CW cancels Girlfriends, no series finale planned
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Just read this on What About Our Daughters and am so bummed out. Here’s the statement from CW:
The prolonged strike has changed business conditions and our programming strategy for the balance of the 2007/08 season. To better focus its creative and financial resources, The CW will only resume production on shows that are in consideration for renewal next year. As a result, we will not order additional episodes of the long-running comedy, `Girlfriends,’ which planned to conclude its 8-year run at the end of this season. This was a very difficult decision for us, and was based solely on the considerable cost to license each episode in an extremely unusual business environment.
I think that Girlfriends is one of the few shows on TV that has consistently dealt with race in a realistic and interesting way. The quality of the show has definitely had its ups and downs (that whole story arc where Joan and William become a couple was horrifying) but I’ve been a loyal viewer almost from the beginning. Plus, the clothes were always fab — way better than that ridiculousness on Sex and the City.
This show is such a staple that among my friends, “Joan” has become a verb. When we tell each other to “stop Joaning,” we mean: “stop obsessing neurotically and overthinking things and messing up a good thing by imagining the worst-case scenario!” 
After getting to know these characters for so many years, it’s kind of unbelievable that the network isn’t even bothering with a series finale to give us a sense of closure.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
Latoya Peterson wrote:
It’s just wrong on so many levels.
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 11:10 am ¶
Kenny wrote:
A lot of Minority shows seem to not have series finales. Jeffersons, My Wife & Kids,George Lopez show.
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 11:33 am ¶
momo wrote:
I agree. They should at least give us an ending. Its like the viewers don’t matter. I guess they forgot the fact that if we weren’t interested in the show in the first place it wouldn’t have ran for so long =( oh well
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 11:44 am ¶
Keke wrote:
*Sigh* This is so sad. It was the one show that displayed a group of diverse African American women that I could actually relate to. I agree that they could have at least given the show a finale.
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 12:20 pm ¶
Viviana wrote:
I agree with everyone, we can’t even watch TV in peace!
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 12:25 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
GIRLFRIENDS, nooooooooooo! (sobbing)
I NEED Girlfriends! Joan’s fashion sense, Lynn’s biracial issues, and Maya’s snappy comebacks help me figure out life for myself…I wasn’t even this sad when SATC ended!!!
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 12:51 pm ¶
drea wrote:
There is an interesting interview with Persia White (Lynn) in Steppin’ Out magazine where she discusses race, hollywood, music,etc…
http://www.so-mag.com/01_09_08/index.html
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 1:00 pm ¶
Samara wrote:
Girlfriends was one of the only good shows on TV… How can they do this?!? I’m seriously so sad about this…
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 1:11 pm ¶
tasha wrote:
Not even a series finale?
Well, I can’t say that I’m surprised. It looks like Girlfriends is a casualty of the writers strike. You know, Fox did the same thing with “Married with Children.” MWC help build the Fox network when it was starting out, similar to the way “Girlfriends” did for UPN/CW, and they just pulled the plug and let it go without much fanfare or a big send off.
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 1:17 pm ¶
Fiqah wrote:
Okay, when the show was good it helped fill my “Living Single” void. I stopped watching a while ago, but it absolutely deserves a finale. Bring Tony back!
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 1:39 pm ¶
R. Prince wrote:
wow, I even wrote an email to one of the head ppl. at the network asking to give Girlfriends a proper ending.. They can at least give us fans that much.
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 1:46 pm ¶
Aaminah wrote:
I can only reiterate what has already been said… I LOVE Girlfriends. While I understand the financial concerns etc., there is a disturbing pattern to PoC shows getting cancelled without the proper finale and fanfare that predominantly white heterosexual shows receive.
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 4:10 pm ¶
Wayne wrote:
While not a “fan” of the show, I found that it made for great “I’m bored out of my mind” or “I can’t sleep” entertainment.
I never plan to watch this show, but when I come upon it while switching channels, I find myself unable to leave until the episode is done.
I feel bad for the fans. If there’s one thing that bothers me, it’s an unresolved story.
Posted 14 Feb 2008 at 10:23 pm ¶
JustMe wrote:
bastards. you know my first thought? no finale, it’s because it’s a “black” show. i mean they already put them altogether on one night. and wtf is up with aliens in america? that show is so wrong. and it took forever for girlfriends et al to get onto tvguide.com’s strike watch list. it was like only a couple days before it ended…. ugh, this is so annoying!
Posted 15 Feb 2008 at 3:49 am ¶
tasha wrote:
Is there anyone that cand provide specific examples because I’m not convinced that what Aaminah and others are alleging about the pattern of PoC shows getting cancelled without proper fanfare is necessarily true.
