How I Met Your Mother wrapped its run a decade ago, but its humor remains as crisp and timeless as one of Barney’s Italian suits. As the show returns to Netflix, we have a Slapsgiving gift for you: We caught up with executive producer and co-creator Craig Thomas to revisit his favorite episodes; reflect on the moments that best represent the sitcom; and update us on the Paul Shaffer–obsessed pride of Vancouver, Robin Sparkles.
What episode (aside from the pilot!) should viewers start with?
Ooh, fun thought exercise! OK, if somebody were going to start How I Met Your Mother with an episode besides the pilot, another later Season 1 episode, “The Pineapple Incident,” is a solid entry point. It’s a fun mystery episode where the whole gang tries to figure out, piece by piece, in flashbacks, what the hell a very drunk Ted (Josh Radnor) got himself up to last night. You see, he has awakened in bed with a woman he does not recognize, plus a pineapple on the nightstand ... and no clue how either one of them got there. (Please Note: This episode predated the film The Hangover by four years!) There’s a suspenseful ticking clock of “Who is this strange woman still asleep in Ted’s bed?” But more importantly, this episode contains the DNA of what makes a great HIMYM episode: nontraditional sitcom storytelling structure complete with frenetic time jumps galore, Ted’s friends trying to help him suss out the highs and lows of dating in NYC, and the fact that it’s a mystery episode. The series as a whole is, of course, a mystery (albeit a comedic and romantic one).
OK, give us one more!
A lot of HIMYM’s best episodes were mini-mysteries within that larger mystery. Another example is the Season 2 episode “Slap Bet” (a personal fave). It begins with the secret Robin (Cobie Smulders) is keeping about her past and ends with America’s introduction to a Canadian pop superstar (OK, more like a two-hit wonder) named Robin Sparkles. But, now that we’ve all had fun with this thought exercise, real talk: Start with the pilot.
We’ll get to Robin Sparkles in a moment, but first: What episode best epitomizes the show?
I’ll be even more specific. The last two minutes of the Season 1 finale (Episode 122, “Come On”) captures HIMYM at its best. Ted has finally won the affections of Robin (whom he fell hard for, 21 episodes earlier in the pilot) and spends an amazing night with her. Meanwhile, Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan), who are engaged and planning a wedding, are having existential relationship conversations after Marshall finds out Lily has accepted an art internship in San Francisco without telling him. The next morning, Ted leaves Robin’s apartment in Brooklyn, euphoric with the adrenaline rush of new love, and arrives back home … to find Marshall, sitting alone on their front stoop, in the rain, holding a returned engagement ring. Ted sits down next to Marshall and just wordlessly puts his arm around his best friend. And they just sit there, in the pouring rain, as the camera pulls back. And that’s how Season 1 ends.
Looking back on the series 10 years after you wrapped, what’s your favorite episode or plotline?
Personally, I love the stuff that made you cry. We did a storyline in which Marshall’s father dies and there’s a scene where Marshall tearfully yells at God outside the church, in the freezing cold, because what else can you do at that moment? Jason played that scene with such raw pain, I remember everyone on our set getting so quiet and mesmerized. We did another storyline where Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), who carries a lot of wounds from his turbulent childhood, finally meets his MIA biological father (played by John Lithgow), who has since gotten his own life together and started a new happy family in the suburbs. Barney tearfully yells at him for not being able to do the same thing for him. Neil and John played this scene and, again, our set went quiet as a ghost, like we were all watching an electrifying drama on Broadway. Now, that may sound like a lot of tearful yelling (and a lot of fathers!) for a comedy called How I Met Your Mother. But I really believe those are the moments that made the show special. Well, that and a lot of stupid jokes about Slap Bets, Canadian pop stars, drunken hookups, the Bro Code, and suits. (No, not that Suits.)
Do you still have moments when you think, “That would have made a great HIMYM episode”?
Yes, fairly often. Sometimes it’s just a line or a joke or a small detail. As HIMYM wrapped, the song “Let It Go” was becoming huge, and a few weeks after the show went off the air, I was like, “Oh, Barney would’ve made a version of that song called ‘Let It Bro.’ ” Even silly stuff like that can break your heart when you realize there’s no going back.
Bonus question: Where would Robin Sparkles be today?
Honest answer: I still want to find a way to discover that Robin Sparkles had an animated Saturday morning cartoon show in Canada in the ’90s that we never learned about on HIMYM. And then we just make that cartoon series. And it’s Robin Sparkles, voiced by Cobie (and don’t forget the robot!), solving mysteries (see, always with the mysteries?!) that take place 50% on Earth (albeit mostly in Canada) and 50% in outer space. And then we just make that cartoon and put it out there without commentary. I just like the idea that we could keep discovering there’s more and more to the Robin Sparkles chapter of Robin’s life than we ever could’ve imagined … it’s just endless.
*dary
