How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, and directed by Pamela Fryman.
Set in Manhattan, How I Met Your Mother follows the social and romantic lives of Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) and his friends Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) and Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris).[1] As a framing device, the main character, Ted,[1] using voiceover narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and his daughter the events that led to his meeting their mother.
How I Met Your Mother has been a critical success and has received consistently positive reviews throughout its run. It has won six Emmy Awards, including a nomination for "Outstanding Comedy Series" (2009).
Season 7 was announced in March 2011 and premiered on September 19, 2011, with back-to-back episodes, along with confirmation of an eighth season. How I Met Your Mother won the People's Choice Awards 2012 for Best TV Network Comedy, and Neil Patrick Harris won the Best Male Comedy Actor.[2]
How I Met Your Mother was inspired by Bays' and Thomas's idea to "write about our friends and the stupid stuff we did in New York".[3] 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.[4][5] Thomas's 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.[4]
MacLaren's, a bar in the middle of New York, in which some of the show is set, is based on a bar named McGee's.[6] It has a mural that Bays and Thomas both liked and wanted to incorporate into the show.[7] The name for the bar is from Carter Bays' assistant, Carl MacLaren; the bartender in the show is also called Carl.[8]
Each episode is usually shot over three days in the Los Angeles-based Soundstage Studio 22[9] and features upwards of 50 scenes with quick transitions and flashbacks. However, the "Pilot" episode was filmed at CBS Radford.[10] The laugh track is later created by recording an audience being shown the final edited episode. Thomas claims that shooting before a live audience would be impossible because of the structure of the show and the numerous flashforwards in each episode and because doing so "would blur the line between 'audience' and 'hostage situation'".[11] Later seasons started filming in front of an audience on occasion when smaller sets are used.
The theme song is a portion of "Hey Beautiful" by The Solids, of which Bays and Thomas are members. Episodes from Season 1 generally started with the opening credits. A cold opening has been used since Season 2. 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 episodes or shots of New York City with Ted narrating over the top are shown. Thomas has explicitly said Future Ted is an unreliable narrator since he is trying to tell a story that happened over 20 years earlier;[12] this has been a plot point in several episodes such as "The Goat", "Oh Honey","How I Met Everyone Else" and "The Mermaid Theory". Nevertheless, Thomas has also emphasized maintaining a coherent and consistent universe, and trying to avoid continuity errors, based on his experiences of being a fan of other shows.[13]
A scene directly relating to the identity of the mother, involving Ted's future children, was filmed near the beginning of Season 2 for the show's eventual series finale.[14] This was primarily done because the teenage actors portraying them will be adults by the time the final season is shot.[15]
During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, How I Met Your Mother shut down production; but, when the strike ended, the show returned on March 17, 2008, with nine new episodes.[16] A change in timeslot was also announced, to 8:30 pm ET/7:30 pm CT, flip-flopping from the summer schedule with The Big Bang Theory.[17] CBS renewed the show for a fourth season on May 14, 2008,[18] which premiered on September 22, 2008.[19]
In September 2008, it was announced that Lifetime Television had purchased the right to rerun How I Met Your Mother at a rate of about $725,000 per episode.[20] The four-year syndication contract stipulated that the studio must deliver at least 110 half-hour episodes by the year 2010, and allows for up to eight seasons of the show. At the end of the fourth season only 88 episodes had been produced, and a further 22 episodes were required, ensuring that there would be a fifth season.[21] On May 19, 2009, the fifth-season renewal was announced.[22] On May 20, 2009, CBS announced that How I Met Your Mother would again be aired at 8 pm, leading into the new comedy Accidentally on Purpose. On January 12, 2010, the show hit the milestone of its 100th episode. It was also announced that the series would return for a sixth season on CBS.[23] In response to being syndicated, Thomas said, "We're thrilled that it will live on in other forms," and they were proud of the show and it was great to see the strong demand.[24] However, cast members have suggested the show will run for no more than eight seasons.[25]
On September 13, 2010, reruns of the series began airing on local U.S. broadcast television stations and on Chicago-based cable superstation WGN America. Featured in these airings are vanity cards previously unseen in the CBS and Lifetime airings due to marginalized credit sequences used by the two networks. Shown in between the closing credits and the production company credits, these vanity cards show portions of "The Bro Code," a list of rules frequently referenced by Harris' character, Barney Stinson, on how men should interact with each other, with an emphasis on activities involving pursuing members of the opposite sex. The opening theme song for the syndicated reruns is also slightly edited, running shorter and not using all the pictures seen in the opening montage that runs on DVD and the original CBS broadcasts. The episodes are also slightly edited, leaving out a few details.
