CBS Passes on 'How I Met Your Dad' and Alyson Hannigan
by EG
The fallout from the ungraceful end of “How I Met Your Mother” spread this week, as CBS declined to put two new sitcoms with links to “HIMYM” on its fall schedule. Pilots for both “How I Met Your Dad” and the Alyson Hannigan-starring “More Time with Family” had been ordered by the network, but neither show made it onto the fall schedule that CBS announced on Wednesday.
The “HIMYM” spin-off “How I Met Your Dad” probably seemed like a good idea when “HIMYM” was riding high as one of the network’s biggest shows, but when the idea was announced, fans were not enthusiastic. Worse, the final season of “HIMYM” was well off the show’s peak popularity, and its controversial finale left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans. Even the addition of indie-film darling Greta Gerwig and the voice-over talents of Meg Ryan to “How I Met Your Dad” weren’t enough to convince the network that the show would be successful.
A “HIMYM” alum had similarly bad luck. Alyson Hannigan was set to star in “More Time with Family,” a sitcom produced by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and starring Tom Papa, but CBS decided not to put the show on its fall schedule, either.