The sitcom finales that almost ended very differently – and why the writers changed their minds ...Middle East

As if launching a hit TV show wasn't hard enough, ending on a high note seems to be an even greater challenge.

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.

But what becomes of those alternate endings? Some are scrapped before they can see the light of day, others lie on cutting room floors, becoming either the stuff of legend or seldom seen treasures consigned to DVD box sets.

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)

Greg Daniels's long-running workplace sitcom is one of the finest British-to-American adaptations any TV show.

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.

The ending: It's a joyful watch that left the employees of Dunder-Mifflin looking ahead to a bright future (besides Creed, who was finally arrested).

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).

However, a tougher end for the couple had been on the cards at one point, with the writers of The Office (US) considering more than one shocking pitfall.

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.

These revelations would have contributed to their split, along with a proposed affair between Pam and documentary cameraman Brian (Chris Diamantopoulos). Co-star Krasinski was vehemently opposed to the pitch.

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'.

"I was like, 'Wow, we can't allow this beautiful couple to really be on the verge of divorce. It's too awful 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).

"That's the only time I remember putting my foot down," he recalled in the same tell-all book. "I remember saying things that I never thought I'd say before, like, 'I'm not going to shoot it'.

"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

David Mitchell and Robert Webb's gloriously bleak sitcom, about two longtime frenemies destined to live a purgatorial existence in their shared Croydon flat, finally came to its conclusion after a three-year hiatus in 2015.

However, the ending we got was only one of the possibilities considered.

The ending: Mark and Jeremy made a fragile reconciliation after their a falling out, in which they both fell in love with the same woman: adorably dorky Dobby (Isy Suttie).

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.

His affections shift back to 'the one that got away' – i.e. season 2 love interest April (Catherine Shepherd) – while Jeremy explores his identity in a same-sex relationship with an energetic younger man named Joe (Bart Edwards).

As is to be expected, it doesn't go well for either of them.

How it could have gone: In the three-year gestation period between Peep Show seasons 8 and 9, creators Jesse Eisenberg and Sam Bain considered a very different method of capping off their tragicomic saga.

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."

As Suttie recalls, the alternate ending would have been filmed on location in the Big Apple, but to realise these ambitious plans would require a sizeable budget – a factor that, among others, led to a return to Croydon for a more conventional set of episodes.

"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

Few modern sitcoms have suffered as disappointing a fall from grace as How I Met Your Mother, which worked its way into millions of fans' hearts over its initial four seasons.

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.

The ending: Cristin Milioti became a series regular in the sitcom's ninth season in the role of Tracy McConnell, who would be revealed as the elusive 'mother' to which the title refers.

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.

How it could have gone: An alternate ending was created in the editing room, and later included on the DVD release of season 9, in which Ted and Tracy got their happy ending.

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).

In a since-deleted tweet, co-creator Carter Bays said that the team was still agonising over which ending to broadcast until a mere 16 days before the finale's due date.

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

If How I Met Your Mother packed too great a twist for many viewers to stomach, it's probably for the best that Hannah Montana's writers ditched this surreal ending for the Disney Channel hit.

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).

"There's gonna be a million concerts, and tours, and movies, but I only get one chance to go to college with my best friend," she concludes. Aww.

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.

Poryes was uneasy about the pitch (via Buzzing Pop): "The fans and everybody that meant it so much to... to tell them it was all a dream is wrong.

"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

Friends may not have shocked or experimented with its two-part series finale, but by playing it safe, the writers delivered an inoffensive ending that is still regularly revisited to this day.

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.

A decade of pondering 'will they or won't they?' landed on the verdict that... they will! At the last moment, Rachel backs out of a new job in Paris for a life with her lobster.

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.

How it could have gone: The romantic reunion for Ross and Rachel, including that iconic 'I got off the plane' scene, was not always guaranteed.

In 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".

He stopped short of revealing specifics, but this might have involved Rachel moving to Paris as planned, while acknowledging that feelings remain between herself and Ross.

However, it was feared that such an unresolved climax could be disappointing to viewers so invested in these much-loved characters.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Crane recalled: "We thought, 'No, if we're going to do it, let's do it'. It's the nature of our show. It's not a show about greys.

"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

Schitt's Creek boasts one of the most heartwarming sitcom finales of recent memory – and that was sorely needed when it aired at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

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.

After years in close quarters, the other members sought new chapters elsewhere, with parents Johnny and Moira returning to California, while Alexis heads to the opposite coast to build an independent life in New York City.

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.

How it could have gone: In the wake of the grand finale, Murphy recalled being promised a "double wedding" by Schitt's Creek co-creator Dan Levy, which would have seen both of their characters find true love.

