‘If you were an alien civilization,” says Craig Thomas, co-creator of the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother,” “and you just watched sitcoms about marriage, you’d think it was some kind of torture. It doesn’t seem you see the fun side of it at all.”
Last Monday night, fans got to see longtime lovers Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) tie the knot — twice — with justice of the peace pal Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) giving his friends the small outdoor wedding they desired, in the midst of a disastrous large one.
Actually, it’s three times, if you count their misguided attempt at an impromptu nautical nuptial in the season-one finale last year. That set off a chain reaction that led to a breakup that continued through the early part of this season.
While filming the wedding on a brilliant day in a lush park very near the show’s sets at 20th Century Fox Studios in West Los Angeles, co-creator Carter Bays takes a break while one of many planes flies over and reflects on how it all came to pass.
“Last year,” he says, “we didn’t have the whole season plotted out, but we knew it would begin with Marshall proposing to Lily, and with Marshall and Lily breaking up. That was what we set our compasses to as we were writing the whole season.
“This season, we knew it started with Marshall and Lily broken up, with Marshall sitting on the steps with the ring. We knew we wanted to get our character from that lowest point ever to the highest point ever and see them get married.
“It was really fun, testing their mettle and putting their relationship to the test and showing how you do come out stronger on the other side.”
The show’s premise is that Marshall and Lily’s pal, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), is talking to his children in 2030, explaining how he came to meet their mom (hence the title). In the pilot, he met Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), but since at the end of the episode he called her “Aunt Robin,” it doesn’t seem she’s the bride in question.
But that didn’t stop Bays and Thomas from having Robin and Ted fall in love. There is even a momentous development for them in the season finale on Monday, which takes place largely at the wedding reception.
“The cuter they are when they get together,” Bays says, “and the more adorable they are, we keep thinking that we’re just going to have to hit her with a meteor or something. There’s no way out of this.”
Out in the park, between takes, Radnor has on a tux, and Smulders has a fluffy bathrobe thrown over her bridesmaid’s dress. Even when not in character, they’re awfully cute together.
“Beautiful day in the neighborhood,” sings Smulders. “Beautiful day to be a neighbor …”
“Hood,” says Radnor.
“Could you be mine?” says Smulders.
“I will be,” says Radnor.
Segel is hiding from the sun because of the makeup he’s wearing to simulate Marshall’s wedding-day hair mishap, which resulted in partial baldness.
“I remind myself of my dad,” Segel says.
The following week on the show’s sets, Hannigan is still tromping around in the same strapless, beaded $8,000 Monique Lhuillier wedding dress she wore in the park, complete with green sweat pants and Ugg boots underneath.
“It’s gorgeous,” she says, “and for one night, it would be lovely, but enough is enough.”
