Well, this is something of a surprise. Uncertain though we were at the prospect of 'How I Met Your Mother' living in on in the gender-flipped sequel series 'How I Met Your Dad,' it seems CBS has defied expectation to opt against picking up the series at least for now. So what went wrong that Greta Gerwig won't regale us for the next nine years with tales of 'How I Met Your Dad?'

Speaking in a conference call with reporters, CBS chairman Nina Tassler admitted that for as much as they loved the series, there we're elements of the pilot that weren't working, and apparently couldn't be fixed in time for the pickup presentations. “We tried to reach out and engage them about redoing the pilot, but that is just not happening right. You run into these kinds of issues. You hope they can resolve themselves. They haven’t. I’m heartsick. It wasn’t what they wanted to do.”

In addition to series star Greta Gerwig’s role as the “female Peter Pan” Sally, “kindred spirit” series ‘How I Met Your Dad’ features Andrew Santino as Sally’s gay brother Danny, Drew Tarver’s as his husband Todd, ‘Masters of Sex‘ vet Nicholas D’Agosto as potential love interest Frank, Tiya Sircar as Sally’s BFF Juliet, ‘Workaholics‘ star Anders Holm as Sally’s separated husband Gavin, and Meg Ryan as the voice of narrating Future Sally.

Mistakenly reported as having been taken to series last week, the new iteration of the ‘Mother’ franchise was to see Gerwig’s character recounting to her children the (long-winded) tale of how she met their father, one notable twist being that the pilot sees Sally separated from her then-husband. Additionally, ‘Up All Night’ creator Emily Spivey heads up the show creatively with ‘HIMYM’ producers Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, while Gerwig took on writing and producing duties.

There might still be time perhaps, for 'How I Met Your Dad' to retool and join the lineup at midseason, but what say you? Are you as surprised as we to find CBS opted not to pick up the 'HIMYM' spinoff?

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