Mary Ann paved the way for Karen Walker

Definitely right there!! There's a lot of similarities, Karen Walker's character did develop as the series progressed and she became somewhat different from Maryann, but the similarities between them initially are too close to be coincidental, the character of Karen was probably inspired by Maryann.

They both have best friends who are actors, both drink a lot, both have sharp tongues, both have husbands/ex-husbands who we never see, both are rich and both are seen to employ a number of Spanish maids.

Of course both Mary Ann and Karen are based on the Patsy Stone character from Absolutely Fabulous.

Jack (from Will and Grace) seems more like Blanche Devereaux from the Golden Girls -and he'd be glad to hear it!!!

there are a few characters that remind me of mary-ann and karen. as already mentioned,there was suzanne sugarbaker on designing women,whom if you recall,also was wealthy had a latin maid who she also abused....she was also quite high maintenance and was ignorant to the most common things,like karen. and if you remember also,there was an episode like on will & grace where suzanne loses all her money and regained it later. and then of course there was the queens of comical debauchery in patsy stone and edina monsoon. i mean,that's pretty obvious. there was also other british programmes with wealthy and snobby characters that came way before either of them. like good neighbors with the legendary penelope keith. i mean talk about a character that was unbeknownst to the simple life,she was an original in that sense,imo.

AbFab's Patsy paved the way for Maryann then Maryann paved the way for Karen.

Megan Mullally almost turned down playing Karen because she felt that the character was initially too similar to Maryann as the bored rich woman.

i think they would be the best drinking buddies ever or they would kill each other lol