Recent examples have demonstrated how a lacklustre finale can tarnish the legacy of even the most esteemed series, so it's no wonder that some writers consider multiple options for their grand farewell.
The minds behind some of TV's most celebrated sitcoms have candidly discussed original pitches for their all-important series finales – and some are wildly different to the endings that made it to the screen.
Here's 10 stories of how our favourite sitcoms could have ended – and why, for better or worse, a different path was taken.
10. The Office (US)
Although the series faltered slightly when original star Steve Carell left, it ended on a high note that even managed to bring the comedy superstar back for a cameo role.
Among them, Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) came back together after a rough patch in their marriage, moving to Austin with a generous severance payment from their former frenemy, Dwight (Rainn Wilson).
How it could have gone: The Office (US) writer Brent Forrester revealed, in behind-the-scenes companion book Welcome to Dunder-Mifflin, that an early idea for the finale would have broken up Jim and Pam.
A special farewell episode, set after the 'real' The Office documentary had been broadcast, would have shown the fallout from a trove of private admissions and hidden moments being exposed to the world.
Forrester recalled: "We had to pull the ripcord on it because it was so painful to the fans of the show. John Krasinski said to me, 'Brent, this final season is for the ultra fans of the show. They're the only ones really still left watching, right? This is for them'.
In the previous season, Krasinski had also pushed back against plans for Jim to cheat on Pam with her own maternity leave replacement, Cathy (Lindsey Broad).
"My feeling is there is a threshold with which you can push our audience... And I think that if you show Jim cheating, they'll never come back."
9. Peep Show
However, the ending we got was only one of the possibilities considered.
Fed up of their pettiness and immaturity, Dobby chooses to settle with neither of them, opting instead to accept a job offer in New York City.
When she makes a guest appearance in the final chapter, Mark is disheartened to see that she's "blossomed" into someone with whom he can no longer imagine a relationship.
As is to be expected, it doesn't go well for either of them.
A proposed feature-length finale would have seen Mark and Jeremy follow Dobby to New York City in a last-ditch effort to win her heart. The scrapped idea was detailed by co-star Suttie herself, in a 2020 interview with Radio Times.
She explained: "There was talk of us doing – and this won't happen now at all – but doing a film version, set in New York. I don't know how serious it was, but enough for us to be talked to about it."
View oEmbed on the source website"They just couldn't get the money, or it didn't work or whatever," shrugged Suttie. "That would have been interesting [though] because it might have been a different ending."
8. How I Met Your Mother
From that point, however, things took a turn for the worse, and years of fading fortunes culminated in a series finale that arguably ranks among the most divisive of all time.
However, in a bait and switch, it's revealed that Ted ultimately ends up with his on-and-off romantic interest Robin (Cobie Smulders) instead.
In the aired episode, Tracy succumbs to a serious (but not specified) illness some years after she and Ted have their children, setting a rushed reunion into motion – but this sad fate was not always set in stone.
As E! Online reported at the time, this version has no additional footage, but relies largely on the older Ted's voiceover and reused footage to alter the destiny of its core characters (including by keeping Robin and Barney together, in the short-term at least).
Alas, the opinion of many viewers is that they made the wrong decision, with Ted's return to Robin being widely perceived as a regression of their prior character development.
7. Hannah Montana
The ending: Hannah Montana's fourth and final season sees Miley Stewart (as played by Miley Cyrus) pause her pop star persona to attend university with her longtime pal, Lilly (Emily Osment).
How it could have gone: Hannah Montana co-creator Michael Poryes has said that Disney, somewhat strangely, pushed for an alternate ending in which the events of the show had been a dream all along.
The scene, which was filmed, sees Miley and Lilly go their separate ways, before revealing that the two lead characters were really dolls being played with by a young Miley. Their lives, it is implied, were merely her aspirations for the future.
View oEmbed on the source website"I want to send the message that there's stardom and there's college. And which one do you pick? And I wanted her to do college because you can always go back [to being a pop star]."
He added that Cyrus backed his vision for the finale.
6. Friends
The ending: The final episode of Friends sees its six main characters move on to the next stage of their lives, with the main source of tension being Ross and Rachel's tumultuous romance.
We can only assume that this latest attempt to get together does not implode spectacularly after the credits roll, just as all the previous ones had.
View oEmbed on the source websiteIn an interview with ABC's Good Morning America years later, co-creator David Crane revealed that "we were playing with endings where [Ross and Rachel's fate] was kind of vague".
However, it was feared that such an unresolved climax could be disappointing to viewers so invested in these much-loved characters.
"Let's deliver not just what the audience wants, but what we want, which was to see them finally together... We weren't looking for some crazy reversal."
5. Schitt's Creek
The ending: Viewers were swept off their feet by the nuptials between David and Patrick, which saw the loved-up couple settle in the quirky town that the Rose family had once loathed.
The latter proved surprising to fans, who had been expecting to see the Rose sister tie the knot with town vet Ted. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Alexis actor Annie Murphy revealed that was indeed the original plan.