Posted 15 Feb 2008 at 7:11 am ¶
tasha wrote:
Well, I should say more examples, in addition to Kenny’s (post #2). I didn’t watch George Lopez and My Wife and Kids, and I don’t remember how the Jeffersons ended. I do know that Good Times, Martin, the Cosby Show, Fresh Prince, Living Single, probably Amen and 227 were long running sitcoms that ended neatly. I didn’t watch Soulfood, but I think that show had a 3-5 season run. Did that show have a finale? The Wire is going to have a finale. So, I would appreciate it, if someone could shed some light on this “pattern,” because I don’t see it. Is it possible that there are shows that wrap a season without knowing for certain whether or not they will get renewed, thus explaining certain plotlines with loose ends untied?
Posted 15 Feb 2008 at 7:37 am ¶
Anonymiss wrote:
Even though the show was falling off the last 2 seasons, they deserved a finale. I think the show should’ve ended last season when Aaron made that surprise proposal.
Posted 15 Feb 2008 at 12:17 pm ¶
Jaye wrote:
I thought the show got better after Toni left. It seemed to deal with serious topics in a SERIOUS but funny way the last 2 seasons, not in the typical superficial way of sitcoms. And this makes me so sad, because I love sitcoms, I love to laugh, but most sitcoms on TV are so narrow-minded and only for one type of audience that I’ve stopped watching all of them except for GF (and Weeds, does that count as a sitcom?). I loved Lynn and Maya, their clothes, their personalities, and I have to say I wasn’t a fan of Joan, but I loved a lot of her style.
And I didn’t get Sex and the City AT ALL, it was like a TV show version of that cheesy Cosmo magazine, with the clothes to match.
Posted 16 Feb 2008 at 7:15 pm ¶
MoeHailstone wrote:
I think its over the top insensitive. Think of what we would have heard had this happened to Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond or a mainstream show like that.
I like the show and always watch it new episodes and re-runs…the show will be missed
Posted 18 Feb 2008 at 12:51 am ¶
tasha wrote:
insensitive, yes, but you can’t compare Girlfriends to Raymond or Friends. Those shows dwarfed Girlfriends in the Nielsen ratings. A better comparison would be Raymond and The Cosby Show. If NBC had abruptly stopped production of Cosby the way CW has done with Girlfriends, then there would have been more of an uproar, but NBC would have never done that with Cosby because the show was one of the highest rated programs on television, even after it jumped the shark.
Oh and add A Different World to the list of long running shows with people of color that had a big finale. What about New York Undercover?
Posted 18 Feb 2008 at 8:25 am ¶
Kenny wrote:
I don’t remember Bernie Mac having a finale either.
Posted 19 Feb 2008 at 12:08 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:
Can’t remember New York Undercover.
I think the issue is that many of the shows listed went into their final season knowing it was thier final season. They could plan, and hype the show up so that it felt really BIG. Because GF was cancelled during a strike, they can make the argument that doing a whole season just to get the big finished is fiscally irresponsible.
However, I think the CW is really, really ungrateful toward a show that has bolstered the struggling network. I think that they should absolutely air on last episode for all the fans. That would just be good business. And it would help to really kick of the rest of this season of The Game.
Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 2:33 am ¶
tasha wrote:
“I think the issue is that many of the shows listed went into their final season knowing it was thier final season.”
@Michelle
Well, if I’m wrong about this, please correct me, but the producers knew that this was the last season. I’ve been watching the show this season, and it appeared as if they were wrapping it up. Joan’s fiancee wrote a letter saying that he was coming home from Iraq. Mya and her husband look like they’re going to adopt a new baby. Lyn got a record deal. William and Monica are going to have a baby, and so on and so forth. So it’s not like the fans had no reason to think that the end wasn’t imminent.
“They could plan, and hype the show up so that it felt really BIG. Because GF was cancelled during a strike, they can make the argument that doing a whole season just to get the big finished is fiscally irresponsible.”
I mean, I’m only but so much of conspiracy theorist about such things, and it’s not because I lack imagination,which is why, I’m not so quick to jump on this “oh, they gave Girlfriends the shaft because it’s was a black show” bandwagon. That’s so “knee jerk” to me. Like there aren’t any “white” shows that have been yanked off the air in such a manner. Barring this abrupt cancellation, I would argue that the network did do right by Girlfriends. The show was on the air for how many seasons, like seven or something, right? Was it supposed to go on forever? Girlfriends would have never lasted this long on another network. If the CW execs really wanted to give the show the short end of the stick, they would have done away with it long ago, like when the WB and UPN merged. Viacom gave the show time to flourish for multiple seasons, in spite of the fact that repeats of Law and Order get higher ratings than CW’s entire two hour, Monday night line-up. I think that Girlfriends would have gotten it’s propper send off, if not for the strike. Plus, it’s not like the network is only doing this to Girlfriends. CW isn’t ordering anymore episodes for any show that isn’t up for renewal for next season.
Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 9:13 am ¶
MEXICANCRAZY wrote:
JUST LIKE FOR THE NETWORK TO CANCEL A GOOD SHOW. AND NO IT DID NOT WRAP IT UP IN THE RIGHT WAY .EVEERYONE SHOULD’VE BEEN PRESENT AT JOANES WEDDING INCLUDING TONI. THAT WOULD’VE BEEN THE MOST PROPER SEND OFF.
Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:40 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Interesting post here:
When Girlfriends departs, there will be two black-centered shows remaining on network television, both on the CW: the football-centered comedy The Game, and Chris Rock’s black version of the Wonder Years, Everybody Hates Chris. And while I don’t disagree with those who say the black centered sitcom feels a bit passe — like hanging a Bell Biv Devoe poster on your wall — I wonder about a TV landscape where black folks are mostly sidekicks/best friends or cartoonish reality TV caricatures.
http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2008/02/will-the-end-of.html
Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 12:38 am ¶
Michelle wrote:
Perhaps I should have been more clear. When Friends, Cheers, The Cosby Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, just to name a few, ended, they went into their final season very clear, it was their final season. It was announced, so that the end of the series was hyped up for about a year. The future of GF was shaky. Did we know it was gonna happen sure. Was it announced in the trades prior to filming the last season, no.
GF, while a ratings bust comparatively, was a ratings boon for the CW/UPN network. With the exception of Top Model, I believe it was one of their highest rated shows. Therefore, one would assume that in honor of that fact alone, it would have been given a proper send off, befitting a show that has been a bedrock of an entire network. A perfect corollary would be the Gilmore Girls, which was given the last hoorah, bells and whistles sendoff that GF was denied.
I am not saying it was a Black “thing”, but it is really curious given the fact that the CW is pinning it’s hopes and dreams and future on “Gossip Girls”, a show all about White girls and boys, ala The OC, and almost every other show on TV. I am generalizing. I should say a lot of many other shows on network television.
Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 1:23 am ¶
Antwanette wrote:
I have to say i am a bit dissapointed with the cancellation of girlfriends. This is my favorite show on television and although i saw this coming it still doesn’t make it any better. This was a wonderful black show that targeted not just african americans but everyone and deserves the proper series finale. I don’t think cw realizes how upset they are making fans I know that since they have cancelled this show I will never watch the cw network again i do not agree with the way they handle things.
Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 3:55 pm ¶
Tasha wrote:
To take another black show off tv shows how these station owners are on the racist mode. They have taken off alot of the black shows for example we lost the Bernie Mac Show, Half & Half, the Hughley’s and George Lopez show. I believe that we need to establish our own stations to get our shows out there and not have to worry about them being the one’s to get cut from production. Another example of how these stations are raacist is when channel 2 was in the process of being sold, they didn’t want to sell it to Bill Cosby.
Posted 24 Feb 2008 at 12:54 pm ¶
tasha wrote:
Michelle, I read somewhere (though I don’t quite remember where, maybe TV GUIDE on line at the supermarket or something) that Scrubs was on its last leg, and that this would probably be the last season. Now NBC isn’t shouting it from the rooftops “Last season of scrubs, get it while it’s hot!” Although, Scrubs, at the height of it’s popularity, did NBC a great service in terms of being a healthy (in terms of ratings) comedy to fill in one of the gaps in between Friends and Will and Grace on Thursday night. Gilmour Girls ended last year, before the writer’s strike. Girlfriends probably would’ve gotten a last hoorah as well, if not for the strike, and like I said earlier, FOX did the same thing to Married with Children, in terms of not giving the show a proper send off.
@Uppercase Tasha
Why do you think Girlfriends is getting canceled because it’s a “black” show and not because, after eight seasons (emphasis on the eight seasons), it has run its course? And didn’t George Lopez last about as long as that white show According to Jim? Maybe According to Jim premiered a season or two before Lopez’s show, (I don’t know, I didn’t watch either one), but I do know that George Lopez was on long enough to produce enough shows for syndication, and I know that both Jim and Lopez got canceled at the exact same time. Some of ya’ll are like, “Oh George Lopez didn’t get a big series finale” or whatever, but did “According to Jim” get a big send off? Both of those shows aired on the same night on the same network, right?
