TVSquad

When I first read the headline about Arianna Huffington getting into the TV comedy business, I had visions of her as Maude or something equally as bizarre.

Fortunately, it was just my skewed sense of humor at work, because Arianna Huffington, the political talking head and co-creator of The Huffington Post, is not starring in a sitcom. ABC has bought Huffington's idea for a multicamera sitcom. And just to make sure it's funny, they've hired executive producer Greg Malins (Friends, How I Met Your Mother) to develop the project.

20th Century Fox TV is producing the show for ABC and, yes, it is about politics. See, there are these three freshman members of the House of Representatives, two men and a woman (but no pizza place). They share an apartment in the D.C. area. "One is swept up in the movement of change... one has been in politics for a long time, and one is a master of the media and sound bites," said Malins.

There are lots of questions that have come up about the last few episodes How I Met Your Mother's second season: Will Robin and Ted stay together or will they break up? Why were the two of them covered in tomato sauce during the "Showdown" episode? Will Ted finally meet the woman who becomes the mother to his kids? And, of course, will HIMYM make it to a third season, given the rumors that the show is very much on the bubble?

Well, who better to go to for answers than Carter Bays? He and Craig Thomas (Craig is on the left in the picture above, and Carter is on the right) are the creators and executive producers of the show, and have been working as a writing team since they met at Wesleyan University. The 31-year-olds worked together on Late Show with David Letterman, Oliver Beene, and American Dad before getting a chance to run the show on HIMYM in 2005.

I spoke to Bays by phone last week (I was supposed to also speak with Thomas, but a family emergency called him away). Be warned that this interview contains MAJOR SPOILERS pertaining to the finale. I will warn you prior to a spoilery portion of the interview (and tell you when it ends) so you can skip it if you wish.

Thanks to the efforts of former TVS writer Ryan Budke, this lovely little blog you're reading is high on the browsing list of the staff of How I Met Your Mother. In fact, they seem to like us quite a bit; at the CBS press tour party, co-creator Craig Thomas said he reads my reviews of the show every week, and executive producer Greg Malins came up to me while I was talking to Craig to tell me how much he loved the Squad (it sounded something like, "You guys are awesome!" But it was too loud in there for me to hear well. All I know is that it wasn't along the lines of "What a fine weblog you have, my dear fellow. Cheerio and pip pip.").

Anyway, because of this comfort level, I didn't have any problem asking the other co-creator, Carter Bays, a few questions about where the season is going, as well as some questions about not being picked to be in the post-Super Bowl slot. I also asked him about the origins of the two best episodes of the season, "Slap Bet" and "Swarley."

By the way, in the picture above, Craig is on the left and Carter is on the right. They look so young, don't they?