After six mostly-wondrous seasons, tonight it’s finally time for Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens to hang up his badge for good. It’s the series finale of the FX drama we all know and love, Lawman.

At least, that’s what we might all be saying today if Steven Seagal, of all people, hadn’t forced FX to execute an 11th hour title change for its new drama, based on an Elmore Leonard character, and come up with what turned out to be the perfect name for the series: Justified.

FX has announced the project as Lawman back in 2009, but the network renamed it in early 2010 to avoid a conflict with Steven Seagal: Lawman, a now-long-forgotten A&E reality series about Seagal’s work as a reserve deputy sheriff in Louisiana. The new title, Justified, was taken from a line in the pilot, in which Raylan’s new boss, Art Mullen, asks him about his quick-draw shooting of a mob hitman in Miami, which causes Raylan to be reassignment to Kentucky’s Harlan County. “It was justified,” says Raylan.

When I interviewed Justified creator Graham Yost earlier this year for my Daily Beast story about series finales (a story that is worth rereading before tonight’s Justified farewell), we also talked about the title that wasn’t, and how the show’s fate might have changed had it kept its original moniker.

Once FX decided on a name change, “we didn’t come up with Justified,” says Yost. “That was an FX idea and we went, ‘Okay, they like it; that’s fine.’ We couldn’t come up with anything better. The people who worked on The Shield hated that title at first. It was supposed to be called Rampart, and the LAPD basically said, ‘You will not get any help from us if that’s what you call it.’ So they came up with The Shield, and no one liked it. It became The Shield and Justified became Justified.”

Now, of course, there’s no question that Justified is far superior to the generic-sounding Lawman, which seems more appropriate for a CBS procedural. “There’s a slight question in the title, a little bit of irony, it’s the whole thing of Raylan’s story in that and so it’s great,” says Yost. “And Lawman is far more straightforward. There would have been great posters, and it might have gotten a bigger audience in some ways, or at least sampling it, but I don’t think it would’ve had the core people who really got into it.”

Then again, as Yost points out, the title might not have mattered much in the end, so long as the show itself was as compelling as Justified turned out to be: “It’s absolutely ridiculous to try and equate, but The Beatles is the most ridiculous name for a band,” he notes. “It was modeled on The Crickets, but all these associations go away.”

Farewell, Justified and/or Lawman. And — here’s a sentence no one has likely ever uttered before — thank you, Steven Seagal!

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WCCO: Best and Worst Series Finales

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Tonight, Parks and Recreation says farewell after seven glorious seasons on the air. And like many long-running shows that are ending their runs this season — including Justified, Mad Men and Sons of Anarchy — the creators are under pressure to come up with a finale that sticks the landing, and validates all that came before it. As I wrote at The Daily Beast,

It’s a problem that TV creators are increasingly grappling with, as more networks are allowing them to end their shows on their own terms and their own timetable. But that freedom has intensified pressure for that final episode to stick the landing and in some ways justify all that came before it. Seinfeld’s everyone-goes-to-jail finale angered and alienated many fans back in 1998, but it didn’t taint our memories of the entire series the way that How I Met Your Mother or Dexter’s recent ludicrous conclusions did. These days, in order to cement their status in the TV pantheon, shows not only have to be great, they also have to end that way.

I spoke with Parks co-creator Mike Schur, Justified creator Graham Yost and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan about the increased spotlight on series finales since The Sopranos, as well as the finales they’re hoping to emulate. (“Everything is about the endings now,” says Yost.) And FX chief John Landgraf also weighs in on the importance of allowing a show to end when the story dictates, not when the networks have squeezed every last drop of money from a show.

Plus, you’ll want to hear Graham Yost’s joke about what a Deadwood-themed Justified finale could be like.

Farewell, Parks and Rec!

How to Get Away with a Series Finale: ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Justified’ and ‘Parks and Rec’ Creators Tell All

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While I’ve written dozens of stories for Adweek’s site since last fall, I hadn’t yet written anything for the actual magazine — until today. I made my Adweek print debut in the best and biggest possible way: with a pair of cover stories tied to Thursday’s Two and a Half Men series finale.

In the first story, I spoke with Jon Cryer about the show’s shrouded-in-secrecy, “absolutely crazy” final episode, and the big question everyone is asking: will Charlie Sheen be a part of it? Here’s what he told me:

I can honestly say I don’t know because there were chunks of the finale that I was never allowed to read. Nobody got any piece of the script that they didn’t 100 percent need, so I have not read the final tag of the show. They didn’t even tell me they were shooting it! They shot it on another stage. I’ve said in the past, the amount of bridge-repairing necessary to make that happen, I thought was incredibly daunting and unlikely, but stranger things have happened in show business.

Cryer also talks about weather the Charlie Sheen tsumani, how Ashton Kutcher stepped in and revitalized the show, what’s next for him and how playing Pretty in Pink’s Duckie helped prep him for life after Two and a Half Men.

In addition to following the link and reading the whole story, make sure you pick up this week’s issue!

Jon Cryer on Two and a Half Men’s ‘Absolutely Crazy’ Series Finale

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While speaking with Jeff Eastin for an upcoming story about his show Graceland, I also slipped in a few questions about the upcoming final season of his other show, White Collar, which I was able to turn into this item for EW.com (my first time writing for a Time Inc. publication other than People):

“The really nice thing about six episodes is that it almost feels like a limited series,” says Eastin, whose other USA drama, Graceland, returns for its second season on June 11. “We’ve got just enough room for one really beautiful plot: What is the last adventure these guys go on?”

While Eastin has no hesitation about calling this last season of White Collar, USA hasn’t made an official announcement yet, nor has the network announced when the show’s sixth season will air.

‘White Collar’ Boss Talks Show’s Final Season — and Matt Bomer’s Role in the Finale

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I had such high hopes for Smash — as did NBC. But the show is now a shell of the powerhouse pilot that premiered the day after the Super Bowl last year. As it limps to its season finale Sunday, I reflected on its sad demise for The Daily Beast:

Smash, on life support for much of the season after viewers rejected all its new organs, finally draws its last breath Sunday. NBC is dumping the two-hour season finale—now officially a series finale—over Memorial Day weekend, one final indignity to a show that appeared to be overstuffed with promise and talent and managed to squander away almost all of it. Twice.

Well, at least we’ll always have “Let Me Be Your Star.” And scarves. Lots and lots of scraves.

‘Smash’ Ends Its Run: What Happened to This Once Promising Show?

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