How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother
File:Himym cast main.jpg Promotional cast photo with the main cast of How I Met Your Mother
Created by	Carter Bays Craig Thomas
Starring	Josh Radnor Jason Segel Cobie Smulders with Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan
Narrated by	Bob Saget (uncredited)
Opening theme	"Hey Beautiful" by The Solids
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	44 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Carter Bays Pamela Fryman Rob Greenberg Eileen Heisler DeAnn Heline Craig Thomas
Running time	22 minutes (approx.)
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 19 2005 – present

How I Met Your Mother is an Emmy-winning CBS sitcom that premiered on September 19, 2005. Created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, the show received generally positive reviews. [1] TV Guide gave it the "Editor's Choice" honor in its Fall Preview Issue. Thomas and Bays drew from their friendship in creating the characters, with Ted based loosely on Bays and Marshall and Lily based loosely on Thomas and his wife.

Dubbed "A love story in reverse," the show is structured as the main character, Ted, in the year 2030 telling his son and daughter about the events that led to his meeting their mother, which begin in 2005. The show frequently explores the concepts of stories and storytelling usually with multiple flashbacks occurring each episode. This structure necessitates many more scenes than the average sitcom, therefore the show is not filmed before a live studio audience despite being shot in the traditional sitcom format. Laughter isn't recorded until the episode is shown to an audience after it has been completely edited together.

On May 16, 2007, CBS executives announced at the annual UpFront presentation that How I Met Your Mother has been renewed for a third season that will premiere in fall 2007. The show will continue to air in the 8:00 p.m. timeslot, leading off CBS's primetime Monday schedule.[2].

Main cast

Main article: List of characters from How I Met Your Mother

• Josh Radnor as Ted Mosby
• Jason Segel as Marshall Eriksen
• Cobie Smulders as Robin Scherbatsky
• with Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson
• and Alyson Hannigan as Lily Aldrin

Recurring guest stars

• Charlene Amoia as Wendy/Waitress
• Monique Edwards as Producer
• Lyndsy Fonseca as Daughter
• David Henrie as Son
• Marshall Manesh as Ranjit
• Joe Manganiello as Brad
• Joe Nieves as Carl
• Ashley Williams as Victoria
• Alexis Denisof as Sandy Rivers

Plot

In the year 2030, Ted (voiced by Bob Saget) gathers his daughter and son to tell them the story of how he met their mother. The story begins in 2005 with Ted (Josh Radnor) as a single, 27-year-old architect living with his two best friends from college, Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan). Lily, a kindergarten teacher, and Marshall, a law student, have been dating for almost nine years when Marshall proposes. Their engagement causes Ted to think about marriage and finding his soul mate, much to the disgust of his friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), a womanizer with a lucrative though unnamed corporate job. Ted begins his search for his perfect mate, immediately falling for ambitious young reporter Robin (Cobie Smulders), who quickly becomes part of Ted's group of friends.

At the end of the pilot episode, Ted announces that the "mother" of the title is not Robin, which is confirmed in the second season finale. As of May 2007, the identity of the mother has not yet been revealed.

Episodes

Main article: List of How I Met Your Mother episodes

Nielsen Ratings

• 2005-2006 Season: #51
• 2006-2007 Season: #61

Theme song

The main theme song of the sitcom is excerpted from the song "Hey Beautiful" by The Solids, an unsigned band of which the creators are members.

Recurring elements

• Barney's catchphrases: "Legendary," "Suit Up," "High five," "What up?" and various uses of the word "awesome" and "awesomeness"
• For emphasis, Barney inserts the phrase “wait for it” into the middle of a word, e.g. "Legen, wait for it— Dary”
• Barney calling himself Ted's best friend or Marshall's best man, only to be corrected
• "Have you met...?": Barney first uses the "Have you met...?" line, introducing Ted to random women in the bar, simply by saying, "Hi, have you met Ted?" then walking away. The phrase has been adapted and used with all of the characters except for Lily.
• Slap Bet: The season two episode "Slap Bet" featured a wager between Marshall and Barney where the winner would slap the loser. Lily (the Slap Bet Commissioner) gave Barney (who lost the bet) the choice of 10 slaps immediately or five to be dished out at any time. The Slap Bet was based on a short story written by Brian Polson and was incorporated into the script at the insistence of Pamela Fryman.

