“How I Met Your Mother” is a sitcom that follows Ted Mosby, an older man who searches for the woman of his dreams in New York. The show airs from September 19, 2005, to March 31, 2014, and follows Ted’s journey to save The Arcadian, one of New York’s grandest old hotels. In the year 2030, Ted is forced to make the final decision on whether he thinks The Arcadian should be declared a landmark and his future with Zoey and Barney at GNB.
The show features Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, and Neil Patrick Harris. Ted is forced to make the final decision on whether The Arcadian should be declared a landmark and his future with Zoey and Barney. The pilot episode was leaked online and in 2020 by a Reddit user on the How I Met Your Mother site.
A 20th Century Fox facsimile of the official signed TV Series script, originally signed by actors Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, and Neil Patrick Harris, introduces the main characters Ted and Marshall, who are best friends. The father recounts the journey he and his four best friends took leading up to meeting their mother through a series of flashbacks. The board finally settled on a site for the building, which was the site of The Arcadian, one of New York’s grandest old hotels.
In summary, “How I Met Your Mother” is a sitcom that follows Ted Mosby as he searches for the woman of his dreams in New York. The show features a variety of characters and plot elements, including the Arcadian, Zoey, and Barney, and the storyline between Ted and his friends.
📹 Why How I Met Your Mother is better than Friends │Definitive Edition
Friends is one of the most notable and influential sitcoms in history, yet I believe that its successor, How I Met Your Mother is far …
Who took Barney’s virginity?
In “A Paragraph”, Ted convinces his friends to join a gym with him, leading to disastrous consequences for Barney. He meets Rhonda, an older friend of his mother, who lost his virginity due to his brother James’s actions. Rhonda confesses that Barney was paid to sleep with her and praised him as the best she ever had. This experience makes Barney the man he is today, and he loses his ability to talk to women effectively. He attends the Victoria’s Secret fashion show to cure himself.
Meanwhile, Robin loses her femininity, Marshall gets a personal trainer, and Lily gets a different trainer. Neil Patrick Harris is brilliant in the story, always front and center in the episode “How I Met Your Mother”.
Who is the most famous actor from How I Met Your Mother?
Neil Garland, best known as Count Olaf in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, has become a household name on HIMYM. He reinvented himself on the show, having previously appeared in Doogie Howser, Harold and Kumar, Dr Horrible, The Smurfs, and Gone Girl. Neil’s career includes roles in Joss Whedon’s Dr Horrible, The Smurfs, and Gone Girl, and his role as Count Olaf in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix.
What is the iconic song in How I Met Your Mother?
How I Met Your Mother is a sitcom that heavily relies on music to tell its story, with a soundtrack of over a thousand songs. The show’s songs are carefully chosen and bolster the scenes they accompany, making the viewer feel part of the show. The show has gained new fans each day due to the rise in streaming services, and its comedy and music have charmed viewers’ hearts. The list of songs for the show has been updated to include more favorites, as fans tend to have varying tastes. The show’s use of music to great effect is evident in the examples provided.
What is the famous sentence from How I Met Your Mother?
It is not possible to guarantee absolute perfection, but it is possible to commit to loving one another with all one’s heart, as love is the most valuable action one can undertake.
Did Britney Spears ever play in How I Met Your Mother?
Britney Spears played Stella’s receptionist in two episodes during Season 3. The ’80s teen-pop icon appeared in the music video for Robin’s song “Sandcastles in the Sand” in an episode of the same name. Hulu’s “How I Met Your Father” has continued its tradition of connecting to the original series in its second season, bringing back two more characters from “How I Met Your Mother”. Neil Patrick Harris appeared in the Season 2 premiere as Barney Stinson, while actor Alexis Denisof reprised his role as Robin’s former co-anchor Sandy Rivers.
The follow-up to the beloved comedy has had its own guest stars, including Cobie Smulder’s Robin in the Season 1 finale, Meghan Trainor, and Eden Sher. Over 40 actors and other celebrities appeared on HIMYM over its nine-season run.
Does Barney Stinson have ADHD?
In the TV series How I Met Your Mother, Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris, is diagnosed with ADHD during childhood and continues to exhibit symptoms into adulthood. The show portrays Barney’s difficulty paying attention, boredom with tasks, and excessive talking, often using comedic devices. The Simpsons, American primetime television’s longest-running scripted show, features Bart, a son with ADHD, who intentionally irritates people, is argumentative, and exhibits impulsive behaviors. Despite his challenges, Bart eventually receives professional treatment and receives medication that improves his performance at school.
In Finding Nemo, Dory, a character with ADHD, showcases classic moods and behaviors. Dory struggles with attention, forgetfulness, and racing thoughts, making her relatable to those living with ADHD. The acceptance of Dory’s character can help validate those who identify with her. Overall, these shows provide a humorous and relatable portrayal of ADHD in various TV shows.
Was Marshall shaving his head scripted?
Marshall’s new look is achieved through creative hair and makeup, not shaving part of his hair. The results are impressive, making it hard to believe his real hair is hidden. During a break in shooting the wedding scene, actor Segal Segal shared his experience filming the long-awaited wedding while sporting a look he couldn’t have imagined. He is currently filming a movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which he wrote himself and produced by Judd Apatow, Segal’s old Freaks and Geeks producer. The film stars Kristen Bell and stars Veronica Mars.
Was Robin pregnant in season 5?
In the fifth season of the series, the actors portraying the characters of Robin and Lily were themselves pregnant, despite their characters remaining in a state of non-pregnancy. In order to conceal their growing bellies, the props team utilized large props and handbags, which were in fact the largest purses on the air. In an interview, director Pamela Fryman stated that the show had the largest purses.
What was Barney’s catchphrase in How I Met Your Mother?
Barney, a character in the show How I Met Your Mother, is known for his brash, manipulative, and opinionated personality. He is a womanizer who enjoys expensive suits, laser tag, and Scotch whisky. Barney uses various “plays” in his “playbook” to have sex with women, and later seasons have serious relationships, marriages, divorces, and a child with an unnamed woman. His catchphrases include “Suit up!”, “Go for Barney”, “What up?!”, “Stinson out”, “Legendary”, “Wait for it”, “Daddy’s home”, “Haaaaave you met Ted”, “True story”, “That’s the dream!”, “Challenge accepted”, and “I only have one rule”.
Critics have praised Barney’s performance and credited Harris’ performance for the show’s success. The show’s creators envisioned Barney as a “large, John Belushi-type character”, but Harris was invited to audition due to their friendship. His audition centered on a scene playing laser tag, and he accidentally knocked over a chair and slammed into a wall. CBS executives enjoyed his playing and offered him the part. Barney is named after a heroin dealer in the James Ellroy novel L. A. Confidential.
What is the last line of How I Met Your Mother?
The show How I Met Your Mother concluded with an hour-long episode on Monday, bringing to an end the story Ted (Josh Radnor) has been telling for nine seasons. The show’s final episode revealed several new twists in the story of the gang, including Marshall (Jason Segel), Lily (Alyson Hannigan), Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), and Robin (Cobie Smulders). The episode concluded with a line from Ted, “And that, kids, is how I met your mother”.
The episode also brought back to season one and the year 2005, with Lily welcoming Robin into the fold. The show’s best moments in quotes include the line “You’re totally in our gang now and once you’re in, you’re in for life”.
How was How I Met Your Mother made?
