The "Sex" was great, but don't expect it to come back.

Despite recent talk of plans for a movie version of HBO's hit series "Sex and the City," starring Sarah Jessica Parker and her pals, the show's executive producer, Michael Patrick King, has now declared: "Nothing we did in the series was altered to save something for the movie," the Associated Press reports.

Furthermore, there will be no movie, King said at the U.S. Comedy Festival in Aspen.

"This is exactly the way we wanted to end the series," he said of the show's Feb. 22 finale. "We're proud of what we did."

A movie version would have been the first feature film for King, who won an Emmy in 2002 for directing "The Real Me" episode. He reportedly had been expected to finish writing the script by May.

Still, "Sex" will be around -- albeit in a heavily bowdlerized form -- via cleaned-up episodes shown in syndication. Superstation TBS announced last September that it will air an edited version of the show on basic cable starting next June and running exclusively for 15 months. After that, the Tribune Co. has a deal to air the episodes on its stations across the country.

The syndication deal pleases Sarah Jessica Parker, even if the episodes are toned down for a broader audience.

"I am not sad about a larger audience," said Parker, 38, who played columnist Carrie Bradshaw on the show for its six seasons and served behind the scenes as another executive producer.

"Part of me is happy that people who could not afford HBO" will now have the opportunity to meet the four women whose love lives were chronicled on the show, she said.