'How I Met Your Dad' Generates Little Excitement

When "How I Met Your Mother" wraps up its final season next spring, CBS will lose its second-highest-rated comedy series and the anchor of its Monday-night line up. So when it was confirmed last week that plans for a spin-off series to be called "How I Met Your Dad" are definite, the network was no doubt hoping to generate some excitement and reassurance that there would be life after "HIMYM." That didn't really happen.

The series, which will be a joint venture between "HIMYM" creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays and "Up All Night"'s Emily Spivey, reportedly will not feature any of the characters from the current series, and it's not clear how much connection there will be between the two series' settings or contexts. Initial reports that the spin-off's characters could be introduced at the end of this season of "How I Met Your Mother" were apparently false, and the word now is that the spin-off and the current series will merely be "kindred spirits"—which means, presumably, that they will have similarities only in name and general premise.

Distressingly for CBS, fan reaction to the news has been largely negative. Critics point out that the once-novel premise of "How I Met Your Mother" is now old news—the series' current season isn't exactly drawing rave reviews—and the prospect of a derivative series with no connection to the old characters seems to be generating very little excitement and a few "Worst Spin-Off Idea" jabs.