Written 7/5/16

-When I look back at this season, I'm always going to be disappointed somewhat. Not because of the quality of the episodes, but the amount of episodes. It seems like everything was trying to keep me from reaching my goal and there was really nothing I could do to stop it. I knew it was a bad sign when I had to rush to finish the season premiere on the night in question and barely cracked midnight.

-Despite season four ending later than it should have and being shorter than I planned, it was a great season overall. I feel like the show settled into itself in season three and now just has to maintain consistency. The characters are developed enough, the dialogue is a lot more natural and flows better, the comedy has definitely improved. There were a lot of episodes I enjoyed working on or went back to and liked reading again. I usually don't go back and look at previous episodes because it's always about the next one, but I did that a lot this season and I was pleased with the results.

-That two-month hiatus from November to January really killed me. I was planning to just do a couple more episodes in 2015 like I usually would, then my writer's block kicked in and I got lazy and then I just stopped writing entirely. Then in March, I was just hoping to get to 15 episodes. As much as I love doing this show, I never realized how hard it is to write episodes until this season. How can I fix that? I'll just have to find a way.

-Honestly, the weirdest episode I wrote all season was the Thanksgiving episode. I mean, there was one that involved RK and Wade shrinking down to microscopic size so they could infiltrate a tank filled with radioactive hamsters. Not even that one felt as off to me as "My Thanksgiving with the CimFam," mostly because of how I approached it. I actually treated the Cimorelli sisters like legitimate characters instead of guest stars, mostly because I wanted to try something new and the writing took things in a different direction. It's definitely one of the most interesting episodes I've done, but I imagine if it was actually on television, it would be polarizing.

-A long time ago, I said that I was going to end the show through two ways: After 100 episodes, or with a feature film. This was when I really didn't think I was going to do more than four seasons, or even three. But with all the episode ideas I have saved up, and all the ideas I'm still coming up with, I'll be covered until 2019. I don't know about season seven right now, but I'm definitely interested in season six. I think it would be nice to end the show after eight seasons. I graduate college in 2020 and it will keep Thank You, Heavenly in the 2010s since 95% of the episodes are coming from this decade.

-My favorite episode is a three-way tie between "Fake It," "My Thanksgiving with the CimFam," and "The Code." I looked back at "The Code" recently and realized how much I really liked it. "Night of the Radioactive Hamsters" was also really fun to work on.

-The hardest episode to write all season was actually "Going Back to Portland: Part II." It wasn't even that hard, but my writer's block was really getting in the way at one point. Interestingly enough, none of the episodes I wrote were that tough to get through, unlike last season where there were a few. "The Fourteenth Year" was actually really easy, but I just got lazy, started putting it off and scrambled to finish it so that was more my fault.

-I never found a way to finish that "Everybody Hates Anja" short. What a shame. Maybe that will be an episode some day.

-I really wanted to do a Christmas or New Year's episode this season so I was disappointed when I didn't get to. I even had a Christmas one planned that turned into a Valentine's Day episode that I scrapped because I lost interest even though the plot was good enough.

-I was really happy with how "The Trouble with Militants" turned out, mostly because I thought the subject matter would have been too heavy for the show and it would turn into a mess. But I'm at the point where I believe Thank You, Heavenly can handle real-world topics with some subtlety and intelligence. I actually came up with an idea for a sequel episode involving feminism, but I don't know if that's really going to happen until I have a concrete story.

-Not much else to say at this point. I hope you all had fun following Thank You, Heavenly for a fourth season and we can put this one in the books. Things didn't work out at all like I planned, but I'm proud of the 17 episodes that made it. So long and see you on August 28. That's when the Road to 100 starts! :)

Thank You, Heavenly Season 4

September 27, 2015 - July 4, 2016

17 episodes

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR GUEST STARS

-Marv Albert

-Chris Webber

-Reggie Miller

-Craig Sager

-Larisa Oleynik

-Inga Cadranel

-Chris Rock

-William Daniels

-Andre Kim

-Jared Leong

-Sabrina Carpenter

-Tony Sirico

-Kira Kosarin

-Curtis Harris

-Benjamin "Lil' P-Nut" Flores, Jr.

-Chico Benymon

-Cimorelli (Christina, Katherine, Lisa, Amy, Lauren, and Dani Cimorelli)

-Kurt Russell

-James Brown

-Jim Nantz

-Phil Simms

-Tracy Wolfson

-Bruce Baum

-Kevin Hart

-Paramore (Hayley Williams, Taylor York)

-Justin Roiland

-Dorien Wilson

-Soni Nicole Bringas

-Skai Jackson

-Isabela Moner