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"How I Met Your Mother" (2005) More at IMDb Pro »

From the pilot:

Future Ted: . Because that, kids, is the true story of how I met your Aunt Robin.

Son: Aunt Robin?

Daughter: I thought this was how you met Mom?

Future Ted V.O.: Will you relax? I'm getting to it. Like I said, it's a long story.

Clearly, Robin and the mother are not the same person.

In fact, Robin not being the mother (a revelation that provided the big twist in the pilot episode) is one of the "pillars" in the premise of the show, a constraint that makes the series fresh and largely takes it out of the "will they/won't they" territory familiar to "Friends" fans. The creators of the show have reiterated in interviews that while Robin is going to be important and crucial in Ted's romantic journey, they intend to stick to their guns: Robin is not "the one," and there will be no ultimate loophole or twist to make it otherwise.

No, "Aunt Robin" doesn't necessarily mean he's married to Robin's sister. Future Ted also refers to "Uncle Barney," "Uncle Marshall," and "Aunt Lily," meaning that his kids employ the custom of referring to their father's close friends as "aunts" and "uncles."

One of the "loopholes" some new fans frequently reach for is the idea that Ted isn't the father of the kids and that he's just some uncle or family friend telling them how he met their mother (thus leaving him free to be with Robin in the future). The fact is, it isn't true, as the kids have explicitly called Ted their father. Here's just a couple of instances:

"Dad, can't you just skip ahead to the part where you meet Mom? I feel like you've been talking for, like, a year." - the daughter, "Where Were We?" (Season 2 Premiere).

"Dad!" - both kids, not buying Ted's story about how Robin's sister Katie's life turned out, "First Time In New York."

Once in a while, someone will post their theory about how the mother could be [insert previously seen character here]. The "Lucky Penny" and "Something Blue" statements are lines of Future Ted's narration that he has not yet met the mother prior to those episodes.

- At the end of "Lucky Penny," Future Ted wraps up the story by saying that the firm he was interviewing for hired someone else, and that person had to move to Chicago three months later. He points out: "Kids, funny thing about destiny; I thought I was destined to get that job. But I was wrong. My destiny was to stay in New York. Because if I hadn't, I never would've met your mother." Aside from strongly suggesting that he meets the mother in New York, it clearly means that he had not yet, at the time of "Lucky Penny" (and some window of time afterwards, prior to when he would have moved to Chicago) met the mother.

- At the end of "Something Blue," Future Ted closes the story with this revelation of his and Robin's futures: "And as hard as it was at the time, in the end we both got what we wanted. She did eventually go on to live in Argentina, and Morocco, Greece, Russia, even Japan for a little while. And I? Well, I met your mom."

So anyone Ted can be construed to have "met" before the events of "Something Blue" can be definitively ruled out as the mother, including Victoria, the coat check girl, the Slutty Pumpkin, Wendy the Waitress, Trudy, and most other female characters Ted has personally significantly interacted with from Seasons 1 and 2.

There are, of course, subsequent statements that nonetheless establish Ted as not having met the mother yet. "No Tomorrow" is the latest such episode that establishes this: Future Ted makes a point of the fact that he learned years later that the mother attended the same St. Patrick's Day 2008 party that he did, but did not meet her there.

(updated November 2008)

Ted is an architect.

Lily is a kindergarten teacher.

Robin was a reporter then a news anchor for a small-time local cable station ("Metro News One," presumably based on real-life station NY1), but quit for a brief stint at Tokyo Ichi (think CNN meets a Japanese game show) in Japan before quitting that job and returning to New York. She is currently unemployed.

Marshall was a law student in Season 1 and 2, with some time spent interning in the legal department of Barney's company; after passing the bar, he worked for the corporate law firm Nicolson, Hewitt and West, but quit partway into Season 3; Most recently, he's taken on a job in the legal department of Goliath National Bank, a company recently acquired by Barney's company.