  Barney, having chosen the five slaps, has been slapped twice by Marshall since then:

  • At the end of "Slap Bet", a few minutes after losing the bet
  • At the end of season two episode "Stuff," while performing his one-man show "Suck It Lily."

  After both slaps, Marshall held up the appropriate number of fingers and announced "That's one/that's two."

• "Famous telepathic conversations": If the characters want to have a private conversation in the presence of others, they will attempt to communicate with each other telepathically. Marshall has done this successfully with Ted and Lily, but when Robin attempted it with Lily it failed.
• One character slapping another character for acting stupidly
• Barney makes up statistics, which always include 83% according to Ted, although this has only been shown once
• When asked what his job is, Barney laughs and says "Please"
• Marshall is unbeatable at all games, from Gin to an unnamed exotic Chinese game. Marshall's advice to Barney in the latter wins him the game.
• Barney has a gambling problem
• Barney loves laser tag
• Barney loves Sharper Image
• Marshall often does The Robot when he is excited about something
• Robin being teased about being Canadian. She will sometimes respond with an accurate flaw about America, such as a the flawed medical system and the overall poor knowledge of international geography.
• Marshall's extensive "knowledge" of the Loch Ness Monster
• Marshall wanting Ted to watch The Goonies

Awards

• Emmy Award: Outstanding Art Direction for a Multi-Camera Series (2006)
• Emmy Award: Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series (2006)

DVD release

Season releases

DVD Name	DVD Cover Art	Release Date	Ep #	Additional Information
Season One	File:How I Met Your Mother Season 1.jpg	November 21 2006	22	This three-disc box set includes all 22 episodes of Season 1. Bonus features include commentaries on select episodes, gag reel, and video yearbook.

International broadcasters

Country	TV Network(s)	Series Premiere	Weekly Schedule
United States	CBS Television	September 19 2005	Mondays 8:00 p.m. ET
Canada	CHTV (Premiered on Global Television Network)		Mondays 8:00 p.m. ET
Australia	Channel Seven	June 29 2006	Thursdays 7:30 p.m.
Brazil	Fox Life	January 11 2006
France	Canal +	February 11, 2007	Sundays 4:30 p.m.
India	STAR World	May 31, 2007	Thursdays 8:00 p.m.
Ireland	Channel 6
Israel	yesSTARS (Season 1) yes stars 1 (Season 2)	March 9, 2006	Thursdays 9:05pm (Season 1) Sundays 9:15pm (Season 2)
Mexico	Fox Life Televisa (incomplete)
New Zealand	TV3	24 January 2007	Saturday 8:00 p.m.
Pakistan	STAR World, Showtime, Paramount Comedy Channel
Philippines	ETC	March 5 2007	Monday 8:30 p.m.
Poland	Comedy Central		Sundays 8:50 p.m.
Saudi Arabia and Arab World	Showtime Arabia, Paramount Comedy Channel, Paramount Comedy Channel +2 and MBC 4
South Africa	e.tv		Sundays 7:30 p.m.
Spain	La Sexta	January 8, 2007	Mondays 9:35 p.m.
Sweden	TV3 (Viasat)		Saturdays
Denmark	TV3 (Viasat)
Thailand	True Series Star World	January 25, 2006 May 31, 2007	Wednesdays 9:00 p.m. UTC+7 Thursdays 7:00 p.m. UTC+7
Turkey	CNBC-e		Wednesdays 8:35 p.m.
United Kingdom	BBC Three (First run) and BBC Two (re-runs) (Season 1) Trouble (Season 2-)	7 May 2006	Weekdays 9:00 p.m. GMT

External links

• "How I Met Your Mother" at Yahoo! TV
• Australian Official Website