'How I Met Your Mother' was inspired by 9/11 attacks

Creators of the hit TV show "How I Met Your Mother" (HIMYM) noted that the show has emotional roots inspired by the September 11 attacks.

On September 11, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks took place where the planes crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in New York.

Carter Bays and Craig Thomas discussed the show's roots during a New York Television Festival keynote discussion on Monday.

The two New Yorkers had been working as staff writers on the "Late Show With David Letterman", but wanted to write material with characters and storylines outside of the series' signature Top 10 List format, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

"How I Met Your Mother" -- starring Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Josh Radnor and Alyson Hannigan -- had nine seasons from 2005 through 2014.

The creators says the tragedy informed the tone of the pilot.

"We have to write something bigger and with emotion, and (that) talks about twists and turns in life," said Thomas.

Bays added, "It informed HIMYM in very subtle ways. For two 29-year-olds to be writing something so nostalgic ... (Because we learned) Wow, life really is about chapters closing and things coming to an end, and things pivoting on an axis that will never pivot back."

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