TVSquad

(S03E16) Bless the peapickin' little hearts of Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. All week, they've been setting us up, telling us about the return of Robin Sparkles, saying that we were going to get an episode full of eighties and nineties goodness, complete with James Van Der Beek, Tiffany, and Alan Thicke. We even got a video (full video is after the end of the review) as a taste.

But all of it was a ruse. A week-long ruse to distract us from realizing what was really going to happen in this episode. Since I don't want to spoil it for anyone, come with me to the after-jump portion of our review and then we can talk.

For those that haven't heard, Robin Sparkles makes a triumphant return to How I Met Your Mother this coming Monday night, featuring guest appearances from Alan Thicke and James Van Der Beek.

Turns out, "Let's Go to the Mall" was only the A-side to her wildly popular Canadian pop single, first heard in the episode "Slap Bet." The B-side? "Sandcastles in the Sand," a cheesy ballad chock full of Canadian and 80's goodness... even though the song was supposedly recorded in the early 90's.

Well if you can't wait to hear it, now you can. Variety received the song and you can stream it from their website here. While not as catchy as "...Mall," the tune is still hilarious, full of Canuck references ("Together we were gonna travel the globe, from Alberta to Ontario.") and funny one-liners ("I miss your hair."). There's nothing yet on Sparkles' MySpace page, except the artwork for the album. I'm sure the full video will be posted after the show airs. It's sure to be an another huge viral hit for CBS and HIMYM.

Have you been missing those references to Scherbatsky's Canadian life? If you know what I'm talking about then you'll be overjoyed to know that on April 21, How I Met Your Mother will be all about Robin Sparkles, Robin Scherbatsky's alter-ego teen singing star. The entire episode is planned as a flashback to the 1980s 1990's when Robin became a one-hit wonder with the song "Let's Go to the Mall." Well, it turns out that wasn't her only song. Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, How I Met Your Mother's co-creators, composed a ballad. "Sandcastles in the Sand" was the flip-side of "Let's Go to the Mall." It's supposedly in the style of a power break-up ballad, like "Foolish Beat" and "Toy Soldiers."

One thing I didn't enjoy much about NBC's comedy Will & Grace was the constant famous guest stars popping in almost on a weekly basis. At times, it felt like the episodes were written for those guest stars instead of writing the episodes first and then trying to find a famous person to fill in a role. Since the strike ended, I fear that How I Met Your Mother is heading towards that same path. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing guest stars here and there in a series but having them pop up week after week can get tiring. So I hope this is only a renewal stunt for the series and not something that will become the standard.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Britney Spears guest starred in the March 24 episode of HIMYM. Alicia Silverstone was set to appear in a few episodes (some suspect her character would have turned out to be the mother) but bowed out when Spears was hired because Silverstone was worried that her performance would be over-shadowed by Britney's appearance.

The latest addition to the HIMYM guest star list: Dawson's Creek's James Van Der Beek! Slight spoilers about the role and episode ahead!

The Slap Bet is coming! The Slap Bet is coming!

CBS is finally showing a little love for one of the best comedies on television, How I Met Your Mother, by launching this countdown clock to the next Slap Bet. What is a Slap Bet? Only the greatest subplot ever. In last season's "Robin Sparkles" episode, Marshall didn't have any money to bet Barney on why Robin refused to go to the mall, so they agreed that the loser of the bet got a slap. There was some "premature slapulation" and Marshall ended up with five slaps, to dole out against Barney at any time from here to eternity. By the way, if you haven't seen the episode, please take some time to go over to this HIMYM MySpace website. It will get you hooked on the series.

Fans will remember that Marshall still owes Barney three slaps. Apparently the next one is coming in just about four months.

How do you fans feel, knowing exactly when another slap is coming?

So, Christmas in July is only a few short days away, and you don't know what to buy your friends (who will probably be wondering why the hell you're celebrating Christmas in July anyway). Fret not, holiday shopper, because I have the solution for you: Robin Sparkles Mall Tour t-shirts!

Yes, now you can relive those memories of your favorite Canadian pop star, who is now known as Robin Scherbatsky in the CBS comedy How I Met Your Mother, courtesy of Glarkware. The front of the shirt features a splashy maple leaf design while the back displays a list of Canadian malls (not slouches by any means, according to the website) that Sparkles toured during 1993. The shirt costs $20 (US), and comes in either girlie or unisex style. Make those purchases quickly because pre-ordering ends on July 31st.

The ever-reliable TVShowsOnDVD.com brings us the good news that the second season of How I Met Your Mother will come out on DVD on October 2.

It looks like Carter Bays, Craig Thomas and company have put together a pretty good package. Seven episodes will get audio commentary from the creators, as well as various writers and cast members, including fan (and personal) favorites from last year "Swarley," "Robin Sparkles," "Showdown," and "Single Stamina." It will also include the video for "Let's Go to the Mall," performed by Cobie ("Robin Sparkles") Smulders, a video for the show's theme song, "Hey Beautiful" by the Solids, four featurettes and an easter egg.

If you don't watch How I Met Your Mother but are curious about why we all love it so damn much, I suggest you watch the "Slap Bet" episode. It was the one that got me hooked. And, as Joel said, it was "one of the funniest half-hours of comedy on TV in 2006". The entire episode is on the HIMYM official MySpace page and it's also embedded after the jump inside this post.

Why is it so funny? Hmmm. Let me count the ways. Uh... only because there's face-slapping. And Robin Sparkles. Those two elements alone make it legen...wait for it...dary!

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.

I usually don't highlight repeats, but this is a special case:

Tonight, CBS will rerun what I thought was the funniest half-hour of TV in 2006: the "Slap Bet" episode of How I Met Your Mother. I'm not the only one who thought the episode was a high point of the 2006-07 television season, though: The Boston Globe thought it was the 2nd best episode of any show that aired in 2006. And Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger felt at the time that HIMYM made what he called "The Leap" after that episode, meaning that the ep had propelled the show to a higher quality level (though, like me, he later realized that it was more of a "high-water mark." And, also like me, he fell into the trap of comparing subsequent episodes to it).

What made the episode so great?

One of the advantages to being 31-year-old show-runners is that you can utilize your intimate relationship with the internet to effectively promote your show. That's what Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have been doing with How I Met Your Mother. First, it was Barney's Blog. Then it was the MySpace page for Robin Sparkles, complete with music video. Now, according to The New York Times, Bays and Thomas will be using MySpace again tonight, showing viewers scenes of Marshall's bachelor party that are too "racy" to be shown on TV. The deleted scene will be shown on the program's own MySpace page.

Bays and Thomas are using the internet because, as Thomas put it, "We're more like an NBC Thursday night comedy... but we happen to be on CBS. So how do we let young people know about our show if they're not watching the other shows on the network?"

(S02E09) Holy living crap, was that a funny episode or what? I laughed hard during most of it, something that I only seem to do during The Office, Scrubs, and early Simpsons episodes. God, it was all so good: The slap bet, and the resulting payments on both sides; Marshall and Lilly enthusiastically telling each other about every mundane detail of their days; Barney's "Ohh..." moments; Robin's elaborate (and classy!) lies about her nonexistent Canadian marriage; the flashback to thirty seconds before the first slap...

... But the best part of the entire episode came at the end, when Robin revealed her dirty little secret, one that she didn't want anyone to know, including her beloved boyfriend Ted...