Back in March 2011, Conan O’Brien won a walk-on role on “How I Met Your Mother” after donating to a charity auction in support of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. Last night, he made his cameo, not as Barney’s red-haired wing man or The Mother, but as a background extra during a scene set in MacLaren’s Pub. According to “How I Met” co-creator Carter Bays:

“When we heard Conan had won the auction, we started going through all these ideas for what he could play. But then we heard back: ‘He just wants to be an extra.’ And we realized this was really the funniest version [of a cameo].” It was also perhaps the most realistic. “In New York, every now and then you’ll see somebody famous at a bar, but nobody really makes a big deal out of it.” (Vulture)

Truth. I once saw Craig Kilborn in a bar, and didn’t make a big deal out of it. In fact, I made such a not big deal out of it that I didn’t even notice it was him until someone pointed him out to me, and even then he had to be described to me as, “Y’know, that guy who isn’t Jon Stewart or Craig Ferguson.” True story. Anyways, be sure to tune into next week’s “Hawaii Five-0″ to see Jay Leno as a beached whale who LOVES vintage cars.

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136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (CNBC/USA, 9 p.m.) – The fine looking lady you see above is one of the contestants at this year’s dog orgy, a.k.a. the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Mr. Ufford was reporting live from the scene earlier for his new gig. Sample Tweet: “Best Monday morning ever.” (Banner via)

How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 8 p.m.) – During the Grammys, a slew of CBS personalities came out to present awards, read from teleprompters, and discuss the importance of dub-step. Seeing them all together in one room really solidified something: I hate every show on CBS that isn’t “How I Met.” Mixed compliment aside, Marshall, Lily, Robin, and Kevin go to Vermont, and Barney “meets his match.” STDS??? Probably not.

Being Human (SyFy, 9 p.m.) – Do you ever root for someone in a TV show or movie because they have the same name as you? For instance, one of the reasons why I like Clueless so much (outside of my love of rollin’ with my homies) is because Paul Rudd’s character is named Josh. (On the flip-side, I also hate bad films and shows that have the BALLS to use my name, like “Drake and Josh.”) There’s a character on “Being Human” named Josh, and he’s a werewolf. We have so much in common!

Smash (NBC, 10 p.m.) – Admit it, you liked the pilot of “Smash.” It did a great job of effectively introducing us to a huge group of characters, while simultaneously setting up the season-long battle between Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty’s characters. Needless to say, I’ll root for anyone who once played Chevy Chase’s daughter.

100 Greatest Women in Music (VH1, 10 p.m.) – 5) Lady Miss Kier from Deee-Lite; 4) Janice from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem; 3) Girl rapper from Karmin; 2) The woman who touched herself from Divinyls; and 1) Tracy Chapman. There, saved you four hours.

LATE NIGHT GUESTS: “Ten of the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition models present the Top Ten List, followed by the reveal of the cover model,” according to Zap 2 It, on Letterman; Jennifer Lopez and Jeff Dunham on Leno (hahahaha); Jeff Goldblum and Lana Del Rey on Kimmel; Carol Burnett on Ferguson; Nicolas Cage on Kimmel; Ice-T, Coco, and Adam Palley on Conan; Fawzia Koofi on Stewart; and Bill McKibben on Colbert.

News out of the TCA this week is that “How I Met Your Mother” — currently in its 7th season and contracted by CBS for eight — may actually extend beyond 2013, despite earlier suggestions that the sitcom would wrap up next year and the identity of Ted’s wife would be revealed. That’d be a lousy idea. Even if most of us have moved beyond caring about the show’s initial premise, eight seasons is enough. In fact, notwithstanding a number of great episodes over the last two years, five seasons probably would’ve been enough.

