Which Classic Sitcom Is Inspiring How I Met Your Mother's Series Finale?

HIMYM's co-creator Craig Thomas is doing some interesting research

How I Met Your Mother might be taking a page from another comedy where a bar played a big part: Cheers.

HIMYM co-creator Craig Thomas took to Twitter to share that he's been watching the Cheers series finale while working on the How I Met Your Mother finale. "Watched the #Cheers series finale again for inspiration; cried as hard as I did in 1993. A reminder why we do what we do. #HIMYM," he tweeted.

Thomas went on, tweeting: "I'd be proud if #HIMYM finale were even half as good as that! #cheers."

How I Met Your Mother wraps up its nine season run on Monday, March 31 with a special one-hour episode.

Thomas' strategy of watching classic comedy finales was one also employed by Tina Fey when she was wrapping up 30 Rock. Fey told The Huffington Post she and her staff watched Frasier for inspiration.

"We tried to watch the Frasier finale and one of our writers started crying when Frasier was taking his dad's chair out," she said prior to 30 Rock's series finale. "He was like, 'I don't know what's happening to me!' So we're not talking about it. We're kind of afraid to talk about it."

How I Met Your Mother may be ending, but we might not see the last of the world Thomas and Carter Bays created. CBS has ordered a spinoff pilot following a group of friends, a la HIMYM, but this show would follow a woman's journey in meeting her husband. So far it's just in pilot stage.

The How I Met Your Mother series finale airs Monday, March 31 at 8 p.m. on CBS.