13 times TV shows planned different endings that could've changed the plot

NBC's "Seinfeld" wrapped up nine seasons of episodes with a two-part finale that was largely hated by fans.

The series ended with Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George (Jason Alexander), and Kramer (Michael Richards) getting arrested and sentenced to a year in jail for failing to help a man who was being car-jacked.

In an alternate ending included in the series' DVD box set, the jury found the character not guilty of criminal indifference, much to the disappointment of those who testified against them.

After six seasons, HBO's "Sex and the City" ended with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Big (Chris Noth) getting together. The two reunited in Paris after Carrie broke things off with Russian artist Aleksandr Petrovsky (Mikhail Baryshnikov).

The series' final scene reveals Mr. Big's real name is John and he tells Carrie that he's put his home in Napa on the market and he's moving back to New York to be with her.

Series creator Darren Star revealed that he didn't write the final episode and wasn't happy with the way the show ended.

"But I think the show ultimately betrayed what it was about, which was that women don't ultimately find happiness from marriage. Not that they can't. But the show initially was going off script from the romantic comedies that had come before it. That's what had made women so attached," he said in a 2016 interview with journalist David Blum.

Two other endings were also filmed and later included as extras on the series' DVDs.

In one version, Carrie returns to New York and asks her friends to be bridesmaids for her wedding to Petrovsky. In another version, Carrie reveals she ended things with both men.

The series finale of CBS's "How I Met Your Mother" is one of the most controversial in TV history.

After nine seasons, the identity of the show's titular mother was revealed, but viewers also learned she died six years before Ted (Josh Radnor) began telling his teenage children the story of how they met. The show ends with his children urging him to call Robin (Cobie Smulders) and ask her out.

Fans who hated the ending received a bit of good news when show cocreator Carter Bay announced that an alternate ending would be included on the DVD.

"If you didn't like the finale, I guess that happens. We tried something and it didn't connect with you. I hope we're still friends," Bays wrote on Twitter. "16 days ago today we were in the HIMYM edit room, trying to decide between two very different endings. We only shot one script, but through edit room magic we had two possible outcomes for the series. We chose the ending we chose and we stand by it. But we loved the other version too."

In the alternate ending, Ted's wife, Tracy (Cristin Milioti), is still alive when he's telling his children the story and the show quickly flashes back to all the moments and missteps that eventually led the two to meet on a train platform.

Throughout its six-season run, MTV's reality series "The Hills" was plagued by speculation that it was scripted and staged — because, well, it was. The show's finale was a meta way to winkingly acknowledge those rumors.

The show wrapped with Kristin Cavallari saying goodbye to Brody Jenner as he wistfully watched her drive away in a limo. The backdrop of the Hollywood Hills was then rolled away and the camera pans out to reveal they were filming on a studio lot.

When MTV re-aired the series finale in 2013, they included an alternate ending where Jenner returned to his apartment after saying goodby to Cavallari and was greeted by former series star Lauren Conrad, who had left the show mid-way through the fifth season.

"The backdrop [ending] was obviously a nod to the culture believing that the show was fake, so we just wanted to play to that," show creator Adam DiVello told Entertainment Weekly in 2013. "So we shot that first and we were happy with that. Then, I just really felt like it needed something extra, like one more beat, and I felt like it needed Lauren."

He added, "I remember going back to MTV and even reaching out to Lauren and just saying, 'Is there any way we can make that happen?' It kind of seamlessly fit with adding Brody at the end."

The WB's "Everwood" was canceled before its time and ended after four seasons much to the disappointment of fans and critics alike.

The series ended with will-they-or-won't-they couple Amy (Emily VanCamp) and Ephram (Gregory Smith) declaring their love for one another and kissing in front of a Ferris wheel. For a show that was uncertain of its fate, it offered some sense of closure.

On the off-chance the show was picked up for a fifth season, producers also shot a cliffhanger that would've set up the next season's storyline.

"One was the version viewers saw, with Ephram and Amy reuniting on the Ferris wheel. In the one not shown, Ephram was on his way to the Ferris wheel and when he got call from his ex, Madison," executive producer Rina Mimoun explained when the show's cast and creators reunited for a panel at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in 2013.

ABC Family/Freeform's "Greek" wrapped four seasons worth of college drama with Casey (Spencer Grammer) and Cappie (Scott Michael Foster) saying goodbye to their friends as they drive off to DC so Casey can go to law school.

Showrunner Sean Smith told TVLine in 2011 that he intentionally kept the finale open-ended, but he also previously shot an ending that would include a time jump two years into the future to reveal what happened to the characters.

"We actually shot a series-ending flash-forward scene in the event that we were done and we also had the season-ender," he told Entertainment Weekly in 2011. "Fortunately, our ratings went up in the third season, and people kind of rallied for the show, so we never had to show that."

In the alternate ending, it's revealed that Casey and Cappie broke up and decided to catch up over drinks when they see each other again at Cappie's graduation.

