Netflix announced that the final episodes of “Grace and Frankie” will premiere on 29th April this year. Grace and Frankie is created by Marta Kauffman, best known for creating “Friends”(1994-2004), and Howard J. Morris and stars actresses Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as the two titular protagonists. The show is based on two women who hate each other despite both their husbands, Robert and Sol, being friends with each other. But when Grace and Frankie’s spouses declare that they’re in love with someone else and subsequently divorce them, both women abandon their mutual enmity, become roomates and soon find each other going through the adventures of romance, family issues and business ventures together.
Grace and Frankie is one of the few longest-running series on Netflix, it premiered in 2015 and has seven seasons till now. In 2019, the show was renewed for sixteen episodes but on August, 2021, Netflix unexpectedly released the first four episodes of season 7 and said that the remaining episodes will premiere in 2022. Apart from Fonda, Tomlin, Waterston and Sheen, Grace and Frankie has other actors such as Brooklyn Decker and June Diane Raphael who portray Grace and Robert’s daughters and Baron Vaughn and Ethan Embry playing the sons of Frankie and Sol. Netflix said that prominent singer Dolly Parton will be a guest star in season 7. Executive produced by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin etc, Grace and Jackie is produced by Skydance Television.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, the show’s co-creator Martha Kauffman said, “It was a combination of things. Netflix isn’t doing long-term series anymore. And we are really lucky that we got the seventh season. I think when we started, we imagined seven seasons. But, really, this is the kind of decision that comes from Netflix. But as sad as I am that It’s ending, there’s something that makes sense about it.” Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin issued a joint statement after the news that seventh season will be the finale of Grace and Jackie, writing, “We are both delighted and heartbroken that Grace and Frankie will be back for its seventh, though final, season. We’re so grateful that our show has been able to deal with issues that have really connected to our grand generation. And their kids, and amazingly, their kids as well! We’ll miss these two gals, Grace and Frankie, as much as many of their fans will, but we’ll still be around. We’ve outlasted so many things–just hope we don’t outlast the planet.”