As Zoom has pointed out in the past. The show fully intended to be picked up for a fifth season. They had decent enough numbers and an understanding that they would be back. But Disney had other ideas.
Still, given the uneveness (which is charitable) of the 4th season and the especially weak ending, I have little doubt that they would never have been able to get past season five.
The introduction of the child would guarentee that. Lois and Clark would have devolved into a sitcom. There is no way they could have written interesting, adventure/romance with a child on board. The writers had a hard enough time just maintaining the marriage.
There were also rumors of discord on the set due, in large part, to the silliness of many of the latter scrips. It was a sore spot for Teri and if things would've continued as they had I doubt if she would have stayed on after her five year contract ran out.
From what little I heard about some of the writer's plans for the fifth season, the child subplots sounded awful. The only espisode I was looking forward to and am sorry we never got to see was the altClark finding his altLois which, if I understand correctly, was planned for the fifth season.
Tank (who still thinks that would make an excellant storyline for a reunion movie)
