The bottom line is friendship and the closeness these five have that often – almost always  – transcends other relationships. That is understandable with Barney, whose relationships last no more than a microsecond. And of course Marshall and Lily are the glue – a relationship that thrives with three footloose friends, except when they are looking for the perfect couple to befriend.

How sad that Robin turns down the job for love – not  necessarily love for Don but perhaps for love of her four best friends. What do you think – was it Don or the gang ? Or both ? I really could nto call this one, could you ?

That said, if it was love for Don, what a blow ! He never said come with me and we will build a life together and a career for you too ! It could be done. I know because my sister and her husband, Pat and Joe Harper, were co-anchors on WPIX in New York City – the first husband and wife co-anchor news team in television history !

Robin chose love over career, Don didn’t – game, set and match. For a moment several episodes ago I thought Don could become part of the gang. Wrong !!  We never got to know Don well, and now I know why – there wasn’t a  lot there. Robin better get a hold of herself and decide what she wants in life. Otherwise she could be susceptible to the next pretty face that comes along and dings her.

According to Michael Ausiello, Marshall and Lily will indeed have a baby – no more of this beating around the bush, “maybe baby” stuff. They will have a baby, and it will be a boy, as was hinted earlier this season when Future Ted’s narration gave the audience this information. Says Carter Bays,

“Every now and then we like to, in a roundabout way, paint a clear picture of who they are at the time that the show’s being narrated from,” he explains. “And yes, we felt like it was time to tell the audience that Marshall and Lily also go on to have kids.”

Bays goes on to say, “a stork isn’t going to drop a baby in their laps in the season premiere…. [Parenthood] is going to be a big chapter in their lives. There are a lot of steps ahead.”

For those of you who are Robin Sparkles fans (and who isn’t?), good news. Footage will surface of the 80′s star’s failed  variety show with Alan Thicke. Carter Bays says,

“It’s inevitable that we’re going to see what that show was all about,” confirms exec producer Carter Bays. “That’s

something to look forward to next season.” Indeed!

In the fourth season ender of How I Met Your Mother, Barney and Robin took center stage as they acknowledged their feelings towards each other and finally hooked up, while Ted landed an architectural teaching job and inched closer to meeting his future wife. This season, the focus of the finale will be completely different as the show puts the spotlight on Lily, Marshall and Robin.

Robin: Though it’s been revealed that Robin and her co-worker Don have been dating for some time now, Don hasn’t exactly been visible since their first date. That will all change pretty soon, specifically in the big season finale where some “bad stuff” goes down with Don and Robin’s portrayer, Cobie Smulders, told us that “he may not be with us for much longer.”

Maybe Baby: Having already reached the 100th landmark episode, it’s only fitting that everyone’s favorite married couple, Marshall and Lily, also take a big step in their relationship. And at this point, “it makes sense for Marshall and Lily, who’ve been together something like 14 years…to be really considering that next rite of passage,” according to co-creator Craig Thomas.

“It’s a great place to end [this fifth year] I think,” says Thomas of Marshall and Lily possibly getting pregnant. “And it feels kind of fun to wrap up the season by putting the focus on Lily and Marshall and what’s coming for them.”

The Love Triangle: As reported previously, two people will be reuniting on How I Met Your Mother this season, sparking discussions on whether Robin will get back with Ted or rekindle her affair with Barney.  Thomas says that this love triangle will unfold in the finale, can only say this: “All I’ll say is, you know, we have a little bit of a triangle on the show. Both Barney and Ted have dated Robin and both were in love with her, so we have a fun moment toward the end of our season where that is acknowledged and explored.”

The Doppelganger: So far How I Met Your Mother fans have already seen Lesbian Robin, Mustache Marshall and Stripper Lily. But before the fifth season concludes, fans will see Ted’s look-alike too.

She may not be a former Canadian pop star in real life, but Cobie Smulders plays one on TV. As Robin Scherbatsky on CBS’s Emmy-winning How I Met Your Mother, the Vancouver-born actress plays a morning-news anchor who dabbled in bubblegum pop music in the early ’80s under the stage name Robin Sparkles. And while Robin’s clique of thirtysomething friends — played by Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan — have only uncovered two recordings to date, the music videos have been so popular that they have inspired dozens of fan parodies on YouTube. Aside from being a former pop star though, Smulders’ character is also the show’s consummate bachelorette who just this season won the heart of Neil Patrick Harris’ comically machismo bachelor.

