UPDATE:
The pilot episode for How I Met Your Mother spinoff series How I Met Your Dad has been shopped around to other networks, but was not picked up. Recent reports of this news claimed that it is still possible for the series to be redeveloped and revived for Fall 2015.
However, series creator Carter Bays took to Twitter this morning to state that How I Met Your Dad is officially dead.
I don’t know why I keep reading articles about this, but since nobody bothers asking us: We are really, truly not working on HIMYD anymore.
— Carter Bays (@CarterBays) July 11, 2014
Bays added:
HIMYD was fun to work on, terrific cast, terrific writer, but it’s over now and we have other stuff we want to do.
— Carter Bays (@CarterBays) July 11, 2014
He did, however, indicate that there is a possibility of the show being developed in the future:
Maybe in the future it could be something, but I think we need to try something new before we go back to it.
— Carter Bays (@CarterBays) July 11, 2014
CBS officially announced Wednesday that it has decided to not pick up the How I Met Your Mother spinoff, How I Met Your Dad.
The new comedy follows Greta Gerwig as Sally as she tells the tale of how she met her children’s father, with Meg Ryan serving as the narrator. Early reports indicated that CBS would surely pick up the series. However, after viewing the pilot from Carter Bays, Craig Thomas and Emily Spivey, CBS decided to pass on it.
“There were elements on the pilot that didn’t work out,” CBS’ Nina Tassler stated. “We tried to work out about redoing the pilot. That’s not happening right now. Sometimes you run into these kind of issues and you hope they can resolve themselves in that time frame.”
Tassler explained how they had found success in retooling pilots in the past, citing The Big Bang Theory, Numb3rs, and The McCarthys as examples. Yet, when CBS first asked Bays and Thomas to re-do the pilot, the producers reportedly refused to reshoot it without the promise of a series order from the network.
“I’m heartsick,” Tassler added. “We loved this brand and we love the producers but it didn’t work out.”
The rights to How I Met Your Dad will now go back to 20th Century Fox Television, who will most likely shop the series to other networks.
