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!! Please bring it back 2020 and I’m still watching episodes over and over broke my heart how it just ended with a to be continued ☹️
my name is earl was one of the best show i ever watched there should have been 5th season
This will always be my favorite show & I re watch it so many times it fr breaks my heart that this show got cancelled
PLEASE I WATCHED THIS SHOW SINCE I WAS 14! Im 20 now and still watch the show on Hulu EVERYDAY! I seen every episode a hundred times and IM A SUPPORTER WHO THINKS WE NEED A ENDING!! Make a Movie and show who’s the dad and show the ending of Earl walking in the sunset! I also watched Raising Hope start to end and loved how they have all the actors from My Name Is Earl I suggest everyone to go watch that show THEY GET THE GANG BACK TOGETHER!!!!
I’m so disappointed in the network for cancelling an excellent show this show is classic and I was very sad to see it end….NBC you ruined a chance to have a long running series on your network 🙁
Im not happy at all, I really would have liked to see what happens??? That was the worst ending ever??? I really love this show and thank to u guys I’ll never know???
Come on people let’s get this going!! We need an ending! How was this show cancelled it was solid!
Bring back ending!! Love earl!
Why couldn’t they sell the final season to Netflix or Hulu? I just watch all the seasons on Hulu and I wanted a better ending. I don’t know why the show was cancelled because everyone I knew watched it every week plus when it came on as reruns they watched then too. Netflix brought back Full House pretty much so why not My Name is Earl???
Exactly!!
Because when the show ended those on-demand internet streaming services were still in their infancy with far smaller viewer base than traditional TV networks. And as for bringing it back years later, assuming they can even get the rights to do it, there’s no guarantee they could get the key cast and crew back to do it due to conflicts with other projects or simply no desire to do this.
Thank you for the reveal ! It gave me some closure for the show. I really enjoyed watching the show everyweek. I really loved the characters that were brought in every week. I wish Greg Garcia would write some more !!!
Learn to finish your work what a great show gone to waste cause you got lazy.
Wish we would have actually got to see it happen and honestly would really like to know who you guys would have really picked to be Earl Junior’s father and how that storyline would have went like would you have made it to where Earl Jrs real father giving joy and Darnell trust fund for him or would have been an active member in his life or what would you guys have tried to incorporate that’s what I would like to know and I think plenty of people would agree with me that we all want to know who you… Read more »
I loved this show I hope that one day it will come back on and tell us who was earl jr dad and also there were many things throughout the series that left questions I hoped would be answered please bring it back TV gid
I wish a season finally had been done.
Bring back Earl and the gang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!