Fox debuted a sitcom winner back in 2010 with Greg Garcia’s Raising Hope. The show put the focus on Lucas Neff’s Jimmy Chance, his parents (Martha Plimpton and Garret Dillahunt), his crush (Shannon Woodward) and also the individual they band together to raise and care for after Jimmy fathers a child with a serial killer after a one-night stand — baby Hope.
It was a gem of a show that earned critical praise, a devoted fanbase and also three Emmy nominations — one for Plimpton’s work, one for Cloris Leachman’s performance and another for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. However, the network ultimately decided the show had to come to an end. Just ahead of Season 4, Garcia left Raising Hope and was replaced by Mike Mariano as showrunner. On top of that, the show wound up with a new time slot that hurt its viewership. By the end of Season 4, Raising Hope released 88 episodes, passing the syndication threshold. Put all that together and you get a whole bunch of signs that Raising Hope was likely over and, sure enough, Fox cancelled it after four seasons.
While on Collider Ladies Night celebrating the release of her exceptional new movie, Mass, Martha Plimpton took some time to revisit her run on Raising Hope. She noted that the show “saved me from abject poverty and came at a time when I was really quite broke and so I was just so incredibly happy to be there.” On top of that? Plimpton stressed that the show was a joy to work on, life changing and something she’s very proud of. But, of course, Raising Hope came to an end — and came to an end a bit too soon for many.
Here’s what Plimpton said when asked if the folks involved could feel that their run was coming to a close:
“It kind of felt like it was coming after Greg left. I think he didn’t feel supported by the network and he knew that we were making a really fantastic show, and the fact that the network didn’t seem to be behind it just got to be exhausting for him. I think Greg does things because he wants to have fun and the minute he’s not having fun, you know, he doesn’t care. He’ll [leave]. And so it felt right to him, although very difficult for him, to leave but I think he was done dealing with the network at that point. And so I think when we did do our final season, I think we kind of did feel like it would be our last season.”
While Plimpton did stress that Garcia’s replacement, Mariano, is a “great guy,” it didn’t change the fact that they could feel it coming to an end.
“We did feel like it would probably be over and so our last episode was really kind of emotional. We had Kenny Loggins come in. I mean, it was really, kind of — it’s a lot for us. And I was sad, but I also felt like, look, if this is the way it’s gonna end, it’s ending on a great note and I’m really, really proud of it and I have no regrets about any of it. I feel like it was an absolutely fantastic show. People still watch it, people still tell me that they’re watching, they love it and what more can you ask for really?”
If you’ve yet to see Raising Hope, you’re in luck! All four seasons are available to stream on Hulu. And if you’d like to hear more from Plimpton on her experience in the industry thus far, you’re in luck in that department, too! You can listen to our full Collider Ladies Night conversation in podcast form below.