If Dexter was originally designed as a two-season series...

[Joe Washington]

do you think the second season would have been different in any way? Or the same?

 

[Harvey]

He would have been caught at the end, probably. On the other hand, the first two seasons tell a fairly complete story, so you could also go the route of making no changes.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The executive producer/showrunner kept leaving.

Wikipedia lists 13 executive producers over the course of 8 years... Obviously they worked in groups, but different compositions of groups yielded different results.

Everytime one of them left, or arrived, it was arguably a completely new show.

This is what the former executive producer (The first 4 years.) Clyde Phillips had planned...

“In the very last scene of the series, Dexter wakes up. And everybody is going to think, ‘Oh, it was a dream.’ And then the camera pulls back and back and back and then we realise, ‘No, it’s not a dream.’ Dexter’s opening his eyes and he’s on the execution table at the Florida Penitentiary. They’re just starting to administer the drugs and he looks out through the window to the observation gallery.
“And in the gallery are all the people that Dexter killed — including the Trinity Killer and the Ice Truck Killer (his brother Rudy), LaGuerta who he was responsible killing, Doakes who he’s arguably responsible for, Rita, who he’s arguably responsible for, Lila. All the big deaths, and also whoever the weekly episodic kills were. They are all there.”​

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/dexter-series-finale-how-it-should-have-ended-2013-9

​

 

[Joe Washington]

Guy Gardener, are you saying you think Season 2 would have had this kind of ending like it was the last season?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Cut and paste.

Above is from one of the series producers that left before the end.

I would have had the series ending with Donald Rumsfield on Dexter's table.

 

[Harvey]

This is what the former executive producer (The first 4 years.) Clyde Phillips had planned...

Phillips may have been an EP for the first four years (except for the first few episodes), but he wasn't the showrunner until season three...

#1: James Manos, Jr. developed the pilot based on the novel. (I'm not sure who held the title of "showrunner" for the rest of the first year).
#2: Daniel Cerone was the showrunner for season two.
#3: Clyde Phillips...was the showrunner for seasons three and four (where the show, honestly, was already starting to get repetitious).
#4: Chip Johannessen handled showrunning duties for the dreadful fifth season
#5: Scott Buck took over for seasons six through eight -- he lasted the longest, but this was also the series' nadir (based only on season six, and what I've read about seasons seven and eight).

 

[Maurice]

^^^
Executive Producer ≠ Showrunner​

Sometimes a person is both, not always.

 

[Joe Washington]

Thoughts from anyone else?

 

[Starbreaker]

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=120770&highlight=dexter
http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=129586&highlight=dexter

If you haven't finished your book or screenplay yet, quit trying to steal ideas from fellow posters and come up with actual original content.

 

[Joe Washington]

Let's get something straight, Starbreaker. This isn't for a book or a screenplay. I created this thread of genuine curiosity as someone who has watched Dexter from the beginning.