How I Met Your Mother is a CBS sitcom that premiered on September 19, 2005. It was created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas.

The show received generally positive reviews^*. TV Guide gave it a good review in its Fall Preview Issue, giving it the "Editor's Choice" honor.

The show is narrated by Ted Mosby, 25 years in the future, as he tells his son and daughter about the events that led to his meeting their mother. The future Ted, who is not shown, is voiced by Bob Saget. In the early episodes, the show would begin with Ted's two teenage kids listening to his narration, but later episodes rarely show this.

On March 6, 2006, CBS announced that How I Met Your Mother would return for the 2006–2007 season.

25 years earlier, in 2005, the younger Ted (Josh Radnor) goes on a date with reporter Robin (Cobie Smulders) but inadvertently tells her that he loves her after just one date, leading to her breaking off the relationship.

After Ted hosts three parties for Robin, Robin joins Ted's group of friends, which includes the deadpan womanizer Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), law student Marshall (Jason Segel), and Marshall's fiancée, Lily, a kindergarten teacher (Alyson Hannigan).

In a twist at the end of the pilot episode, we learn that the "mother" of the title is not Robin. Instead, she is referred to as "Aunt Robin", and the identity of Ted's future wife has not yet been revealed. (Some viewers had initially assumed that the "Aunt Robin" reference meant that the as-yet-unknown "mother" must be a sibling of Robin's, but other instances have future Ted referring to his other friends as "your Aunt" or "your Uncle", making it possible that in the future, Ted's friends are close enough to his children to serve much the same role as a biological aunt or uncle, and that the mysterious "mother" is not Robin's sister.)

Characters

Main

• Ted Mosby — The central character of the show. Ted is an architect who, according to Barney, thinks too much. After his best friend Marshall becomes engaged, he decides to try and find his soulmate. Prone to socially-questionable romantic gestures, he steals a blue French horn that was a topic of conversation in his first date with Robin. In a similar vein, he also dresses up as a "hanging chad" every year for Halloween, in the hopes of meeting the "slutty pumpkin", a woman dressed as a jack-o'-lantern (complete with strategically-placed holes) whom he once met at a Halloween party. For a time, he dates a baker named Victoria, whom he met at a friend's wedding. She accepts a culinary fellowship in Germany, prompting a long-distance relationship, which does not last, due in large part to his persistent feelings for Robin. His friendship with Robin is threatened when he implies that Victoria broke up with him before he actually did, leading to their making out. They ultimately reconcile, and shortly after that, Ted makes one last attempt to win her, hiring a chamber orchestra with blue instruments to play in her apartment while he makes his appeal. She cannot give him a definite answer, but, after she is stuck at her apartment due to an unpredicted storm (that Ted had wished for), she decides to pursue her feelings for him upon his return to her.

• Marshall Eriksen — He is a law student originally from Minnesota. Even though he's in the six foot height range, he's considered the shortest member of his family. Marshall accidentally shot his fiancée Lily in the eye with a champagne cork the night he proposed. Another time, he, also accidentally, stabbed her with a sword during an impromptu duel with Ted. Marshall is forced to interview for a job at the corporation Barney works for after Lily ruins a very expensive wedding dress. This effectively derails his plan to intern at the Natural Resources Defense Council (or hippie lawyers from granola mountain earth pals, according to Barney). In the first season finale, his wedding plans are derailed when Lily pursues a painting fellowship on the West Coast, triggering a fight that ends their engagement.
  • Lily Aldrin — Kindergarten teacher. She is engaged to Marshall and grew up in New York City. She met Marshall in college and dated him throughout, until their engagement in the pilot. Towards the end of the season, she reveals to Robin that she has been having second thoughts about getting married without having experienced much else of life before Marshall. Those doubts intensify, and she acts upon them, applying for a painting fellowship on the West Coast. She originally tells Ted she decided not to go through with it, but Marshall finds out she did, and was accepted. After arguing the point on and off (with several pause breaks in between for drinks, dinner at Red Lobster, and sex), Lily cannot promise Marshall that she would return to him after the three-month fellowship, and the engagement ends.
  • Robin Scherbatsky — Television news reporter/anchor at a small news station. She dates Ted, who professes his love for her on their first date. Although she outwardly claims she just wants to just be friends, she harbors strong feelings for him. She has performed several embarrassing dares on television. She wins an award for her report on Pickles the singing dog, and attends an award show with the group. She brings Sandy Rivers, a fellow reporter, as a date to make Ted jealous. Like Cobie Smulders in real life, she is originally from Canada. In the first season finale, Ted again professes his love for her, but she has already a date of sorts with Sandy for the company camping trip. The trip, however, is cancelled by a thunderstorm — that Ted himself caused. Robin decides to finally act on her feelings when Ted comes to see her that night, and the two finally embark upon a relationship (which, as we already know, is doomed).
  • Barney Stinson — Womanizer. He works for a company named "UltraCell", which manufactures military weapons as well as the outsides of tennis balls. He was formerly a hippie working in a coffee shop during the mid-1990s. He planned on doing a two-year stint in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua with his girlfriend, but she dumped him for an older, more well-off man. He recorded a video of himself singing in an attempt to win her back, but to no avail. This was the catalyst for his transformation into his modern appearance and personality. He is almost always seen wearing a suit and makes great use of his catchphrase, "Suit up!", often modifying it for a particular situation (i.e., "Snowsuit up!" in the winter, or "Flightsuit up!" when he dresses as a pilot on Halloween, or "Slut Up!" when Lily and Robin get ready to go to a High School prom). Also, he favors one night stands with women, then never having contact with them again. Barney often goes to airports with luggage to pick up women. He has claimed to have licked every national landmark in the United States, including the Golden Gate Bridge and the Liberty Bell. He has a blog, where he once made a post of 24 things women have in common with fish and he invented the "phone-five" (a high five where one high fives a cell phone). He also came up with the "Lemon Law" for dating, but wishes he now named it "Barney's Law."

  Secondary

  • Victoria — Baker. She and Ted meet at a wedding she caters, where they spend the night hanging around by themselves, under the promise that they will never see each other again, as not to ruin their memory of that night. This promise is soon broken and they start up a relationship with each other. This is complicated when she is offered a spot at a cooking school in Germany. They eventually decide that a long distance relationship can not work and break up. A vision of her appears to Ted shortly before the break-up, when he lies to Robin about having already ended the relationship before the fact. Victoria is played by Ashley Williams.
  • Sandy Rivers — Robin's (former) co-anchor. A sleazebag, (and, as described by Ted, "a total jackass") he constantly asks Robin out until one night she accepts, just to make Ted jealous. Before this, he was a favorite of Ted and Marshall, as they enjoyed laughing at the section of his morning news bulletin where he simply read through front pages of newspapers. In the first season finale, he reveals that he has accepted a position at CNN, and has recommended Robin to succeed him as lead anchor of Metro News One. Sandy is portrayed by Alexis Denisof, who in real life is married to Alyson Hannigan (Lily).
  • Ted's daughter and son — Not much is known about them, except that they don't know the events that led to Ted meeting their mother and that they are teenagers in the year 2030, meaning they were born sometime in the mid-2010s. They might be named Luke and Leia because in one episode Ted was told to "swear on his unborn son and daughter", to which he replied "I swear on Luke and Leia." The daughter is played by Lyndsy Fonseca.

  External links

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  • Official website hosted by CBS
  • Barney's blog

  CBS network shows | 2000s TV shows in the United States | Fox Television Studios shows | Seven Network shows | Sitcoms

  How I Met Your Mother | How I Met Your Mother