How I Met Your Mother was inspired by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas’ idea to write about their friends and the crazy things they did in New York. They drew from their friendship to create characters, with Ted loosely based on Bays and Marshall and Lily loosely based on Thomas and his wife. Alyson Hannigan was initially reluctant to have a character based on her but agreed to play her if she could get a role. Josh Radnor and Jason Segel were cast as Ted and Marshall, respectively.
The role of Barney was initially envisioned as a “John Belushi-type character”, but Neil Patrick Harris won the role after being invited to an audition by the show’s casting director Megan Branman. Bob Saget was invited to be the voiceover narrator, Future Ted, explaining that the show would be like The Wonder Years but “kind of into the future”.
In multiple interviews, Bays and Thomas stated that Jennifer Love Hewitt turned down the role of Robin, who they revealed in February 2014. Instead, they cast unknown Cobie Smulders, who was later revealed as the mother. The intrigue of the show propelled it forward and kept the show alive.
The writers adopted facets of each main actor’s personality and incorporated them into their characters, such as Neil Patrick Harris’ magic skills, Jason Segel’s passion for songwriting, Alyson Hannigan’s absent-mindedness while pregnant, and Josh Radnor’s intellectualism.
📹 when a director breaks all of Pixar’s rules…
Brad Bird’s 2004 Pixar masterpiece ‘The Incredibles’ was a landmark in animation, as well as a the superhero genre. Here’s why.
TIMESTAMPS: 4:14 – Part 1a: Characters│Ross & Rachel Vs Ted & Robin 16:58 – Part 1b: Characters│Marshal & Lily Vs Chandler & Monica 29:52 – Part 1c: Characters│Joey, Barney, and Phoebe 46:54 – Part 2: Endings & Themes 1:04:34 – Part 3: Comedy & Culture 1:17:15 – Part 2b: Endings & Interpretations 1:21:36 – Part 4: “Copying” & Conclusion
Hot Take: i wouldn’t have minded if Tracy died at the end of HIMYM, because it gives the entire narrative a reason, and message. The reason i didn’t like the ending was the robin thing. Just that. EDIT: to elaborate a bit more too- since i rewatched the show since posting this- In one of the wedding episodes, it’s mentioned that Ted’s best friend as a young boy was a bolloon (haha funny bit), but later Ted lets go of Robin to “float away” like his balloon did, creating a semi-obvious parallel between the two- letting go. This made me hate the robin ending that much more. They set up the symbolism and retconned it by the last episode.
To me it seemed like HIMYM always had way more inside jokes for fans to enjoy. Friends does has them too but not as much and they were always put right in your face so you’d feel obligated to laugh like you said. In HIMYM the jokes would be really low key like mostly 83% of the fans perusal would get the joke and the rest would never get it or are very slow.
The most heart wrenching aspect of HIMYM revolves around why he is telling his children this story in the first place. Having had my father tell me a similar story fifty years ago made aware of many aspects of the narration. Tracy tells Ted in “, you’re the love of my life, Pooh Bear; I just never stop worrying about you. I don’t want you to be the guy who lives in his stories”. The children are painfully aware that that is the person their father has become and they have moved forward better than their father has. “Mom’s been dead six years” Penny tells him. This is just a beginning of an explanation of the nature of the narration,
Honestly, I’m not mad about the mother dying. The time travelers episode was a such a strong yet depressing moment in the show and showed how much Ted is still in pain without Tracy and gave us a glimpse of how he has dealt with it for years and for the end of the show it would have been perfect. Especially the scene with the mother not being at her daughter’s wedding. That was such a powerful scene. I’d much rather have that kept in, but keep Barney and Robin together because I feel like that’s so much more character recession. Completely destroys both characters in the last 10 mins. I woulda restructured it with taking those moments out of the finally, kept the mother dying, and then finish it off with the alternative ending.
There’s one important bit to know that many people tend to go over in the alternative ending, one small detail that I didn’t notice until my sister told me about it. When Ted’s narrating at his wedding, there’s a moment in which he says “things get put back together” and that scene shows Barney and Robin looking at each other smiling, hinting at the fact that they most likely ended up back together as a couple
i agree with the alternative ending of HIMYM is better than the original, however i believe the story about tracy getting sick adds reason and depth to why he is telling his kids this story of how he met the love of his life. the season 8 episode with the hypothetical ending where ted shows up at tracy’s door and asks for more time with her is absolutely soul crushing and excellent foreshadowing of the ending. HIMYM is a story of ted searching for “the one” only to find her and have there be unexpected circumstances. the story is a tragedy and ultimately highlights the importance of friendship above all else.
HIMYM has made the hopeless romantic I am today. It’s definitely helped me get through life, allowed me to cope and be okay with life being unpredictable. As much as I disliked Traci dying, him getting back with robin, it does fit “life being unpredictable” . But I would too like to have had seen Traci not dying/ seeing more of her and Ted together.
Just the “you know exactly what I would do…” scene where ted runs across new york to go see past Tracy and give her that speech is enough for me to put HIMYM above Friends any day. That amount of emotion and that amount of depth in a character/relationship is something Friends never achieved and would have just made a joke out of. And that’s coming from someone that has watched all of Friends and still loves it. The same can be said for the scene Barney takes the basketball hoop from his dad’s house. It offers realism and intensity that Friends never got to.
haven’t finished the article, just a random thought, another thing I love abt marshall & lily’s relationship is how it is flawed even after their ultimate peaks/‘end goals’ are reached – they get their beautiful wedding, they have the kids they dreamed about, they are genuinely very in love,,,, yet marshall secretly still kind of resents lily for leaving and worries that she’ll abandon him and their kids and only tells her this amidst a heated argument. I love seeing these cracks in sitcom relationships because it’s so realistic. just because they were given what would be the perfect ending for Other sitcom couples, does not mean that is the ending to all of their problems.
I’ve always considered that they split the idea of phoebe’s character into two, into Lilly and Barney. Lilly I personally think is a mix of Monica and Phoebe, since she is the best friend who is married to the other best friend, but she is also the “weird” and bi curious character. And Barney has hints of Phoebe, the backstory being one of them, and the hippie-to-buisnessmen trope, since there was this one alternate episode where phoebe becomes a cold businesswoman. But that is just my take on the “inspiration” from Phoebe into HIMYM
19:30 it’s actually not. He doesn’t try to find something he’s more passionate about because he’s tired of being away from Monica. Chandler’s hatred for his job is brought up many times over the series and he afraid of quitting because it’s stable and pays the bills. This situation pushed him because he had to fly back to Tulsa, and the gang ask him why is he doing this for a job he hates. Chandler tells that everybody hates their job. You gotta do what you gotta do. That’s when they all tell him, truthfully so, that they love their jobs. That’s what pushed him to finally, at an advanced stage, find his passion
How parenthood is portrayed also an important difference in both series. In friends when Rachel becomes a mother everything is extremely easy. She can’t stop the baby from crying but thats it. In himym Marshall and Lily’s story about becoming parents is portrayed in almost every aspect. Financial issues, having no time for anything else, postpartum depression, and even tiredness. Even before the baby comes they have struggles with it. Whereas in Monica and Chandler’s side, having babies are almost seen as an easy accomplishment. They struggle with infertility, yes but the process of becoming parents is extremely shallow.
I think even if you take the original ending of How I Met Your Mother, it still handles the romance plot better. Robin and Ted end up together once they’ve both satisfied the goals that were keeping them apart: Ted has a family and Robin has a nice career. They can finally be together only in the future timeline.
