The series was created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, who also served as the show's executive producers and were frequent writers. The series was loosely inspired by their friendship when they both lived in New York City.[1] Among the 208 episodes, there were only four directors: Pamela Fryman (196 episodes), Rob Greenberg (7 episodes), Michael Shea (4 episodes) and Neil Patrick Harris (1 episode).
Known for its unique structure, eccentric humor, and incorporation of dramatic elements, How I Met Your Mother has gained a cult following over the years. The show initially received positive reviews, while the later seasons received more mixed reviews.[2][3][4][5] The show was nominated for 28 Emmy Awards, winning nine. In 2010, Alyson Hannigan won the People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Comedy Actress. In 2012, seven years after its premiere, the series won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Network TV Comedy, and Neil Patrick Harris won the award for Favorite TV Comedy Actor.
The ninth and final season began airing on September 23, 2013, and concluded on March 31, 2014, with a double-length finale episode, which received polarized reviews from critics and fans alike for its controversial twist ending, as many critics and fans believed it contradicted many of the previous episodes.[6][7][8]
Contents
Premise
The series concerns the adventures of Ted Mosby (played by Josh Radnor) narrating the story of how he met the mother of his children. The story goes into a flashback and starts in 2005 with a 27-year-old Ted Mosby living in New York City and working as an architect; the narrative deals primarily with his best friends, including the long-lasting couple Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan); the eccentric, womanizing-playboy Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris); and news reporter Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). The lives of all characters are entwined in each others. The series explores many storylines, including a "will they or won't they" relationship between Robin and each of the two single male friends, Marshall and Lily's relationship, and the ups and downs of the characters' careers.The show's frame story depicts Ted (voice of Bob Saget, uncredited) verbally retelling the story to his son Luke (David Henrie) and daughter Penny (Lyndsy Fonseca) as they sit on the couch in the year 2030. This future-set frame is officially the show's "present day" and How I Met Your Mother exploits this framing device in numerous ways: to depict and re-depict events from multiple points of view; to set up jokes using quick and sometimes multiple flashbacks nested within the oral retelling; to substitute visual, verbal or aural euphemisms for activities Ted doesn't want to talk about with his children (sexual practices, use of illicit substances, vulgar language, etc.); and even to add some elements of humor: in the episode "How I Met Everyone Else", Ted describes his dates with a girlfriend whose name he has forgotten, leading all characters to act as though her given name were "Blah-Blah."
While the traditional love-story structure begins when the romantic leads first encounter each other, How I Met Your Mother does not introduce Ted's wife (Cristin Milioti) until the eighth-season finale, and only announces her name (Tracy McConnell) during the series finale. The show instead focuses on Ted's prior relationships and his dissatisfaction with those women, thus setting the stage for his eventual happiness with Tracy.
Production
How I Met Your Mother was inspired by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas's idea to "write about our friends and the stupid stuff we did in New York", where they previously worked as writers for Late Show with David Letterman, among others.[1] The two drew from their friendship in creating the characters. Ted is based loosely on Bays, and Marshall and Lily are based loosely on Thomas and his wife.[9][10] Thomas' wife Rebecca was initially reluctant to have a character based on her but agreed if they could get Alyson Hannigan to play her. Hannigan was looking to do more comedy work and was available.[9] Josh Radnor and Jason Segel, who were cast as Ted and Marshall, respectively, were not well known, though Segel had been a cast member on the short-lived Freaks and Geeks and a recurring guest star on Judd Apatow follow-up Undeclared. The role of Barney was initially envisioned as a "John Belushi-type character"[11] before Neil Patrick Harris won the role after being invited to an audition by the show's casting director Megan Branman.[12] Pamela Fryman invited Bob Saget to be the voiceover narrator, Future Ted, explaining to him that the show would be like The Wonder Years but "kind of into the future".[13] Saget either went to the television studio and recorded the narration while watching the episode, or did so separately and rerecorded with the episode if necessary.[14] He normally did not attend table readings but did so for the last episode.[15]In various interviews Bays and Thomas have stated that "a pretty famous actress"[16] turned down the role of Robin, whom they revealed in February 2014 to have been Jennifer Love Hewitt.[17] They then cast Cobie Smulders for the role who, at the time, was fairly unknown. Bays and Thomas later said, "Thank God we did for a million reasons... when Ted's seeing her for the
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