One of the series' ongoing traditions involves giving guest roles to actors from various Joss Whedon productions, many of whom co-starred with Hannigan on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Bays attributes this to their being "huge fans" and to those casts representing "a big talent pool".[26]
Another tradition involves the use of euphemisms for culturally sensitive issues. These include “eating a sandwich” for smoking marijuana and “reading a magazine” for bowel movements. These euphemisms, among others, have been used extensively throughout the series and have even been used as central plot themes, such as the episode (Benefits in Season 4.
On March 4, 2011, CBS announced that the show had been renewed for two more seasons,[27] with the seventh season premiering with back-to-back episodes on September 19, 2011.[2]
On July 27, 2011, it was announced that the FX channel had picked up the show for syndication. FX began airing the show on September 5, 2011.[28]
In the year 2030, Ted Mosby (voiced by Bob Saget) sits his daughter and son down to tell them the story of how he met their mother.
The series begins in 2005 with Ted (Josh Radnor) as a single, 27-year-old architect living with his two best friends from college; Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), a law student, and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher and aspiring artist. Lily and Marshall have been dating for almost nine years when Marshall finally proposes. Their engagement causes Ted to think about marriage and finding his soul mate, much to the disgust of his self-appointed best friend Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), whom he met in the restroom at a bar four years earlier. Barney is a serial womanizer who concocts elaborate con games, usually involving costumes and fake identities, designed to bed women, whom he discards immediately afterward.
Ted begins his search for his perfect soul mate and meets an ambitious young reporter from Canada, Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), with whom he quickly falls in love. Robin, however, doesn't want to rush into a relationship and the two decide to be friends. Future Ted reveals that Robin is not the mother after referring to her as "Aunt Robin".
Ted begins dating a baker, Victoria (Ashley Williams), whom he meets at a friend's wedding, causing Robin to become jealous and realize she does have feelings for Ted. Victoria, having been offered a fellowship in pastry-making, moves to Germany; and she and Ted try a long-distance relationship. Once Ted learns Robin has feelings for him, he tells her he broke up with Victoria, even though he hasn't. They almost have sex when Victoria calls and Robin answers, mistaking Ted's phone for her own. Ted and Victoria then break up and an angry Robin distances herself from Ted, but they eventually make up and decide to date.
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. The season ends with Ted coming back to the apartment, the morning after spending the night with Robin for the first time, to find Marshall sitting in the rain with Lily's engagement ring, devastated by their sudden break up.
Ted and Robin are now a couple; meanwhile, a heartbroken Marshall tries to continue his life without Lily. After enduring numerous emotional breakdowns, Marshall's friends step in, and Barney, using sly catch phrases and pick up lines, tries to get Marshall back in the dating game. Later, Lily, after finally realizing she is not meant to be an artist, returns to New York. She is reunited with Marshall, their engagement is reinstated. When Robin refuses to go to the mall or explain why, various friends suspect she is either married or has performed in adult films. "Slap Bet Commissioner" Lily oversees the search for the truth, as they discover that Robin was a teenage pop star named "Robin Sparkles", and Marshall eventually earns the right to slap Barney 5 times whenever he wants to. It is revealed Barney has a gay half-brother named James (Wayne Brady) and that he believes that Bob Barker is his father, unaware that his mother lied to him, and takes a trip to California to be a contestant on The Price is Right to meet his "father."
