'How I Met Your Mother' Season 9 Finale Could Spawn Spin-Off With Lily and Marshall

To every end, there’s a new beginning. Although fans are devastated to say goodbye to “How I Met Your Mother” this fall, there’s a dim sliver of beaming light on the horizon that bodes well for all those discouraged. It’s not much, but it’s something, and that’s all fans need in a time of distress such as now.

Alyson Hannigan, who plays Lily on the show, is currently working her hardest to keep the “How I Met Your Mother” spirit alive. “I’m trying to convince [Jason] Segel to do the spin-off,” she said during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “He said he’ll do it if it’s called, ‘Out By Lunch’ and we can get out by lunch everyday and we only work a couple days a week. I’m like, ‘I’m in.’ We can do it - we work really quickly together.”

It doesn’t sound like anything producers will jump all over, but it’s promising to see that at least someone is trying to salvage what they can from the “How I Met Your Mother” series finale. For an actress who’s all too familiar with the tragic heartbreak of leaving a long, successful series, she’s doing all she can to avoid the pain.

”The day that the Entertainment Weekly cover came out ["Buffy Quits", March 7, 2003]—that was the day we all found out ‘Buffy’ was over,” she Hannigan. “I was devastated. I was just very shocked.” Luckily, producer J.J. Abrams was a fan of her work and immediately called her with a proposal.

"[That same day] I got an amazing phone call saying J. J. Abrams wants to meet with you and I was like, ‘Oh! Well this day just got a lot brighter.’ And I had a wonderful meeting with J.J. Abrams,” Hannigan said. “I was planning my wedding [to Alexis Denisof, who recurs on ‘HIMYM’ as blowhard newscaster Sandy Rivers] and I was just coming off Buffy, and I know the hours. I had to make the hardest decision of my life—telling J.J. Abrams I didn’t want to do a one-hour show. I want to do comedy and I want to see my husband once in awhile. So I said, ‘Do you maybe want to do a half hour? Like a comedy? Please?’ It was such a nice thank-you and gave me hope that people would want to work with me. I’m forever grateful to him and it made my devastation very short-lived.”

For Hannigan’s sake and for the sake of “How I Met Your Mother” fans, let’s hope her career is blessed with a similar fate this time around.