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Tavis: Pleased to welcome back Alan Ball to this program. The Oscar-winning screenwriter is, of course, the creator and executive producer of HBO's critically acclaimed series 'Six Feet Under' Next month, the Emmy award-winning drama wraps up its fifth and final season. Say it ain't so. Something loyal fans are already beginning to lament. His next project will be a play called 'All That I Will Ever Be.' Alan, nice to see you again.

Alan Ball: Good to see you.

Tavis: They say that parting is such sweet sorrow. Is that true for you on this project?

Ball: Yeah. There's a definitely a lot of sorrow involved. There's a lot of grieving that's gone on, but at the same it's--I'm very excited about moving on to new things, and there is certainly some relief. You know.

Tavis: I was saying to you before we came on the air here that television in some ways--not our show, of course, but television in some ways is so lacking these days, and it is quite frankly remarkable--you have to knock on wood, thank God, whatever it is you do, when you get 5 years out of anything on TV these days.

Ball: Yes.

Tavis: You feel good about the 5 years? That's a good run.

Ball: I feel very good about the show, and, you know, I feel like I'm ending it at the time where it feels like it should end, you know.

Tavis: So you think the time is right for it to end?

Ball: I think so. I think so. I just felt organically the show was done. You know, I have always felt like the show was sort of like a big, sprawling novel, you know, and each episode was a chapter, and it just felt like, you know, it was time for it to end. It was coming to an end.

Tavis: You know, I'm fascinated by that, Alan, because this series more than most incorporates so many real-life events. It connects to so many real-life occurrences in the program that one could think, ostensibly, that if real life continues, then a show that has so many real-life experiences in it could continue and there doesn't have to be a 5-year end to the process.

Ball: Right.

Tavis: Does that make sense? But yet you're ending it anyway.

Ball: But that would mean, you know, those of us who work on the show doing it for the rest of our lives. Ha ha ha!

Tavis: I hadn't thought about it that way. Ha ha ha! There are worse things. You could be unemployed for the rest of your lives. Nothing else could come after this. I know that won't be the case for you, but it could be that. So how do we end this thing?

Ball: Well, I can't give you any specifics, but I find--

Tavis: You can't?

Ball: Personally it's been a very satisfying ending. I feel like I'm very happy and very pleased with the way it ends. I think it's very true to the show. It's--and it's nice. It's been a great--You know, I directed the final episode, which was a blast, and I think we--we all feel like we went out in a way that we're proud of.

Tavis: Somehow, when you ask these questions about a show coming to an end, that's the answer you expect to get. Why I wasted my time asking that question, I do not know. I apologize to you, my loyal audience. We've been wasting time asking a question like that when we knew the answer was gonna be, "I can't give you no details." But thank you for that answer anyway. That said, tell me what you think this television show has done. If a program is worth its weight in gold, if it's worth its weight on any level, after a 5-year run, you hope that you have made some contribution to television as we know it.

Ball: Right.

Tavis: What might--And I've got a couple things going through my head that I know have been talked about relative to the success of the show--but from your perspective, what might be on your list of things that you think this production has done in terms of making a contribution to TV as we know it?

Ball: I think, probably, the thing that 'Six Feet Under' has done that I think would answer that question, at the top of the list--I think there are several things, actually--would be it's brought death out of the closet. You know, it's--We live in a culture that really goes out of its way to try to ignore death, and in a way, the death-care industry does the same thing. You know, it used to be 100 years ago, when someone in your family died, they stayed at home. You took care of the body yourself. You bathed the body. Funeral directors were basically cabinetmakers.

Tavis: What's the value, then, of bringing death out of the closet? Why not leave it in there?

Ball: Well, because it's a part of life. And as long as you ignore it, you're living kind of a false version of life. One of the other things about the show, I think it's done, is it's brought gay characters and a committed gay relationship into a sort of ordinary realm, as opposed to it being exotic or weird. You know, our two gay characters are just characters on the show, just like everybody else. You know, they have the same problems. They're as flawed and imperfect as everybody. And then one thing that I really like is I think the show has introduced a lot of really, really fine actors who people had never seen before. And sort of, you know, I'm proud of that, too.

Tavis: I would assume that that's a big kick for a producer. Not just to do a show that's well-received, but to do a show that really does set a cadre of actors on a course to do other stuff because you gave them a chance to expose the talent that you knew they had to the rest of us.

Ball: Casting is one of my favorite things to do because I love actors. I wanted to be an actor myself for, you know, most of my early life. And I always want to find somebody that is unfamiliar, so that you get to know that person as the character. You know, you get to know the character in sort of a fresh way, as opposed to, "Oh, it's that guy from the other show." You know what I mean? Now, sometimes that guy from the other show is the best choice for the role, but whenever you can find somebody who's a little fresh and unknown, I love to do that.

Tavis: Well, speaking of death, I know for you there is life after death--Ba domp bomp! So tell me about this play that you're working on, and whatever else you have on the docket.

Ball: Well, you know, I started out as a playwright, and my playwriting career in New York was just getting off the ground when I got the offer to come out here and write for TV. So I haven't written a play in 10 years. And I wanted to write a play, and over the past year I did it, and I really, really enjoyed--You know, it's a completely different medium. You get to really sort of luxuriate in language in a way that you don't get to in film or TV, which is a much more visual medium, you know. And you can't really have long monologues or long, talky scenes, because it doesn't...sit well within the medium. But it was a real blast to write it, and I sent it to my agent, and he sent it around, and so I'm gonna be doing a workshop of it at Dartmouth in August with the New York Theater Workshop, which is an amazing organization. And I'm working with a terrific director--Joe Bonny--and a great cast, and I'm just really, really excited about it. It's just basically sitting around a table for a week and rehearsing and talking about the play and finding out how viable this play is. Does it have a life? Does it have a soul? But it's really exciting, because it's been 10 years.

Tavis: Well, if you're behind it, I'm sure it has a life and a soul, and I'm sure there'll be a lot of other stuff coming from you in the coming months and years. Great run.

Ball: Well, thank you.

Tavis: Glad to have you back again.

Ball: Absolutely.

Tavis: It's the fifth and final season of 'Six Feet Under' Up next, a remarkable new musical talent, Raúl Midón. Stay with us.