As for Barney, he works for Altrucel, a large evil corporation (who prefer to be recognized as the company that puts the fuzz on tennis balls), but what *exactly* he does for the company remains a mystery, a running gag for the show. He has since apparently been assigned to work directly for Goliath National Bank, Altrucel's newest acquisition.

The title of the theme song is "Hey Beautiful," and it's by The Solids, an unsigned band led by the show's creators, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. The song is available on iTunes, and can be heard in full on the band's MySpace page.

See this thread on the HIMYM Message Boards for an up-to-date list compiled by the fans: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0460649/board/nest/119954955

Craig Thomas, co-creator of HIMYM, revealed in an interview with TV Guide (http://www.tvguide.com/news/craig-thomas-mother/071112-02) that MacLaren's is based on McGee's Pub on 55th and Broadway in Manhattan, not far from the Ed Sullivan Theater (where he and co-creator Carter Bays worked as writers for The Late Show With David Letterman).

The "Tracy Theory" is based on the concluding scene of the Season 1 episode "Belly Full of Turkey," where Ted meets a stripper who introduces herself as "Tracy," upon which Future Ted's narration chimes in, "and that, kids, is how I met your mother." The kids react with shock, and Future Ted quickly reveals he's kidding.

Fan consensus, however, is that there's nothing that definitively establishes the mother's name as Tracy, and the "Tracy Theory" is typically disregarded:

- We know what we see and hear on the screen isn't necessarily what Future Ted tells verbatim to his kids, unless we actually hear Future Ted say it (one example: Ted and Victoria's last day together in "Cupcake"). In other words, just because we heard the stripper say "I'm Tracy," doesn't mean that Future Ted told his kids, "She said her name was Tracy."

- The kids' shocked reaction in that scene would've happened regardless of whether Future Ted mentioned the mother's real name or not. Future Ted defused the situation before the kids might've uttered something like "but her name's not Tracy!"

- Considering the series' previous "contingency mothers" (people who would've been the mother had the show been canceled at particular times) were Victoria and possibly Stella, the creators are certainly open to a mother who wasn't named Tracy.

So while there's no ruling out "Tracy," there's nothing definitive about it either.

(Note: the following is theory and should not be regarded as fact)

HIMYM has had to address the possibility of cancellation at least twice (and perhaps three times) so far in its run.

The first instance is something that's common to most scripted TV shows (a little TV industry primer follows): When commissioning a TV series, broadcast networks usually put in an initial order to the production company for 13 episodes or so. If the series is launched in the fall and brings in satisfactory ratings, the network will order additional episodes for the season (aka "being picked up for the rest of the season," or "picking up the back nine" for a full season of 22 episodes). Otherwise, if the show isn't an instantly-yanked disaster, the network will allow the rest of the initial 13 episodes to be produced, and will typically burn them off (i.e. air the episodes even though it's a doomed, "lame duck" series), though in some cases some episodes are not aired on the original network and instead air on a cable partner, shown online, or put on the DVD release of the series.

So like any freshman series, HIMYM had an initial order of 13 episodes. And as with any series that have ongoing subplots, the writers of HIMYM were particularly motivated to provide a reasonably satisfying conclusion if those 13 episodes were all they were going to get.

And what was the 13th episode? "Drumroll, Please." And if you watch the episode, one can see where it would have provided a satisfying ending--Robin winds up unhappy, but one can see where she was instrumental in bringing Victoria and Ted together (a prerequisite of the whole story, at least if it were to end this early in the game), Lily and Marshall having a moment in the previous episode that they feel is a landmark in the journey to their wedding day, Barney being awesome as usual, and Ted and Victoria getting together in a very romantic fashion. All the episode was missing to become the finale of the show was a final voiceover from Future Ted saying "and that, kids, was how I met your mother"--something that could've been added had the situation required it.

The show was renewed for a second season before production on the first season was finished, so a "contingency" wasn't needed for the end of the first season--in fact, they made the season finale a cliffhanger.