Most tv shows don’t last long enough to make enough episodes to syndicate, and yet, every show you mentioned, Tasha, Bermie Mac, Half & Half, the Hughleys and George Lopez all managed to last long enough for syndication, even Half & Half, which wasn’t even good and would’ve been axed after the first two episodes on another network. The only good comedies on CW are, Girlfriends, Everybody Hates Chris, and The Game, two of which are most likely going to be back next season. Bernie Mac lasted for five seasons and was slipping in the ratings when it got cut, and the Hughley’s had a similar run.
I mean, really, like these shows are black versions are “My So Called Life” that get pulled off the air after one season. The straw men that are being used in this discussion to imply that racism is at play because of their respective cancellations are all long running programs. Is racism to be sususpected every time a black themed show is canceled or just the ones that produce over a hundred episodes?
Posted 24 Feb 2008 at 7:09 pm ¶
Melanie wrote:
I think we should all use the power of numbers and send to network an overwhelming response of emails and comments regarding our feeling about the show. It worked for the CBS show Jerico so it could work for Girlfriends. We all adore each characters of the show and I am not tired of just looking at reality show that stereotype all black women as ignorant, overbearing, barbaric people with no intellect and overactive sex drives. I for one could see me and my friends in that group of women. I am not going to stand for it. I will write to CW about this and title it “Oh, Hell Yes!” like Mya’s book.
Posted 25 Feb 2008 at 2:36 pm ¶
Anonymous wrote:
this is wrong on so many levels i love this show and now it’s cancelled and it doesn’t even have a season finale i live on that show i used to look forward to8:00 on mondays because of girlfriends now wat do i have to look forward to at 8:00 on monday nights
Posted 02 Mar 2008 at 2:47 am ¶
davine puddin wrote:
i think it was awful they didnt have a season finale…….what about a movie? that would be great ……..we are running out of positive things to watch as black people ….. i like house of pane but its starting to be slap stick comedyish……..
Posted 03 Mar 2008 at 12:25 am ¶
Dana wrote:
Girl Friends was a wonderful show for African American women. I’m sure for all women viewers they found their personality in one of the character. I feel that Hollywood disregards the African American shows especially if they think most of the viewers are African American. It is really sad but I guess Hollywood hasn’t changed, if the show would have shown more stereotypes it might have survived even with a ending.
Posted 10 Mar 2008 at 7:28 pm ¶
melissa wrote:
yes this is so wrong i have been watching this show like for ever and i dont think it’s fare that you do this it’s not just a show why not take poles on things like this, we didnt even see joan get married and thats real bad but whats worse is that were not going to see the baby being born i know that would have been the sh** you need to fix this i dont think you should get away with this i feel as thought your getting away with a crime
Posted 17 Mar 2008 at 5:06 pm ¶
Naomi wrote:
Its such a shame that good shows that have greau quality such as Girlfriends have to be brushed aside like a piece of meat. I don’t think it has anything to do with it being a `black` show as the issues it deals with such as adultyury,divorce, friendship are relevant to all woman of all different races. But I think the network is so caught up in promoting nerw shows its forgetting its old ones. Girlfriends is an incredible show and the least they could have done is given it a series finale, at least to keep fans satifised and tie up any loose ends. I’m from the UK and I was looking fowards to watching the next and final season on trouble but now when it comes on I’m gonig to be so disappointed. If I were the producers I’d make the seires finale and have Toni and Joan reunite and Lynn, like Joey in friends, go off to LA to promote her singing career while Maya and Darnell sucessfully adopt a baby. In my world the writers would do a SUCESSFUL spin off show with Lynn, cause she’s my fav character but I guess they sort of have done that with the Game. Goodbye
Girlfriends! Oh well, we’ll always have reruns.
Posted 30 May 2008 at 7:22 am ¶
coco mac wrote:
I had been wondering what was going on with all the repeated episodes and the deliberate lack of consistency of show times. I have followed this show from the beginning, I have even bought the 1st, 2nd and 3rd season dvds; although I continue to watch the show three times a day on Sunday when it aires in Oakland, CA. I await anxiousl for the release of the 4th season series.
You know, I get so upset whenver I ask White or Asian girls about having ever viewed the show “Girlfriends” they say “What is that? No. I’ve never seen or heard of it before, it that a Black show? Come on, really now, a “Black show”. Please pardon me for my ignorance, but, when did Asian women/girls attain the priviledge to check the “Anglo box”? How can they not see themselves also as ethnic women of color? They a’re just “wanna be’s” I suppose. Furthermore, how dare anyone turn their heads from a television show that candidly speakes on some issues that greatly affect their community?
