Plus: Is Alicia Florrick an alcoholic?
The Good Wifehas always been a show about lying.
In anticipation of its finale (Sunday ay 9 p.m. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So weve come to the end.
Credit: ANDERS OVERGAARD for EW
What should every series finale achieve?
What do you hope yours gives your viewers?
ROBERT KING: It should be surprising but inevitable.
Thats a very difficult bar to hit, so… be kind.
I hope viewers will feel like they want to start at the beginning of the series again.
I hope its like Finnegans Wake, where the end leads them right back to the beginning.
When did you figure out how you wanted to end the series?
MICHELLE: We startedThe Good Wifebecause we needed a job.
Its almost mindless to keep writing as if there is no end.
Thats not really storytelling.
Thats just like trying to imitate life or about making money.
It helped us kind of feel that there was some shape to the series.
Is there a particular legacy you hope the show has?
ROBERT: Yikes, thats hard to think about.
I do think people will think of the show in terms of its multidimensional female characters.
It might also be thought of as a gravestone on the 22-episodes-a-year paradigm.
22 a year is just too difficult, too backbreaking.
Looking back, which characters surprised you most?
When we conceived the show, she was more at odds with Alicia.
Both Diane and Cary, at the very beginning, were slightly antagonistic toward Alicia.
But we have a fault of falling in love with our antagonists.
So that plan fell out the window.
ROBERT: People also seemed to enjoy Kalindas ambiguity, which is very odd for TV.
TV always seems to want to move toward satisfying mysteries, not keeping mysteries alive.
But whenever we failed Kalinda, it was for being too explicit about who she was.
Do you have a favorite character or, at least, favorite season?
Did you ever consider changing the title sequence?
We liked it and thought it worked really well.
Then we sent it by CBS and they said, Are you kidding?
They werent necessarily wrong.
Do you know how many iterations of Lockhart/Gardner there have been?
ROBERT: Its got to be five, right?
Stern, Lockhart & Gardner was the start, and then Lockhart, Gardner & Associates.
Then Alicia comes back.
So I think its got to be six.
And now lets get to Alicia specifically.
Why doesnt she have any friends?
MICHELLE: I would argue that she does.
I mean, Lucca is her friend.
Weve been trying to play the truth of Alicias life, which is that she has had friends.
Those friends have been in the workplace because Alicia hasnt really had time for friends.
Shes been a single mother.
Alicias problem was a very singular one.
Also, this show is about lying.
MICHELLE: Absolutely not.
I think she likes her wine and tequila, but no, she has never suffered an alcohol-related problem.
Shes never missed work.
Shes never been arrested.
Shes never done anything because of alcohol that she regretted.
And I do think that she, in theory, is on the verge of depression.
And I dont know if you distinguish between those two.
Was keeping Will Gardners death a secret your proudest moment?
MICHELLE: We were very fortunate in that the crew honored the show.
Everyone who knew, including background actors, honored the show.
They knew for months, and everyone chose to keep it quiet.
It was really the nicest thing in the world.
We also credit CBS, which really understood the need, creatively, to keep it secret.
Were still a little confused by how they did it.
Where the hell did the shows within the show Darkness at NoonandThe Cow With No Country come from?
ROBERT: We like making fun of things.
Then we kept it going because Charlie Pollock, who played the lead in that, was so fun.
Sorry to all the people who loveWar Horse!
But thats what made us decide to do theCow With No Countrysatire.
Youre famous for your deep bench of Broadway-pedigreed guest stars.
Is there anyone you couldnt get?
I dont think Michelle and I will ever come upon that again.
So we shouldnt really want more than what we got.
The current presidential campaign: Does it make you wish you had one more season?
Makes sense to us.
A version of this story originally appeared in the April 22/29 issue of EW.
