10+ Dark Secrets Behind 'How I Met Your Mother'

About the TV show How I Met Your Mother (henceforth known as HIMYM). I know, who would've thought such a wacky comedy would have dark secrets, but that's the best part about reading Diply.

You learn something new every time.

Apparently, Jason Segel was an avid smoker during the time HIMYM was on the air, much to the dismay of his co-star and frequent kissing partner Alyson Hannigan.

She tried to get him to quit but ultimately failed.

We all know that Cobie Smulders killed it as Robin, but did you know the role almost went to Jennifer Love Hewitt?

She gave the role away to instead star in The Ghost Whisperer. Ooh, spooky.

NPH, the man behind the legendary Barney Stinson, didn't want Britney Spears to be on the show.

He thought that having guest stars for the sake of guest stars would be detrimental to the fans.

Speaking of Ms. Spears, the reason we didn't get an Alicia Silverstone (Clueless) cameo is that she was afraid she would be overshadowed by the pop star.

You see, Alicia was supposed to play Stella and Britney was supposed to be her assistant.

During the run of the show, too. And in the eyes of the fans, she was fine.

She didn't reveal that she battled with ovarian cancer until after the TV show's run.

Okay, so it's not exactly dark.

But it's pretty dark for him since the creators didn't know about it and had dogs on set.

Yes, there was a... problematic episode of this otherwise really funny sitcom.

The episode is kind of forgettable anyways (minus this very rememberable moment) but essentially the cast has fu-man-chus and yellow painted skin.

There have been at least two that I know of, both have a title that are pretty similar too.

Both starring women, the sitcoms would have the same basic outline as How I Met Your Mother but were going to be called How I Met Your Dad and How I Met Your Father.

Obviously, it would've taken the women's perspective.

I'm talking monstrous! This thing was so big that his neighbors sued him over it.

After refusing to tear it down, he was sued again and lost a whole bunch of money.

We all love seeing NPH and his family on Halloween, however, there's one story about a Halloween we're glad we missed.

Apparently, NPH got a cake depicting the corpse of recently dead singer Amy Winehouse. Yeesh!

Apparently, Jason Segel hasn't even seen the finale.

He wants the show to live on in his own mind, even though he knows how it ends.

Lily, on the other hand, is very adamant about how she doesn't like the finale.

Alyson Hannigan thinks the whole thing was confusing, and she also hated seeing Barney get married.

In an interview, Carter Bays explained how their very own small relatable moments, like being single in the big city, influenced the script and characters.

The now-husband somehow convinced the writers to write the proposal into the season finale's script. He had to convince his then-girlfriend that she was going to be an extra in the show.

How on earth do you top that?!

Fearing the worst during the pilot, the writers and producers actually wrote and filmed the finale eight years before the actual finale, which would peg Victoria as the "mother."

In an interview on Live with Kelly and Michael, Parsons recalled his failed audition. He didn't feel that he could portray the "big lug of a guy" that the script had envisioned Barney to be, so he ran out of the room and, of course, ended up landing it big on The Big Bang Theory.

This was due to Barney Stinson's popularity, and honestly, I can't blame the creators for wanting to keep him on.

Numbers wise, the rest of the cast made about $120,000 per episode while NPH made $210,000.

Everyone remembers the backlash that accompanied the ending to the HIMYM series, however there was another planned.

Essentially, Ted gives his kids the quick version of the previous nine seasons, then it cuts to when Ted and Tracy first meet. The episode ends with the train arriving.