19 TV Shows That Almost Ended In A Completely Different Way
Parks and Rec almost ended with Andy becoming the mayor of Pawnee.
Obviously MAJOR TV spoilers ahead!
1. First, How I Met Your Mother almost ended with Tracy surviving, meaning Ted and Robin wouldn't have ended up together in the end.
In fact, creators were deciding between the two endings only 16 days before the series finale actually aired.
2. At one point, Parks and Rec was going to end with Andy becoming the mayor of Pawnee.
Creator Mike Schur revealed, "[Andy] was going to shine everyone's shoes and everyone who meets him loves him...And one point in Season 2 or Season 3, we were like, 'Andy's going to be the mayor someday!'"
3. Sex and the City creator Darren Star said that he wishes Carrie and Big hadn't ended up together. In fact, his original ending featured Carrie choosing friendship over love.
In an interview, he said, "I think the show ultimately betrayed what it was about, which was that women don’t ultimately find happiness from marriage."
4. Lost's ending almost featured a giant volcano that was going to erupt while Jack and The Man in Black fought — the series even hinted at a volcano during a Season 3 flashback.
Creator Damon Lindolf said, "The volcano had been dormant for the duration of the series, but based on moving into this endgame, the island had become unstable and the volcano was going to erupt."
5. Friends creators originally talked about not having Rachel and Ross end up together in the series finale, meaning the big "I got off the plane" moment would've been totally different.
Creator David Crane said, "We did talk about, with Ross and Rachel, a gray area of where they aren’t together, but we hint there’s a sense that they might be down the road."
6. Breaking Bad actually had several alternate endings, including Walt breaking into an Albuquerque jail to save Jesse, Walt shooting up a prison bus to save Jesse, and one where literally every character dies.
Creator Vince Gilligan told Entertainment Weekly, "We had so many versions of the ending, and we really had boxed ourselves into a certain number of corners well in advance of the ending."
7. Hannah Montana almost ended with a young Miley playing in her bedroom, revealing that the whole series had been a figment of her imagination.
8. The original ending for The Vampire Diaries would've featured Damon and Stefan both dying to save Elena — the brothers would then have watched Elena live a full life.
Creators Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson came up with the original ending during Season 2, but since the show went on for many more seasons, the original ending was changed.
9. Also, The Originals was going to end with Klaus and Caroline getting together — The Vampire Diaries ending changed this one.
Julie Plec said, "Once Caroline and Stefan found love and got married and she lost him, it never really felt right to have Caroline move past Stefan’s memory to go travel the world for all eternity with Klaus."
10. Pretty Little Liars came very close to having a different ending. Originally, A.D.'s identity was never going to be revealed to the Liars.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Troian Bellisario revealed that Toby was originally going to be the only one that knew A.D.'s true identity. However, the writers felt that it would've left too much unsolved for viewers.
11. An early idea for the ending of Gossip Girl featured Eric or Nate being Gossip Girl instead of Dan Humphrey.
Executive producer Joshua Safran even said, "I always thought it was Eric until the end of Season 2, and I even guided it that way. When the New York Post revealed it was Eric...we realized we couldn’t go down that road anymore."
12. Scandal's series finale almost ended with Huck arriving in Cyrus's room with his signature toolbox ready to kill him.
Huck was going to kill Cyrus after learning that Cyrus had killed David Rosen.
13. Dexter almost ended with Dexter waking up on the executioner's table at the Florida Penitentiary after hallucinating all of his victims.
Former producer Clyde Phillips told E!, "Everything we've seen over the past eight seasons has happened in the several seconds from the time they start Dexter's execution to the time they finish the execution and he dies."
14. Originally, Dawson's Creek was going to end with Joey choosing Dawson over Pacey.
Creator Kevin Williamson began writing the series finale with Joey and Dawson being the endgame, only to change his mind during the process. However, one thing that was going to happen regardless was Jen Lindley dying.
15. In an alternate ending, Seinfeld almost ended with the jury finding the gang not guilty instead of guilty.
16. Apparently, the original series finale of The Sopranos made it clearer that Tony was going to get shot with a mysterious figure approaching him.
Matt Servitto said, "The scene cut as the guy was advancing towards him, as if he was about to shoot Tony. It was, I think, less ambiguous that Tony was going to get shot."
17. 13 Reasons Why almost ended with Hannah Baker actually surviving her suicide attempt.
Author Jay Asher said he originally "liked the idea of 'We’ve learned something from this. And yet, here’s a second chance.'"
18. Everwood almost ended with Ephram getting a phone call from his ex-girlfriend Madison and never reuniting with Amy at the Ferris wheel.
The series was cancelled after the Season 4 finale, so this ending would've been an insane cliffhanger.
19. And finally, Gilmore Girls was originally supposed to end with Rory going off to grad school and learning that she's pregnant — of course, we see a version of this ending in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
"Mom?" "Yeah?" "I'm pregnant." Ending the revival on these infamous last four words instead of the original series was much more special for creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. She said, "[Rory] being the same age as Lorelai [when the show began] turned out to be much better."