How I Met Your Mother has post-Mother Future?

As a person who is deeply fond of shows that do not overstay their welcome, the news that How I Met Your Mother may possibly continue past the reveal of who the Mother is has me concerned. During the show’s sixth season, it received early renewal for a seventh and eighth season, guaranteeing its run through to the end of the 2012/13 season. At the time this seemed like a perfect set up to end the show, with creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas claiming to have entered the “final act” of the show. Now they aren’t so sure.

Bays and Thomas revealed to TVLine the possibility of going past meeting the Mother, possibly even changing the premise and title of the show to What Happened After I Met Your Mother. That’s a scary idea to me. That just embodies the very nature of outliving its usefulness. Another possibility would be to go back to 2005 and tell the story over from the perspective of the mother, or after the story is told perhaps Future Ted has a few left over stories he forgot to tell. Then they would do an entire season of just random episodes. All of these ideas just scream “jump the shark.”

Yet despite these wonderings, Bays and Thomas still seem to think that Season 8 could be the last traditional season of HIMYM. From what they said, a safe bet would be that the story of HIMYM will end next year, but the show could live on. But should it?