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| format = [[Situation comedy]]
| format = [[Situation comedy]]
| camera = [[Multi-camera]]
| camera = [[Multi-camera]]
| picture_format = [[480i]] ([[Standard-definition television|SDTV]]),<br />[[1080i]] ([[High-definition television|HDTV]])
| picture_format = [[480i]] ([[Standard-definition television|SDTV]]),<br />[[1080i]] ([[High-definition television|HDTV]]) (as of season 3)
| audio_format =
| audio_format =
| runtime = 22 minutes (approx.)
| runtime = 22 minutes (approx.)

Revision as of 18:30, 14 February 2009

How I Met Your Mother
File:Howimetyourmother.jpg
The title card of How I Met Your Mother.
Created byCarter Bays
Craig Thomas
StarringJosh Radnor
Jason Segel
Cobie Smulders
Neil Patrick Harris
Alyson Hannigan
Narrated byBob Saget (uncredited)
Opening theme"Hey Beautiful" by The Solids
Country of originUnited States United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes78 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersCarter Bays
Pamela Fryman
Rob Greenberg
Craig Thomas
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time22 minutes (approx.)
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 19, 2005 –
present

How I Met Your Mother is an American situation comedy that premiered on CBS Broadcasting on September 19, 2005. The show was created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays. As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting their mother, which explains the title and allows for a narration in the past tense. How I Met Your Mother's other main characters are Marshall Eriksen, Robin Scherbatsky, Barney Stinson, and Lily Aldrin. 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.

During the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike, How I Met Your Mother shut down production, but once the strike ended the show returned on March 17, 2008, with 9 new episodes.[1] It was also announced another change in timeslot to 8:30 ET/7:30 CT, flip-flopping from the summer schedule with The Big Bang Theory.[2] The show was renewed for a fourth season by CBS on May 14, 2008,[3] which premiered on September 22, 2008.[4]

In September 2008, it was announced that Lifetime Television purchased the right to rerun How I Met Your Mother at a rate of $750,000 per episode.[5]

Production

Inspired by "our friends and the stupid stuff we did in New York," How I Met Your Mother is Bays and Thomas's idea. The duo's first concept about "an Enron executive who gets sentenced by the judge to go teach at an inner-city high school" was discarded because neither writer wanted to research the subject.[6]

Episodes from the first season generally started with the opening credit screen. However, a cold opening has been used since season two. Viewers then occasionally see Ted's children on a couch and hear him talking to them, telling the story of how he met their mother. Alternatively, scenes from previous shows or shots of New York City with Ted narrating over the top are shown. Thomas has explicitly said that Future Ted is an unreliable narrator.[7]

The show usually features multiple flashbacks in each episode. This effect has been dubbed "deep frying" the story, a reference to the show's director, Pamela Fryman.[citation needed] This structure necessitates many more scenes than the average sitcom;[citation needed] therefore the show is not filmed before a live studio audience despite being shot in the traditional sitcom format.[citation needed] Laughter is not recorded until the episode is shown to a live audience after it has been completely edited together.[citation needed] Sometimes scenes incorporate a studio audience, depending on the set structures.

The theme song is a portion of "Hey Beautiful" by The Solids, of which Bays and Thomas are members.

The bar "MacLaren's", in which some of the show is set, is based on a bar in New York called McGee's.[8] It has a mural that Carter Bays and Craig Thomas both liked and wanted to incorporate into the show.[citation needed] The name is from Carter Bays assistant Carl MacLaren, the bartender in the show is also called Carl .[9]

A scene directly relating to the identity of the mother, involving Ted's future children, was filmed near the beginning of season two for the show's eventual series finale.[10]

The production of the fifth season has been complicated by the pregnancy of actress Cobie Smulders (Robin). It appears the show will be unable to film until summer as Smulders is expecting in the Spring. Waiting to film until the summer before release is practically unheard of in modern network television production.

Cast

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

Main characters

Recurring characters


Numerous actors from Joss Whedon projects have appeared on the show, such as series regulars Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris. Guest stars from Whedon projects include Alexis Denisof (Hannigan's husband), Amy Acker, Tom Lenk, Harry Groener, and Morena Baccarin.