As someone who lost my dad 2 years ago. I’ll actually have to disagree 100% with your take on how they handle Pheobe and her trauma. Especially because as you mentioned. You haven’t lost a parent so you don’t know what that is like. Now, that being said. Losing a parent is one of the most difficult things one can deal with and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. But grief comes in all different shapes and sizes. There isn’t one correct way to grieve. The way Pheobe handles her grief in a comical way is how me, and a lot of people actually handle our grief. I make so many dead dad jokes, sometimes at random or in inappropriate times regardless of how uncomfortable people feel. Its one of those “I’m sure my dad would rather me make jokes and laugh than cry” which I still do. But Humor is a coping mechanism. Also I get it. Its uncomfortable hearing those jokes when you as stated before haven’t been through that, you know? But at the end of the day. The people getting uncomfortable will get over it in a couple of minutes. The people making the jokes will have to deal with the grief for the rest of their lives. So you being uncomfortable is your problem at the end of the day. Not the person making a joke at their own expense. No offense. I honestly find how she handles it so comforting and so realistic. Also its not fair to say that one treats it more respectful than the other when they are both showing very very different stages of grief. When you first find out a loved one is dead its so painful and excruciating and life altering.
5. Ross and Rachel ending, was IMHO deserved. The whole thing with their relationship was that while they were broken up and seeing other people, they clearly still had feelings for each other. While they were technically not together, in some way they were a couple all this time. They couldn’t bear the thought of the other not being there. That’s why Rachel tried to sabotage Ross’s wedding to Emily, and succedeed at it, and why Ross refused to cut off contact with Rachel to save his marriage. Basically, for all these seasons they were a fighting couple being immature and stupid with one another, but they didn’t feel the need to take the hard step of dealing with it, because they both knew the other one “is there for them”, and they wanted it to stay this way (Ross even says it out loud when he tells Rachel nothing happened between him and her sister – “I don’t know if anything ever will happen between us, but I don’t want to know that it couldn’t”). The point of them being a couple who refuses to admit they’re a couple is even made fun of (Phoebe’s line: “You love her, she loves you, you have a baby together. There is no right answer”). However, when Rachel was offered to move to Paris, it was a danger that this time they are breaking up for real. The other just won’t be there anymore. Rachel even avoided talking to Ross before her flight, and when he confronted her about it, she reavelaled that it was pretty much out of denial – the idea of saying goodbye to him, so to break up for serious this time, was too much for her to handle.
– Ugh, just briefly seeing the scene where Marshal finds out his dad died made me cry again. It was such a strong scene, and you’re right. The way it contrasted against the super happy scene did make it all the more powerful. – I love HIMYM because of the inside jokes throughout the series. It makes me feel like I’m a part of the group when I understand what they’re alluding to. – When I first discovered HIMYM, I freaking binge watched the crap out of it. That’s how good it was. When it came to Friends, I couldn’t get myself to watch more than one or two episodes at a time. Friends is hard to get into while HIMYM has you hooked. – I’m glad that you’ve put into words why HIMYM is better than Friends. Because even though I did enjoy Friends, I find myself liking HIMYM more, and I just thought it’s because I found HIMYM first so I was more attached to it. But it’s because the storytelling is way better in HIMYM.
It was always curious to me why HIMYM got so damn depressing towards the end. I don’t only mean the final episode. Since season 7 really the show just felt progressively sadder and bleak. Characters find themselves in desperate soul searching struggles and face utter loneliness. Ted living a sad bachelor life going into his late 30s after his whole arc revolving around finding a partner is just incredibly cruel. Barney and robin entering one doomed relationship after the other is pretty sad too. And marshal and robin feel like they’re isolating themselves from everything, and always seem grieve the loss of their youth whenever they do come back. It’s just like man… idk know why their even telling jokes anymore. Like I get it – struggles are part of the show and it’s realistic, but this was always the kind of show where characters can grow and move past these struggles. But towards the end all of them just feel stuck and utterly helpless. Every issue just bares down on them for good, and idk that’s just not the kind of show it ever was
I hadn’t heard of the alternative ending prior to this article, but when the show was originally airing, I remember feeling that the mother’s death was heavily implied. Also, Ted’s recounting their lives to the children in such a sit down fashion would make sense in the context of her funeral or anniversary of her death. My alt ending would have included the scene of Tracy getting sick. Cut to the kids leaving and the camera swivels around to Ted who was sat in a chair. He walks out of the funeral home, in the midst of grey skies and damp rain, and goes over to Tracy’s tomb stone and place the yellow umbrella on top. End on a zoom out. I wouldn’t have changed Barney and Robin’s breakup. They were both exceedingly self-centered people, so the relationship wouldn’t have lasted long past the second either of them were faced with having to make any real compromises. We see Barney grow and Robin not by the end.
I think what makes the sound design so phenomenal is that the creators treated it like it was its own character. Every time they used it to convey powerful emotions, they allowed it to breathe. No one was talking over it, or they did so sparingly, and there was no laugh track over it. Ted running to Tracy, and the music is the only thing we hear; the clock ticking ends and it’s dead silent with no noise until people start moving. It’s given so much weight every time it kicks in, and anything that’s unnecessary is cut and shoved in the trash.
Even though I agree with you with almost everything I would say I disagree a little with your description of Ted. All the things you mentioned were indeed very heartwarming and kind towards Ronin and he has always been much more mature than Ross and Rachel combined BUT I wouldn’t really call his feelings for Robin “true love” simply because he seems to be in love with the idea of her and not her as a real person. Let me explain: from the very first episode it becomes known to us that Ted is looking for “the one” very desperately and he thinks he Found it in Robin. He’s obviously wrong, since they have very different life goals and dreams but he never really gave up on the idea of them. To me he seemed a bit delusional since he willingly ignored plenty of important issues with all of his love interests, because he was so obsessed with getting his dream fulfilled. I think that didn’t allow him to see the women he dated as real people but as possible candidates instead. His friendship with Ronin grew and developed into something beautiful but his romantic feelings were mostly superficial. Of course that’s only my opinion and I think the article made great points!!
Totally agree. Another important point: in Friends is missing a character of an indipendent woman like Robin in HIMYM. Rachel, Monica and Phoebe seem always desperate to have a boyfriend/husband at any cost and this is not a healthy message, while Robin is consistent with her beliefs, she’s always clear since the beginning about what she wants or doesn’t want and never accepts to compromise or settle for less.
Both the Phoebe pregnancy and Tulsa storyline were written due to real events (Lisa’s Pregnancy and Matthew going to rehab), which explains some of the lazy or underdeveloped writing for those arcs. Also, I always saw Lily as Phoebe since they were both rebellious street kids with deadbeat dads and long criminal rap sheets.
I used to compare both shows when HIMYM came out but upon reviewing recently I found something that makes both show veeery different in my opinion. THE STORYTELLING. How i met your Mother is constantly playing with perspectives, every episode tells some story in a different way, revealing the ending first, showing each side before progressing with the story, and also there is always The notion that Ted is an unreliable narrator, which, to me all of that makes the show muuuch better than friends.
While I do agree with you on the realism aspect of Robin and Barney not ending up together, it ultimately rings hollow because the whole real reason they didn’t end up together was so that they could make Robin end up with Ted. That was the actual motivation behind divorcing them. Since Ted and Robin and the mother dying didn’t happen until the very last moments of the series finale, that was something they were able to change. But Barney and Robin being divorced was a part of the whole final episodes so it wasn’t something they could fix I guess. Side note: I hope that how I met your father follows the canon of the alternate ending and Barney and Robin do end up together after all. It would honestly make my life because they were my favorite couple on the show.