As How I Met Your Mother’s fifth season winds down, Cobie Smulders caught Movieline up on her character’s lost variety show with Alan Thicke, the scenes she hated filming this season and her favorite guest star to date.

[Spoilerphobes beware: Smulders revealed a few mild plot twists ahead in the series’ fifth season.]

So when are we going to see Robin Sparkles again?
I don’t know! Hopefully soon. She took a little bit of a respite, didn’t she?

The writers are really spacing out her appearances.
They dropped the idea of Robin having a variety show too.

I wanted to ask you about that. Earlier this season (in the episode “The Rough Patch”) Alan Thicke revealed that he and Robin co-starred in a Canadian variety show together and then Barney ran off to try to find the footage but —
[The writers] never made anything of it, so I am hoping that when we come back for season six that we will get some crazy variety show with Alan Thicke. That would be amazing. Any excuse to bring Alan Thicke back on the show.

Your show gets so many great guest stars — from Britney Spears to Peter Bogdanovich. Did you hit it off with one in particular?
I love — just as a person — Sarah Chalke. She’s now one of my good friends, so I think I am probably biased towards that, but we also had her for quite some time. She was with
us for what, seven episodes or something like that? So it was nice to have someone actually there for a good chunk of time and allow her character to develop and all that stuff.

Speaking of characters sticking around on the show, what happened to Robin’s new beau Don? Even though he and Robin have been dating, we haven’t seen him since their first date.
Well, there is a pretty big season finale coming up where some stuff goes down with Don.

Bad stuff?
Some bad stuff goes down with Don, so I have a feeling he may not be with us for much longer.

Message received. You guys also shot an episode with Chris Kattan and Jason Lewis.

I think that is the episode before the season finale. But I was bummed! I am a fan of Chris Kattan actually and we weren’t on set that day. They actually shot a movie that will be shown within the show, which actually didn’t involve any characters from the show so none of us worked that day. Our crew basically shot a mini-movie while we were at home. I hear it’s pretty funny and amazing and I am excited to see what Chris Kattan comes up with in terms of what his thoughts on Ted Mosby are. He’s playing sort of a cartoon version of Ted.

That’s such a genius casting choice. Chris Kattan really has the Ted Mosby spiky hair.
We have some really good writers who have some pretty awesome ideas.

Can you talk about how the movie within the show fits into the season?
Was it last season that Sarah Chalke was on the show?

Right, season four.
Yeah, so we ended the season with Sarah’s character Stella moving to Los Angeles with Tony (Jason Jones). Basically, he went to L.A. to become a movie writer and wrote this movie that we end up watching and sort of discover is about his relationship with Stella and the whole leaving-him-at-the-altar sort of thing. But it’s not entirely fact-based. It’s kind of made-up — his version of what happened.

Moving on to Robin’s love life, what did you first think when the writers told you that they were conceiving a Robin-Barney romance? As a viewer, it seemed like it would be a complete disaster but it turned out that Robin and Barney had really sweet chemistry.
I was surprised when they decided to do it and then like you, I got on board with it. I love working with Neil. He is so much fun and we just have a really good time on set together. So it was fun to play more intimate scenes together but I think that relationship definitely had an expiration date so it was just a matter of time before they broke up. But it was sort of bittersweet. I feel like it is something that they could maybe touch upon again, but you never know. I think they like to leave things kind of open-ended on our show in case they want to hop back, because the timeline is just so all over the place .

And Ted is a totally unreliable narrator —
Yes, we can definitely rely on that, “Oops! Ted told the story wrong, so let’s tell it again the right way.”

It’s funny how that makes for entertaining television, but if someone kept pulling that in real life, they would be one of the most annoying storytellers ever.
Totally.

I know that Ted’s character is based on your executive producer Carter Bays, and Marshall and Lily are based on your other executive producer Craig Thomas  and his wife. Are Robin and Barney based on anyone in real life?

No, I think that they just wanted a character that was female and confidant and sort of a guys’ girl and they came up with Robin. Over the years, the idea of Robin sort of morphed — I got hired and they decided to make her Canadian after I came on the show. I think that over the course of a show, the characters shift in different ways but I think that they probably just probably wanted to have a Robin-like energy in the cast, maybe to help counteract Barney’s machismo. I would love to meet Robin in real life if she existed.

