"Well, Jane and I are kind of sad about it, you know, because, I mean, we talked about doing it," Tomlin explained on Thursday night before she was honored by the Paley Center for Media along with Bob Newhart, Norman Lear, Carl Reiner and Carol Burnett.
"I mean, we've talked about it with (production company) Skydance and Netflix... We kind of decided to wrap it up after seven seasons. And now that it's come, Jane and I are sorry. We really love it. We love this show. We love each other and we love our cast, our crew. Marta (Kauffman) and Howard (J. Morris) are so great having created the show. And then we'll be out of a job."
If there is a silver lining, the now-or-never pressure of a final season may finally inspire Tomlin and Fonda's "9 to 5" co-star Dolly Parton to accept a long-standing invitation to do a guest shot on the series.
"Yeah, we hope," Tomlin said. "We hope Dolly makes it this last season. She's got to. Write her and tell her."