In the season finale, Ted reveals to Barney that he and Robin have been broken up for some time due to their conflicting views on marriage and kids. They didn't tell anyone in order to avoid taking attention away from Lily and Marshall's wedding. The season ends with Barney excited at the prospect of Ted and himself being single guys on the town again, and ends the season with Barney saying, "This is going to be legen- wait for it..."
Barney begins the season with the word, "-dary!" Robin returns from a trip to Argentina with her new boyfriend, Gael (Enrique Iglesias), and Ted must adjust to life as just her friend, while watching Robin and Gael fawning over each other. Marshall and Lily decide to move out on their own, falling in love with a place they can't afford. Robin learns of Lily's bad credit rating due to her compulsive shopping for designer brands, and forces Lily to tell Marshall. Despite this, they are able to finally secure their dream apartment, only to discover it's in a bad location and more poorly constructed than they thought (the floor is tilted). Barney is slapped for the third time on Thanksgiving, which Marshall dubs "Slapsgiving."
Ted tells his children he met their mother through a story concerning her yellow umbrella. He finds the umbrella at a club and takes it home after attending a St. Patrick's Day party where his future wife was, although they did not meet. Ted attempts to woo Stella (Sarah Chalke), a dermatologist he sees to remove an embarrassing butterfly 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. Robin sleeps with Barney after he comforts her following a break-up with a past Canadian love; Ted is infuriated, and decides to stop being friends with Barney. Meanwhile, an unknown woman begins to sabotage Barney's attempts to hook up. His saboteur is revealed to be Abby (Britney Spears), Stella's receptionist, with a vendetta against him for not calling her after they had sex.
In the season finale, after Ted and Barney get into separate car accidents and end up in the hospital, they renew their friendship. It is revealed Barney has true feelings for Robin, while Ted proposes to Stella in an arcade.
Stella says yes to Ted's proposal. Robin takes a new job in Japan, but quickly resigns and returns to New York to attend Ted's wedding, after realizing how much she misses her friends. Stella leaves Ted at the altar to get back together with Tony (Jason Jones), the father of her daughter. Barney struggles with his feelings for Robin as his company shifts him to the management team of a new acquisition, Goliath National Bank (GNB).
Marshall and Lily move to their new apartment and debate over whether or not they're ready to have children. Robin becomes roommates with Ted and gets a job as an anchor for a 4 AM news show after Barney sends out her video resume. Ted and Robin decide to sleep together constantly so they won't fight over each other's bad co-living habits. Barney attempts to make them stop fighting to prevent this, revealing to Ted his love for Robin.
Ted finds out Lily has sabotaged all of his relationships with anyone she doesn't approve of and indirectly may have inspired his breakup with Robin. Robin and Ted end up talking about it, causing their friendship to begin moving toward a positive note. After Barney finally sleeps with his 200th woman (and rubs it in the face of the childhood bully who taunted him into pursuing it), he begins to question the purpose of the remainder of his life, leaving him more certain of his feelings for Robin.
Ted, while carrying the yellow umbrella, bumps into Stella and Tony. Tony later decides to visit him, sympathizing with Ted over his loss of Stella. Tony offers him a job as a professor of architecture, which Ted initially turns down.
In the season finale Robin finds out that Barney loves her, and initially refuses to commit to anything but a sex-only relationship; they seemingly end up together anyway. Ted decides that being an architect is leading nowhere, and finally decides instead to become a college professor. The finale ends with Ted preparing to teach his first class and Future Ted revealing to his kids that one of the women in the class is their mother.
