The How I Met Your Mother Blog

Known to us as Carl the Bartender at MacLarens, we haven’t seen Joe Nieves in awhile. Not since Monday Night Football last season where he had much more of a speaking role and I thought he might be featured a little more prominently. Then he’s gone, just like that.

From the DVDs I know that Joe Nieves was originally supposed to play a cop in the pilot, but the role was cut. He showed up to work in his own cop outfit and made such an impression on Bays and Thomas that they gave him the part of Carl the Bartender (aspiring actor’s note: show up in outfit.)

More trivia: both the character Carl and the bar—MacLaren’s—is named after production assistant Carl Maclaren who, I believe, is the assistant to Bays and Thomas and has come up with a couple Barneyisms over the years.

But where’d Joe Nieves go? I always liked his appearances. Wendy the Waitress is still around, so why can’t Carl come back?

Consider this post a petition. Bring back Joe Nieves! Who’s going to write their number on Drunk Ted’s arm? He’ll wake up with the penguins at the zoo! Leave your support in the comments. Or maybe you hate Nieves. You’d be wrong, but you can still comment.

Carl the Bartender appeared in:

Pilot
The Sweet Taste of Liberty
The Slutty Pumpkin
Matchmaker
The Pineapple Incident
Ted Mosby, Architect
Swarley
Columns
Monday Night Football

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