Nevertheless, despite record ratings, I doubt “HIMYM” will go beyond eight seasons anyhow: Jason Segel is a big Hollywood star now and probably has no desire to stick around; Cobie Smulders’ movie career may get a boost from The Avengers; Neil Patrick Harris probably has an awesome talk show in his future; and Josh Radnor has been expressing frustration with working on the sitcom for years now. Those guys don’t want to come back. If “HIMYM” were to stick around, it’d have to move ahead 20 years and replace Radnor with his voice over, Bob Saget. And then the show would really run off the rails.

But it wouldn’t be the first — or last — beloved show to do so. Here are ten other initially adored television shows that overstayed their welcomes.

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On last night’s episode of “How I Met Your Mother” – y’know, the show that airs before “2 Broke Girls” – everyone’s favorite character and everyone’s least favorite character, Barney and Ted, opened a bar in the latter’s apartment called Puzzles. Why Puzzles? That’s the puzzle.

The bar’s a mixture of Barney’s debauchery and Ted’s high-class pretension, with more than a hint of “Cheers” (check out the font in the picture above). To further the concept, CBS also purchased the domain name PuzzlesTheBar.com, so if you want to go to “a place where wit and wisdom bloom…A place to bang chicks in Ted’s room,” you can, virtually-speaking.

Like the show’s other online tie-ins, including Barney’s Video Résumé, Puzzles’ website does the small details well, including a calendar for January 2012, with everything from “Tolstoy Tuesday” to “Co-Ed Strip Dart Tournament.” But the show itself still doesn’t get the big picture: TED=DOUCHE, and Puzzles is a perfect example of this. I know you need a straight man to act against Barney’s sexual antics (oh, the irony), but does Snob Ted have to be written to such an annoyingly exaggerated, yet underwritten extent? In last night’s episode, he began a philosophical conversation about Ulysses while smoking a pipe…on New Year’s Eve. There’s nothing inherently funny about that concept. Ted’s stuck in an obnoxious middle-ground, where the show can’t make him a full douche, like Dennis Reynolds, because he’s the lead character on a CBS sitcom, but they also can’t make him intentionally unlikable, like Joffrey, for pretty much the same reason.

Has any other recent sitcom been hampered more by its lead than “How I Met” and Ted Mosby?

How I Met Your Mother (CBS) — Katie Holmes guest stars as the show’s infamous “Slutty Pumpkin.” I’m sure it will be just as disappointing as every role since Joey on “Dawson’s Creek.” Also, to my knowledge, this concludes my coverage of Halloween episodes in the daily listings. Let’s have one more corgi in costume for the road, shall we?

Ghost Hunters (Syfy) — Per tradition, the team goes to a supposedly haunted place for a live special. This year they’ll be at Pennsylvania’s Pennhurst Asylum for a six-hour special. It’s the perfect show for people who loved the low-fi dullness of Paranormal Activity but wished the movie was longer with fewer scares and commercials.

Dancing with the Stars (ABC) — How the hell is Nancy Grace still on this show? Screw you, America.

Rock Center with Brian Williams (NBC) — Series premiere. I think Brian Williams is great. However, because I’m not 60 years old yet, I don’t think I’m going to watch a newsmagazine.

Hawaii Five-O (CBS) — Nightmare on Elm Street‘s Robert Englund guest stars as, in Yahoo‘s words, a “creepy old drifter.” Is there another kind of drifter I don’t know about? I mean, if there were sexy young drifters, I wouldn’t make so many jokes about killing drifters.

Night of the Living Dead (TCM) — I admit it: I’ve never seen George Romero’s 1968 horror classic. I suppose I should DVR this so I can have some street cred the next time I talk about “The Walking Dead.”

LATE NIGHT GUESTS: Conan kicks off four nights in New York with his “Late Night” successor Jimmy Fallon on the couch, plus comic Reggie Watts. Elsewhere: Jesse Eisenberg on Letterman; Justin Bieber and World Series hero David Freese on Leno; Paul Reubens on Kimmel; Zooey Deschanel and Neil Gaiman on Ferguson; Heidi Klum on Fallon; and Mindy Kaling on “The Daily Show.”