Ted begins his job as an architectural professor, standing in the middle of a classroom – although the mother was present, it turns out to be an economics class as he's in the wrong lecture hall. Barney and Robin have had a sexual relationship throughout the summer and Lily locks them in a room, forcing them to come to terms with their relationship. After a rough patch they decide to break up. Robin describes it instead as "two friends getting back together." Barney immediately goes back to his old ways, using the playbook to score with women. Throughout the season Barney and Robin show feelings of regret over their break-up.
Ted dates a graduate student named Cindy (Rachel Bilson) and it is revealed her roommate is his future wife. Robin meets Don, her new co-anchor on her 4 AM TV show. Though she initially dislikes him, the two start dating and eventually she moves in with him. At the end of the season they break up when Don takes a job in Chicago — a job which Robin had previously turned down to stay in New York with Don. Marshall uses his fourth slap on Barney, once again at Thanksgiving. Ted buys a house, which needs to be fixed up badly, but is later revealed to be the future home for Ted and his kids.
Lily and Marshall are still unsure about having kids. After watching four doppelgangers of their group (Lesbian Robin, Moustache Marshall, Stripper Lily and Mexican Wrestler Ted) they decide to leave the big decision to the universe's "infinite wisdom" and start trying when they have seen Barney's Doppelganger. In the season finale, Barney disguises himself to have sex with a girl from every country in the world, and Lily and Marshall mistake him for the final doppelganger. When Marshall finds out, he decides not to tell Lily, fearing she will want to wait even longer to have children. Lily eventually finds out and decides to wait. In the season finale, Lily thinks she sees Barney's doppelganger as a hot dog vendor, which causes the group to realize she is seeing what she wants to see, and play along. Eventually Barney agrees having babies is not a stupid idea and Lily and Marshall should go forth. The season ends with Lily asking Marshall to "put a baby in my belly".
In the season opening, Ted sees Cindy again with a girl who he thinks to be her roommate, but she turns out to be Cindy's girlfriend whom she later marries. After prodding by Barney, Ted is eventually hired by GNB once more as the architect of the bank's new headquarters (which was originally scrapped in Season 4). However, he encounters opposition when he meets Zoey Pierson (Jennifer Morrison), a woman who is protesting against GNB for selecting a decrepit hotel, the Arcadian, to be torn down for the headquarters. Over the season, Ted's encounters with Zoey eventually blossom into a relationship after she divorces her rich husband, but they break up as he puts his career over love, leading to the Arcadian's demolition. Ted also resolves not to get back with Zoey.
Having agreed to conceive a baby at the end of the previous season, Lily and Marshall keep having sex, hoping she will get pregnant. Around Christmas, they have a false alarm and later seek fertility testing and find the fifth doppelganger (Barney's doppelganger) as their fertility doctor, Dr. Stangel. However, tragedy strikes when Marshall's father passes away, leaving him devastated and the gang comforting him. Marshall tries to get over his father's death and live again. Despite a pledge to Lily to work harder for their future, Marshall resigns from GNB and follows his dream of being an environmental lawyer. Zoey also hires him as her lawyer in what became a futile battle to save the Arcadian. At the end of the season, Lily reveals that she is pregnant.
Barney finally admits to the gang that Bob Barker is not his real father, especially when his mother decides to sell the house he grew up in and his brother, James, meets his own father. Loretta offers the identity of Barney's father on a sheet of paper, but Barney tears this up after realizing her efforts as a single mother. At the funeral of Marshall's father, Barney tells Loretta that he wants to see his father at last. The man, Jerome Whittaker, is eventually revealed to be someone whom Barney thought was his guardian. Barney is disappointed because Jerome was not the free-wheeling man he knew as a child. Although he tries to bring back Jerry's old ways, Barney admits that he wants to settle down someday. He is also introduced to Nora, a co-worker of Robin, for whom he develops feelings. After an initial falling out, the season finale indicates a possible future revival of their relationship, where Barney asks her for coffee and Nora tells Barney that "it's never too late" to wear a sun-dress.