As I ‘ve declared above I’ve been a Girlfriends super fan since the first night it aired; although unlike Sex and the City, you should and/or do NOT have draw a huge fan base by raunchiness and promiscuity. In fact, those of you that have also watched Sex and the City can agree with me that if you pay closo attention to the diaglogues of both shows you’ll easily find that many of the episodes from Girlfriends were duplicated, modified; morever, perhaps stolen ideas from Girlfriends that had already aired previously.
Oh, and of course, all the nonstop hype of the clothes that Carrie and the gang would wear! Pleeeeeeeeeeeze!!!!!!!!!! Who in hell would dare wear a $1500 dress along with $500 manolos while intentionally revealing a $2.00 dingy bra!!!! Mixing psychedelics, with plaids and poka dots, all at the same time, and wondering why an Ivy league “pretty boy” married a 25yr. old, upper eastside, yuppie chic of simple– elegance.
First “Half and Half” which followed Girlfriends on every Monday UPN night, now the deletion of another Black /African American comedy, in which, has also crossed the racial lines, to attract other viewers as well. I want my show back!! We shouldn’t have to accept this, this is by all means to me UNACCEPTABLE!!!! They would not have ever done this to “Friends, Seinfeld, and Sex and the City, but why a show with an all Black cast? She could’ve put it better herself “Racialicious”.
Posted 11 Jun 2008 at 3:40 pm ¶
HEARD wrote:
It would seem that there would be some group in our community that would push to keep upstanding, respectable shows on the air. While I don’t know whether this is in effect or feasible, but I believe that we could push on CW or atleast trap them into giving black ppl quality television shows. Next season’s line up is down to two black shows which is ridiculous. Well if we could atleast get into negotiations with another broadcast tv station on getting quality shows I think CW would definitely take our demands and wants into consideration…just a thought
Posted 16 Jul 2008 at 4:53 pm ¶
Naillee wrote:
I am very bumbed out to know the show has ended. Yep, I am little late in the game of finding out. Typical of the TV world just to cancel a good production show. I need to see Joan get married. I have been a steady viewer for years. Please bring the show back.
Posted 23 Jul 2008 at 4:02 pm ¶
elle wrote:
I am so sad to see the horrible non end to this wonderful show about women who rally cared about each other and grew as a reault of it. Even though it is considered an African American show, iam caucasian and loved it and thought it was a great show…my favorite… So…. so much for the Neilsan Ratings.
Posted 20 Aug 2008 at 12:54 am ¶
michele wrote:
Girlfriends was so much more everything than sex and the city could ever hope to be. It hit home for women of every race creed and color and we got ripped off. I feel as though someone just ripped the last page out of my favorite book. And for what…because it might cost the studio a couple of extra spare bucks to satisfy the loyal viewers that made the show what it was and put money in the pockets of all the executives that are now denying us a proper send off. Shame….shame…I feel so used, dissed and dismissed.
Posted 20 Aug 2008 at 1:04 am ¶
Deborah wrote:
For 8 years I have wondered if Joan would get married and if Lynn would ever find stability in life. What did William and his wife have? Did Joan’s finance have any problem’s once he came back from Iraq? This I will never know because the CW rudely cancelle the show without a season finale. I have followed this show from the beginning. It is going to take only a few more series. Give the viewers that make the money for you a chance to finish out this wonderful series.
Posted 07 Sep 2008 at 10:33 pm ¶
Deborah G. wrote:
It never ceases to amaze me how minority shows are just vanquished from television with no words, apologies, or finale’s. It is like a slap in the face. The caucasian centered shows are given unjust fanfare and countlesss promos about their last hoorah! We have endured these insensitive, deplorable and blatantly prejudial practices for years. When will it end? Why does it continue? There have been instances when some shows were slated for cancellation, but the caucasian masses wrote to everyone on the planet, and the shows were brought back. When will we stand up and say, NOT THIS TIME, NOT THIS SHOW? Perhaps my frustration shows, but I am simply tired of our programs that give us a sense of belonging, social identity and that exude positive upward mobility of our people being erased as if they never existed. Where was the poll taken and who voted on these tactics. What really happened to viewer’s choice? Write to the P.T.B.’s people! Write, Call, and then write some more. Our voices should be heard and echoed on the positive side of the media! Peace, miracles and blessings to all!
Posted 01 Dec 2008 at 7:37 pm ¶