How They Got it Made [with co-creator Carter Bays]
How We Made Your Mother
Audacy & Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas
4.8 • 920 Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week's episode of How We Made Your Mother, we welcome the most special of guests: The co-creator, co-writer, co-showrunner and Executive Producer of How I Met Your Mother, the legendary... Carter Bays!
If you’ve ever wondered how you get a show on the air, especially one that is all framed as a flashback, or one that is framed as a flashback and uses even more flashbacks (and flashforwards) in that flashback, or one that is framed as a flashback and uses flashbacks and flashforwards that also has its characters evolve and change, oh and also has maybe 65 or 70 scenes per episode and sometimes will take a few minutes break from comedy to go full drama, oh and has a really long, bizarre title, oh that is being written by two guys who look young enough to be their own kids…
… well this is the podcast episode for you. This is How We Got it Made.
Later this week, look out for a bonus episode, where Carter and Craig talk about how they met, played music together, were hired by Letterman, and all their stops on the road to HIMYM.
Spoilers: In this ep of the pod, we don't dive into a specific HIMYM episode juuuuust yet. NEXT week, we begin our official episode rewatch, starting with the How I Met Your Mother pilot. Rewatch with us and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!
CONNECT WITH THE SHOW:
Official Website (Send us your audio and written messages)
Substack (Join the mailing list, get announcements, and read more from Josh and Craig)
HOW YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
Donate to our ongoing campaign to support congenital heart disease research
AND MORE:
Josh’s “Museletters” on Substack
Craig’s Official Website (with links to his published writing)
Alek’s “Dead Fathers Society” on Substack
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
Nutrafol: Start your hair growth journey with Nutrafol at nutrafol.com and enter the code YOURMOTHER
ADVERTISING INQUIRIES:
AND IN CASE IT HELPS:
00:00 The Impact of 'How I Met Your Mother' on Personal Lives
04:46 The Journey of Pitching the Show
14:54 Creating a Unique Narrative Structure
20:05 Casting Challenges and Triumphs
30:14 The Audition Experience
35:48 Creating Robin Scherbatsky
44:09 The Pressure of Network Tests
49:30 Listener Stories and Reflections
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Erin from Orlando. |
| 0:03.0 | Hi, I'm Stacy from Albuquerque, New Mexico. |
| 0:05.0 | Hi, I'm Mimi. I'm in Los Angeles, but for college, I was in the UK. |
| 0:10.0 | What how I met your mother means to me is that grief is temporary. |
| 0:13.0 | It means for me that happiness and humor are both found in the midst of great tragedy. |
| 0:17.0 | I saw as things happening in my life happened on screen in real time. |
| 0:21.6 | Sometimes we've been on the same day, which was a little weird, but good job. |
| 0:25.6 | The writers in the cast allowed those characters to feel all of those heart breaks without the need for an additional laugh. |
| 0:30.6 | But unfortunately, the episodes didn't air on UK TV at the same time that they aired on US TV. |
| 0:36.6 | So, yes, I was pirating these episodes, like, Rips streaming video link that frequently was reversed. |
| 0:44.3 | So sometimes in my mind, the entrance to the apartment is on the other side of the screen. |
| 0:48.1 | I was reminded that things don't always go as planned, but it happened the way they're supposed to. |
| 0:52.6 | And there's always going to be people around |
| 0:54.5 | to make sure you're okay. I'm alone. What a pity I won't be soon in New York City when I see you. |
| 1:08.0 | Please permit me to tell you everything in New York City. |
| 1:15.1 | Hello and welcome to another episode of How We Made Your Mother. |
| 1:20.4 | I am Josh Radner. I am here with Craig Thomas. |
| 1:24.9 | Hello, everybody. |
| 1:26.0 | Hello, Craig. Also Alec Lev, our producer and Savior and Mr. Fix It All. |
| 1:34.6 | And it's only our second episode, but we're already on a very special episode of how we made your mother. |
| 1:40.4 | It's very special because we have Carter Bays with us. |
| 1:44.9 | Oh, no. |
... |
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