Co-creator Carter Bays would like to give a weighty storyline for Marshall and emphasize on the drama that 'will set off everything else that follows'.
- Jan 5, 2011
AceShowbiz - Call it a comedy with heart, "How I Met Your Mother" shocked its audience on Monday, January 3 night with its sad ending. Executive producer Carter Bays has just admitted that the decision to kill Marshall's dad is "kind of built the whole season around".
The episode, called "Bad News", is centered on Marshall and Lily trying to have a baby. Initially believing they had fertility problems, they found out the otherwise. Marshall celebrated it by going to MacLaren's with his pals but he realized that his parents were waiting for the good news. As he phoned home, nobody picked up. Lily exited a cab and told him the bad news.
"We felt like one important ingredient in the early seasons of the show was that there was some angst and there was some sadness, and it was a way for us to really mine our own lives and to really fully explore emotions about situations that we've been in," Bays explained in an interview with E! Online.
"There are a few touchstones in life that are really sad, and this is one of them. It's something that a few writers on the show have gone through and we kind of built the whole season around this moment as will be revealed in the remaining 11 episodes. The first half of the season was kind of us getting our ducks in a row, and this event will set off everything else that follows."
Regarding what's coming ahead for Marshall, Bays said, "Marshall is a character with so much heart and it's hard to see him go through something bad. I remember the season finale of season one, it was sort of gut-wrenching seeing him after Lily dumped him."
"We knew we wanted to do something to explore this particular milepost in living life in your thirties. It's something that does happen to people. We always knew that this might be something Marshall goes through, and it felt like this was the right time to do it."
"How I Met Your Mother" returns January 17 with "Last Words". The gang travels home to Minnesota with Marshall where Ted and Barney will stop at nothing to make Marshall laugh. Meanwhile, Marshall has an unfortunate meeting with an old high school bully that terrorized him throughout his youth.
