Parting is such sweet sorrow, the Bard wrote. I could go on and on… and have, as I’ve been writing this post in my head… but there’s really too much to say. Most other networks, this series never gets made at all.

Any other network, and GAME OF THRONES would not have been what it became. But I do need to mention David Benioff, Dan Weiss, Bryan Cogman (the third head of the dragon, as I said in the recent VANITY FAIR piece about him), and of course the great team at HBO, headed by Richard Plepler. I should start naming names, but then I’d miss someone, there were so many. David & Dan assembled a championship team. We had some amazing people working on this show, as all those Emmys bear witness. And the crew, though less visible than the cast, were no less important. There were forty-two cast members at the season eight premiere in New York City, and that wasn’t even all of them. I want to thank people, but there are so many.

It has been a wild ride, to say the least. Even less did I imagine that I would somehow become a celebrity as well… and if truth be told, I’m still not sure how that happened. Some had even been made There was no way to know that this one was going to be different, that this pilot would not only be shot, but would go on to become the most successful show in the history of HBO, win a record number of Emmy Awards, become the most popular (and most pirated) show in the world, and transform a group of talented but largely unknown actors into major celebrities and stars.

I had optioned books and stories for television and film before. I had no clue, that afternoon at the Palm, that I was about to embark on a journey that would change my life. Weiss for a lunch that lasted well past dinner? I asked them if they knew who Jon Snow’s mother was. Can it really have been more than a decade since my manager Vince Gerardis set up a meeting at the Palm in LA, and I sat down for the first time with David Benioff and D.B. The years have gone past in the blink of an eye. It is hard to believe it is over, if truth be told. After eight epic seasons, HBO’s GAME OF THRONES series has come to an end.

Penny a song of ice and fire