TVSquad

During last night's CBS party at the Huntington Library, I spoke to How I Met Your Mother honchos Carter Bays and Craig Thomas about the upcoming season. They wouldn't reveal much -- besides the fact that Carter is the only single person left on the staff ... he's available, ladies! -- but what they did tell me was that we'll see the mythical "mother" on the first episode of the season.

We already knew from the season finale that Ted's designated "one and only" took the Columbia University architecture class that he started teaching. But we didn't know when she'd be in that class. Bays clarified it for me: "Oh, she'll be there, in the first scene of the first episode back is Ted and the mom in the same room together."

Of course, that could mean anything, since Ted teaches in a huge lecture hall. Bays wouldn't clarify more than that; all he would say was that "we've narrowed the field tremendously. Up until this point, this woman was somewhere out there in the greater New York metropolitan area. Now, she's in a fifteen-block radius."

On CBS's The Big Bang Theory, we've met Sheldon's mother. Emmy-winner Laurie Metcalf appeared in season one as a super-religious Texas mama who knows better than anyone how to get to Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Now, Leonard's mother is going to be introduced, and she's equally as accomplished as Ms. Metcalf.

Tony, Emmy and SAG award winning actress Christine Baranski will be Leonard's mom, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter. That's right, she's a brainiac.

Her specialty is research on the human brain, and according to Bill Prady, Big Bang's executive producer, "There's the possibility that Leonard is the least successful in his family, that his parents always pushed him toward academic success." Sounds like a funny set up to me.

After the season finale of How I Met Your Mother last May, Joel asked readers if they believed that Ted would marry Stella. Nearly 61% of you responded to that poll in the negative. Six out of ten answered: "Nah. I just don't think she's the mother."

So, then, what do we make of the fact that there is definitely going to be a wedding for Ted and Stella in an October episode. That proposal from Ted to Stella in that last episode receives a yes, and he and Stella would seem to be heading down the aisle.

I say seem because if television has taught us anything it's that just because he's in a tuxedo and she's in a wedding gown, that doesn't guarantee that both will say "I do."

Even if they do go through with the wedding, though, does that mean that Stella is actually "mother"? Is it possible that Ted and Stella get married and break up before Ted hooks up with the character who is destined to be the mother that he's talking to the kids about in the openings.

One thing about Mother co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, they keep us viewers on our toes.

Kim Delaney is not Quinn Cummings, but the actresses share one thing in common: Marsha Mason as a mom, on screen that is. Army Wives has cast Marsha Mason, Oscar-nominated actress for The Goodbye Girl, as Claudia Joy Holden's mom. She will be appearing on at least two episodes this season, visiting Fort Marshall and her daughter, the general's wife.

Marsha, who is actually has been Oscar-nominated as Best Actress four times in all (Cinderella Liberty, Chapter Two, Only When I Laugh), will guest on Army Wives as Charlotte Meade, Claudia's socialite mother. Her relationship with her daughter is strained and her visit comes without warning.

One of the things that I love about How I Met Your Mother -- there, I said it, I love the show -- is the mystery surrounding who "mother" is and whether we've already seen her on the show or is she still to be introduced. It's not just the Lost fans that are watching scene by scene, shot by shot, frame by frame to uncover clues. Take this very cool observation by a blogger at Seat42f.com.

If you look at the picture, the green boxes, you'll notice that the framed handwritten letter/poem/writing in the background of Stella's home (left), is the same as the framed letter/poem/writing behind the kids in the opening of the show. According to the blogger -- who has HD and studied the scenes closely, it's definitely the same artifact.

Michael Ausiello at TVGuide.com has been playing with his calculator, or maybe it was an abacus. Anyway, Mike has used some oh-so-creative math to add two and two together to get a major revelation on a CBS sitcom. Okay, here's the scoop. Mr. Ausiello has gotten an exclusive casting tidbit from How I Met Your Mother.

Alicia Silverstone, star of Clueless on the big screen, Miss Match on the small, has been signed for a series of episodes, a mini-arc.

(S02E20) Up to this point, we've seen how his upbringing, home life, and troubles at school helped to shape Chris' worldview, but this is the first episode where we caught a glimpse of what made Chris want to be a comedian.

Since this series is a somewhat fictional take on Chris' life as a kid, we don't know if the real Chris Rock sneaked downstairs to eavesdrop on his parents listening to Redd Foxx albums, but one assumes young Chris was probably exposed to the legendary comedian at some point, not to mention the likes of Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and George Carlin.

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of your favorite shows, in order, every week.

(S01E02) In 1990, Alice actress Linda Lavin directed a CBS Schoolbreak Special called "Flour Babies" about a group of high school students given sacks of flour which they were assigned to care for as if they were actual babies. Strangers with Candy used a similar concept for this episode, but instead of flour, the students are given actual babies. Jerri tries to talk her way out of it, insisting she's already had plenty of babies, just none she's carried to full term. Reluctantly, she accepts the baby and soon nicknames it "Dizzy" because it fell off her dresser into a laundry basket. Before all of that, however, there's a great opening scene with Noblet and Jellineck where they roleplay in the bathroom, pretending to be widows and then suddenly tearing each other's clothes off for some hot gay sex.