ABC's crime-dramedy "Castle" was canceled after eight seasons, but producers filmed a cliffhanger just in case the series was picked up for a ninth season.

The series gave Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) a happy ending, flash-forwarding seven years later to reveal they are alive and well with three children.

According to showrunner Alexi Hawley, the cliffhanger scene they shot if the series was renewed was different enough to be included on the DVD.

"The only editorial difference between the two [shootout] scenes was the cliffhanger version used some different shots at the very end to highlight the two of them on the floor together, rather than getting us into the tracking shot that took us to the time jump to the happy family," he told TV Line in 2016.

The CBS drama about the residents of a small Kansas town living in the aftermath of a nuclear attack only lasted two seasons. Because producers were unsure if the show would be renewed, they filmed two endings — but neither offered viewers any real closure.

The series ended with both Jake (Skeet Ulrich) and Hawkins (Lennie James) successfully delivering the bomb to their allies.

During the final scene, the two discussed the impending civil war. The alternate ending, which was included on as an extra on the DVD, would've set things up for a third season.

"Hawkins has to sacrifice himself to let Jake get away with the bomb and get it to Texas so it can be tested and prove that they were telling the truth," series executive producer Carol Barbee told TV Guide in 2008.

Before airing the eighth and final season of HBO's "Game of Thrones," producers filmed multiple endings in case hackers got their hands on the series finale.

"I think they're filming a bunch of stuff and they're not telling us. I'm being serious. I'm being deadly serious. I think that they don't even trust us," Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. "There's lots of different endings that could happen; I think we're doing all of them and we aren't being told which is actually what's going to happen."

Showtime "Dexter" is routinely included on lists of shows with the worst series finales for a reason.

After the eighth season, the show concluded with Dexter (Michael C. Hall) abandoning his plans to spend his life with his girlfriend and her son in favor of driving his boat into the eye of a hurricane. It's revealed that Dexter survives the storm and became a lumberjack.

It's a total WTF ending, for which Showtime is partly to blame.

"They won't let us kill him," producer John Goldwyn told Vulture in 2013, when asked about the ending. "Showtime was very clear about that. When we told them the arc for the last season, they just said, 'Just to be clear, he's going to live.'"

Showtime's interest in keeping the character alive would have put a hamper on the ending former showrunner Clyde Phillips would've pitched if he didn't leave the show after four seasons.

Phillips told E! News in 2013 he would've ended the series with Dexter waking up to realize he's on the execution table at the Florida Penitentiary.

"They're just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery. And in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed," Phillips said.

In 2020, Showtime revived "Dexter" for a limited series — which makes the lumberjack ending make a little bit more sense.

The HBO series famously kept viewers guessing whether or not Tony (James Gandolfini) died on the series finale by simply jumping to a black screen in the show's final moments.

Given that fans still argue about the ending to this day, it seems hardly necessary that showrunner David Chase also filmed a "fake ending" to avoid spoilers.

"There was another fake ending that we shot where, I forget what it was… Tony goes back to the Ba Da Bing and has an argument with Silvio or something. Well, it couldn't have been Silvio because he was in the in the hospital," Chase told Deadline in 2016. "Well, anyway, it was a fake ending that we shot just to throw people off. This was when we had people trying to invade and get our scripts."

The CW's "The Vampire Diaries" concluded with Stefan (Paul Wesley) sacrificing himself to save the town of Mystic Falls, but, producers originally intended for both Stefan and Damon (Ian Somerhalder) to sacrifice themselves for Elena (Nina Dobrev).

The show's cocreator Julie Plec told Entertainment Weekly in 2017 that back on season two she and cocreator Kevin Williamson decide that "when this show is over, both brothers should die in the name of saving their girl and then be watching her like ghosts."

When Dobrev left the show after its sixth season, Plec said she realized the show stopped being about a love triangle and became a show about the love between two brothers.

"And so there was no way in hell I was killing both of them and leaving neither of them with the happy ending. It just was never going to happen," she said.

"The Vampire Diaries" spin-off "The Originals" also had an alternate ending.

Plec told Entertainment Weekly in 2018 that in the show's earlier seasons she anticipated Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Caroline (Candice King) living happily ever after.

"Early on if you would've asked me, 'Where does Klaus go when this is all over?' I'd say, 'He goes to Paris with Caroline Forbes,'" Plec said.

But an epic romance between Klaus and Caroline wasn't in the cards after "The Vampire Diaries" ended with Stefan sacrificing himself to save Mystic Falls just hours after marrying Caroline.

On "The Originals" finale, after Klaus also sacrifices himself (but it takes a really long time for him to actually die) Caroline comes to say goodbye and tells him she'll never forget him.

"Because once Caroline and Stefan found love and got married and she lost him, it never really felt right to have Caroline move past Stefan's memory to go travel the world for all eternity with Klaus Mikaelson, as much as they have a connection and a powerful bond. I really felt like Stefan's memory was important to protect," she said.

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