'How I Met Your Mother' wraps up an impressive nine-year run with legendary finale

New York Daily News ^ | 03/31/2014 | BY DAVID HINCKLEY

[SeekAndFind]

Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) sits his son and daughter down to tell them how he met their mother.

That’s the way “How I Met Your Mother” began, on Sept. 19, 2005.

Nine seasons and almost nine years later, Ted is less than 48 hours from getting to the point.

It’s a tossup which is more impressive here: that a sitcom could last 200 episodes with what sounds like a one-idea premise, or that a parent could keep his kids listening to him talk about anything for nine years.

But if Mosby’s kids wanted the answer, they didn't have much choice. We didn’t even meet Mom until the end of season eight, when we finally saw Cristin Milioti, aka the Girl with the Yellow Umbrella, heading for New York.

It looks like we will get to the end of the story Monday night, when “How I Met Your Mother” wraps up its remarkably successful run with an hour-long episode at 8 p.m.

Neil Patrick Harris, who plays Ted’s good if maybe not best friend Barney Stinson, says the show needed that kind of time. Like a good Irish pub cheese, it couldn’t be rushed.

“The first two seasons seemed very on the bubble,” Harris says. “Which I thought was good for us. It gave us the opportunity to come up with our own sense of humor.

“Sometimes when a show is thrust into success right away, there are high expectations to come up with terrific stuff super fast. We got to develop a great vocabulary and weird little inside jokes. I liked the slow-burn elements.”

Among other things, “How I Met Your Mother” had an almost spooky consistency.

[SeekAndFind]

I believe the 'mother' played Leonardo Di Caprio's first wife in the 'Wolf of Wall Street'

[P-Marlowe]

The worst show ever made finally comes to an end.

[Buckeye McFrog]

The worst show ever made finally comes to an end.

I would have nominated Will and Grace or The New Adventures of Old Christine. But I get your point.

[sipow]

Isn’t that the show with some fag as a star?

Guess that makes tv a bit better. Until they try to shove the next fag down our throats.

[DwFry]

Cannot understand how this show is popular.

[Gay State Conservative]

Is that the show that stars the real-life fairycake who,in the show,pretends to like girls?

[Gay State Conservative]

Apart from the NFL and the NHL the only “network” TV I watch is PBS to catch Downton Abbey,a few other BBC dramas and one or two Britcoms.

[OldSmaj]

It looks like we will get to the end of the story Monday night...

Well, gee, I, for one, just cannot wait.

In all seriousness, I never watched the show.

What little snippets I saw convinced me that it was just another trashy liberal-bent piece of crap.

And then knowing that one of the characters, who is a faggot, plays a straight womanizer, kinda clinched it for me.

Don't watch much network TV, anyway.

I tend toward the more enlightening and educational shows, such as TruTV's "20 Funniest Commercials" and high-brow stuff from the BBC, such as "Top Gear".

(I think I just bit my tongue.)

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Down our throats? Is that a gay slur???

[relictele]

First they told us Neil Patrick Harris was gay (shocker), then they told us to believe he was a heterosexual Lothario for the purposes of teevee.

In neither case did I care a whit but I do find it interesting that CBS et al believe turning reality on its head increases verisimilitude.

[napscoordinator]

You clearly have not seen Two and a half men. How I met your Mother will be on forever through syndication. I did not watch the show, but a lot of people really enjoyed it. One of the top 10 most watched shows week after week, year after year.

[napscoordinator]

There was no fags on the show.

[raybbr]

Don’t bother. I bet not one of these”holier than thou” critics ever watched the show. I bet they all think Seinfeld was the greatest comedy ever. I found How I Met Your Mother to be very good.

[dfwgator]

Cobie Smulders - 100% Absolutely Not Guilty.

[outinyellowdogcountry]

I hate to say it but NBC has 2 new comedies that I actually enjoy. I can’t remember the names but one is about a mother/son living in a duplex beside a single man and the other is about a blind lawyer. I like them both. I never enjoyed the smart alec group of friends theme for comedy even though Seinfeld had some moments. BBC makes the best TV and we find it on Netflix.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I vaguely recall hearing about this show once, many years ago. “Comedy” on television is anything but.

[P-Marlowe]

You clearly have not seen Two and a half men.

Nope. The only reason I ever watched any of How I met your mother is because it came on after King of Queens. They never utter a single line that doesn't refer to sex or sex acts. And it is coming on at 7PM when there are impressionable children sitting in front of the TV.

It was the most offensive shows I ever saw. But like you say, I have not seen Two and a half men, nor do I ever wish to see it.

[Rummyfan]

I’ve watched this show exactly one time and thought, what garbage. And the queer NPH ... just couldn’t take it.

[Star Traveler]

I don’t watch it, but someone else in the family does.

[napscoordinator]

I have not seen Two and a half men, nor do I ever wish to see it.

Please keep it that way....I would HATE for you to sit in front of that filth. If you don’t like How I met your Mother then you would probably faint at the nasty and I do mean nasty (and I am more forgiving to Hollywood then a super majority of FREEPERS) and I find it extremely offensive.