Thomas and Bays Speak: Strike Woes, 11th Grade Teachers, and a Maternal Admission

Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, creators of How I Met Your Mother (the show is semi-autobiographical for them) have posted a letter to fans on the HIMYM MySpace page. It looks like The Platinum Rule will be the last new episode until the TV Writers Strike is sorted out. It’s all very sad. Read their letter below:
Letter to the Fans from the Producers
Hello HIMYM fans. Motherheads? Howsiers? What are you calling yourselves these days? So first things first, thank you for the incredible support you guys have given us over the years. We mean it. When you create a show, you never think you’re doing anything more than telling a funny story. But apparently we’ve created a community, and it seems to be a community of pretty decent people. It’s a community we’d probably want to have a beer with. Our fans seem cool and smart and funny, and it drives us to want to make the show better, to never let it stagnate, to always push ourselves to try something interesting and new. So thank you.
Anyway, we’d like to take a little moment here to come out from behind the desk, cool-11th-grade-english-teacher-style, roll up our sleeves and “rap” at you guys for a bit. We want to talk about the strike. By now you probably know what strike we’re talking about, but if you don’t, watch this movie:
What it boils down to is this: Tonight’s episode of “How I Met Your Mother” is the last new one for a while. Starting next week, we grimly trudge off the map and into the desert of reruns and reality TV.
We can’t tell you how difficult this last month and a half has been for us, both personally and professionally. We work with the best people in this business – the best at their jobs, the best at being nice and decent human beings – and the thought of all of them out of work over the holidays is almost too much to bear. We miss them all every day.
That’s by far the suckiest part of the strike – nothing tops that. But there’s other suckiness, such as the suckiness of having to put this story on pause. We love our show. We love the stories we get to tell. And this year on How I Met Your Mother, we think the story is particularly great. A very juicy, breathtaking, funny, and (to use our director Pam’s word) yummy story was just starting to unfold as the ax began to fall. We’re very excited about the second half of this season, and not bringing it to you right now, factory-direct, sparkling-new, is simply killing us.
But enough with our problems. The reason we’re writing today is to beseech you guys, the fans of this show, to bear with us. The love and support you’ve shown us over the last two and a half seasons has been truly surprising and awesome, and we hope you’ll rejoin us when this whole mess is over with. But for now, this is going to have to be a long distance relationship. We know you’ll get lonely, and Mario Lopez is such a good dancer… but come on, hang in there. Sure, long distance doesn’t ever work for anyone, but we’re different. What we’ve got is special. We can make this work.
But in the meantime, if you want to help us end this strike quickly, please visit www.fans4writers.com. That site explains exactly what the WGA is asking for, exactly why it’s completely reasonable, and exactly how you can show your support.
And just in case the strike goes on so long that the medium of television goes out of business forever and we never get to make another episode, the mother is the coat check girl.
Happy Holidays!
Carter Bays and Craig Thomas
Over here at HYMT we won’t be closing our doors, maybe just lowering the blinds. I’ll post recaps of older episodes for us to discuss, little gems from the past, as a way to keep our love for the show fresh. I’ll also launch the Season vs. Season for the early episodes that haven’t been covered yet. Once it returns (hopefully sooner than later) we’ll go right back into the swing of things. Stay tuned everyone.
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Wait for it…
8:30pm Mondays on CBS.


Nathan | December 12, 2007 @ 1:29 pm
“coat check girl” they must just be playing with us.
corey | December 12, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
I re-watched ‘okay awesome’ to see the coat check girl for myself, and she’s perfect for ted….however, future ted did say that she wasn’t. They’re totally playing with us…but who knows?!?
Ranier | December 12, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
‘the mother is the coat check girl.’
Hahaha they are just joking around. Besides Future Ted said that she wasn’t. Besides, they would never said that.
I already knew that 3.11 was gonna be the last episode until the strike end. So…we only have the recaps and dvd’s
Ajay | December 16, 2007 @ 2:51 pm
hey dude congrats 4 ur new job!!! hpe ur adjusting!! i luvd The platinum rule ep hd a strange n amazing humour in it wid Barney xplainin da rules 2 Ted n spoiling his ” i just woke up” style 2 prevent him from goin on date!!! n promptly Marshall givin him a tissue to wipe his hands!! Lol. hey cool u added da subtitles sections!!! now ur blog is my one stop blog i get evrithng i nid hre!!!
wel pretty bad abt da strike , niwe wish ya n al da HIMYM fans MERRY XMAS N HAPPI NEW YR…. i kno its early bt dunno wer i wil lay drunk @ dat tme!! ; )
Sash | December 17, 2007 @ 3:25 am
‘the mother is the coat check girl’
WHAT?
john darc | December 18, 2007 @ 9:07 pm
i love the little nod to the “11th grade english teacher”. Craig Thomas’ father in law is an 11th grade english teacher. He was MY 11th grade english teacher. But he didn’t just teach 11th grade…..Oh well, can’t win em all.
Tyler | January 30, 2008 @ 5:14 pm
I liked the coat check girl.
Future Ted may have said she wasn’t the one, but then again he also said he never saw Trudy again. And then came the Tricycle…