Cobie Smulders played Robin Scherbatsky, a dedicated broadcast journalist who moves from Canada to New York for a job, in the CBS TV series How I Met Your Mother.

[1] In season 2's "Slap Bet" (2006), the character was revealed to have been a Canadian teen pop star with the stage name of Robin Sparkles.

[2] Her songs "Let's Go to the Mall" (2007) and "Sandcastles in the Sand" (2008) pay homage to 1980s American pop music, and the former was inspired by Alanis Morissette's "cheesy" material before Jagged Little Pill.

[5] Before Sparkles' appearance in season 6's "Glitter", series creators and executive producers Craig Thomas and Carter Bays came up with several ideas (including a story about a rivalry between her and Morissette).

[11][12] Shortly after the series was announced as renewed for its ninth and final season,[13] a number of celebrities (including James Van Der Beek, Alan Thicke, Jason Priestley, and Paul Shaffer) confirmed to be appearing in the episode on January 7.

[17] Thomas discussed lost footage from Underneath the Tunes (a parody of the documentary series Behind the Music), which showed a controversial side of Sparkles resembling "the Milli Vanilli skipping-CD-record moment".

[17][18] Lost footage of MuchMusic's Underneath the Tunes in the episode reveals that after "Let's Go to the Mall" and "Sandcastles in the Sand" went maple, Sparkles reached a breaking point; she changed her stage name to Robin Daggers, and recorded "P.S.

[19] Her career ended in 1996, when she performed the song and revealed her new persona at the 84th Grey Cup halftime show (when Alex Trebek and Geddy Lee claimed that grunge began).

[26] Daggers reminiscences about wearing flannel, lacing her boots, reading fanzines and watching Reality Bites while she misses her lover.

[29] Kate Stanhope and Joyce Eng of TV Guide said that Daggers "lost it when she started obsessing over a mystery man" with the "Morissette-esque" song.

[30] Alyssa Fikse wrote that the track demonstrates the evolution of Daggers from a "bubbly pop star ... into [a] 90s grunge riot grrrrrl": "Any song that name-checks Reality Bites is bound to be overdramatic.

"[8] Mark Perigard of the Boston Herald wrote that the song brings out Daggers' goth side,[31] and Sarah Freymiller of Bustle described it as a "grunge-infused stalk-fest".

[19] According to series costume designer Reiko Kurumada, the crew researched the "Courtney Love-ish era" to create Daggers' look.

[32] Her costume includes slip dresses with fishnets, "Kurt Cobain-ish" silk nightgowns from vintage stores, ripped-up leggings, and Dr. Martens motorcycle boots with flannel and chokers.

[32] According to The Hollywood Reporter, Daggers (in "grunge mode") wears dark flannel, cutoff jeans, black tights and boots, and heavy eye liner.

[35] Daggers is seen undressing and performing onstage (with a sign reading "Consider Questioning Authority, Please" in the background)[36] before a crowd full of slamdancing Mounties,[28] with interspersed shots of a shirtless old man and random words written in chalk.

[28] Fikse and Graham noted many influences of "angsty 90s music videos", including Fiona Apple's "Criminal" (1997), Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991), Metallica's "Enter Sandman" (1991), Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" (1992) and Morissette's "You Oughta Know".