Me too. There were a few scenes this season that seemed un-Robin-like to me though. She was constantly having to listen to Barney brag about all of his conquests post break-up without commenting or seeming hurt. I was glad that the writers finally addressed her feelings about the break-up.
I was glad they did that too because every episode we shot, I was sitting there like, “I am not going to be in this scene, right? Can I please be written out of this scene because this is awkward?” I was really happy when they finally shot that episode. I don’t know if they had been planning it all along and just refused to tell me because they wanted it to be a surprise or if I was just complaining about it so much that they just wrote it like that. But it was nice — it was a very validating episode.

There have been some especially crazy stories this season that have gotten mixed reviews from fans, like the episode where a monkey robbed Marshall. After five seasons with the show, did some scripts strike you as especially out-of-left-field this year?
I think [the writers] take ideas that they think are really funny, and they manifest those ideas however they can. But I feel like every episode sort of molds together, and sometimes we are doing things that feels kind of crazy. But it’s a sitcom we are allowed to push the envelope and try episodes where Marshall gets robbed by a monkey. If it works, it works and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t, but I like being on a show where they are trying new things.

What is the atmosphere like in between scenes? When I talked to a few cast members from the Big Bang Theory, they told me that they have these high stakes ping-pong tournaments that last the entire season.
We don’t have any ping-pong. We have scene changes when we move on to the next scene but we are really blessed to have an amazing crew and a great cast that gets along. Basically we hang out and chat and eat food and listen to music being played — there are a lot of live instruments being played but that’s about it.

Who plays instruments?
Carter plays the piano, and Jason plays the piano too. Some other guys play the guitar, and so there are some jam sessions.

Do you ever jam?
I attempt to, but I am never as good as they are. So it’s always slightly embarrassing.

What would you like to see happen to Robin next season? Do you feel protective of her?
Yeah, of course. I am going on six years with this character — which is kind of insane, but I would like to see her get a job that she is proud of. I think that her having this job that she has had for the last five years is a very funny thing, and I love doing the fake news, but it would be cool for her to get a really great job that makes her happy. I don’t think that love is anywhere on the horizon — maybe eventually, but I don’t think in this next season.

Would you like to see her end up with Barney?
I don’t know! I think it could happen. People always ask, “Is it going to be Barney or is it going to be Ted?” And I don’t know. I always thought that if Robin and Barney would get together, it would be at the end of the series, and now we have already had this momentary hook-up and I don’t know. It is always an interesting dynamic having the consummate bachelor mixed with the consummate bachelorette.

Is there one episode or scene that you remember being really fun to shoot?
All the Robin Sparkles stuff for me has been the best stuff to do. It’s the only time I have ever gotten to work in a recording studio, learn choreography and dress in ’80s clothing. It’s so much fun and when we did the “Sandcastles in the Sand” video, we were in Malibu for a whole day with our crew, just hanging out on the beach. There were dolphins swimming and I was thinking, “Wow, this is what I do for a living.” I love doing anything that has to do with Robin Sparkles, I hope the writers come up with more episodes for her.

So just to clarify, we will not see Robin Sparkles in season 5?
Nope. Unfortunately, no.

Hopefully Robin will quit her day job next season and return to Canada for a Robin Sparkles mall tour.
[Laughs] It’s possible. Anything is possible.

In the fall of 2009, fans of  “How I Met Your Mother” heard future Ted Mosby (aka Bob Saget) tell his kids how his friends quit smoking, mentioning that Lily (Alyson Hannigan) dropped the habit when she started trying to get pregnant and Marshall (Jason Segel) followed suit when his son was born. There was no date given as to when that whole deal might go down. But, having just visited the set, I can tell you that the topic of “maybe baby?” is about to hit Marshall and Lily in a major way.

Creators of the hit sitcom on CBS, How I Met Your Mother, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas along with HIMYM writers Kourtney Kang and Joe Kelly are developing a new comedy pilot for network that will be sort a different spin on young couples in the city. The venue is different this time and rather than be in New York City, the team is putting characters in the working class town of Pittsburgh, PA.

Tentatively titled “Livin’ On A Prayer”, at least that is the name of the pilot episode name for the untitled series was written by Kang and Kelly.

