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'How I Met Your Mother's' Carter Bays: Storytelling requires tragedy
The morning after "How I Met Your Mother's" Jan. 3 episode, fathers across America no doubt received calls from their adult children.
In the wake of the heart-kick at the end of "Bad News" -- the sudden death of Marshall's (Jason Segel) dad -- a check-in with the parents seems to be in order.
"Well, my dad called," series co-creator Carter Bays tells Zap2it of the episode's aftermath. "I would have called him if he hadn't called me... it's one of those moments where you just want to talk to your dad."
The moment also caught a lot of fans off-guard. Hardly a cookie-cutter sitcom, "HIMYM" isn't all laughs -- but it's yet to go into territory as dark as this. "The show has always explored the various mileposts of life in your 20s and 30s," says Bays. "Very early on we set the goal for ourselves that we weren't going to sugarcoat it or back away from something if there's a little darkness to it. Loss is a part of life."
Bays and co-creator Craig Thomas have wanted to explore loss for a while. In the planning stages for Season 6, they decided it would be an appropriate arc, setting up events throughout the first half and then letting the rest of the story unfold from the moment of the death."
Having the tragedy focus on Marshall ended up being a natural development. "Jason is such a terrific actor," says Bays. "It felt like something he could play very well. And we love Bill Fagerbakke (Marvin Eriksen Sr.). Their relationship has always been so nice, we felt like we could get the most powerful effect out of them."
Adding to the tension of the episode's tragic end, the episode featured a countdown from 50, told through strategically-placed props with numbers on them. "We knew we wanted to do something that sort of announced to the audience early on in the episode that we're heading towards a big moment," Bays says of the script, penned by Jennifer Hendriks. "It's hard to create a sense of foreboding on a 22-minute CBS sitcom. We wanted it to be a sucker punch, but we wanted to balance the sucker-to-punch ratio."
The aftermath of that sucker punch won't come until the Jan. 17 episode (written by Bays and Thomas), "Last Words." Bays wouldn't reveal much on the events of the episode, but makes the themes they want to explore quite clear.
"I really think it came out good," he says. "It's all about how to behave when your best friend has gone through something like this -- and the need inside of you to figure out a way to help them."
In the wake of the heart-kick at the end of "Bad News" -- the sudden death of Marshall's (Jason Segel) dad -- a check-in with the parents seems to be in order.
"Well, my dad called," series co-creator Carter Bays tells Zap2it of the episode's aftermath. "I would have called him if he hadn't called me... it's one of those moments where you just want to talk to your dad."
The moment also caught a lot of fans off-guard. Hardly a cookie-cutter sitcom, "HIMYM" isn't all laughs -- but it's yet to go into territory as dark as this. "The show has always explored the various mileposts of life in your 20s and 30s," says Bays. "Very early on we set the goal for ourselves that we weren't going to sugarcoat it or back away from something if there's a little darkness to it. Loss is a part of life."
Bays and co-creator Craig Thomas have wanted to explore loss for a while. In the planning stages for Season 6, they decided it would be an appropriate arc, setting up events throughout the first half and then letting the rest of the story unfold from the moment of the death."
Having the tragedy focus on Marshall ended up being a natural development. "Jason is such a terrific actor," says Bays. "It felt like something he could play very well. And we love Bill Fagerbakke (Marvin Eriksen Sr.). Their relationship has always been so nice, we felt like we could get the most powerful effect out of them."
Adding to the tension of the episode's tragic end, the episode featured a countdown from 50, told through strategically-placed props with numbers on them. "We knew we wanted to do something that sort of announced to the audience early on in the episode that we're heading towards a big moment," Bays says of the script, penned by Jennifer Hendriks. "It's hard to create a sense of foreboding on a 22-minute CBS sitcom. We wanted it to be a sucker punch, but we wanted to balance the sucker-to-punch ratio."
The aftermath of that sucker punch won't come until the Jan. 17 episode (written by Bays and Thomas), "Last Words." Bays wouldn't reveal much on the events of the episode, but makes the themes they want to explore quite clear.
"I really think it came out good," he says. "It's all about how to behave when your best friend has gone through something like this -- and the need inside of you to figure out a way to help them."
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Photo/Video credit: CBS
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Amazing episode. Kudos to the showrunners.
I was shocked by that. I didnt see that coming at all.
HIMYM is the only show on TV today that can (and has) realistically portrayed life when you are in your 30s. Funny or sad, it always hits the mark. I've watched my friends go thru the struggles of trying to get pregnant (like Lily and Marshall go thru). I'm 34, and I lost my mom one year ago to a heart attack. I always felt that the death of a parent was exactly where the show was going next. I just had a feeling they could tackle the subject so well. And I am really looking forward to the rest of this season. Bravo to the writers for making this show so relevant!
I just want to remind the writers of the show that the name of the show is "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER". If they felt so strongly about wanting to do this type of story, they should have created an new show. I don't want this kind of story line in such a great comedy show. Should I remind you all of how that worked out on "Roseanne" in the last two seasons? If anyone here even watched them. I don't want this on HIMYM, I want to just freakin meet the freakin mother. I know that when the show ends next year (2011-2012 season)we are gonna finally meet the mother, only for the show to role credits after that happens ( like in Star Trek Voyager, they get into earths orbit and credits role). I really hope that the last few minutes of HIMYM is more along the lines of how Six Feet Under ended, without all that death.
"...when your best friend has gone something like this..."
I've never seen the show, but simple logic would suggest Bays actually said "...gone THROUGH something like this..."
I'm still available for copy-editing work. (Reasonable rates!)
That was a GREAT SHOW last night, that was a gut punch last night, but when he wasn`t answering his phone i kinda got an idea of something happening..Really sad and very well written, HIMYM is having it`s best season so far.
The show isn't ending next season. Their contracts go through season 8.
I immediately burst into sobs, remembering losing my mother when I was seven and a half months pregnant with what would turn out to be her only grandchild. She was really looking forward to his birth, and her sudden death from a heart attack (we would learn that she had lung cancer from which she would have died anyway) seemed very cruel and unfair on so many levels. I had already lost my father seven years previously, and my in-laws lived 3,000 miles away, so my son was robbed of his only local grandparent very abruptly. When Marshall cried, "I'm not ready for this," I knew exactly how he felt!
Great episode....those obsessing over the name of the show and finding out who the mother is need to get over it. It's like the people who watched LOST just to find out about the friggin polar bears....ITS ABOUT THE CHARACTERS PEOPLE! HIMYM hasn't been as good as it was Monday night since season 2 really.
Sorry folks; I and many other Christians find your show, along with many you try to replicate, offensive. I watched some of the first two episodes, and got tired of the sexual comments and innuendos. Isn't it any wonder the teens today all act so rude and crude....My 10 year old Grandson got caught, by his mother, with a nude picture on his notebook's desktop. His Mother was upset, and didn't do a thing but make him take it off....she's the type that watches your show. His Father thought he was "getting up there" so it's OK with him. This whole perversion of Society is getting way too sick. Four years ago the same boy got in trouble for telling a little girl at school, "he could get her pregnant" I hope you 'artists' are proud of the Cancer you are inflicting on society.
I guess that's where the whole Word is headed....Just not me and many other Bible Believing people. It's the many that lack the foresight of the Evil your types feed, that are hooked on the stuff.