''Cougar Town' creator Bill Lawrence raises a glass to his departing TBS show

"I feel maybe more people would have checked out the show if it had a different name," said co-creator Bill Lawrence, who also helped create "Scrubs" and 'Spin City." "By the same token, it wouldn't have gotten made unless we had. Things happen for a reason and I'm not the type of guy who wishes a show had been a bigger hit or had more prestige. At this point, I feel we did everything perfectly and it stayed on for six seasons."

One of the most amusing parts of the show is the title card with the name of the show, with a different message every episode, using mocking "Cougar Town" as a name. Th final season's first episode title card is typical: "Welcome to Cougar Town Season 6! Is it too late to change the title?"

"It's one of our favorite things to do as a writing staff as an excuse to procrastinate," Lawrence said. "We work on the jokes so we don't have to do actual work. We took them very seriously."

"I had a blast on that show," Lawrence said. "It was a weird path to the finish. But getting to write a finale for a show and not be told by a network that your finale already happened is satisfying."

The show moved from ABC to TBS partway through. He is grateful ABC Studios even shopped the show around after ABC cancelled it. And being on TBS, even with smaller audiences, meant being a bigger fish in a smaller pond. "They promoted us really hard and took care of us," he said, of TBS.

He and his fellow "Cougar Town" creator wrote the series finale with showrunner Blake McCormick.

He admits the show was a bit of an indulgence. His wife Christa Miller is on the cast and many of the regulars are already good friends like Cox. Plus, he used crew members that go back to "Spin City." He was deeply appreciative he got to create a fun show that fans loved. "The show is just about hanging out and having a good time with good friends and drinking a big old glass of wine!"

To him, it was how adult friendships can be in his mid-40s. "I'm not a man who goes to clubs or shows or even leaves the house much," he said. "My life is a lot like 'Cougar Town." Six friends hanging out, drinking wine and shooting the s***." (The only thing missing in his real life: the creepy neighbor.)

Although Brian Van Holt is only in two episodes this season because he got a new gig on Syfy's "Ascension," Lawrence was able to get him back for the series finale. "I didn't want to get in someone's way if they had an opportunity," he said. "More power to him!"  His good-natured character Bobby Cobb's departure in the second episode of season six also enabled the writers to write something fresh and new, a challenge when you're passing the 100 episode point.

The character who matured the most was Travis Cobb, Jules' son, played by former Marietta resident Dan Byrd. He started as a clueless high school student but ends the show as a dad to Jules' friend Laurie (Busy Phillips.) An outsider at first, he was incorporated into the gang after he turned 21 and was able to imbibe with mom and her buds. "When kids stop being kids and become contemporaries, it's a cool thing," Lawrence said.

It helped that Phillips and Byrd are only four years apart in real life. "She intentionally felt younger and he intentionally felt like an old soul," he said.

And how did the infamous Penny Can come to be? Like the title card game, this was an excuse to waste time. "It's a game we came up with in the writer's room throwing pennies into a can that held pencils.

He, of course, won't say how the show will end but it won't be anything tragic. That would betray the spirit of the show. It wouldn't be shocking if the show simply ends with the friends sitting around the island sipping wine.

TV preview

"Cougar Town," 10:30 p.m. Tuesdays, TBS