"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.'"

The news that this fairytale farewell had been snatched away from Alexis proved a bitter pill to swallow, with Murphy saying that she was "furious" and "threatened to quit the show". Needless to say, that never happened.

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

The final episode of Father Ted sees its title character come agonisingly close to attaining a long sought-after new life, only to wind up exactly where he started.

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.

The ending: Titled Going to America, the final episode sees Ted given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to relocate to a parish in Los Angeles.

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.

The successful intervention impresses American visitor Father Buzz Cagney, who views Ted as the right kind of person to front the church, which is located in a troubled part of the Californian city.

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.

How it could have gone: Whereas the final edit suggests Ted is, to some extent, at peace with his lot in life, the original idea took things in a rather different direction.

The 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.

This time, as he contends with the dissolution of his Californian dream and a lifetime on Craggy Island, Ted joins Kevin at the top of the building as he too has become suicidal.

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.

On the DVD commentary for the episode, Linehan said: "First of all, we just thought it didn't quite work, this moment, as an end of a series... It didn't feel like we were properly ending [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

Lisa McGee's celebrated coming-of-age comedy, which unfolds against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, struck a more serious tone for its extended finale.

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.

Reflecting the gravity of the moment, McGee brought drama to her typically light sitcom, as Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) and Michelle (Jamie-Lee O'Donnell) came to blows over a particular clause in the ceasefire deal.

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.

Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, Niall and other paramilitary prisoners would be released, which doesn't sit right with Erin. The resulting schism risks tearing their friendship apart.

Ultimately, they manage to settle their dispute and move forward, acknowledging that a period so fraught, painful and complex would have no perfect solution.

How it could have gone: McGee did not originally envision a farewell episode touching on such serious themes, but instead planned a conventional Derry Girls episode more concerned with Erin and Orla's joint 18th birthday party than the Good Friday Agreement.

"There was a version of this that was just 'funny-funny'... There was no Michelle and Erin story," recalled McGee at a press screening.

The catalyst for her change of heart was actually the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused lengthy production delays for Derry Girls season 3, during which time the screenwriter considered a more ambitious send-off.

"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.

"And I told them the Erin and Michelle story, and then they were like, 'Oh God, we like it', and so I had to do it now."

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'."

Had the show stuck to its original schedule, Clare (Nicola Coughlan) may also have had more substantial material to get stuck into.

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

Few TV endings are as plainly bizarre as Chuck Lorre's Two and a Half Men, which underwent a forced mutation partway through its run as cast members went through personal difficulties.

The ending: Yikes, where to begin?

After star Charlie Sheen's highly publicised relapse into substance abuse and breakdown (including a feud with Lorre), his character Charlie Harper was killed off and a new protagonist, Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher), was introduced.

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.

The episode very much fed into these fan theories, revealing that Charlie (the character) had not actually died, but instead been abducted by his longtime stalker, Rose.

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.

This all proved to be a red herring as Sheen had declined to return for the finale. In the closing moments, a body double resembling him from behind approaches Charlie's former home. But before his identity can be revealed, the piano that he once played is dropped on him.

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 a self-deprecating twist, a piano is also dropped on Lorre, suggesting perhaps that neither of them came out of the show as its 'winner'.

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.

How it could have gone: It's safe to say that no one on Two and a Half Men's original creative team could have foreseen the show ending with such a head-scratcher. Indeed, Lorre confirmed as much in a post-show interview with Variety.

"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.

"We never in a million years would have imagined what we just did. We had a much smaller vision at the time. The show has changed dramatically over 12 years."

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.

Co-star Angus T Jones, who was cast as Jake in season 1 when he was only 10 years old, also fell out of love with Two and Half Men later in its run.

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 juxtaposition of comedy with poignant drama can have a very powerful effect, and nowhere is that more evident than the closing moments of 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.

However, its final scene halts the laughs to acknowledge the heartbreaking human cost of the conflict.

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.

How it could have gone: This now-legendary sign-off, which remains profoundly moving on repeat viewing, had not been planned at all.

The script simply called for the characters to go over the top, but the execution of these scenes had been insufficiently thought through.

In a BBC documentary years later, the raw footage of the Blackadder Goes Forth ending exposed that the set was too small for the characters to march more than a few steps across the battlefield.

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.

The team knew they were in trouble, with producer John Lloyd describing the initial reaction as "embarrassing" and "one of the lowest points in my television career".

Fortunately, editor Chris Wadsworth led the salvage effort, slowing down the footage to compensate for its brevity, which also helped to disguise its limitations.

Lloyd credited the final flourish, that being the fade-out to a poppy field, to the suggestion of an unnamed assistant.

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