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 love my name is Earl, I’ve watched every season 3 times over the course of a few years and it’s funny every time. I fall in love with the characters all over again. I would love to see a final season to give us all closure. Make a deal with Netflix or Hulu or Amazon! I would pay to see it and I bet there would be many others.
I think if the network was going to cancel the series they should’ve told the writers the point of a cliffhanger is to get an audience to watch more of a series not get mad for never knowing the ending in the long run it just leaves a lot of people disappointed. It should be brought back for at least one more season and show an ending.
Massive fan of My Name is Earl was so upset that it ended on a cliffhanger really wanted to know who Earl Jr father was going to be I really thought the show would have gone on for a long time as a lot of people loved this show if they wanted to cancel it they should of just killed the character off
You never canceled this great show I’m going kill myself
PLEASE CONTINUE THIS SHOW!! I absolutely love this show and was beyond bummed when they left it on that cliffhanger BRING EARL BACK
My name is Earl is great,funny,and has you couriots what will happen next. Please keep the series going!!!!!
They can’t there shows got canceled the show
My Name is Earl is the best series ever and when I finished season four and noticed it went back to season one I was so sad. Please continue the series
bring it back please, great show, make a deal with Netflix
Would love to see this show continue. So would a lot of people on here. Why not make a deal with Netflix
This show not have end it was a very good show bring mmore to netflix.
No we wanted to know whos the dad
i watched this over and over again…and still mad about it being ended lol 😀
One of the best tv series to be honest absolutely every episode was hilarious…. the ending got me wanting to see more especially after that ending who is Ford & Dodges dads! The creator should do a deal with Netflix to continue the story I’m sure Netflix will approve it !!
I agree! Wanna start a petition?!
My Name Is Earl was my all time favorite show; saying I LOVED IT was an understatement. A coworker who REALLY didn’t like me took great joy in telling MW the show had been canceled; it brought me to tears. *****!! My daughter purchased the entire series for me as a Christmas gift.
It is my favorite show I like it better than big bang theory