Good news, television lovers. Now that John Lithgow has finished murdering women on Showtime's Dexter (where he won an Emmy for his talented murder skills), he's putting down the knife to try to make us laugh again. According to How I Met Your Mother star Cobie Smulders, the Oscar-nominated actor will play Barney Stinson's (Neil Patrick Harris) dad on the CBS show. According to the network, the episode will air "around the end of February."
A live studio audience is nothing new for Lithgow. For those unfortunate folks who don't know, Lithgow starred as Dr. Dick Solomon in his Emmy-winning role on the '90s sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, playing a loud-mouthed, immature, yet extremely lovable buffoon of a man. (If you are one of those unfortunate folks, put 3rd Rock in your Netflix queue now.) His stint on HIMYM should be nothing short of brilliant.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter