Over at The Bygone Bureau, Lauren Bagby offers an office PA’s perspective how it feels when your [show gets cancelled](http://bygonebureau.com/2012/01/13/when-your-tv-show-gets-cancelled/):
> And then the other shoe drops. Silence in the bullpen as the higher ups take the call. Your supervisor tiptoes over to brace her palms and right ear against the ominous, closed door. Moments later, downcast eyes and the shake of a head confirms what everyone already suspects.
Whether it’s after one episode or seven seasons, every TV show ends. While the timing may be a surprise, the fact that *this all could stop* shouldn’t be.
In Hollywood, we’re all hopping from assignment to assignment. Each job is like a semester spent at a different college, with new roommates and professors and drinking games. We’re happy to get our papers turned in, but sad to leave behind friends.
One under-appreciated aspect of production is how standardized and tidy wrap has become:
> Various art departments turn in their binders — photographic records of every costume, hair or makeup style for each scene of every episode — with the intention that if the show were ever “un-benched” a new crew would be able to pick up the reluctant pieces. Your formerly newbie self wants to believe this is possible, but you’ve wised up by now and know your meticulous filing and boxing of their contents will only collect dust.
> Coworkers in different departments finish their last days, and you hug goodbye knowing that as part of the production office you’ll still be here for weeks after they are gone, burying the skeletons of a promising and well-but-not-widely liked show.
My friend Alexa is a production accountant, and often serves on shows months after almost everyone else is gone. It’s a strange life tying up all the loose ends.
Lauren Bagby is on Twitter: [@elletothebee](http://twitter.com/elletothebee)