Robin continues to work at her talk show, Come On, Get Up, New York!, but the presence of a new hyperactive co-host forces her to leave. She is accepted as a researcher in another network, World Wide News. The gang also discovers more of her past as the Canadian pop star Robin Sparkles. Robin also encounters a man (Michael Trucco) she has had a secret crush on since first seeing him when she and Ted were dating, and Future Ted hints that they will see more of him later.
A short scene during both the first and last episode of the season feature a wedding set sometime in the future, which is where Ted will meet his future wife. In the last episode it is revealed to be Barney's wedding.
Season seven opens to find Ted helping Barney get ready for his wedding to a still unknown bride. Marshall gets a job in environmental law, while Lily progresses with her pregnancy. Barney proves to Nora that he can be a good boyfriend to her, while Robin is revealed to still have feelings for Barney. Robin takes court-mandated therapy, until her therapist Kevin (Kal Penn) says he finds her attractive and therefore cannot be her therapist anymore. They start to date.
While reminiscing about Hurricane Irene, it is revealed that Lily and Marshall had conceived their baby in Barney's apartment, and Barney and Robin end up sleeping together. Barney and Robin both realize what they've done and decide to break up with their partners. However, Robin decides to stay with Kevin, which devastates Barney, who did break up with Nora. Marshall and Lily decide they want to move to Long Island, after Lily's paternal grandparents offer them their house there.
Robin gets a pregnancy scare and informs Barney at Thanksgiving, seeing as she and Kevin hadn't slept with each other at that point. Going to the doctor, she learns that she cannot have children, which devastates her. Kevin proposes to Robin, while she knows she loves him and that she is ready for the commitment, she tells him she can't have children and that she doesn't want kids at all, so they break up. Soon after, Robin tells everything that happened to Ted, only for him to profess his love for her (which is revealed to be the final time he declares his love for someone other than his future wife). Robin soon admits that she does not love Ted, and Marshall asks her to move out of Ted's apartment so that Ted can finally move on in his love life. Ted then gives his apartment back to Lily and Marshall, because he feels he and Robin haunt that place.
Barney starts dating Quinn, who happens to strip under the name "Karma". When the gang finds out through Ted, who broke a "broath" from Barney to not tell anyone about her profession, they begin to meddle into their relationship. This is revealed to be a set-up, with Quinn acting like a crazy girlfriend and Barney being spineless toward her, however Quinn ends up moving in with Barney, and Ted buys Quinn's place. Soon after this, Robin is asked to deliver a traffic report from the World Wide News helicopter. However, the pilot suffers a stroke which forces her to land the helicopter herself with assistance from the ground. The whole incident is broadcast live and everyone in New York watches, making Robin an instant celebrity. Barney asks Quinn to give up job of a stripper, however Quinn doesn't want to, telling him she likes being a stripper.
Lily, worried that Marshall is too stressed with the birth close at hand, tricks Marshall with the help of Barney, who takes Marshall to a casino, where Marshall gets too drunk. Meanwhile, Ted decides to patch up his differences with Robin. Lily goes into labor, calling Barney and Marshall to get back to New York, however Marshall is still in the casino, drunk and his phone has been turned off. Upon discovering her going into labor, Barney promises to help Marshall get to the hospital under a condition to choose their baby's middle name. After many attempts to escape the casino, Marshall comes in time for Lily's delivery. Because of Marshall's promise with Barney, Marshall and Lily name their son Marvin "Wait For It" Eriksen. In the season finale, Marshall and Lily begin their new family with their baby. Barney proposes to Quinn after she tells him that she quit her job, and she accepts. Ted, after his conversation with Robin about his love life, calls Victoria to see if he still has a chance with her, even though she is getting married. She leaves her fiancé for Ted and wants to go off into the sunset with him. After some thinking, Ted eventually decides to go with her. The season ends with a flash forward to Barney's wedding, where the bride is revealed to be Robin.