Friends reminds me of my childhood and perusal it on repeat with my sisters, memorizing entire bits and moments(sometimes even seasons), so it has a soft spot for me, but HIMYM was there for me when I was experiencing heart break, new relationships, new friend groups and growing up. Maybe that’s the reason for my opinion, but HIMYM always felt like the more mature version of Friends. They’re both the same thought, but one was made in the Era of syndication where everything returned to normal and every episode needed to be contained, and the other existed in the Era of Binge perusal, where people wanted to get a story and talk about theories. Friends had two-three big moments per season, where HIMYM had countless changes within each.
thank you so much for this article! i’ve always felt the same way about these 2 shows, i absolutely loved all the characters in himym but i could never really get attached to the friends characters as much. feels like i’ve been waiting for this article for years. it was a nice one and half hours for me. how i met your mother def deserves better lol
I like HIMYM (definitely more than Friends) and I have always been aware of the characters being similar to Friends. They don’t really let you not notice it, but I just realized the balls it would take to pitch a show like ‘So we want to make Friends and update it for the times and our framing device will be a focal character and that focal character is ROSS’
I used to hate the ending. But I literally just realized that it’s perfect. Ted spent so much time focused on the past, him asking out Robin is him finally looking towards the future. While the kids explained that he was still in Robin, what they showed was that Ted finally moved on. A romantic guy like Ted, who was so devoted to Tracy, it would take him a while to figure everything out on top of raising two kids. Ted was able to move on from his grief, he would never forget Tracy and her impact on his life but he was ready to start a new journey. This could be the writers way of trying to write a poetic ending…only for it to fall flat because it could’ve been executed better.
Honestly I dont think the problem with Barney and Robin is just “these two characters split up”. Robin was basically the reason Barney changed so much. Robin was the first woman Barney was truly in love with, she was the first person that made him want to change. Their chemistry was made clear from the beginning and their relationship was established for 6 years. They were shown to have a healthy relationship, even when they weren’t dating, like when Barney let Don and Robin go on a date he planned for himself. The creators showed us that Barney and Robin worked as a relationship, unlike Ted and Robin. Splitting them up ruined both of their arcs. Barney became a womanizer after 9 years of growth, and Robin’s natural character progression should have been her finally putting love over her career, showing that even though she got hurt when she put love ahead of her career with Don, she wouldn’t have been wrong for trying it again. Ted was literally shown to be letting go of Robin, so why break that up to have Ted and Robin get back together. Barney cared for Robin so much and viceversa, so why ruin it. Also the argument “sometimes people just break up” is stupid, like it’s a TV sitcom, not everything has to be realistic. Even if you think Robin was right to choose her work over love, why couldn’t she and Barney get back together after she returned to New York. That is what the alternative ending implied, but it’s not even implied heavily, so even if you consider the alternative ending the true one, you still have no confirmation if they got back together or no.
I’m glad you mentioned twin bed in your revised version because I was gonna mention that. I wanna add that seeing Robin with the Rachel-glasses might limit Robin’s character. Rachel is the spoiled girl who wanna become independent. On the other hand, Robin is the girl starved for affection. She’s very independent from the get-go which is actually the problem, she’s way too independent, something the show referred to multiple times. On my first watch, Robin was my least fav and I might’ve actually hated her in the first couple of season. That’s because she was very conflicted about what she wanted from life and dragged the characters into her mess (but in her defense, she also had a kind guy who just wouldn’t give up XD) However, upon reflection and rewatching, as much as I was frustrated perusal Robin sometimes…she was frustrated just as much. Does she want love? Does she want work? Why does she even wanna improve in her career? Is it for herself or is it just to prove herself to her father because she rarely felt that she’s enough? (I’m still perusal the article, so maybe you mentioned more points that made my comment moot lol)
Tracy is Phoebe… Whaaaaat? BOOM! Mind! Blown! Both share surface attributes, like their general wackyness and musical inclinations. Both even sing silly stuff about cats and breakfast foods. They also do sad stuff. But, they are also connected by their core character features. Both have an iron-clad connection to the core group and their desire to have a happy married life, which you found in Phoebe and is obviously present in Tracy. And much like Tracy, Pheobe only gets real development in the last two seasons.
I’ve always said HIMYM is far superior and I actually like Friends. 🤣 For me a huge factor is rewatchability. With HIMYM I get sucked in on each rewatch like it’s the first time. Currently just saw S1’s “The Limo”. When Derrick shows up literally 5 sec before midnight to see Robin and Ted’s crushed, you feel it as a viewer. Despite liking Friends as a whole and enjoying most of the characters EXCEPT ROSS, none of the episodes ever really invoke that much of an emotional response.
this might be controversial but I prefer the original ending to the alternate ending. I initially didnt like it that much but upon rewatches it grew on me a lot. The story is about Ted and Robin. The timing for why he decided to tell the kids this story is also fitting. Robin has just moved back, it been years that his wife had died and it only seems perfect that when ted is finally able to move on, the chance to go for love of his life becomes closer to him than ever. In order to get his kids’ blessing, he tells this story. And the story is absolutely more about him and robin than actually how he met the mother. It is why even in his own story to his kids, he keeps telling them that over the course of 9 seasons he is still hopelessly, pathetically in love with her time and again. I like the ending but I hope people appreciate it for what is means than what they want it to mean.
The main difference between these two shows is that friends is a comedy first, though later the story starts having a larger impact you can watch the final 3 episodes of each season and understand the entire plot a good example is the character arcs, there’s no meaningful steps taken they just become more extre,me as you go. Himym puts comedy second, behind the story. Each character has meaningful and hard hitting moments, even Barney, their most comedic character has an extensive and probably the best character arc in a sitcom (minus the divorce). It just gets so real at times with himym
i lost mine a couple years before i watched this show and marshall losing his father was hard hitting. especially when he improvised and said “im not ready for this” like holy shit did i cry and got chills cuz no one is ready to face the future after losing someone they love and it was the same for when i heard it.
I love HIMYM’s original ending and here’s my 2 cents why: 1. Even though Ted had found “the one” in Tracy, it normalises getting into another relationship after widowhood, even if it’s less perfect. The fact that his kids knew him so well they read the subtext of their father’s story and were not only for him pursuing happiness but actually egged him on, is touching. It’s a happy ending, just not the one we thought we were getting. 2. I’ve gotten to know Robin for 9 seasons, Tracy for one. I’m more invested in Robin than Tracy. 3. Robin wanted a career and she had it, now she’s feeling like settling down. Ted wanted marriage and kids and he had that, now they’re teens and doing their own thing. This is the time when it makes sense for Ted and Robin to be together. Not at 25, at 45. If you think your life goals are the same at 45 as at 25, boy have I got news for you. For extra kicks, Ted’s kids know her and love her and she loves them.
