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"It started form a place of real sadness," series co-creator Carter Bays tells Zap2it. "It's especially hard because Bill Fagerbakke (Marvin Eriksen Sr.) was there at the table read. You just killed off his character and here he is sitting with you. We address it in the episode with laughter."


"HIMYM" does end up compensating for tragedy with a surprising amount of humor. Lily's (Alyson Hannigan) attempts at comforting her resentful mother-in-law, Robin's (Cobie Smulders) Mary Poppins bag of grief accessories (cigarettes, booze, DVDs, phone chargers...) and the series' hilarious presentation of Midwestern ritual all successfully lighten the mood.

But they never forget why they took the story here. "Shows like "Family Ties" and "Cheers," the shows we loved, were shows that were funny 90 percent of time time," Bays says of himself and co-creator Craig Thomas, who co-wrote the episode. "But their humor came from characters and your love of the characters as audience member. So that 10 percent when they weren't funny, it meant that much more to you."

The success of the somber portion of the episode owes a lot of credit to Jason Segel, who gives about as heartfelt of a performance as we can recall from his largely comedic career.

"I think we struck a good balance of finding humor," says Bays, who made a special point of noting that the series' fondness of Fagerbakke means that Marshall's father will live on in flashbacks. "We'll be able to bring Bill back. This won't be the last time we see him on the show."

But for now, it looks like they can turn their attention on another father. After a montage of the gang calling their own dads, we end it on Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) ringing up his mother, saying he's ready to know the father he's never met.

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