How I Met Your Mother will return for an eighth season in September 2012. [29]
- The Bro Code, cited by Barney many times throughout the series, is a set of written rules for bros to follow, and has been published as a tie-in novel, an audiobook [30] and an iPhone Application. Barney alleges it was written by Barnibus Stinson (an assumed relative of Barney), a contemporary of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. A similar code for females, The Chick Code, is also available on the App Store.
- Bro on the Go, a companion to The Bro Code, released in 2009.[31]
- The Playbook, based on the fifth season episode of the same name, by Barney Stinson and Matt Kuhn.[32] There's also an App based on Barney's Playbook.
- Barney's Blog — Throughout the series, Barney makes references to his blog. The blog is written by Matt Kuhn and hosted by CBS.[33] Older posts from 2005–2010 are available via thewaybackmachine.
- Barney's Twitter — CBS also updates a Twitter account for Barney
- Internationalsuitupday.com – International Suit Up Day 2011 & 2012
- Swarley.com — At the end of the episode “Swarley,” Barney tries to pretend he loves his new name to avoid being called Swarley again. Though not shown in the episode, there used to be a website called swarley.com about it.
- TedMosbyIsAJerk.com — In the episode "The Bracket", it is revealed that one of Barney's former one-night-stands, whom he told his name was Ted Mosby (in "Ted Mosby: Architect"), created a website denouncing him called TedMosbyIsAJerk.com. There is also TedMosbyIsNotAJerk.com.
- Marshall and Lily's Wedding[dead link] — A website with videos and pictures of Marshall and Lily's honeymoon, never shown on the program (the honeymoon part was never shown) but available as a special feature on the Season 3 DVD.
- LilyAndMarshallSellTheirStuff.com (archived) — In Season 3, Episode 19 (Everything Must Go) Marshall made a website so Lily could sell her clothes to pay for a contractor to fix the floor in their new apartment. The site was promoted at the end of the episode, as an actual online auction of memorabilia from the show. The proceeds were given to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The site was shut down after the auction was completed.
- GuyForcesHisWifeToDressInAGarbageBagForTheNextThreeYears.com — Lily proposes this name for their clothing auction website, after Marshall suggested “LilyAndMarshallSellTheirStuff.com.” To their surprise, Lily’s name has already been taken.
- Mysterious Dr X — The website of Ted’s mysterious identity when he was in college, as seen on the episode "The Possimpible".
- Barney’s Video Resume — In the episode "The Possimpible", Barney reveals he has created an online video resume.
- The Wedding Bride — In the episode "As Fast as She Can", it is revealed that Tony wrote a screen play entitled "The Wedding Bride" that became a big hit and has an "official" website. This is the tie-in site for the movie, with a trailer featuring Chris Kattan, Malin Åkerman, and Jason Lewis, who play movie versions of Ted, Stella, and Tony, respectively, in this movie.
- canadiansexacts.org — In the episode "Old King Clancy", Barney reveals this site as the source of his knowledge of Canadian sex acts and has it bookmarked on his laptop. Except for the Lily & Marshall interactive wedding album, this is the most extensive of all the HIMYM fake websites. Canadian actor Alan Thicke makes several cameos.
- slapcountdown.com — In the episode "Wait For It" (and again in "Slapsgiving") Marshall debuts this website to torment Barney by counting down the days until he next gets slapped, the result of their Slap Bet. Visiting the website prior to the airing of Slapsgiving displayed the same countdown as featured on the show,[34] albeit counting down until the air time of the episode; after the episode aired, the site redirected to CBS' How I Met Your Mother YouTube channel. Currently an additional website, theslapbetcountdown.com is counting down to a future date, estimated to be Monday May 6, 2013.
- itwasthebestnightever.com — In the episode "The Sexless Innkeeper", Marshall made this website after he and Lily went on a couples date with Barney and Robin. It features a photo-montage of the evening and a music video of Marshall and Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme called "Best Night Ever", in which Marshall describes what a great time he and Lily had with Robin and Barney. The video was a parody of Extreme's "More Than Words" video.