The end of the second season wasn't as sunny, and the finale even aired before official word of HIMYM's renewal came down. So what we got in "Something Blue"--bittersweet but slightly reassuring and satisfying to some extent, with Ted's narration providing a little closure to the mother mystery without actually revealing the mother, and a memorable final punctuation mark (not a period, exclamation point or question mark, but a nice ellipsis) courtesy of Barney.

While HIMYM's renewal also came too late in the third season, it seems that the ratings boost from Britney Spears' appearance may have given the producers enough confidence in a renewal that they gave the show a little cliffhanger as well, though it's also conceivable that they would have been content with the "question mark" ending with the further assumption that Stella was the mother.

"Bump Girl" is the nickname fans have given to the character played by Nicole Muirbrook Wagner in the third season episode "No Tomorrow." Her entire scene amounts to Ted accidentally bumping into her while walking through a nightclub, Ted briefly apologizing and her graciously dismissing him.

Because Ted earlier notes that the Mother was in the nightclub at night but that he didn't meet her, some casual fans have jumped on the theory that since the scene is pointless otherwise, Bump Girl must be the mother.

However, most of the more seasoned fans have come to the consensus that Bump Girl is simply a red herring; HIMYM has a recurring habit of subverting fiction tropes, often tied in to Future Ted's recurring theme of "that's not how it is in real life." In real life, people don't get over a broken heart overnight right after a seemingly healing epiphany; in real life, people don't triumphantly push a dead Fiero to 200,000 miles; in real life, friends don't always do the smart and thoughtful thing and tell their friends that purchasing an expensive apartment despite a horrendous interest rate and huge credit card debt is a stupid thing to do.

The trope that "Bump Girl" is riffing on is that of The Conservation of Information, also known as "Chekhov's Gun"--you don't show something if it's not important. The writers are aware of this, and know that sparking a discussion is always a plus when it comes to the show. Bump Girl was thrown in to inspire that discussion, but one needs to keep in mind that "that's not how it happens in real life," and while she's not technically ruled out as a candidate for "Mother," knowing the life lessons HIMYM puts forward, it's not a path that the writers are likely to pursue.

Three so far: 1) In "Slap Bet," shortly upon Barney choosing the "five slaps any time" option. 2) In "Stuff," bringing Barney's one-man play to a sudden end. 3) In "Slapsgiving," after the Thanksgiving embargo is lifted.

Two more slaps are forthcoming.

One of HIMYM's conceits is that the entire story is being told in one sitting; the kids are wearing the same clothes (except for the pilot, a discrepancy we're supposed to ignore because there are often changes between a series' pilot and the subsequent episodes), and have on occasion alluded to how long Ted's been droning on.

The problem is that actors Lyndsey Fonseca and David Henrie have been growing up; one can even see the difference between their Season 1 footage and Season 2 footage. So all the footage we've seen (and will probably ever see) of the kids was shot in Season 2, with what apparently is a small library of reaction shots to be used in future episodes. Since many of these episodes were/are yet to be written back when they shot the footage, the kids won't be specifically reacting to stories in the future (unless they recorded some responses that are generic enough to be used as a reaction, something we haven't seen yet). The creators of the show have acknowledged this limitation, and believe that now that the show is well-established, viewers only need an occasional reminder of Ted's framing narrative (the non-interactive shots that we've seen since Season 3).

There *is* one instance of a pre-recorded reaction to a future episode that we know of: A scene with the kids that directly relates to the identity of the mother was shot in Season 2 under very secure/secret conditions. This scene is being saved for the show's finale.

Like most network shows, HIMYM is renewed year-to-year. However, a recent bidding war over syndicated rerun rights is a very good sign that HIMYM will run at least five seasons. Creator Craig Thomas expressed in an interview that he hopes that the show's finale will air in 2012, meaning that they're hoping for a run of 7 seasons.