Also, actors from Jason Segel's debut series Freaks and Geeks have appeared on the show, such as Samm Levine, Martin Starr and Busy Philipps.

Main crew

Season synopsis

Season One

In the year 2030, Ted Mosby (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 Wesleyan University, Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), a law student, and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher, who 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 Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) whom he met in a bathroom after a night of drinks. Barney is known as a womanizer with an unnamed corporate job. Ted begins his search for his perfect mate. He is introduced to the ambitious young reporter Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), when Barney plays the game he invented to introduce Ted to women: "Hi, have you met Ted?" Ted quickly falls in love with Robin and thinks about settling down, but she isn't ready. However, the viewers are told that, to Ted's children, Robin is their "aunt", not their mother.

As the series progresses, Ted begins dating a baker, Victoria, whom he meets at a wedding, causing Robin to become jealous and realize she does have feelings for him. When Victoria moves to Germany for a fellowship, Ted almost cheats on her with Robin. The two then break up. Ted gets a call from Love Solutions, the matrimonial company that struggled to find a match for him, that finally they have a love mate for him. But he did not show up for the blind date and begins to date Robin. Meanwhile, Lily begins to wonder if she's missed any opportunities because of her relationship with Marshall, and decides to pursue an art fellowship in San Francisco, breaking up with Marshall in the process.

Season Two

Ted and Robin are finally a couple. The heartbroken Marshall must now go on and try to continue his life without Lily, and begins dating other people. Realizing she is not an artist, Lily returns to New York. She's reunited with Marshall, and the season culminates in their marriage. Barney loses a "slap bet," which permits Marshall to slap him in the face five times at any given time in the future, whenever Marshall chooses, which he has done two times through the course of this season. It is revealed that Barney has a gay, black brother. Also, Barney takes a trip to California to be a contestant on The Price is Right, in part because he believes that Bob Barker is his father, although he doesn't actually say so. They eventually find out that Robin was a Canadian teen pop star in the early 90s.

In the season finale, through a series of flashbacks, Barney learns from Ted and Robin that they had been broken up for some time before Marshall and Lily's wedding. They didn't tell anyone before because they felt there was never the right opportunity. Ted and Robin agree to stay friends as Ted wants to get married and Robin does not. The season ends with Barney excited at the prospect of Ted's and his being single guys on the town again: "this is going to be legen.....wait for it....."

Season Three

"......dary!"

Robin returns from a trip to Argentina, and Ted must adjust to life as just her friend. Marshall and Lily decide to move out on their own, falling in love with a place they can't afford. Marshall learns of Lily's bad credit rating due to her compulsive shopping. They are able to finally score their dream apartment despite this, only to discover the neighborhood is next to a sewage treatment plant. Coming to terms with this, they later also realize that the apartment is crooked. Barney is slapped for the third time on Thanksgiving, which Marshall dubs "Slapsgiving."

It is revealed that the way Ted met "Your Mother" is through a story with her yellow umbrella, which he finds and takes in "No Tomorrow".Ted attempts to woo Stella (Sarah Chalke), a dermatologist he sees to remove an embarrassing tattoo. This culminates in a memorable "two-minute date," which incorporates small talk, dinner, a movie, coffee, two cab rides, and a goodnight kiss, all within two minutes. Meanwhile, an unknown woman begins to sabotage Barney's attempts to hook up. Robin sleeps with Barney after he comforts her following a break-up, which is followed by Ted's disapproval due to the breaking of the "Bro Code." After that, Ted decides not to be friends with Barney any more. Barney's saboteur is revealed to be Abby (Britney Spears), Stella's receptionist, with a vendetta against Barney for not calling her after they had sex. In the last episode, "Miracles", Ted and Barney renew their friendship after both are involved in accidents (Ted is in a cab accident and comes out of it without a scratch. Barney is run over by a bus while rushing to find out if Ted's all right). At the end of the episode, Ted proposes to Stella.[11]

In the episode "Ten Sessions", Stella reveals that she attended and left a party on St. Patrick's Day, which may have been the same one Ted attended. Ted told his children that the future mother of his children was at the party, but they had not seen each other.[12]

It is also heavily implied that Barney has feelings for Robin. In the episode "The Goat", it is revealed that in the following year (when Ted turns 31) Robin will be living in Ted's apartment.[13] This is confirmed in "Not a Father's Day."