- bigbusinessjournal.com, extremitiesquarterly.com and balloonexplorersclub.com — Part of Barney's scheme, 'The Lorenzo Von Matterhorn', to "pick up chicks". The website lorenzovonmatterhorn.com gives a general profile of "Lorenzo Von Matterhorn".
- grademyteacher.net — In episode 4 of season 6, Marshall mentions this website to Ted, who goes looking for his own evaluation on it, and is disappointed by the result.
- notafathersday.com – Season 4, episode 7. Barney creates this website as part of a new holiday for single, childless men.
- StinsonBreastReduction.com – In season 7, episode 4, Barney reveals to his friends that he pretended to be a breast reduction doctor to trick big-breasted women into meeting with him, creating this website to further the ruse.
- LinsonBreastLawsuit.com – In the same episode, Barney tells his friends that he also created a website where he poses as a lawyer willing to sue the breast reduction doctor who was another of his roles.
- TheSlapBetCountdown.com[35] – Similar in design to the aforementioned website SlapCountdown.com, this site currently features a countdown to May 6, 2013 17:27. This date would coincide with the airing of one of the final episodes of season 8.
- PuzzlesTheBar.com – This was a website about the bar that Ted and Barney opened in Ted's apartment.
- LilysInLabor.com – A site put up by Ted, with a video announcing Lily's labor.
- 1-877-987-6401 — During the Super Bowl XLIV telecast, a clip of Neil Patrick Harris was shown holding up a sign, ostensibly in the stadium's stands, with the words "Call Barney Stinson (CBS)" and this phone number.[36][37][38] In the episode "Rabbit or Duck", which aired the week after the Super Bowl, the same clip from the Super Bowl with Harris was shown with the number on the sign changed to a 555 number.[39] This occurrence became a plot point within the episode.[39] When the number is dialed, a message recorded by Harris in character as Barney is played. This number is no longer in service.[40]
Viewership represented in a line graph.
| Season |
Timeslot (ET) |
Season premiere |
Season finale |
TV season |
Rank |
Avg. viewers
(in millions) |
| 1 |
Monday 8:30 P.M. (September 19, 2005 – May 15, 2006) |
September 19, 2005 |
May 15, 2006 |
2005–2006 |
#54[41] |
9.47[41] |
| 2 |
Monday 8:30 P.M. (September 18, 2006 – October 2, 2006)
Monday 8:00 pm (October 9, 2006 – May 14, 2007) |
September 18, 2006 |
May 14, 2007 |
2006–2007 |
#61[42] |
8.94[42] |
| 3 |
Monday 8:00 P.M. (September 24, 2007 – March 10, 2008)
Monday 8:30 pm (March 17, 2008 – May 19, 2008) |
September 24, 2007 |
May 19, 2008 |
2007–2008 |
#70[43] |
8.21[43] |
| 4 |
Monday 8:30 P.M. (September 22, 2008 – May 18, 2009)
|
September 22, 2008 |
May 18, 2009 |
2008–2009 |
#49[44] |
9.42[44] |
| 5 |
Monday 8:00 pm (September 21, 2009 – May 24, 2010) |
September 21, 2009 |
May 24, 2010 |
2009–2010 |
#42[45] |
8.60[45] |
| 6 |
Monday 8:00 pm (September 20, 2010 – May 16, 2011) |
September 20, 2010 |
May 16, 2011 |
2010–2011 |
#48 |
8.79[46] |
| 7 |
Monday 8:00 pm (September 19, 2011 – December 5, 2011) |
September 19, 2011 |
May 14, 2012 |
2011–2012 |
#45[47] |
9.67[48] |
The highest viewed episode was the season 1 episode "The Pineapple Incident," watched by 12.27 million viewers. The lowest-viewed episode was the season 6 episode "Landmarks", watched by 6.41 million viewers, approximately 52 percent of the show's series high.
