‘How I Met Your Father’: Alison Bennett Tapped To Write New ‘HIMYM’ Spinoff

EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century TV has set Alison Bennett (FX’s You’re the Worst) to write a spinoff from the studio’s long-running comedy series How I Met Your Mother. 

Three years after 20th TV first tried to launch a HIMYM spinoff with the CBS pilot How I Met Your Dad, written by HIMYM creators Carter Bays & Craig Thomas and Emily Spivey, the studio last season took a second stab at the idea with This Is Us co-executive producers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger. But the duo’s busy schedule on This Is Us, where they were elevated to executive producers/co-showrunners, did not allow them to focus on How I Met Your Father, which was to be developed internally and written on spec at the studio.

20th TV is taking a similar route with the proposed new spinoff, again called How I Met Your Father, which Bennett will write under the overall deal she signed with the studio in April.

It will be a brand-new take on the general concept of a young ensemble show built around a storytelling device of a person — in this case a mother — telling the story of how they met their spouse. I hear it incorporates some of Bennett’s personal experiences. She had been earmarked for the job as 20th TV executives felt she might be perfect for it when they sat down with her after signing her into an overall deal.

“We’re always on the lookout for fresh, new voices, and Alison’s work on You’re the Worst has been incredible,” said 20th TV President of Creative Affairs Jonathan Davis when Bennett’s deal was announced. “She is completely original, hilariously funny and a big, big talent.”

How I Met Your Father is being written on spec at the studio, with no network attached, though CBS brass had stated publicly that they would be interested. Like with last season’s How I Met Your Father script, Bays and Thomas are attached to executive produce as creators of the original series, but their involvement is expected to be very limited as they are under an overall deal at Sony TV. 

“It’s one that’s been slowly cooked. If it’s the right idea, the right execution, we’ll take that,” Fox chairman Dana Walden said about the studio’s HIMYM spinoff strategy earlier this week.