“Prayer” will follow six characters, including a couple in their early 30s who have been together a year and a half and are considering moving in together. One character is a waitress (Gina), another works at the zoo (Tommy); all are working class folks.

The current cast so far stands with one of the lead roles going to Joe Manganiello, a former HIMYM guest cast member as well as real Pittsburgh native. The song from Bon Jovi which features characters Tommy and Gina sort of inspired the same names for the show as well. The character of Tommy will be played by former CBS Worst Week actor Kyle Bornheimer. Playing Tommy’s friend is Jaime Pressly who is returning to television after her long stint on My Name is Earl. Pressly will play Tommy’s best friend, a veterinarian who works with him at the local zoo.

I am not sure when they plan to premiere the show, I am hearing this fall possibly but with more casting to be done we shall see, it may be one that pops up as a mid-season replacement.

I wonder with the four principles of HIMYM will be spending more time on this series how it will affect their flagship series? I mean this season hasn’t been great and its we are edging closer to who the mother will be but their is a sixth season next year so could that be the last? we shall see.

If you’ve been wondering about Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin (Cobie Smulders) on “How I Met Your Mother,” you’re not the only one.

Cobie Smulders had been having a hard time understanding why Robin was always in the room while Barney flaunted his conquests right in front of her. But last Monday, the show finally revealed through flashbacks that Robin was not as cool with it as she seemed.

Smulders talked with Show Tracker last week about Robin’s and Barney’s relationship, Robin’s new boyfriend and how her many ex-boyfriends are going to lead to a emotional threesome that shakes up the dynamics of the group. We also discussed when Robin Sparkles might be making a reappearance.

The last episode was a great one for Robin and gave you a nice showcase. Were you glad that they followed up on the breakup and addressed Barney’s behavior?

I really was. I was quite relieved. When we were shooting, going through all these scenes, I was constantly saying to them, “This is crazy. I shouldn’t even be here for this conversation. There’s no way I would be sitting here while they’re yapping about his latest conquest.” I kept writing myself out of scenes. I feel like Robin has been redeemed in a sense. I feel like she’s finally shown she was really upset about this. Barney, hopefully, learned something from the whole experience as well, from the effect that he can have on people and that Robin is human.

You didn’t know ahead of time that they were going to address this later?

No. I’m not sure if they did it because I was complaining so much or if they were doing it because they thought it was a really fun way to – because our show is all about flashbacks and flash-forwards. They love teasing the audience and going all over the place. I think it was a really great way to be able to go, “Remember this? Remember this?” and to flashback to all these moments where I, as a character, felt awkward and to show she really did feel awkward and there was a reaction from it.

There was a lot of reaction to the Barney and Robin breakup. Were you surprised when it ended?

I wasn’t surprised that it ended. I was surprised that it ended so soon. I would have loved to see it go a little bit further. But I think it always had an inevitable end. I feel like those two characters are not really meant to be with each other. They may be in a few years if they’re in different places. I think it was a pairing that was built more for comedy than for longevity.

Do you think could they find their way back to each other eventually?

Oh yeah. This is TV. Anything could happen. I always thought that actually when they got together, that would be the series finale and they would end up together. That’s why I was sort of bummed when I saw that they were pitching it. I thought, “Oh, no. Maybe they won’t end up together now.” I liked the build throughout the whole series to that. Who knows? Maybe they’ll still decide to do that.

Are you rooting for them or someone else? Maybe for Don (Benjamin Koldyke) or even Ted (Josh Radnor)?

I have a soft spot in my heart for both Ted’s and Barney’s characters. I think it could really work out either way. I think it would be great for Barney to find someone to love him. I sort of go that direction. But I also hope every character ends up happy. That’s really what’s most important. I guess if I had to root for anyone, I’d be rooting for Barney because then I would get to yell at Neil more. [laughs] I feel like that’s all we did when we were a couple is fake-yelled at each other every time we were on set together.

For the first time, your character is getting a recurring love interest outside of the main cast. Is that exciting or nerve-racking for you as an actress to have someone new to play with?

It’s nice actually to switch it up a little bit and bring someone else in and give someone else the spotlight for a little bit. I just love Ben, who plays Don. We got along so well. We’re shooting the end of the season right now. It’s all about Robin taking a step back from the group of friends to feel out this relationship with Don. Every time she hangs out with her best friends, two of them are ex-boyfriends, so it’s always tinged with awkwardness. It’s playing with the dynamic of the group a little bit. I think we’ll get back to the core of it eventually, but it’s kind of nice taking a step outside for a bit.

