My Name Is Earl aired for four seasons on NBC before it was cancelled, and the creator has revealed how he would have ended the series if it had continued on to a natural end. The series ended with a bit of a cliffhanger, but Greg Garcia did have a plan in mind for how to wrap things up.
In a Reddit AMA, he revealed how he would have ended the comedy series if he had been able to close it out. He said:
“I had always had an ending to Earl and I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to see it happen. You’ve got a show about a guy with a list so not seeing him finish it is a bummer. But the truth is, he wasn’t ever going to finish the list. The basic idea of the ending was that while he was stuck on a really hard list item he was going to start to get frustrated that he was never going to finish it. Then he runs into someone who had a list of their own and Earl was on it. They needed to make up for something bad they had done to Earl. He asks them where they got the idea of making a list and they tell him that someone came to them with a list and that person got the idea from someone else. Earl eventually realizes that his list started a chain reaction of people with list and that he’s finally put more good into the world than bad. So at that point he was going to tear up his list and go live his life. Walk into the sunset a free man. With good karma.”
Garcia also revealed that he had asked the network if it was okay for him to end the season on a cliffhanger. The network told him to go ahead, and it was only after that NBC decided to cancel the series. Garcia might have written a different season four finale if he had known the network was going to cancel the series.
In addition, Garcia also planned to reveal who Earl Jr’s father was before the show ended. The writers were thinking that it would be someone famous who’d been in town for just one night. The writers didn’t get to decide who that would be, but the baby daddy was intended to be revealed before the series ended.
Were you a fan of My Name is Earl? Did Garcia’s reveal give you closure for this series? Tell us what you think.
I’m kinda glad I loved the show but joys anger and attitude was growing very thin on me, if anyone ever had a friend like that, well they wouldn’t be a friend very long, and I know Tandy was dumb but that to was starting to wear thin to watch. Even though he was earl’s brother I was over just the stupidity of him, but it would have been nice to find out who Earl jr father was
I love this show so much and I really do like serving out a little karma when someone’s being a jerk and I’ve had enough…. I think the show taught me a lot and made me laugh more than any other show I’ve ever watched. It also has got me through some dark days where I just really needed something to make me laugh and get my mind off everything…. please bring it back for a few more seasons or a movie….I miss joy earl and randy and I wanna see more stories about earls past and how he can… Read more »
Being left at a cliff hanger sucks its screw to the audience especially when a show is a popular hit who is earl jr father? Now we never get to know about that it was a shock dodge is earls son boy what a shock to joy that was she had a bird anyway not happy the way the show ended
Not happy! Even seven years later I want more & a final conclusion on who is darnel jr’s real black father is!! They can all be seven year’s older I don’t care I want more Earl & a better ending.
I’m glad to finally know what happened/ would have happened. I’d have rather seen it. A few more shows as a limited series, or as another commenter suggested, a movie, would be a great wrap up we would love, and regenerate interest in the original seasons.
Not happy. I enjoyed the show. How could you end it like that for your audience??? Ridiculous!!!