The way HIMYM uses pre-existing songs is also excellent. Hey Beautiful by The Solids, The Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp by George Harrison, Heaven by The Walkmen, Simple Song by The Shins, Hey by Pixies, Prophets by A.C. Newman… I could literally go on. I’ve discovered so many amazing songs through HIMYM! 😁
On part 2, I think Barney ending with a daughter is more fitting than ending in a relationship (though having both is best), because it resolves some of his trust issues and it gives frame to his own dysfunctional family and sets him up for more growth than was possible with childless Robin. That being said, this sub plot would have needed time, at least an episode. But still
I feel Ross’s analysis was a little harsh. He was insecure from being cheated on and this resulted in his jealous and possessive behavior. But I don’t think this means he didn’t love her. And he was capable of making sacrifices for her like when he missed an important event to help her get ready or let her win in poker. He never wanted to have her against her will and I think he would have done the same thing Ted did if Rachel was in love with Joey. And Rachel did want to take her Ralph Lauren job back over Paris but Ross convinced her to go to Paris because he realized how happy she was. He was ready to say goodbye until they spent the night together and he couldn’t let her go without telling her how he felt because he felt they were meant to be. But ultimately the choice to get off the plane was Rachel’s.
The way I see it, both himym endings are kind of canon. In the alternate, Ted, through retelling the story, realizes how toxic it is to him to hunt after Robin, thus, finally let’s her go, right around the time he finally let’s her go in the story as well (that time Robin floats away). In the original, he doesn’t.
I really don’t care about the debate which one of these shows is “better”, but comparing them is fun. Here’s a couple of points: 1. Joey and Barney and nothing like one another. These characters have literally one thing in common: they are both womanisers. Apart from that they cold hardly be more different. Barney is intelligent and manipulative. Joey is a dim witted man child easily manipulated by others. Barney has a stable, well paying corporate job. Joey struggles with unstable acting career, especially in early seasons. Barney is cynical and devilish, to the point that other characters several times question why they even are friends with him. Joey is a nice and very likeable guy, and even in his womanising he comes rather as just immature, never getting even close to the dishonesty and mistreatment of women that Barney represents. Barney’s persona is obviously him compensating his deep insecurities and past traumas. Joey completely lacks this element, any insecurities he may have connect to his work rather than his personal life, and unlike Barney who constantly has his “daddy issues”, Joey grew up in a stable and loving family he is close with. Barney constantly lies about everything to achieve whatever he wants. Joey sometimes lies, but is really bad at it, and when he tries he often comes up with ridiculous, childish stories (“The racoon said…”) or just gets in trouble and the lying gets him nowhere. Overall, there is way more differences between these two guys than similarities.
44:05 is a bit unfair. That whole plot line was written as a way to write-in the actress’s pregnancy into the show. HIMYM wrote Lily out of the show for several weeks, and then also limited her appearance to be behind lamps and other things when Alyson got pregnant (but it didn’t make sense for Lily). I do think that the Friends writers weren’t quite committing to a full on lampshade of the actress driven need for the character pregnancy, but they did the best they could in those circumstances (actresses being pregnant when their characters shouldn’t be actually has some really interesting implications for things such as story, costume design, set design, and camera angles. As Friends was filmed in front of an audience, they couldn’t hide the baby bump using the same tricks).
I love this article. It reminded me why I loved HIMYM so much. It makes me want to watch it with my little sister who hasn’t seen it yet. I am NOT going to show her the original Ted/Robin ending though. I’m going to let her believe that the alternative ending is the real one cause, honestly, I WISH I could forget that HIMYM ending that way. It just wasn’t a good ending to a fantastic series I loved so much.
I, FUCKING LOVE, this article. I’ve had ths exact conversation with a very close friend of mine where he and I brought up the same points! I love that someon put into a article that (i hope) so many people agree with. HIMYM is personally my favorite sitcom of all time, and it’s also seemed better than anything else I’ve watched.
I think the ending was like that because it parallels Tracy’s life perfectly. She found her soulmate who later died, she stopped dating for a while, went on to find another who was good but just didn’t sit right with her, broke up with him, found ted, and later died. Ted is only in the beginning part of that process, and he has yet to find the other soulmate again. Idk it just makes the ending a bit better for me
But Rachel didn’t start off as a career determined self-centered person, she was a daddy’s girl with no job or life experience at all until 2 or 3 more seasons. And Barney only shares being a womanizer with Joey. Marshall and chandler only charged thing is being the main character’s friend. And finally lily unlike Monica is selfish snobby and pretend to know it all kind of character
While this obviously is, and always will be, super subjective, I think one of the most underrated aspects of Friends is the “feel”, vs. any other show. When I’m perusal friends, I feel like I’m getting a glimpse into the lives of 6 different friends, and follow them throughout some of the best years of their lives. While HIMYM is a great show, it just doesn’t feel as “authentic” too me, and is often times a bit too wild and wacky which, while being very entertaining, takes a bit away from the atmosphere. The best way I can describe it is that friends feels like one long journey where we get to be “flies on the wall”, HIMYM feels more like each episode is has its own very set storyline, and is a lot less “everyday” feeling. It almost always revolves around some specific event(s), and has a definitive build-up and climax, while Friends usually has less dramatic and crazy highs, which is my mind makes it more believable, chill and gets the cozy atmosphere just right. Of course, there are going many that prefer the HIMYM style of doing things, which is completely fine, and at the end of the day, it’s just sweet that we got two wonderful shows that both did so many things right, and brought of hours upon hours of entertainment and joy, regardless of which you enjoy (more).
13:35 – 14:20 – Describes how ted selflessly pushed Robin to get to Barney 14:20 – 14:26 – Asked weather Ross would do something like that and judging that he wouldn’t. later 33:10 – 33:20 – Joey and Ross had a heart to heart conversation and Ross end up giving him his blessing even knowing that it will hurt him. PS – I too prefer HIMYM over Friends but over many points in this article i disagree with your interpretation of Friends.
My biggest problem with friends vs himym is that in himym ted was definitively the main character and personally I thought he was almost as bad as ross. Ted saw himself as the main character in a story and rarely took his love interests or potential love interests desires into account as early as season 1 ted thought a woman who was engaged and about to be married should be with him instead because of a dating site and he doesn’t really change much when it comes to that throughout the show.
Personally, main reasons why I like HIMYM more is because FRIENDS is pure comedy while HIMYM has believable drama and there are creative narration style in different episodes. And also I think I had more extreme laughters in HIMYM than FRIENDS…..Robin’s gift to Lily comes to mind XD It’ll always be a personal preference and there’s no point to debate. Let’s just be happy rewatching these shows over and over again 🙂 To me, the mother dying isn’t bad. It’s a bummer but it’s great for the story. It’s obviously one of the main premise of the show that was only revealed at the end. She didn’t die so that Robin and Ted can get back together. Robin and Ted got back together because the mother died and they were both lonely I guess. I think the ending would have been a lot better with a better pacing and execution.
Phoebe was actually kind of inspirational. Had she been on HIMYM, she would have gotten the exploration and flashbacks showing the true depth of her character. Phoebe and her twin sister grew up thinking their mother had died. (It wasn’t until adult hood that Phoebe learns her mother had actually faked her own death.) She spent her teens homeless on the streets of New York, and was not at all the Phoebe that the Friends and audience know, given comments she occassionally makes about things she’s done. Her past is part of why she loves her friends so much; they’ve become her family. She is the darkest, strongest character on the show. She’s probably also the smartest, having learned long ago the power in being underestimated. (It works well to her advantage. Nobody ever has Phoebe exactly where they want her. She’s actually very clever and cunning.) The fact that she’s such a sunny, positive, and (mostly) honest person when she easily could have become jaded, bitter, feeling no hope, maybe trapped in a bad relationship, not feeling any self-worth, given her youth. But she didn’t. She became the Phoebe that Friends and viewers know. Friends did not do her justice. Lisa Kudrow did, but the show was too light and fluffy for the true depths of Phoebe. Had she been created for HIMYM, she would have gotten the Barney treatment. She would break hearts with her darker moments, but also inspire others. How did she keep her inner light shining so bright through it all? They also could have added further depth to Phoebe’s connection with her Friends, the way they did on HIMYM with flashbacks.
i actually didn’t mind the mother dying as it was heavily foreshadowed and it made sense cuz it was realistic, neither did i mind barney and robin divorcing because it showed that barney would never settle for any woman, except when he finally does it for his daughter which i think is the perfect conclusion for his character, and it showed us that robin was never cut for a reletionship (which happens to some adults) but she was more of a self-centered work person. the only thing that really pisses me off about it is that ted and robin ended up together. because to me, that defeated the entire purpose of their arcs, becuase time and time again they proved they never worked as a couple. but that’s just me.
