HIMYM - Interview with Carter and Thomas about the finale

So for months, many fans and online outlets have been focused on the question of whose wedding we'll see in the finale. And then, boom! You and Craig pulled a fast one with the revelation that Lily's preggers, even as you also told us that Barney would eventually be getting hitched. Which was the bigger bombshell in the scheme of things?
Carter Bays: The pregnancy is definitely the big one for us in terms of where the story's going. Finding out Barney's the groom is big. But in terms of next season, [the pregnancy] is the game changer. And it feels personal for me, since my wife is eight months pregnant.

Did you always plan on having the pregnancy reveal at the end of the season?
Bays: This was definitely always in the cards since we plotted out this season. We weighed all the pros and cons of adding a baby. And then we wanted to tell a story that involved Marshall going through hell [before]. We wanted a happy ending. We structured it so there'd be this built-in silver lining after losing his dad. In the end, the story was about generations, of life moving on.

Was this script shot with extra security, due to the double twist?i
Bays: We didn't trust anyone! Everyone had their assigned scripts. We did all that stuff CB: Lost did. I don't think we had watermarking. But it was a really sweet, touching moment when we did the table read. Jason had read the script before, and he brought Alyson flowers.

When do you expect Lily to give birth?
Bays: We'll pretty much pick up where the [finale] left off. We set the finale in September so we can pick up season seven exactly where we left off and so we can watch every moment of [Marshall and Lilly's] journey. I don't think this is giving much way, but, most pregnancies are nine months. So we'll probably show the birth right around May.

So let's talk about the Barney reveal. A lot of folks had predicted this might happen. How did you and the writers get to the point of agreeing that Future Barney would be the marrying kind?
Bays: There was definitely a debate. And it boiled down to the fact that we're coming to the end of the series. We're in the twilight of the show. Barney and Robin broke up for a reason: we wanted to explore what his problem was [with commitment]. We found out through [the dad storyline] that it was abandonment issues. And his sense of not deserving love. That's what this season was about. So in the finale we were able to set up that the step he couldn't take with Nora before, he maybe he will take eventually.

From the start of the season, you planned for Barney to be the groom at the wedding?
Bays: We always knew. We tried to plant as many red herrings as we could, like with Punchy.

The wedding flash-forward took place "a little bit down the road." How long is that?
Bays: Saying when this happens would give too much away. But in the first episode of next season we will go back to the wedding.

I'm assuming Nora's still in the picture next season.
Bays: She's not booked yet, but we hope to have her back. We want to see what it is about Nora that revs Barney's engine.

And yet we also saw a potential rekindling of the Barney-Robin romance.
Bays: We kind of pretty clearly hinted at their flirtation with getting back together. We're not done with that. We can't say if they're gonna end up together. There are some unexpected twists ahead. But they're so good together. I know there's going to be debate as to whether they should or should not be together. But it excited us to see what might be involved.

Sounds like there's a Barney-Nora-Robin love triangle ahead.
Bays: There will be many geometric shapes of love in the next season. It's musical chairs and we have three single characters who, ultimately, are very much looking for love. And there are a lot of positive ions around, running into each other. It will be interested to see who ends up with whom.

What about Ted and Robin. Could that be revisited?
Bays: That's another Pandora's box of potential bad and good things. On a series-wide scale, this story started with him and Robin. She's an important part of his life. We're going to find out why she's important to his life.

We should talk about Zoey. The online hate for her character seemed to grow every week, and the reaction to the season's penultimate episode was downright harsh.
Bays: We knew this [storyline] would be divisive. It was kind of a downer. You hope that everyone will love all of them. But we look at this episode as 24 pieces of a whole. This week, leading into the finale, we're happy with how the show is ending.

Did you do enough to show the core characters reacting to Zoe's bitchiness? Other than a line from Barney, there wasn't much.
Bays: I guess maybe we let her off the hook a little bit. We've seen a lot of girlfriends for Ted turn out to not be the mom for a lot of reasons. The reason she's not the mother is because she's not a very nice person. That happens. We've had Ted's love affairs fall apart for noble reasons. We just wanted to do one where he picked the wrong girl. She was toxic. She was poisonous. But we also tried to make it more complex than that. We didn't want to just make her a villain. She was written as a somewhat selfish person who's lovable in her own way.

You've started breaking stories for next season already. Any early themes yet?
Bays: It will turn a little more inward. This season relied on bringing [Zoey] into our world. The new season will be about resolving issues between our characters.

Ok, so now, we're going to get a little more big picture. What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned, and from who?
Bays: Craig and I were hired three months out of college to write for The Late Show With David Letterman, which turned out to be a four and a half year graduate degree in comedy writing. When one of David Letterman's writers pitches a joke he doesn't like, he has this great way of saying no: he says "No." It's kind of awesome. There's no hard feelings behind it -- there's just a subjectivity you have to embrace when it's your job to shape the tone of the show. Learning to say "no" politely but decisively is a crucial part of that.

Craig Thomas: Delegate. Don’t do every little thing yourself. Carter and I learned that valuable lesson from these total dumbasses named “First Season Us.”

What’s your best show pitch that didn’t make it on the air?
Thomas: We wanted to do an episode of HIMYM where it comes out that Lily doesn’t actually believe in things like UFO’s and the Loch Ness monster. And we write Marshall as an unquestioning believer in all things mysterious and awesome, like the Loch Ness monster, UFO’s, Big Foot. So Marshall is horrified. It’s like discovering your wife who you thought was Catholic is actually an atheist. It was a way to do a debate about religious faith but in a completely stupid way. My point was going to be this was a dumb idea, but now I’m actually starting to get excited about it again.

Bays: It's not a show, but a comedy bit we pitched when we were at Letterman: "Don Rickles Insults Animals At The Zoo." And it's exactly what it sounds like. It kills me that it never got produced. Maybe the people at Letterman will read the inevitable outpouring of support in your comments section and reconsider.

ow much do you care about what fans think?
Bays: Very, very, very much. Although sometimes what we want them to think is: "What the hell was that?" As a fan of other shows, I always loved to be amused, but I also love to be baffled, and tricked, and angered, and jerked around. It's pretty masochistic, but it keeps me coming back for more. I think we've occasionally perpetuated that cycle of psychological abuse with our own show.

Thomas: We care hugely about what fans think. Television is not a medium in which you should be playing with your back to the audience. A TV series is unique, because it’s a conversation between show and fans that lasts for years. We try to hit the sweet spot between accessibility to the more casual viewer and also rewarding hardcore fans with plenty of payoffs and callbacks. But ultimately, you write for the kind of viewer you, yourself, are. And personally, I always love it when a show calls back something from three seasons earlier, the secret handshake of that. Only TV series can do that.

Source: NY Mag