Bidding Farewell to TVRGO’s Finally Franchise: A Retrospective


In March 2019, TVRGO premiered Finally Together. Its first season was a ten-episode story following an extended family that was meeting in person for the first time in years. It was a concept I had for a couple years at that point; in fact, originally the idea was to have a different family in every episode. Instead, I took one family and made three spinoffs about them.

I’ll always have nostalgia for the first season of Finally Together, which is the show that started the franchise. It was a unique take, in that there were so many characters that they were introduced gradually. It actually wasn’t until the end of the fourth episode when everyone in the family arrive at the place of the reunion. Those first few  episodes were meant to show a stark contrast among the family members.

One of my favorite episodes in the entire franchise was the finale of the first season. While I purposefully put in hints that the finale would see them all staying together, I had never planned on that actually being the way it ended. Instead, the family went their separate ways, but everyone displayed character growth. It was by no means a sad ending, but rather one that opened the possibility to explore small groups of characters on their own.

The first spinoff created was Finally Apart. The main character on Finally Apart, Catherine, was one of my favorite characters to write. I saw many storylines in her adult life essentially starting over. Still, I wanted to find a way to get the whole extended family back together; the finale of Finally Apart opened the door for that. It was scheduled in late December for ten consecutive days, almost as if it was taking place in real time. It provided more storylines and more laughs, and led the way to another spinoff, Finally Back Home.

Finally Back Home is a spinoff where I took a few of my favorite characters and brought them into the classic parents-move-in-with-the-kids plot. There are certainly twists along the way, though, straying from the typical formula. It saw the characters going through odd jobs and an adoption. While the situation seemed awkward at first, it turned out to be for the best.

The third and final spinoff, Finally Growing Up, focused on three third-generation members of the family. It ended up having a lot of tie-ins with Finally Apart, which also led to the decision to make the second season of Finally Apart less than the typical ten episodes. In fact, in a sense, Finally Apart and Finally Growing Up were oftentimes part of the very same episode. This is the one that relates closest to television; the kids are finding innovative ways to not only make ends meet, but also have fun along the way. The show took place in a single living room; after all, it was written and posted when everyone in the United States was under stay-at-home orders.

In short, thank you to everyone who read Finally Together, Finally Apart, Finally Back Home, and/or Finally Growing Up. It is truly appreciated. It was fun for me to write, and hopefully fun for you to read as well.

To conclude, here is a poll. Be sure to read Finally Finale, premiering tonight at 8pm Eastern time on The TV Ratings Guide!

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