HIMYM offers way more depth and personality in all aspects of the show. I understand that people wanted a happy ending between Ted and Tracy, but you have to respect that the creators had a vision in mind and they stuck to it; that was the story they wanted to tell. The show itself was masterfully written and left so many heartwarming moments while teaching so many life lessons. Lastly, I think there’s a certain beauty about Ted and Robin being endgame, as it teaches that sometimes it’s just not the right timing, but two people are meant to be together down the line.
I really do hope u still skim through ur comments! This article essay was amazing. I loved every second of it. My husband likes friends while I never got into it. N sometimes we have friendly banter about it. I never even knew that there were so many „similarities” because I always considered HIMYM something separate, the humor can not even be compared to friends. HINYM doesn’t even feel like a classic sitcom to me. Since I am German I don’t have any friends who grew up perusal it like I did, so it felt like I finally found a friend who I could listen to, ranting about one of my favorite shows growing up. Thanks, I really enjoyed this. U also added captions which is highly appreciated!
I remember being on my last year of high school waiting for the ending episodes to watch the ending with my brother and cousin; we’ve been HUGE fans of the show and i largely helped me become the person i am today (humor and philosophical wise) and despite how i initially felt about the original ending, everything else about HIMYM is still great. The characters, the jokes, the life lessons, honestly it’s comfort series for me at this point that i’ll gladly binge watch every 3 years or so. I actually watched FRIENDS when it came to netflix, mostly because i was bored and i’ve watched EVERY episode of HIMYM at least 4 times already, so i needed a new kick; FRIENDS, ironically, felt like the COPY, like the watered down copy of HIMYM, so in a way, HIMYM is the evolution of friends hahah it’s similar enough but of course, like technology and people, things improve for the better. without FRIENDS, we wouldn’t have HIMYM, so I’m ok that people are fighting over the two shows; it proves it’s cultural relevance can stand the test of time 🙂
The happiness that himym gave me when i was at my lowest still outshines any sitcom and even friends it’s okay but himym is just gold I don’t care about the ending i just felt the show to be very comfortable with actual realistic situations except some like barney’s playbook but i loved it 😂 i love himym ❤
“It ends the will they won´t they plotline” Yeah except it doesn’t AT ALL. Robin was about to get MARRIED to Barney and they were STILL abusing the will they won’t they plotline. They made the great decision of giving up on the only at the last season (sure they threw it away the same season to end up together), but they didn’t abandon that plotline at all. I mean as much as it is fun to pretend the show didn’t have a terrible ending, it did. I still come back to rewatch some episodes because they are actually really good, but the will they won’t they perceivers until the end and it undermines Ted, Robin and Barney’s growth and story. And as much as I agree that Ross and Rachel are not great, neither are Ted and Robin. To me they were both at their worst while together. As much as I agree with saying “Ross is the Worst”, pretending Ted is the great guy the show frames it to be is so wrong. Ted has some great moments and some flawed moments, but even if you only consider his moments with Robin, Ted was BAD.
It really isn’t. Most of the story points of HYMYM come directly from Friends. You are very VERY biased because it is clear the copies are there. You are completely disregarding the times Friends came out in when comparing these things. They are a product of their time. And Friends is better. 1:17:58 no, it’s not canon. It could have been filmed and released on DVD but it’s just like any other deleted scene. It wasn’t aired. And yes one side is wrong… yours.
I so very much agree on pretty much everything in this article.. I looove HIMYM’s theme of “life happens, and sometimes that sucks”.. against friends just being “we have friends”.. yeaaaah My favorite LGBTQ+ character, is Trudy (I believe her name is ? ) Tracys old roomie, the student Ted dated.. her arc ended with “thats not your mother, but shes someones mother” and then a pic of her, her wife and their kid.. no joke, no laugh, just, thats how her story is, shes a mom and shes happy.. and Ted is happy for her
HIMYM’s way of handling heavy topics surrounding the character’s parents, especially Barney’s always felt like a shining example of good writing. The episode where Barney doesn’t get to meet his father but realises his mother was a better parent than he could ever ask for is particularly beautiful and sad simultaneously. The episode where Barney realises the effort his dad is trying to make for him in the present to make up for the past. When Marshall’s dad died. The show doesn’t underestimate the power of the character’s parents because ultimately we know they themselves become parents and Ted is trying to illustrate to his kids how powerful that kind of love can be.
I came up with the best way they could’ve ended HIMYM and still have Tracy pass the first time I ever watched the finale and I stand by it as the best alternative ending. Old man Ted is standing in a graveyard looking at Tracy’s headstone. We pull back to see he’s accompanied by two children (add his grown up kids if you feel like it). He smiles sadly and starts to walk away holding the childrens’ hands. Narator Ted: “Kids, did I ever tell you the story of how I met your Grandma?” Fade to black. Not a dry eye in the house. Every time I’ve told a friend about this headcanon they’ve instantly adopted it as their own prefered ending so I figured I’d share with you.
Saying Monica didn’t do anything before she got with Chandler is so incorrect. She worked on her career and built herself into a professional chef. She has ongoing issues with her mom. Her childhood and health. Her whole relationship with Tom Selleck and the reason why they broke up and her wanting kids
My favorite moments: 1. When you said Chandler is your favorite “Friends” character 26:54 2. When you included that part from the article “history of the entire world, i guess” made by Bill wurtz (I don’t want to find the timestamp :D) 3. The article overall I watched the entire thing, and I don’t regret it! You really deserve to get more appreciation Edit: I forgot to say that when you talked about how much of an awesome character Barney is, I agreed with every word.
the reason the alternate ending should not be considered canon is because literally no one saw it. it was just something they did because fans got pissed. it’s not aired on tv still, it’s not available on streaming services… I didn’t even know it existed and I watched HIMYM while it was airing. And honestly, after rewatching it as an adult of about teds age in the show, I saw it differently and realized that now, it’s no different than friends. the will they won’t they thing with robin keeps going on until the last few episodes. the story of tracy is too short and squeezed together to overshadow the 8+ seasons Ted has been in love with Robin. The Robin ending actually makes more sense to me and when I watched it now I actually didn’t dislike it as I did back then
Friends was relatable to my generation. How I Met Your Mother was relatable to my son’s. They were also produced in very different television landscapes. One aired with network dramedies like Due South, and the other had The Sopranos and Mad Men streaming alongside them. Apples and oranges, just like my twenties and thirties aren’t comparable to your twenties and thirties.
