Summary

• Jason Segel's improvised reaction to Marshall's father's death in How I Met Your Mother was emotional and authentic.
• Marshall's tragic moment was unexpected yet well-acted by Segel, showcasing a different side to the sitcom's characters.
• Improvised impactful TV scenes like Marshall's dad's death in HIMYM highlight the versatility of actors beyond scripted moments.

How I Met Your Mother was known for alleviating heavy moments with comic relief, but the saddest scene in the entire series was rightly left humorless and utterly heartbreaking — made even more so by the fact that it was improvised. While How I Met Your Mother had many tear-jerker scenes when the characters experienced deeply tragic moments, all of which were handled incredibly well by the sitcom's cast. There’s no better example of this than with Marshall Eriksen actor Jason Segel, who improvised the saddest, most devastating moment in How I Met Your Mother’s series.

Jason Segel's character, Marshall, was a family man through and through. As well as being incredibly loyal to his wife, Lily, and always wanting children of his own, he was also still incredibly close to his siblings and parents. This was especially true for Marshall's father, Marvin Eriksen Sr. (Bill Fagerbakke). Marshall and his dad still spoke regularly, and Marshall's opinion of Marvin Sr. couldn't be higher. This laid the foundations for the moment Marvin Sr. died being easily among the most How I Met Your Mother — and the fact that Segel improvised his reaction to this news makes it all the more impressive.

Jason Segel's Saddest HIMYM Moment Explained

The Death Of Marshall's Dad Was Completely Unexpected

In How I Met Your Mother season 6 episode 13, “Bad News,” Marshall Eriksen gets some decidedly tragic news: his father has unexpectedly ed away. The moment comes at the very end of How I Met Your Mother’s episode, which had seen Marshall anticipating bad news about his fertility chances. There's very little to hint in the episode that the moment is coming, and the death is very sudden (however, in hindsight, the episode included a hidden countdown to Marshall's dad's death that the majority missed first time around).

Marshall gets the good news that he can have children with Lily, only for his teary-eyed wife to pull up in a taxi cab and inform him that his father was rushed unexpectedly to a hospital due to a heart attack, and he didn’t survive. Marshall’s response is absolutely devastating, simply responding with “My dad’s dead? I’m not ready for this,” as he weeps in Lily’s arms. The powerful and emotionally poignant scene is all at the hands of Jason Segel’s HIMYM acting ability, having improvised the grief-stricken line and response.

Why Marshall And Lily's Reaction Was Improvised

The How I Met Your Mother Showrunners Wanted To Ensure The Response Was Genuine

Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan were left in the dark about the final scene of the How I Met Your Mother episode where Marshall's dad dies, with both expecting the final news to be that Lily was pregnant, as was written in the script’s original ending. On the day of shooting, producers informed the actors the scene would play out differently.

Segel decided he didn’t want to know Lily’s line telling Marshall the news, so he would respond after Hannigan finished her line with the word “it,” which would end up meaning that his father “didn’t make it.” The scene was phenomenally accomplished in one take, giving Jason Segel’s genuine, authentic reaction to the news that his character’s father and biggest er had ed away (via SheKnows).

These types of scenes and unexpected twists like Marshall's dad's death are a significant part of why How I Met Your Mother holds the beloved reputation it has today. While the main characters are goofy, unconventional, and sarcastic on almost all occasions, the scenes where they take a break to show the real heart and dramatic milestones of the core figures are what makes following them for nine years so worth it.

Whether it be Barney watching Robin shake her head that she didn’t break up with Kevin, Robin finding out she can’t have kids, Ted’s wife tragically dying from an illness, or Marshall’s father unexpectedly dying, How I Met Your Mother truly tests the emotional and improvisational versatility of its actors.

Other Memorable TV Scenes That Were Improvised

There Have Been Many Unscripted Impactful Moments On The Small Screen

The fact that the scene when Marshall learns of his dad's death in How I Met Your Mother was improvised is incredibly impressive, and speaks volumes for the acting abilities of both Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan. However, it's far from the only incredibly touching or dramatic moment on the small screen that came from the actors rather than the script. There are many incredibly emotional improvised TV scenes, with some of the best coming from shows that aired far more recently than HIMYM.

For example, in HBO's Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, there's a surprisingly touching moment of brotherly affection between Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and the increasingly frail King Viserys (Paddy Considine). When Viserys falls ill and struggles to walk, there's a moment when he attemts to ascend the Iron Throne and his crown falls off his head. This wasn't planned, but Matt Smith as Daemon worked with the mishap. He stoops down and picks up the crown, to which Viserys responds with an unscripted "I said I'm fine". Daemon's response of "come on" before reverently returning the crown to his brother's head was moving — and also completely improvised.

Another example came in the popular kitchen drama The Bear. During one of the season 2's flashback scenes, a Thanksgiving dinner at Carmy's former family home turns chaotic by the end. The apex of the moment comes when Carmy's brother Mike (Jon Bernthal) loses his temper and flips the entire table, sending the cutlery and food everywhere. This was entirely improvised by Bernthal, with his rage and the reactions of the rest of the cast being totally unscripted.

A final notable example stems from season 4 of Succession, a drama about the power struggles of a wealthy family as they vy for control of their father's company. In the episode that announces the death of patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox), his children are listening in to the company press conference that makes the news public.

In a surprising moment, the siblings Shiv, Roman, and Kendall all put aside their differences and share a tearful hug — an incredibly memorable piece of character development that wasn't at all scripted. This moment was, much like Marshall's reaction to the news of his own father ing in How I Met Your Mother, completely improvised by cast Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, and Jeremy Strong.