Six Feet Under aired for five seasons on HBO before the finale aired in 2005. The creator of the series, Alan Ball, spoke about the finale at an event earlier this week, and he revealed just how emotional the finale was for the people behind the scenes.

Ball said the following:

“I remember when I wrote this episode I cried. Pretty much the last four episodes, people were crying all the time. But it was good. It was grief. It was letting go of something, and I think it informed the show in a way that was very organic because the show was about people who help us to face our grief. It was pretty cathartic.”

Entertainment Weekly also shared the comments made by Ball about alternate ways that were discussed for the end of the series. The news outlet shared the following:

“One pitch: Ruth (Frances Conroy) gets Alzheimer’s disease. ‘I thought that was too depressing and not necessary,’ Ball says. ‘There was even a pitch that the sixth season would be kind of like a post-Holocaust thing where they were trying to keep alive in post-Holocaust Los Angeles.’ Those, obviously, were nixed in favor of one writer’s idea to simply kill everybody. ‘I said, that’s perfect. I’m embarrassed I didn’t think of it,’ he jokes.”

Were you a fan of Six Feet Under? Did you enjoy the finale? Tell us what you think.