Lilly has a lot of bad traits. But they are somehow really realistic. I felt a lot of them. The shop lifting to feel lifted up, sometimes hating being a mother, stress shopping and having difficulties with the whole being a mother/wife/having a career thing hits me hard everytime. Lilly and Marshall had me crying so many times. But to be fair all of the characters have some really bad traits. A lot of them are really weirdly relatable and of course played out in a ridiculous way for laughs but still serious in some parts. That is what really surprised me while rewatching. I don’t really hate anyone of the main cast anymore. *edit also HIMYM has so many usable catch phrases and I still use a lot of HIMYM phrases in real life. *edit I didn’t mind the death. It is realistic and has been foreshadowed SO much that it makes sense to me. But I would’ve liked it to be fleshed out.
I found your work was absolutely fantastic. I agree with you on so many points, you made me realised a lot of things about my favorite piece of media ever, and I love how you got it so well. The only points I am in disagreement with concern HIMYM’s ending, and that’s what I want to debate. First, Barney. By ending the show with no girlfriend and a daughter, Barney follows the same path as his mother did. Loretta lived a crazy life without finding a lasting partner until she accidentally got pregnant and that was what made her stop her life style to take care of her children. Instead of following his absent father’s footsteps to form a perfect family, which he wanted to during the last seasons, he realises that he is too much like his mother. Concerning the alternate ending, I think people who liked the original ending like me don’t appreciate an ending that was made just to satisfy angry and disappointed fans even if the original ending was clearly the ending the producers wanted from the beginning to the end of the show. Because the original ending was the purpose of the show. Robin was the purpose of the show. That’s why Ted was telling this story to his children. That’s why the story begins with his encounter with Robin and revolves around his relationship with her during the whole show. And I thought it was a great twist to have the ending answer the question “why am I telling this story?” instead of just the predictable “how I met your mother?”. Because we were so fixated on who the mother was, we forgot to ask ourselves why is he telling this looooong story and why does the mother doesn’t appear.
I know it’s long after you’ve put this out but I have a couple of points. you say that love shouldn’t be the be-all-end-all goal but criticise Friends for not having Joey end up in a long-term relationship by the end of the series, some people are happy to live that way and there’s nothing wrong with it. You say that suggesting there are hints to the mother’s death is speculative yet we know for a fact that the ending was planned as early as season 2 so I feel that does lend slightly more legitimacy to that argument. The alternative ending may be on the DVD but it was not the ending that was broadcast, which I believe far more people would have seen and is the ending that has stuck with them. Good article though (I do think HIMYM is a far better show)
I don’t see how Ross chasing Rachel to the airport to tell her how he feels before she leaves is more selfish than Robin rushing to interrupt Barney’s proposal to another woman to do the same. Obviously, in HIMYM, Barney is actually planning on proposing to Robin, so it removes that moral dilemma retroactively. But the motivations of the characters are remarkably similar. Ross isn’t my favorite Friends character by a long shot. But I feel like people have gotten so comfortable dunking on him that they’ve over-exaggerated his character flaws compared to other popular characters. Not to mention, he and Rachel had a kid together at this point. No one ever seems to mention how selfish it was for Rachel to move to another country and presumably take that child far away from her father for an indeterminate amount of time. It would have destroyed my Dad to be apart from me that way. And Ross has already gone through having limited contact with his kid due to no fault of his own.
Still only in the first 20 or so minutes, but the part about Marshal and Lily being a good couple seems so forced. The relationship is the furthest thing from being realistic in my opinion and here are the reasons: – Lily is shown to be controlling throughout the show, hardly allowing Marshal to have his own opinions on anything that matters – Lily is forgiven for leaving Marshal on a whim by everyone, even Ted who tries to stand up for Marshal basically gives her a slap on the wrist at most. We saw Marshal suffering for 67 days, yet it took one evening and some alcohol to forgive Lily – Lily constantly lies to Marshal, the biggest of which is when she hides her credit cards from him and tries to manipulate him into getting a better job – The reacher settler dynamic was not even understood by the writers themselves, Marshal is shown to be charismatic and capable of quickly forming a bond with everyone, romantic or otherwise in addition to being highly educated and gainfully employed in later seasons, while Lily is shown to be incapable of forming any bonds when she moved for the art fellowship as well as being stuck in a dead end job with a useless degree, yet somehow the writers attempt to frame Marshal as the reacher and Lily as the settler – Marshal is shown to be a broke student and Lily was shown to be ruined financially, yet neither one is shown to struggle much if at all. Their biggest problem was paying for their honeymoon, which feeds into the whole “love being the end all be all”, since both of them had debts that they could have covered to a certain extent when they scammed Barney for 10k – Marshal and Lily supposedly only know how to act as a couple, which causes problems when the writers choose to highlight it, but it is also conveniently reduced to a minor detail when the plot demands that they do things separately.
I watched 15 mins only and I think you just cant compare these shows like this. I mean you talk about friends being childish and there you have Barney and literally everything about him. Ted and his true love – supporting Robin in her relationships – ends with her at the end… Really?? Is this less childish and more reality-like? Compared to that Ross is kind of a shy guy who tries his best to get the girl he loves. You talk about the bad lesson friends teach you, while himym be like: You love someone and you let them go, then your spouse dies so you finally get together. There are more perspectives. I dont want to fight for friends. This just caught my attention and from those 15 mins I saw I got feeling you just want to state himym is better without any objective reasoning. Both shows are fun but in different way. Himym is more exaggerated in the good sense while friends are consistent – for some audience boring. Friends are from (and for) different culture as you stated.
For me, the ending of HIMYM makes sense because of the way Ted tells his stories. He takes waaaaay too long to tell all the details, and that’s what happened. He actually tells a story of his relationship with Robin since it starts with how THEY met, but not his mom. Also, in my opinion, bitter endings and the ending that you don’t expect are the best since they leave room for discussion. But the original ending of HIMYM is totally not the worst.
I love this analysis!! I do have two points to make 1) I personally love HIMYM’s original ending. Barney regressing back to his old ways as a coping mechanism to deal with a divorce and finally maturing once he has a daughter feels very real. Divorce is a stressful thing to go through and his way to cope with stress for years has been sex and booze. Partying was his escape and his daughter was the biggest wake-up call he needed. He didn’t have a father growing up and he doesn’t want her to go through the same thing. That makes him realize how he treats other women isn’t how he would want his daughter to be treated once she’s older. I also think that Barney and Robin’s divorce makes sense. At Barney’s core, He just wants a family, and traveling with robin is amazing but he never gets a chance to be with his found family if they’re never in new york. While Tracy’s death is tragic, I do love how it’s not completely confirmed that ted and robin have a happy ending. Ted brings out the blue horn, Robin smiles knowingly and the show ends. While it is implied they might end up together, I enjoy the fact we can just imagine how the rest of their lives might go 2) HIMYM has better representation than friends, but I still take issue with some of it. Firstly, a lot of transphobic jokes are made on the show. From “What’s the worse thing she could’ve said at dinner?” and ted’s current love interest saying something along the lines of “I used to have a dick,” comes off as laughing at trans women.
I’m late to the party but I’l say this: the ending of HIMYM makes sense in my opinion, as we’re essentially put in Ted’s shoes – he’s waited all of his life, just as we’ve waited 9 seasons, for his perfect woman to be introduced into his life, and as soon as he has a chance to enjoy his time with her, she’s cruelly taken away from him in a very short period of time. This parallels what we experience as viewers; after having waited 9 season to meet the mother, she dies, which means she’s being taken away from us as well, in a similar period of time, just scale down from years and decades (in Ted’s life) to mere minutes within the show.
even if tracy had still died in the end, they could have used it as an opportunity to emphasize ted’s love for her specifically by not having him end up with anyone else, because she really was The One for him. he could’ve found solace in his love for their kids and it would still make sense for him to be telling their story, in memory of her.
