‘Happy Endings’ Cast Rightfully Rips ABC to Shreds

Will the canceled Happy Endings, which boasts one of the strongest cult followings across TV's last decade, return as a streaming mini-series? Considering the cast is almost completely on board, and there's already an implicit groundswell of support on Hulu, it's essentially a done deal. But as the ABC comedy's stars point out in a new interview with Complex, this is overlooking one very important point: It shouldn't have to.

The show, which premiered in April 2011 as a mid-season replacement that followed Modern Family, immediately garnered critical acclaim, drawing eight million nightly viewers at its peak. Its appeal was clear, but ABC consistently knocked audiences off-balance, airing episodes out of order through Season 1, delaying the Season 2 finale until Season 3 and moving the show from Thursday to Tuesday nights without much notice before finally pulling the plug in 2013.

Show creator David Caspe told Complex he thought the seemingly-premature cancellation was because Paul Lee — ABC's President until February 2016, according to Deadline — simply didn't like the show. Eliza Coupe, who played the story's requisite obsessive perfectionist Jane, echoed the point, noting the proof was in the pudding.

"Nobody promoted us, we never had any publicity," she recalled. "Even the posters and billboards around town were stock photos of not even us — just some random wedding cake. It was like, cool, they don't give a f--- about us. They put us out to pasture."

"It sucks that we got canceled," she added. "I think the show still could be on the air today and be a mega-hit if ABC got behind it. But they didn't, and that's their fault. It's really sh---y."

Damon Wayans Jr., who played Jane's deferential husband Brad, said that in a different world, fans could still enjoy new anti-Friends adventures.

"I feel like Happy Endings was three years ahead of its time, which is a weird, specific number," he said. "But if ABC would have just held on, they would have seen some fruits of their labor...I think more people are seeing it now — so many more people are talking about it. I appreciate the love. The fact that we're even having this interview right now is really cool."

Read the full interview here for more, including cast memories from set, and share your thoughts in the comments.

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