Bad News (3 Jan. 2011)

Marshall suspects that he is the reason Lily can't get pregnant after meeting a fertility doctor who also happens to be Barney's doppelganger. Meanwhile, Robin's embarrassing past is revealed at work by her former co-anchor.

Director:

Pamela Fryman

Writers:

Carter Bays (creator), Craig Thomas (creator),

Stars:

Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Josh Radnor	...	Ted Mosby
Jason Segel	...	Marshall Eriksen
Cobie Smulders	...	Robin Scherbatsky
Neil Patrick Harris	...	Barney Stinson / Dr. John Stangel
Alyson Hannigan	...	Lily Aldrin
Alexis Denisof	...	Sandy Rivers
Bill Fagerbakke	...	Marvin Eriksen Sr.
Suzie Plakson	...	Judy Eriksen
Artemis Pebdani	...	Anna
Paul Schackman	...	Dr. Mitchell Friedman
Americus Abesamis	...	Chaz
Matt Dwyer	...	Syd
Bill Suplee	...	Marty
Jay Brian Winnick	...	Ronald
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Elena Levon	...	Dominatrix (as Elena Melnikova)

Storyline

Despite only having tried for six days, Marshall and Lily are worried about not yet having conceived a child. So their doctor sends them to Dr. John Stangel, the best reproductive endocrinologist in New York City. He ends up being Barney's doppelgänger, although Lily is convinced that he's actually Barney in disguise. Both Lily and Marshall have problems going through the tests with Dr. Stangel for different reasons. They are both on tender-hooks as they await news from Dr. Stangel if there are any issues in them being able to conceive a child. Other news in their life may overshadow whatever Dr. Stangel might have to say. Meanwhile, Robin has just started her new job at Worldwide News. She hates it primarily because the anchor, her old co-host Sandy Rivers, divulges some facts and not so facts about Robin to the rest of the staff which make her the laughing stock among her colleagues. Ted helps her come up with a way to deal with this new embarrassing situation.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Romance

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

3 January 2011 (USA)

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bays Thomas Productions, 20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Neil Patrick Harris is credited twice for this episode, once in the opening as a member of the main cast and once at the end as "Dr. John Stangel."

---

Goofs

Just after Barney impersonates Dr. Stengal and is thrown out of the office (after the number in the "8" countdown passes), the painting/poster behind the door of the office door changes.

---

Quotes

Lily Aldrin: [Lily tries to talk to Marshall about him not being fertile] Okay, now you're being ridiculous. An hour ago, you didn't even think there was a problem.
Marshall Eriksen: I was just putting on a brave face. Think about it - we've had unprotected sex 203 times in the past four months.
[high-fives Lily]
Marshall Eriksen: Obviously, I'm the problem.
Barney Stinson: Problem? You can't get a girl pregnant - that's the dream! I'd give my first-born to not be able to have children.

---

Connections

Features How I Met Your Mother: Slap Bet (2006)

---

Soundtracks

"Hey Beautiful"
Written by The Solids
Performed by The Solids

User Reviews

The Big Dip

I have very mixed feelings about this episode. I very rarely comment on IMDb, even more rarely on series and almost never on individual episodes. This is one major exception (*salute* "Major Exception").

I never thought a comedy sitcom can (or should) pull this off, but it happened. The thing I call "The Big Dip", on the emotional roller-coaster. Drama series regularly try to pull this off, and fail, because the audience expects it, but you never expect is from a lighthearted comedy sitcom. The only other series that pulled this off at least commendably is Dexter.

The Big Dip: making the audience feel really good, happy and content, when you least expect it (usually at the very end of the episode), it suddenly breaks it with an earth-shattering revelation that suddenly flips the spectrum and makes you so sad you wanna cry. On a graph, it would look the the "happiness" slowly rising, and reach 10 (max) right before the end, and then outta the blue suddenly drop to not 0, but -10. Like the big dip on the roller-coaster. Drama series can't pull this off, because they start from 0 and drop from there, but funny sitcoms go from 10 to -10 in a heartbeat and that is a shock because you never expect it.

I won't spoil what happens, but from the title of the episode (Bad News) you can guess it's pretty sad. I only give it 9 stars, because I think funny sitcoms shouldn't do this, but it was so well executed I can't help but applaud the writers and actors. It's a unique episode I will never forget.