Marta Kauffman on the Inspiration of ‘Grace and Frankie’ and Her Hopes Amid a Shifting Industry

The Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin comedy broke records at Netflix with its longevity, and the co-creator credits the energy of the starring duo and the bravery of their storytelling for its legacy: “The show may be ending, but they aren’t.”

Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda in Grace and Frankie (Inset: Marta Kauffman) Courtesy of Saeed Adyani/Netflix; JC Olivera/FilmMagic

[This story contains spoilers to the series finale of Netflix‘s Grace and Frankie.]

“Now, what?”

After spending seven seasons and 94 episodes with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, viewers of Netflix’s Grace and Frankie may find that question — the final line of the series — to be ringing in their ears. The comedy became the longest-running series ever on the streamer, and, somehow, it still feels like it wasn’t long enough.
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But co-creator Marta Kauffman hopes viewers are inspired by that question, which was posed by Fonda’s Grace at the end of the pilot and, circling back around, is once again rhetorically asked to her best friend, Frankie (Tomlin), to close out the show.

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“The implication of ‘now what?’ is that there’s more,” Kauffman tells The Hollywood Reporter. “That the show may be ending, but they aren’t.”

The fourth-wall-breaking message is in line with the theme of the show, which at its heart has always been that it’s never too late to start over. After finding out that their husbands — played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston — had secretly been in love and were leaving them to be together in the pilot, Grace and Frankie have spent the last seven seasons challenging themselves to move on with their lives with touching hilarity. In their third act of life, they found new relationships, started several business ventures, subverted stereotypes about aging and, ultimately, found the soul mate they wanted to walk off into the sunset with in one another.

The finale neatly tied up storylines for the show’s entire ensemble. After a psychic predicted the date of Frankie’s death, Frankie holds a funeral for herself and when she, with a mic, and a cocktail-holding Grace collide, the pair are accidentally electrocuted and sent up to heaven early. There to greet them is an angel secretary named Agnes — played by Dolly Parton, marking a highly anticipated 9 to 5 reunion — who is so touched by the pair’s friendship that she decides it’s not yet their time, and sends them back to be among the living.

Meanwhile their ex-husbands have their own touching sendoff when Saul (Waterston) makes a romantic gesture and re-creates their first kiss for Robert (Sheen), whose memory has been slipping away. Their offspring (including Ethan Embry, Baron Vaughn and Brooklyn Decker) embark on new relationship and career ventures, with the open ending for June Diane Raphael’s Brianna being ripe for a spinoff.

Below, in a chat with THR, Kauffman reflects on the impact of Grace and Frankie, explains why it was the right time to end it (despite it being Netflix who made the call) and hopes that the end of her beloved series, co-created with Howard J. Morrison, doesn’t cap an era for long-running shows: “I think the characters that we love and the characters that we invest in, the ones we want to meet on the street and invite into our homes, are the ones who we’ve been with for a long time.”

Now that the final episodes have been released and viewers have had time to consume them, where are you in the process of saying goodbye to Grace and Frankie?

(Sigh.) You know, on the one hand, I’m very proud of what we did for these seven seasons. And on the other hand, I’m really sad that it’s over. I’m going to miss writing for these actors and working with these actors and this crew. For seven years we worked together, and I’ll miss them terribly.

You have a tendency to work with people for a long time — a feat in this business. [Note: Kauffman co-created Friends.]