How I Met Your Mother Totally Explained

Everything about How I Met Your Mother totally explained

How I Met Your Mother (or HIMYM) is an American situation comedy that premiered on CBS Broadcasting on September 19 2005. The show was created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays. The series is based around the main character, Ted Mosby, telling his son and daughter about the events that led to his meeting their mother. 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. The character Barney Stinson has been compared to Fonzie in Happy Days, in which a secondary "breakout character" often takes over much of the focus of the episodes.
   On May 16, 2007, CBS executives announced at the annual Upfront presentation that How I Met Your Mother was renewed for a third season. While airing -style promos for the show, it was announced that the show would be moving to the 9:30 ET/8:30 CT Monday timeslot for summer reruns, after reruns of the highly-rated Two and a Half Men. The show shifted back to 8:00 ET/7:00 CT at the beginning of the third season, which premiered September 24, 2007 but it has since been moved to the 8:30 PM ET/7:30 PM CT slot.
   During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, How I Met Your Mother shut down production, but once the strike ended, CBS announced the show would return March 17, 2008 with 9 new episodes. 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.
   It is a phenomenal hit in Australia, where it airs on the Seven Network, usually rating number one in its primetime slot. It is also shown in the United Kingdom on Trouble and Living TV and previously on BBC Two.
   The show has recently been renewed for a fourth season by CBS on May 14,2008.

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.
   The theme tune to the show is from the song Hey Beautiful by The Solids, of which Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are members.
   Episodes generally start with the opening credit screen. However, a cold opening has been used more often recently, especially in season three. 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 we can just see scenes from previous shows or shots of New York City with Ted narrating over the top.
   The show explores the concepts of stories and storytelling usually with multiple flashbacks occurring each episode, a technique similar to that often employed in the earlier UK sitcom Coupling. This effect has been dubbed "deep frying" the story, a reference to the show's director, Pamela Fryman. This structure necessitates many more scenes than the average sitcom; therefore the show isn't 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. Sometimes, scenes would incorporate a studio audience depending on the set structures.
   The bar "MacLaren's" in which some of the show is set is based on a bar in New York called McGees. It has a mural that Carter Bays and Craig Thomas both liked and wanted to incorporate into the show.

Cast

Main characters

Josh Radnor as Ted Mosby
Jason Segel as Marshall Eriksen
Cobie Smulders as Robin Scherbatsky
Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson
Alyson Hannigan as Lily Aldrin
Bob Saget (uncredited) as Future Ted Mosby (voice only)

Recurring and guest stars

Adriana Lima as Herself

Alessandra Ambrosio as Herself

Alexis Denisof as Sandy Rivers

Amy Acker as Penelope

Ashley Williams as Victoria

Bob Barker as Himself

Britney Spears as Abby

Bryan Cranston as Hammond Druthers

Charlene Amoia as Wendy the Waitress

Danica McKellar as Trudy

David Henrie as Future Son

Emmitt Smith as Himself

Enrique Iglesias as Gael

George Clinton as Himself

Heidi Klum as Herself

James Van Der Beek as Simon

Jane Seymour as Marshall`s lecturer

Joe Manganiello as Brad

Joe Nieves as Carl

John Cho as Jeff Coatsworth

Lindsay Price as Cathy

Lyndsy Fonseca as Future Daughter

Mandy Moore as Amy

Marisa Miller as Herself

Marshall Manesh as Ranjit

Megan Mullally as the voice of Barney's Mother

Miranda Kerr as Herself

Monique Edwards as Robin's News Program Producer

Orson Bean as Old Bob

Rich Fields as Himself

Sarah Chalke as Stella

Selita Ebanks as Herself

Steven Willison as Ted's old Roommate

Wayne Brady as James Stinson

Main Crew

Carter Bays

Pamela Fryman

Craig Thomas

Chris Harris

Suzy Mamann-Greenberg

Rob Greenberg

Stephen Lloyd

Greg Malins

Sam Johnson

Chris Marcil

Eileen Heisler

DeAnn Heline

Jonathan Groff

David Hemingson

Ira Ungerleider

Gloria Calderon Kellett

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), 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 for Robin, though she doesn't feel the same as he does.
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, and after a rough patch, he begins to date Robin at last. 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 isn't 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, whenever Marshall chooses, which he's done three times through the course of the season. Ted and Robin decide to just be friends when they realize that they both want different things. It is revealed that Barney has a gay, black brother. They eventually find out that Robin was a Canadian teen pop star in the early 90's.

Season Three

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."
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, 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 anymore. Barney's saboteur is revealed to be Abby (Britney Spears), Stella's receptionist, with a vengeance against Barney for not calling her after they'd sex. She still wields a pseudo-psychotic fixation on Ted and does all she can to pursue him with the help of Barney who also still holds a grudge against Ted. In the last episode, "Miracles", Ted and Barney renew their friendship after both Ted and Barney are involved in accidents (Ted being in a cab accident and coming out of it without a scratch, and Barney is run over by a bus). At the end of the episode, Ted proposed to Stella. It hasn't been revealed whether Stella is the woman Ted marries. However, in the Episode '10 sessions', Stella reveals that she attended and left a party on St. Patrick's Day, which may have been the same one Ted attended. It is also heavily implied that Barney is in love with Robin.
In the episode "The Goat", we find out that, in the following year (when Ted turns 31), Robin will be living in Ted's apartment.

Episodes

Ep total	First airdate	Last airdate
22	September 19 2005	May 15 2006
22	September 18 2006	May 14 2007
20	September 24 2007	May 19 2008

Nielsen Ratings

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

Timeslot (EDT)	Season premiere	Season finale	TV season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
Monday 8:30 P.M. (September 19, 2005 - May 15, 2006)	September 19, 2005	May 15, 2006	2005–2006	#53	9.5
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
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	#76	8.7

Awards

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

Emmy Award: Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series (2006).

Emmy Award: Nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Neil Patrick Harris).

DVD release

Season releases

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's 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 16, 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.

Further Information

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