'HIMYM' Isn't Getting That Spinoff After All

How I Met Your Mother may have ended on a sour note, but fans were going to have a fresh start in the gender flipped spin-off series How I Met Your Dad. Except not anymore. CBS hasn't picked up How I Met Your Dad among their new pilots, leaving the show in the worst kind of limbo: development hell. The network's option on HIMYD expired Wednesday, which means that if they don't give it the green light by the end of the day, the new series is dead in the water — and CBS doesn't seem interested.

"I'm heartsick, as it is a very important show," said CBS Entertainment Chariman Nina Tassler. "It didn't work out." She didn't give any kind of reason for why the network was passing on How I Met Your Dad, but the fact still remains that it will have to find a new home on a network other than that of its predecessor, or we'll be saying goodbye to the concept for good.

On the one hand, that could be a good thing. Putting How I Met Your Dad in the hands of the same network that destroyed nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother character development in one single series-ending episode just seems like a bad idea. Think about what a different show How I Met Your Dad could be if developed by the CW or by HBO. (Okay, now I have a great need to see How I Met Your Dad as imagined by HBO.)

On the other hand, punishing How I Met Your Dad for HIMYM's mistakes is doing the show a great disservice. The backlash against How I Met Your Mother's finale is still going strong — especially with the actors continuously giving interviews that imply they don't believe it was the worst thing ever — and How I Met Your Dad could have been the network's second chance to do right by the viewers. Maybe it's because that's a lot of pressure to put on a fledging new series that caused CBS to drop the spin-off.

Either way, it looks like How I Met Your Mother's legacy will be remaining on that low note, at least for now.

Image: CBS