So we’re going to be seeing Don a lot more in the rest of the season?

Definitely in the last couple of episodes. I think we’re building up to some sort of dramatic season finale. I don’t even know what that is. I’ve been told that it’s quite dramatic. I was hardly working this week, and they’re like, “Don’t worry. The season finale, we’re building up to something.” I think that they have an idea for a Robin climax at the end.

One of the things the show teased this year was a Robin Sparkles-Alan Thicke variety show.

I know! I don’t know if we’re going to get to that. I have no idea what is in store for that. I know it’s still in the works. I think maybe getting a season six pickup this early in the game is somewhat to a lot of story lines’ determent, where it’s like, “Oh, we’ll do it next season.” Maybe I’ll get the script tomorrow for next week, and it’ll be like, “The Robin Scherbatsky Show!” I never quite know, but I have a feeling that we might have to wait until next season.

You’ve gotten to work with so many great guest stars like Alan Thicke, James Van Der Beek, Alyson Hannigan’s husband Alexis Denisof, Enrique Iglesias.

They give me a lot of the good ones, don’t they?

And usually Marshall ends up crushing on them.

That’s true. That is the new running joke, where like every guy that I am involved with, Marshall has a mancrush on. That’s the new running bit because that’s how he feels about Don now.

Do you have a favorite guest star? Or someone you’d like to work with that hasn’t been on the show yet?

I’d love to have Meryl Streep if she’s available. I know she’s probably busy. I loved working with Sarah Chalke. I felt like she’d been there the whole time. It was like, “Yeah, you’re the sixth member of our group.” It just worked. That was the greatest. She’s amazing and now a good friend of mine. She was probably my favorite to have worked with. There’s definitely the thrills. Jennifer Lopez was really fun to work with last week. She was awesome. I feel like Sarah was the one that we got for a while.

Carter Bays says, “There’s going to be some big shakeups in the second half of the season between the characters.” Can you give some hints as to what’s going on with Robin?

What goes on in Carter’s head, I don’t even know. I feel like there is going to be like – without it sounding dirty – a threeway. [laughs] Robin, Ted and Barney – I think their emotions are going to come to a head. I don’t know how it’s going to end up. I know it involves me and the guys and Don. That’s really all I’ve been told. I don’t know if I’m going to end up with Barney again. I really have no idea. But I know it’ll be something in terms of shifting in their relationship.

With just six words, How I Met Your Mother executive producer Cater Bays has piqued the curiosity of fans around the country.

Speaking to Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly, Bays hyped “an attempted reconciliation between two exes” later this season.

That’s all we know for now, but let the guessing games begin: Will we see Robin and Barney rekindle their brief romance? Or is the producer teasing a reunion between Ted and Robin? Ted and Stella?

The possibilities are as endless as the laughs that will surely ensure when find out this answer.

Manganiello, who has appeared on several episodes of How I Met Your Mother, will play Doug, a former high-school football star turned “good-guy” husband and father, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Bays and Thomas co-created the pilot with How I Met Your Mother writers Kourtney Kang and Joe Kelly.

Livin’ on a Prayer will be shot in the same style of How I Met Your Mother. It’s about a couple who are dating and their group of friends living in Pittsburgh.

Manganiello, the first actor to be cast on Livin’ on a Prayer, has recently appeared as Owen Morello on One Tree Hill. He played Officer Litchman on ER, starred as Solomon Cortez on American Heiress and played Flash Thompson in Spider-Man 3.

Harris, who plays How I Met Your Mother‘s resident womanizer, tweets, “Jennifer Lopez was really great – hot, cool, and funny. And well prepared! She gave me a few pointers.”

Lopez’s character crosses Barney’s path as she stakes on the mission to “break” him after she learns about his gigolo ways from Robin.

“We couldn’t be more excited about Jennifer Lopez joining us on How I Met Your Mother,” executive producer and co-creator Carter Bays said in a statement. “We’re looking forward to a week of revealing outfits and sexy dance moves the likes of which this show hasn’t seen since Regis Philbin guest starred.”

Lopez is also set to guest star on FOX’s Glee, and can be seen in upcoming films such as The Back-up Plan, Double or Nothing and The Governess.