How I Met Your Mother has been renewed through season eight. Does this mean the sitcom will definitely call it quits at that point?

Not necessarily, co-creator Carter Bays tells Maureen Ryan. "As long as we feel we have stories to tell," the producer says he and Craig Thomas will keep the show going. He also notes that every cast member is signed for two more seasons.

Now, about The Whole Mother Thing, as the TV Squad columnist refers to the series' major arc as in her interview. Might we actually meet this individual before the finale and watch her play a role over the course of a full season?

"We're open to everything," says Bays. "We do have a story blocked out that we want to tell, and I can't say whether it involves meeting her or not, but it's a question that I still continue to not be able to answer. As much as people may complain about it on Twitter or whatever, that's the show... Not that we want to torment anyone with it, but it does feel like there's a lot more to the show than this one question."

Bays also assures fans that hints are not being dropped with answers in mind to come. He says:

"The bigger stuff - the how and the where and the when of [the mother] - we know all that. We don't have the exact time frame, we know that it's probably two years, maybe three years, maybe four years. It's somewhere in that ballpark, so we do need to figure out how quickly or slowly we reveal the information that needs to be revealed and how quickly we have the dominos fall that lead you to that event."

How I Met Your Mother returns with a new episode on March 21. It will introduce us to Barney's father.