John Lithgow, Neil Patrick Harris
One of How I Met Your Mother's biggest mysteries (no, not that one) will be revealed on Monday, but don't remind John Lithgow how big of a deal it is.
"I didn't watch the show ... so I didn't know that it was such a big deal to be asked to play Barney's father," he tells TVGuide.com. "I didn't know it was a six-year running gag: Who is his actual father? I said yes to it before I knew about all this. This is very typical of me — I don't really know what I'm doing. Everybody's so excited. There are great expectations now. I'm nervous!"
Will How I Met Your Mother end in two years? Our burning questions answered
Lithgow makes his first of two appearances Monday, as Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) at long last comes face-to-face with his absentee dad — the man he once thought was Bob Barker and the man his mom, Loretta (Frances Conroy), had previously told him was merely "Uncle Jerry." After receiving the letter Barney wrote him last month, Jerry surprises his son at his apartment to forge a relationship. "It's explained why [there was no contact] for 30 years," Lithgow says. "There's a lot of longing and need on both sides, as it happens when a child loses a parent at a young age. On both sides, it's a wanting to...
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