The strange tale of how the 9/11 attacks led to How I Met Your Your Mother

Creators of the hit TV show How I Met Your Mother have revealed that the emotional root of the show was inspired by the 11 September attacks.

On 11 September 2001, a series of coordinated attacks took place when two hijacked planes crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center, in New York.

Carter Bays and Craig Thomas discussed the show's roots during a New York Television Festival keynote discussion on 24 October.

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 story lines 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 - ran for 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."

--IANS