The 20 reasons why we love Megan Mullally

Ah yes, one of "Frasier’s" many episodes that were weekend getaways in a cabin in the woods featured Megan Mullally. Mullally and Lisa Darr play Beth and Laura, respectively, two women who meet the uncharacteristically spontaneous Frasier and Niles at Cafe Nervosa (which becomes a double date-turned-weekend getaway)…as well as the cause for the Crane brothers’ confusion and a comedy of errors in this particular 20-plus-minute farce. As Frasier and Niles attempt to parse which woman is interested in which brother, Mullally and Darr play their characters with just enough subtlety that it makes absolute sense where the confusion would come from. And in true "Frasier" fashion, the tension builds and builds until everything blows up in the Crane brothers’ faces.

The episode features the first mention of Karen’s alias, “Anastasia Beaverhausen.” For that, this episode is a treasure. Also, poor Will has to suck up to Karen for work purposes in this episode, and their friendship is always funnier when work gets involved.

The best "Will & Grace" episodes typically aren’t the best for just one character; they’re the best for the whole group. And “Moveable Feast” perfectly captures that, as Will and Grace and Jack and Karen decide to spend Thanksgiving together…and do so, by making all of their necessary family Thanksgiving visits together (each getting one hour) before they can go back home and eat the turkey they cooked. It’s in this two-parter that Karen promises she will forever remain faithful to her imprisoned husband Stan, which is a beautiful sentiment that does not at all last in the long run. (But that’s more about Stan always either coming back from the dead or un-divorcing Karen than anything else.)

While this episode is an all-time classic for the Matt Damon plot (as Jack’s fake gay choir revival), this is also the episode in which Karen lies to all of her rich friends — and rival Beverley Leslie, in only his second appearance on the series at that point — about Will being her “gigolo.” Surprisingly, the faux gigolo plot ends up being a very sweet one for Karen and Will’s friendship.

It’s Karen’s birthday, and her best friends surprise her with a blast from her past: her estranged mother, Lois (Suzanne Pleshette).

Ignoring all the Leo stuff in this “super-sized” episode — as every true "Will & Grace fan should — Karen’s story is all about the stress of wondering what Stan’s revised will — as he dies during their divorce proceedings — will mean for her future. Especially if it means her thieving nemesis, Stan’s mistress Lorraine (Minnie Driver), ends up getting everything as a result.

In this more dramatic — but still quite off-kilter — role for Mullally, she plays Renata Hill, a woman who comes to Crane, Poole, & Schmidt in a bloody wedding dress with the hope that her ex-boyfriend Alan Shore (James Spader) will defend her in the not-so-open-and-shut case of her fiance’s murder.

“I’m Bev. I'm here to do Liz's adoption evaluation.” Oh, poor Bev. Poor, poor concussed Bev.

This episode introduces Mullally as Tammy Two, one of Ron Swanson’s (Mullally’s real-life husband Nick Offerman) ex-wives — one who knows just how to get what she wants from him, and what she wants from him is sex — and Leslie Knope’s Library Services nemesis. Oh, and she’s also “a machine created to destroy human happiness.”

After episodes of hearing about new "Party Down" team member Lydia Dunfree’s (Mullally) daughter Escapade (and Lydia’s dreams for Escapade to live a life of triple-threat stardom), this episode reveals that you can’t believe the hype. But you can’t go wrong with Lydia’s stage mom presence — and poor Kyle’s (Ryan Hansen) clueless advice — throughout this episode, as well as the rest of the dysfunctional (including Kristen Bell’s soulless Uda) "Party Down" company picnic antics.

After a season of trying to snag a successful Los Angeles man to take care of her (and her 13-year-old daughter Escapade, of course), "Party Down’s" second season finale/series finale — which features the wedding of Constance (Jane Lynch), the character Mullally essentially “replaced” on the show — sees Mullally’s Lydia get her dream, ending up with "Party Down" owner Bolus Lugozshe (Michael Hitchcock). Happy endings do happen.

As her stalker, Chet the creepy paramedic (Brian Huskey), becomes intent on showing Chief his “sexy costume” for Halloween, Chief ends up becoming the Final Girl of sorts in this episode. Also: little Ernie Hudson.

After their work together on "Party Down" — in which Mullally’s Lydia inserted herself into the role of Lizzy Caplan’s Casey’s BFF — this is the first "Childrens Hospital" episode in which Lizzy Caplan guest-stars on the show. (The second is the appropriately titled episode “Party Down,” in which Caplan appears as her "Party Down" character.) Here, it’s Take Your Daughter to Work Day at the hospital, with Caplan playing Chief’s adult daughter Harmony. The episode title refers to Chief wanting Harmony to show her on a doll (called “Montana”) where a supposed (and only supposed to Chief) child molester (Steve Agee) touched her. Again, Harmony is an adult.

Tammy Two and Ron Swanson get remarried and end up in jail. You know, relationship goals.

Some might say that there’s no greater moment in "Happy Endings" than Penny Hartz (Casey Wilson) and her mother Dana (Mullally) performing their highly choreographed rendition of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” at a boat show. And they just might be right. But you can’t forget the mother-daughter duo singing through their way through an argument. Dana Hartz is also responsible for Dave’s whole “1/16th Navajo thing,” so make of that what you will.

“Chief’s Origin” is exactly what it sounds like, as Mullally’s Chief gives an extremely long-winded speech — to a disinterested Childrens Hospital staff, of course — on the origin of all her various maladies and how she was supposedly “born to do” an operation she absolutely fails at performing at in the beginning of the episode. This episode synopsis both says it all and not enough: “The doctors are not interested in how Chief became Chief.”

In this episode from the first season of the newly revived "Will & Grace" — which is also the series’ 200th episode — Will and Grace and Jack and Karen deal with the unexpected death of Rosario. Naturally, it focuses mostly on how Karen handles the loss of her maid/confidante/soulmate the hardest, as she organizes the funeral as a quinceañera for Rosario. Mullally’s performance in this episode earned the show’s ninth season its only Emmy nomination at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards.

This is Mullally’s first episode as the "Bob’s Burgers" character, Aunt Gayle, Linda’s…well, “eccentric” sister. In “Art Crawl,” Linda allows Gayle to use the restaurant as her gallery during the town’s annual, well, Art Crawl. And what is her art of? Animal anuses, of course! Gayle is great.

As this episode confirms, Gayle isn’t the only eccentric one in the family. Only, her eccentricities are also driven by fear, which is actually pretty sad. Obviously, Mullally nails Gayle’s weirdness, but her voice-acting also helps you feel for this odd, lonely lady.

In the "Life in Pieces" second season premiere, Mullally and Offerman guest-star as Mary-Lynn and Spencer, Clementine’s oft-mentioned “parents.” Well, Mary-Lynn is Clementine’s mother, and Spencer is Mary-Lynn’s very close, husband-like brother. Yes, Clementine calls Spencer her “Uncle Dad.” Yes, it’s all as delightfully weird as it sounds.