The Throwaway Line That HIMYM's Carter Bays Regrets Never Inserting Into The Show

"How I Met Your Mother" was a resounding success. Running for nine seasons from 2005 to 2014, the sitcom managed to create numerous catchphrases while weaving together an intricate narrative that spanned decades. Looking for love in New York City isn't exactly a hard-to-come-by plot in the world of television, but "How I Met Your Mother" used an intriguing framing device by having an older Ted Mosby (voiced by Bob Saget) tell his kids the convoluted story of how he met their mom. 

This often led to flashbacks and flashforwards, as well as callbacks to events the kids would learn about at a later time. There truly was nothing else like it, and there are still plenty of stories to tell from behind the scenes. Co-creator Carter Bays did a Reddit AMA to promote his new book, "The Mutual Friend," and naturally, plenty of questions arose concerning tidbits of "HIMYM." Bays revealed one interesting fun fact that has to do with the framing device and how they planned for something that didn't end up coming to fruition. 

Obviously, Ted Mosby's kids don't age despite the show lasting for nine years. That's because they filmed a bunch of different potential endings and reactions so that they wouldn't have to go back and explain why the kids aged over the course of this story. When asked about filming said kids, Carter Bays responded, "One thing I have a vague memory of is that at one point on the set with the kids on the couch we just started throwing out any response we could imagine the kids having, just so we'd have stuff to use in later seasons. And one of them was the son saying, 'Really? A live cobra??' And it pains me to this day that we never found a way to use that."

A lot of reactions come into play while the older Ted Mosby regales his kids with the story of how he met their mother and wanted to ask their permission to date Robin (Cobie Smulders). Most of it involves the children looking incredulously at their father or saying something like, "What!?!" But mentioning a cobra would have been delightfully specific and would've helped mix things up in later years. 

It's hard to believe that with over 200 episodes, those behind the scenes couldn't get a live cobra to factor into an episode's plot at some point. It certainly sounds like a shenanigan Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) would've gotten into. But everything seems to have worked out for the best on that front.