'The Bro Code' Will Actually Be Published!

[Brian Damage]

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune....-writes-a.html

Not sure how to increase your general awesomeness? Wonder no longer.

“The Bro Code,” a book of advice by Barney Stinson of “How I Met Your Mother,” will be on bookshelves in late November.

“The Bro Code” was featured in a Season 3 episode of the CBS show titled “The Goat.” It was a list compiled by Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) of all the things a true male friend – a bro – should or should never do to his pals (see below right for a "Bro Code" excerpt from "The Goat"). Fans of the show will recall that Barney himself violated one of the most sacred tenets of the Bro Code, leading to a serious falling-out between him and his best bro Ted. [Note: I had to correct the previous sentence -- sorry for the error, that's what I get for writing these things at 1 a.m.] (Above left, Neil Patrick Harris as Barney in a flashback from "The Goat.")

A month ago, co-creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas signed a deal to write a real “Bro Code.” They’re penning it -- swiftly -- along with the show’s writers, mainly Matthew Kuhn, who has written Barney’s blog for the CBS Web site for the past three years.

“It’s just this off-network continuation of the Barney legend,” Thomas said at a CBS party on Friday. “It’ll be a great stocking stuffer this Christmas.”

“How I Met Your Mother” came up earlier in the day at the CBS executive session. Network president Nina Tassler confirmed that Sarah Chalke (“Scrubs”) would return to guest star on the comedy again, but also said she “didn’t think” that Chalke’s character, Stella, is the mother of the show’s title.

“I don’t want to 100 percent rule it out,” Thomas said, when asked whether Stella could be the mother.

“We have Sarah booked for four episodes at the beginning [of the season] and possibly more, and on ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ you never know what’s going to happen,” he added. “She’s great, and the more we fall in love with her, you never know. There will be a fantastic [Stella] arc at the beginning of the season that I’m ridiculously excited about and I think people will love it. Regardless of [Tassler’s statement], I do feel like people will not know which way we’re going and that’s intentional and it could go either way.”

It wouldn’t make much sense to reveal the mother at the beginning of the show’s fourth season, Thomas said.

“We’re hoping the show will go a while longer [and] it’s a good mystery. We’ll milk it a while longer,” Thomas said. “We have not made it clear to anyone other than ourselves quite yet who the mother is.”

However he did reveal that more than two years ago, he and Carter filmed a scene that will air when "HIMYM" ends for good. With only the two kids who play Ted’s future children, a cameraman and executive producer/director Pamela Fryman present, they shot a scene that directly relates to the identity of the mother. That scene will be included in the show’s series finale, which Thomas said he hopes “people will see in 2012.”

“We know” who the mother is, he said. “We have a whole plan.”

In the immediate future, however, the show will deal with one of the biggest consequences of Season 3 finale – the womanizing Barney’s realization that he has feelings for Robin (Cobie Smulders).

“It’s a huge part of the premiere,” Thomas said. “We always talked about it, ever since [the episode] ‘Zip Zip Zip,’ which is the episode where Barney and Robin play laser tag and smoke cigars and all that stuff. All the fans picked up on the unbelievable chemistry” between Barney and Robin.

When he and Bays came back from the strike and they had to write nine scripts in a ridiculously abbreviated time frame, they immediately went to the Robin-Barney connection, which hadn’t really gotten any attention for some time on “HIMYM.”

“That was always ‘break glass in case of emergency’ [story line], and you know what, this is now an emergency,” Thomas said of their post-strike thinking.

That Robin and Barney story will be featured prominently in the first six episodes of the season, he added.

[PrettyinPink55]

That sounds awsome!!!

I love Barney!!! Neil Patrick Harris is just great!!!!!

I really like the pairing of Barney and Robin too!! And I like Stella as the mother!!!

[Marvo301]

That will be legen - wait for it - dary!!!!!!