View oEmbed on the source website"It's going to be Ted and Alexis and Patrick and David," said Murphy, quoting what Levy had told her. "I was like, 'Yay, I can't wait! Sign me up. That's going to be a perfect ending to the show.'"
Levy explained that, in his view, "Alexis needed to come out of this show liberated in a way that wasn't necessarily attached to a guy".
He continued: "I felt like it would be more fulfilling to that character to have loved and lost and been set on a track that is leading her into her future, rather than settle with someone at the end of the show. And that is why I did not do it."
4. Father Ted
But this arc almost ended on a dark gag that proved too sour, in part due to the real-life tragedy of actor Dermot Morgan's death.
During a conference, Ted manages to talk his friend, Father Kevin, from the ledge of a building as he considers taking his own life during a bout of severe depression.
Indeed, when Ted gets wind of recent gang violence that has plagued the area, he opts not to take up the position – even if it means resigning himself to a life on the remote Craggy Island, with the eccentric Mrs Doyle and incompetent Fathers Dougal and Jack.
In the broadcast ending, a compilation of standout moments from earlier episodes is played, culminating in Ted saying goodnight to Dougal in their shared twin bedroom.
View oEmbed on the source websiteThe sitcom takes viewers to a subsequent conference (named 'It's Still Great Being a Priest'), where struggling Father Kevin again finds himself on a ledge.
It certainly would have been a provocative, and likely polarising, note to end on, with creators Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan ultimately deciding against it.
"But then, obviously, with Dermot's death, it took on a slightly different tint, and I guess we couldn't really put it in."
Morgan died at the age of 46, shortly after filming wrapped on the final episodes of Father Ted, from a heart attack speculated to have been caused by stress (via The Guardian).
3. Derry Girls
The ending: The series had referenced several historical events throughout its run, and this tendency continued in a closing chapter built around the Good Friday Agreement.
It is revealed that Michelle's absent brother Niall, never spoken of prior, had been imprisoned for killing someone in the long conflict, and that their mother had effectively disowned him for it.
Ultimately, they manage to settle their dispute and move forward, acknowledging that a period so fraught, painful and complex would have no perfect solution.
View oEmbed on the source website"There was a version of this that was just 'funny-funny'... There was no Michelle and Erin story," recalled McGee at a press screening.
"I remember telling our two execs, 'I have this idea, and I kind of don't want to go near it because it's a bit daunting, so I'm hoping you don't like it'," continued McGee.
She added: "When we got our dates pushed, I sat back and had a bit of time to think and go, 'Well, let's just go for it. Let's just end it. Let's just bring the political and the personal crashing together, because it's the only time we're gonna get a chance to do it'."
Alas, by the time cameras finally started rolling on season 3, the character's presence had to be slightly diminished to accommodate Coughlan's commitments to Bridgerton.
"It was devastating to me because I wanted to be in all of this," she told BelfastLive at the time. "But compromises had to be made... they had to cut down my role somewhat, which was hard."
2. Two and a Half Men
The ending: Yikes, where to begin?
Kutcher and original co-star Jon Cryer proceeded to lead the show for several more seasons, before the decision was made to call time. Leading up to the series finale, speculation was rife over whether Sheen and Lorre would forge a truce for one last hurrah.
After escaping her clutches, his whereabouts were unknown, but a series of claims on his remaining fortune implied an imminent return – and perhaps even a revenge plot against Alan and Walden.
If that wasn't strange enough, the fourth wall proceeds to shatter as the camera zooms out to reveal Lorre himself on set, who says "winning" directly to the camera – a nod to a viral interview given by Sheen amid his Two and a Half Men departure.
In an end card, the showrunner explained that Sheen had been invited back for the finale, but demanded too large a payment for it to be arranged.
"We talked about the tearful sendoff of Jake to college," he said, discussing ideas floated before relations soured with Sheen. "That was our very naive idea of what the ending of the show would be.
Even if Sheen had stuck with Two and a Half Men for the entirety of its run, there's no guarantee that such a conventional ending would have occurred.
His character was written out after season 10, when he went to military school, with Jones not returning until a brief cameo in the final episode.
1. Blackadder Goes Forth
The ending: The final entry in Ben Elton's time-hopping sitcom follows the antics of Blackadder, Baldrick and their usual associates in the confines of a trench during World War I.
Having exhausted all options of escape, they finally accept that their unavoidable fate is to go 'over the top', with little hope of survival on the horrific battlefield above them.
As the characters take their first steps, the scene shifts to an eerie slow-motion that gradually fades to a field of red poppies in the present day.
View oEmbed on the source websiteThe script simply called for the characters to go over the top, but the execution of these scenes had been insufficiently thought through.
Walking forward in a row, the characters were quickly gunned down, but the depicted deaths were neither emotive nor even convincing; lacking the space, time or camera coverage to resemble a genuine war drama.
Fortunately, editor Chris Wadsworth led the salvage effort, slowing down the footage to compensate for its brevity, which also helped to disguise its limitations.
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