Wonderful job! I’ve loved both series for a while and always had a hard time saying which I preferred. You helped me pay attention to the details and now I understand why I love one more than the other. Friends never made me feel as connected as HIMYM. The music just made it better and the characters actually do made me connect with them.
Am I the only one who loved the original ending of HIMYM? The show doesn’t really make sense otherwise. The whole show revolves around Robin. That’s why it starts when she joins the group. Ted isn’t really telling the story of how he met the kids’ mother; he’s using that as an excuse to talk about Robin and really just wants to ask permission from his kids to ask her out. I thought it was a brilliant ending with so much foreshadowing (such as Barney in season 5 saying he’ll have Robin until she’s 40 and then Ted can have her after that). Even though Barney fit Robin’s goals better ( at the time anyway), he never deserved her and that’s something that is very obvious throughout the show and eventually becomes apparent to Robin too, whereas Ted always consistently proved his love for her even after he matured and came to expect nothing from her in return. I think people just get butthurt about the real ending because they like Barney and want him to “win.” Then they act like they’re upset about the mother being done dirty by the writers. But the story was never about the mother in the first place!!! When all is said and done, she is a very minor character and was always meant to be minor. Ross and Rachel ending up together is bad because they never fixed what made them a problematic couple but ended up together anyway. When Ted and Robin end up together, it works because they have both grown as people and are no longer faced with the issue that broke them apart the first time.
I guess I am one of the few people who really liked the original ending of HIMYM. Robin and the ominous mother always represented 2 different things during the runtime of the show: The perfect ending and the right ending. Robin was portrayed as being far from perfect, and the end showed that even a perfect relationship may not be perfect in the end. In the end, if you always look for whats perfect and never settle, you may end up with great memories, but nothing to show for it. Robin, as imperfect as she is, was the right women. Not just for Ted, but also for Barney. There is no plan behind everything that selects one woman for every man (or man for every man, woman for every woman and so on, whatever you like), but it is possible that you and your best friend may be in love with the right one. Ted letting go of Robin didn’t mean that he didn’t love her anymore, but that he gave up on his possesiveness towards her. He let her go her own path, not cut her out of his. In the end, he had to realise that he met the perfect woman, but Robin was the right one, and when he stood down there with the blue horn after all these years, he let her choose her way. Whenever he stood down there before, he always told robin to come down or that he will come up, he never let her choose. This final time, he was just silent and made an offering. And I think thats beautifull.
I know my preference for HIMYM over Friends is circumstance. I used to watch episodes with my mom on the weeks I was at her house. I will say that I was under the impression that the mother was dead from like the first season. Despite asking, I know very little about how my parents met, in a bar. This is the kind of story you would pull out so the kid can have a better understanding of how the late parent was, as a person. I agree with other commenters that Tracy dying was not the problem with the ending, but Ted getting together with Robin. I’d also like to point out that Friends feels like you’re following early twenty-somethings into their late twenties/early thirties. HIMYM feels like following late twenty somethings into their mid thirties. The perspective is just different.
The death of Marchal’s father makes me cry to this day. I think however, the better scene to compare it to in Friends is the one where Ross, his mother and an aunt (?) pick out the funeral outfit for the dead grandmother. Sure, it’s not as deep as the himym plot but to me the humour in this scene feels very genuine and the scene overall does the death of a family member justice.
Now to me, i simply found himym’s humor to be a little more over the top compared to friends in a way i loved when perusal shows like brooklyn 99 or community but in the style of himym and friends it didnt work out as good. I also generally felt like i wanted to actually be friends with the friends crew much more than i felt like i wanted to han out with the himym squad
I love original ending. People are saying that show never show how Ted deals with losing Tracy, but I think that the whole show IS about how Ted deals with losing. All life lessons, all appreciation ro the long path that lead to her – its all about dealing with this loss and in some way letting Tracy go. That hinted thought the show and also that explains the whole premise. Thats why in the show she’s mostly non present – cause she is gone and all Ted had left is cherished memories.
As for HIMYM’s ending, I think it’s ACTUALLY GOOD, however, POORLY PACED. I’ll explain, The main problem with Ted & Robin isn’t that they were incompatible. It’s – as Robin puts it – timing, and timing is a bitch. They’re people who absolutely click, but unfortunately, what they want out of life is completely different. Later in life, they both achieved exactly what they wanted. Ted married Tracy, settled down, and had the kids he always wanted. And Robin also had the successful career that she always wanted. Many years later, Robin wanna settle down, and Ted lost the love of his life. The things that prevented Ted and Robin from being together are now gone. Nothing should stop them now. Don’t get me wrong, Tracy is undoubtedly Ted’s perfect match and he truly loved her and was in excruciating pain due to her sickness and passing. And he didn’t settle for Tracy just because he didn’t manage to get Robin, and he also didn’t love Tracy less than Robin. Tracy was #1 and his Lifelong Treasure of Destiny. Just watch the time travelers episode of season 8. That’s Ted wanting even one additional second with his wife. Furthermore, getting back together with Robin after all these years and after they’ve both achieved what they wanted DOESN’T UNDO Ted’s development of letting Robin go. He INDEED let go of Robin and went on and had an amazing life and nothing…absolutely nothing says that he was unhappy with his life and wife because he wasn’t with Robin. He only got back with Robin SIX YEARS after his wife died.
A good comparison, another comparison for the Ross and Rachel ending is actually Lily and Marshal, not just once, but twice! Where Rachel gives up her dream to be with Ross, Lily leaves marshal to go to SF and pursue her dream, and it has serious consequences. And it happens again in the final season when Marshal gets the Judgeship but they move to Italy anyways because it’s finally a great opportunity for Lily.
Loved the whole article except one thing. Ted and robin ending up together doesn’t take away from the lessons learned in the show. Ted and Robin went and accomplished everything they wanted in life. Robin was a successful reporter, and Ted got the life he always wanted with an amazing woman and two children. Ted and Robin both achieved their goals in life, so their ending up together doesn’t take away from this. The Friends ending with Rachel and Ross together is bad because like you said in real you can’t love someone into giving up their dreams for you and if they do it will lead to resentment from the other person. How I met your mother does make this a conversation when Ted starts dating Karen again and when Ted finds out Lily has broken up many of his relationships including Robin because they failed the front porch test. Lily saw the front porch with Robin and Ted with them being bitter and resentful towards each other and if Ted and Robin did give up their dreams for each other, this definitely would’ve happened if they continued dating. But theybroke up. They got what they wanted in life and found their way back to each other.
I actually thought the death of Tracy made the love story even more beautiful. I don’t mind a happy ending, but bittersweet just hits me harder. Going back to Robin kinda made sense since they both had already accomplished what they wanted out of life seperately from each other and they were good together otherwise, but I just hated it because it ruined that emotionally powerful moment completely. On top of that, I never really liked Robin much as a character, nor Cobie Smulders as an actress, and that probably really made it feel even worse. But yeah, instead of going for the alternative ending, I just choose to end the show right after Ted says “And that kids… is how I met your mother” in the finale.
25:34 Also with Marshall and Lily and Chandler and Monica they both have the woman as the alpha but with Chandler it seems more like he’s turning into a husk who’s catchphrase is one step away from changing from “Could I be anymore…” to simply, “Yes dear,” but with Marshall and Lily, Lily is the alpha because Marshall is more delicate and aside from making jokes about it Lily does not make him feel any less of a man for it.