Last trip! Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin say goodbye to Grace and Frankie after seven seasons and almost 100 episodes.
The Netflix comedy is the longest—running original series on the streaming platform to date, debuting in 2015. Four years later, creators and showrunners Martha Kaufman and Howard J. Morris confirmed that season 7 will be the last.
“It’s exciting and somehow fitting that our show about the challenges as well as the beauty and dignity of aging will be the oldest show on Netflix,” they noted in a statement in September 2019.
Fonda and Tomlin, who portray the titular Grace Hanson and Frankie Bergstein, respectively, added in their own statement: “We are both delighted and heartbroken that Grace and Frankie will be returning for the seventh, albeit final, season. We are so grateful that our show was able to solve problems that are really connected with our great generation. And their children, and, surprisingly, their children too! We will miss these two old girls, Grace and Frankie, as well as many of their fans, but we will still be there. We’ve been through so many things—I just hope we don’t outlive the planet.”
The dynamic duo play adversaries turned roommates whose world is turned upside down when their husbands, Robert Hanson (Martin Sheen) and Saul Bergstein (Sam Waterston), admit they love each other and leave their wives after decades of marriage. . As they deal with their breakup in their own way-and eventually together—Grace and Frankie develop an unbreakable bond.
Even actresses who previously worked together in the 1980s from 9 to 5 are best friends. “I miss her when I’m not with her,” Fonda said of her colleague during Jimmy Kimmel’s 2019 performance! the appearance when Tomlin teased, “No, we’re not tired of each other.”
Grace and Frankie also star June Diane Raphael, Brooklyn Decker, Baron Vaughn and Ethan Embry, all of whom will return for the final season.
“When I auditioned for this… you know, Netflix [had] ‘House of Cards’ and [had] ‘Orange is the hit of the season,’ and we were their first half—hour comedy,” she recalls. “So it was still a new place that was making interesting television, but we weren’t sure what it would turn into. And now Netflix is Netflix. It was amazing to watch the growth of Netflix. …We will be bound forever.”
Scroll down to find out more about the latest season of Grace and Frankie:
Release date
After the first four episodes appear on Netflix in August 2021, the last 12 will be available for viewing on April 29.
Cast
All the audience’s favorites will return, including Fonda and Tomlin as the main characters, and Sheen and Waterston as their former spouses. Since Nika (Peter Gallagher) Released from prison during the August 2021 episodes, fans can expect to see the O.C. alum to return as well.
Trailer
Fans saw the end of Grace and Frankie’s “crazy ride” when a full-length teaser was released on April 14. “For seven years, two friends made us laugh, made us cry and made us think about what it means to behave like an age,” the slogan read, as footage from past seasons flashed on the screen.
Special guests
In July 2021, Dolly Parton hinted that she was preparing to reunite with her former 9 to 5 co-stars Fonda and Tomlin when their series came to an end. “This is their last year, their last season, so we’re figuring out how they want to use me,” she said on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.” “But I’m absolutely going to be on it this year.”
Decker later confirmed to Us that the country superstar had a special cameo role. “[She’s] in our last episode, which gives me goosebumps,” the actress said before the premiere. “It’s so beautiful. It’s so funny. He does everything Grace and Frankie do, which is [that] allows you to escape for a moment, and he feels like a warm, cozy blanket.”
Ending
By the finale, Grace and Frankie will have almost 100 episodes, which will make it the longest-running Netflix series on the platform. Kaufman previously teased that the final round of episodes “will deal with Robert, Saul, Grace and Frankie in a way we haven’t seen before.” Decker, for her part, exclusively told us that it was “shockingly emotional” to say goodbye to her TV family.
“It just felt like we were really going through something together,” she recalls. “I know everyone thinks so, but it was both triumphant and devastating [to finish] this and spend this last day on set.”