The show was declared the fifth highest rated show for the first ten years of IMDb.com Pro (2002–2012).[49]
Season seven was the highest watched season overall and among the 18–49 adults, scoring a 4.1 rating in that sector[50] up from the 3.4 rating it had for season six.[51]
| DVD season |
Region 1 Release date |
Region 2 Release date |
Region 4 Release date |
Episode # |
Additional information |
| Season 1 |
November 21, 2006 |
May 7, 2007 |
January 10, 2007 |
22 |
This three-disc box set includes all 22 episodes of Season 1. Bonus features include commentaries on six episodes, Video Yearbook (20:29), two music videos: "First Round" (1:13) and "Last Call" (1:45), and Gag Reel (9:00). The episodes on the DVD have been cropped from the originally broadcast widescreen to a full frame 4:3 format. At present there is no widescreen version available. |
| Season 2 |
October 2, 2007 |
February 8, 2010 |
April 8, 2008 |
22 |
This three-disc box set includes all 22 episodes of Season 2. Bonus features include commentaries on seven episodes, How We Make Your Mother (17:10), two music videos: Robin Sparkles's "Let's Go To The Mall" (3:17) and The Solids' "Hey Beautiful" (3:51), three "How It Really Happened" scenes (5:28), Gag Reel (7:10), and an Easter Egg. |
| Season 3 |
October 7, 2008 |
May 10, 2010 |
February 11, 2009 |
20 |
This three-disc box set includes all 20 episodes of Season 3. Bonus features include commentaries on seven episodes, Series Retrospective (2:42), Lily & Marshall's Honeymoon Videos (10:37), Cast Favorites (4:59), Behind the Scenes of "We're Not From Here" (5:43), six "How It Really Happened" scenes (8:33), two music videos: Marshall Eriksen's "You Just Got Slapped" (1:52) and Robin Sparkles's "Sandcastles in the Sand" (3:39), "Ted Mosby Is A Jerk" Audio Track for "The Bracket", and Gag Reel (11:12). |
| Season 4 |
September 29, 2009 |
July 19, 2010 |
October 27, 2009 |
24 |
This three-disc box set includes all 24 episodes of Season 4. Bonus features include commentaries on four episodes, A Night With Your Mother: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Panel Discussion, Season 3 Recap, Eriksen's Fight Club, music video for Barney Stinson's "That Guy's Awesome", and Gag Reel. Also available on Blu-Ray outside of the UK. |
| Season 5 |
September 21, 2010 |
November 8, 2010 |
October 27, 2010 |
24 |
This three-disc box set includes all 24 episodes of season 5. Bonus features include a blooper reel, the music videos Super Date, Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit, and Best Night Ever, two behind the scenes features; Making of Super Date and Behind the Scenes of the 100th Episode, an extended version of the Wedding Bride Trailer, and a musical Series Recap. |
| Season 6 |
September 27, 2011 |
October 3, 2011 |
October 5, 2011 |
24 |
This three-disc box set includes all 24 episodes of season 6. Bonus features include a blooper reel, two behind-the-scenes features; Making of Subway Wars and Behind the Scenes of Glitter, commentaries on three episodes, an extended performance of "Stand By Me" by Neil Patrick Harris and Wayne Brady, and a Season 5 Recap. At this time, only the standard DVD format has been issued.[52] |
| Season 7 |
September 2012 |
October 29, 2012 |
Unknown, 2012 |
24 |
This box set will include all 24 episodes of season 7.[53] |
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- ^ according to audio commentary at 00:58 min. of the HIMYM – Season 1 DVD
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- ^ "FX Fall 2011 Schedule Has How I Met Your Mother; The Nanny Reunion on Happily Divorced". Sitcoms Online. July 27, 2011. http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2011/07/fx-fall-2011-schedule-has-how-i-met.html. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
- ^ Spoiler Guide, season 8 all you need to know
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- ^ http://cliqueclack.com/tv/2011/11/04/slap-bet-countdown-slapoclock/
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