Season Four

The gang continues to mature as they all reach their 30s. Stella says "yes" to Ted's proposal, but she leaves him at the altar in order to get back together with the father of her child. Barney struggles with his feelings for Robin. Barney's company shifts him to the management team of a new acquisition, Goliath National Bank, and Barney in turn gets Marshall a job as in-house counsel and a contract for Ted's firm to design GNB's Manhattan headquarters. Marshall and Lily finally move to their new apartment and struggle over whether or not they're ready to have children. Robin takes a new job in Japan, but finds it's even worse than Metro News One and quickly quits and returns to New York for Ted's wedding. Soon after her return, she becomes roommates with Ted. Robin now has no job or boyfriend, and is unsure about her life in New York. Ted finds out about Barney's feelings for Robin when Ted and Robin sleep together constantly so they won't fight over each others bad habits. Because Robin has no job, she is facing getting deported. Barney helps her make a video resume and she gets a job offer.

Episodes

Main article: List of How I Met Your Mother episodes
Season Ep total First airdate Last airdate
Season 1 22 September 19, 2005 May 15, 2006
Season 2 22 September 18, 2006 May 14, 2007
Season 3 20 September 24, 2007 May 19, 2008
Season 4 Ongoing September 22, 2008 TBD

The Bro Code

The Bro Code, stated by Barney many times throughout the series, is a set of written rules for bros to follow, and has been published[14] as a tie-in novel.

Cultural references

To How I Met Your Mother

In the episode "No Chris Left Behind" of the FOX animated series Family Guy (also produced by 20th Century Fox Television), a short clip from a pastiche TV show How I Met Your Father is seen. Josh Radnor and Neil Patrick Harris make cameo appearances voicing their characters Ted and Barney, with the name of the show and the gay kiss a reference to Harris' then-recent outing. The clip also introduces a rather different meaning to Barney's "Suit up!" catchphrase.

Used in How I Met Your Mother

In "Moving Day", the episode closes with a scene in "MacLaren's" where Barney reads out a Top Ten list, in the style of David Letterman's Late Show.[15]

In "Mary the Paralegal", Barney says "I said good day!" (Originally a quote from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and used by Fez in That '70s Show).[16]

In "Swarley", Barney gains the unfortunate nickname Swarley. The end of the episode features all the people in McLaren's Bar calling him Swarley, to which Carl presses play on stereo and plays "Where Everybody Knows Your Name," the Cheers theme song. This episode ends with Cheers-esque theme while the credits are rolling. In that same episode, the men are in a coffee shop and comment on how it is cooler to hang out in a bar than a coffee shop, which the writers later stated was a reference to Central Perk from Friends.[17]

"The Bracket" closes with Barney beginning to write a blog post[18] – on a blue-screen computer, an allusion to Harris's role in Doogie Howser, M.D., which usually concluded with Howser writing in his computerized diary. The same music is used. It also used the CBS Sports NCAA Final Four basketball anthem "One Shining Moment" in a montage that parodied the regular post-game montage.

In "Do I Know You?", Ted discovers that he doesn't know Stella as well as he thinks he does. Marshall asks him "What color are her eyes?" Ted's response is directly from the The Princess Bride: "...like the sea after a storm."

In "The Best Burger in New York", Marshall's speech is a modified version of Salieri's from the 1980s movie, Amadeus.[19]

In "I Heart NJ", when unveiling her dingy basement to everyone, Stella quotes Brian Collins with "Boom goes the dynamite."[20]

In "Woooo!", Marshall said that Pigeons are smarter than Barney thinks and they hold grudges, then he left Barney at the roof of the building. Suddenly pigeons start to come one by one ; alluding to Hitchcock's The Birds.

