The original series, which ran for almost 200 episodes between 1998 and 2006, was recently exhumed after a US election-themed clip which reunited the cast went viral.

The clip surfed a wave of nostalgia and, coupled with a willingness from the original producers and cast to reunite, prompted NBC to order a reboot.

The planned 10 episode reboot was then extended to 12 and finally 16 episodes.

Furthermore, the network has confirmed a second season of 13 episodes will follow in 2018.

An Australian deal is all but finalised; the streaming platform Stan recently indicated they had locked up rights to the series.

For most of its original television life Will & Grace lived in the shadow of a bigger NBC comedy, Friends.

But its return is unusual in that it is rare for the entire cast of a show to return and pick up the story years after cancellation. (Twin Peaks notwithstanding.)

And in the wake of the announcement of its revival, it has drawn a wave of affection which has perhaps exceeded even the expectations of the producers, stars and network.

The reboot will pick up in real time, roughly a decade after the characters were last seen.

Series star Debra Messing confirmed to Fairfax Media that the reboot would address the death of actress Debbie Reynolds.

Reynolds appeared on the original series as Grace's mother, Bobbi.

It is to be written and produced by creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan and will be directed by James Burrows.

Burrows directed every episode of the original series.

It also reunites the cast: Eric McCormack and Debra Messing, and Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes who play, respectively, Karen and Jack.

Significantly, the reboot will ignore the original series ending which saw Will and Grace no longer friends but in relationships and raising children.

That finale was written, NBC entertainment president Bob Greenblatt said, when there was no concept that the show could return in any form.

"There's jokes about it in the first episode," Greenblatt said. "There's a really interesting and clever way why they're still living together."

"We love the essence of the old show," he added. "We just wanted the old show and didn't want to take the risk with this [that it would be] it's Will & Grace but so different than the show you watched.

"There's only one episode - the final episode - out of 197 episodes that's kind of atypical," Greenblatt said.

"We didn't want to suddenly do Will & Grace: The Atypical Show."

Greenblatt, who was speaking before the announcement of the second season, said he hoped "there was more to come".

"That would be the greatest outcome of this whole thing," he said.

"We did the first table reading yesterday [and] aside from some reading glasses my joke is they look exactly the same as they did 10 years ago except there's a little bit of hair colouring involved."