(Photo: Disney/Eric McCandless)

The sixth season finale of The Conners aired last night, and if things had worked out differently, it could have also been the sitcom’s series finale. The cast and crew reportedly filmed an alternate closing scene, just in case the show had been cancelled. The series was ultimately renewed for a seventh and final season of just six episodes.

Starring John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, and Lecy Goranson, the ABC series is a spin-off of Roseanne, and follows Dan Conner (Goodman) and his extended family as they struggle through life in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois.

Per Deadline, executive producer Bruce Helford said the footage viewers didn’t see in last night’s finale:

“Obviously negotiations were going on and we really had one of those situations where if the negotiations didn’t work out, it would be our last show. So it was literally just goodbyes from the cast. That was really all that was shot. There were no scenes that tied anything up. We had an alternate script ready had we been told, but ABC was telling us no, this probably isn’t the end. We all wanted to do more episodes to really wrap it up properly. We all wanted the six-episode thing to happen for next season. But no, there was nothing. I wish there was something more exciting to report to you.”

An alternate finale script was written in case the series was abruptly cancelled, but it was never filmed. Helford also spoke about that episode:

“It’s a bit different now. That was an alternate meant to be if that episode was going to be the series finale as opposed to the season finale. Now with six episodes, there are probably elements of it that may come back, but we’re really approaching this differently now. We’re approaching this like a six-episode event. It’s going to be a piece unto itself that will be the end of the series after 16 or 17 years, whatever it’s been now.”

Why will there be just six episodes? Did they want to make more for the final season? Helford said:

“No, really it was a matter of what it would take to do it right. The reason we came back with the Roseanne reboot was to reclaim the legacy of the end of Roseanne. And then as you know, that went awry. So we had to do The Conners and we were going to do a season that was going to be to reclaim the legacy of Roseanne.

And so after that, none of us ever expected that it would go 100 episodes. It was delightful and wonderful. It felt so good that people responded to it and we were really happy. But we always had requested they let us know that it’s going to be the end, so we can accommodate that.

This to everybody feels like the appropriate time. We’re going out on top. We’re the most watched comedy on ABC, we had a great season, and this just feels like the right time to do this. That said, 10 years from now there’ll be another group of people starting up the New Roseanne reboot, but right now we feel this is the right way to do it.”

The Conners will return for season seven at midseason in 2025.

What do you think? Are you glad this series was renewed? Will you watch the six-episode send-off on ABC next year?