Nielsen ratings

Based on average total viewers per episode of CBS sitcom, How I Met Your Mother:[21][22]

Season Timeslot (EDT) Season premiere Season finale TV season Rank Viewers
(in millions)
1 Monday 8:30 P.M. (September 19, 2005 – May 15, 2006) September 19, 2005 May 15, 2006 2005–2006 #43 9.5
2 Monday 8:30 P.M. (September 18, 2006 – October 2, 2006)
Monday 8:00 P.M. (October 9, 2006 – May 14, 2007) 		September 18, 2006 May 14, 2007 2006–2007 #51 8.5
3 Monday 8:00 P.M. (September 24, 2007 – March 10, 2008)
Monday 8:30 P.M. (March 17, 2008 – May 19, 2008) 		September 24, 2007 May 19, 2008 2007–2008 #70 8.2[23]

So far the show has an average of 10.00 million viewers for season 4, and episode 12 hit a season high of 11.85 million viewers, the show's highest ratings since Season 1 (February 2006).

Awards

2006

2007

2008

2009

DVD release

Season releases Region 1

DVD name Release date Ep # Additional information
Season One 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. The episodes on the DVD have been cropped from the originally broadcast widescreen to a full frame 4:3 format though. At present there is no widescreen version.
Season Two October 2, 2007 22 This three-disc box set includes all 22 episodes of Season 2. Bonus features include commentaries on select episodes, gag reel, and several featurettes.
Season Three October 7, 2008 20 This three-disc box set includes all 20 episodes of Season 3. Bonus features include commentaries on select episodes, gag reel, and several featurettes.

References

  1. ^ "CBS Sets Series Return Dates". Retrieved 2008-02-13.
  2. ^ Breaking News – "THE BIG BANG THEORY" AND "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER" TO SWAP TIME PERIODS | TheFutonCritic.com
  3. ^ "Upfront: CBS Releases Full Schedule". Retrieved 2008-05-14.
  4. ^ "CBS ANNOUNCES 2008–2009 PREMIERE DATES". CBS. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
  5. ^ Nordyke, Kimberly (September 24, 2008). "'Mother' reruns nest at Lifetime". Hollywood Reporter.
  6. ^ "TV Summer School: How to Create and Run a Successful Sitcom". EOnline.com. Retrieved 2008-01-26.
  7. ^ "'How I Met Your Mother's' Craig Thomas on Ted & Barney's Breakup, Eriksen Babies and The Future of Robarn". Zap2it.com. Retrieved 2008-07-21.
  8. ^ "TV Guide Editor's Blog: Video Q&As: I Hit the How I Met Your Motherlode!". Retrieved 2008-11-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |published= ignored (help)
  9. ^ http://www.tvsquad.com/2007/05/11/carter-bays-of-how-i-met-your-mother-the-tv-squad-interview/
  10. ^ "Barney writes a book, Barney + Robin, Ted + Stella and other 'How I Met Your Mother' news". Chicago Tribune. 2008-07-19. Retrieved 2008-07-21. He did reveal that more than two years ago ... With only the two kids who play Ted's future children ... they shot a scene that directly relates to the identity of the mother. That scene will be included in the show's series finale, which Thomas said he hopes "people will see in 2012."
  11. ^ "Miracles". How I Met Your Mother. Season 3. Episode 20. 2008-05-19. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ "Ten Sessions". How I Met Your Mother. Season 3. Episode 13. 2008-03-24. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ "The Goat". How I Met Your Mother. Season 3. Episode 17. 2008-04-28. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Stinson, Barney (2008). The Bro Code. New York: Fireside. ISBN 9781439110003.
  15. ^ "Moving Day". How I Met Your Mother. Season 2. Episode 18. 2007-03-19. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Mary the Paralegal". How I Met Your Mother. Season 1. Episode 19. 2006-04-24. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ "Swarley". How I Met Your Mother. Season 2. Episode 7. 2006-11-06. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ "The Bracket". How I Met Your Mother. Season 3. Episode 14. 2008-05-31. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxgZcMGmkkI
  20. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W45DRy7M1no
  21. ^ "Hollywood Reporter: 2005-06 primetime wrap". May 26, 2006. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
  22. ^ "Hollywood Reporter: 2006-07 primetime wrap". May 25, 2007. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |source= ignored (help)
  23. ^ Televisionista: TV Ratings: 2007–2008 Season Top-200
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