place settings and figure out how to make it work.
JACK MCCOY: [looks around in total shock for five full seconds] Well if we’re keeping the place settings, then … then … I get to choose the dessert!
PRESIDENT BARTLET: [with a twinkle in his eye] I’ll allow it. … But watch yourself, McCoy.
[both men laugh and kiss and live happily ever after]
