The first season of ''

How I Met Your Mother ''How I Met Your Mother'' (often abbreviated as ''HIMYM'') is an American sitcom, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays for CBS. The series, which aired from September 19, 2005 to March 31, 2014, follows the main character, Ted Mosby, and his ...

'', an American

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

created by

Carter Bays Carter Loard Bays (born August 12, 1975) is an American author, composer and television showrunner. Bays co-created the CBS sitcom '' How I Met Your Mother'' where he served as showrunner, writer and executive producer for all nine seasons. The ...

and Craig Thomas, premiered on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

in the United States on September 19, 2005, and concluded on May 15, 2006. The season was directed by

Pamela Fryman Pamela Gail Fryman (born 1959) is an American sitcom director and producer. She directed all but twelve episodes of the television series ''How I Met Your Mother''. Early life Fryman was born and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career F ...

and produced by Bays & Thomas Productions and

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...

. It consists of 22 episodes, each running approximately 22 minutes in length. The season introduces

Ted Mosby Theodore Evelyn Mosby is a fictional character and the protagonist in the American sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'', portrayed by Josh Radnor. He serves as the show's narrator from the future, voiced by Bob Saget, as he tells his children the " ...

(voiced by former ''

Full House ''Full House'' is an American television sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for ABC. The show is about widowed father Danny Tanner who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis and childhood best friend Joey Gladstone to help raise his three dau ...

'' actor

Bob Saget Robert Lane Saget (May 17, 1956 – January 9, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Saget played Danny Tanner on the ABC sitcom ''Full House'' (1987-1995), and reprised the role for its Netflix sequel '' Fuller ...

) in the year 2030 as he sits his daughter and son down to tell them the story of how he met their mother. The story begins in 2005 with Ted (

Josh Radnor Joshua Thomas Radnor (born July 29, 1974) is an American actor, filmmaker, author, and musician. He is best known for portraying Ted Mosby on the popular and Emmy Award–winning CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother''. He made his writing and dir ...

) as a single, 27-year-old architect living in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

with his two best friends from college:

Marshall Eriksen Marshall Eriksen is a fictional character on the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'', portrayed by Jason Segel. Series co-creator Craig Thomas explained that he based Marshall and Lily on himself and his wife Rebecca. Character overview The se ...

(

Jason Segel Jason Jordan Segel ( ; born January 18, 1980) is an American actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'', as well as for his work with director and pr ...

), a law student, and

Lily Aldrin Lily Aldrin is a fictional character in the CBS television series '' How I Met Your Mother.'' Lily is portrayed by American actress Alyson Hannigan. She is married to Marshall Eriksen and the best friend of Ted Mosby, Robin Scherbatsky and Barne ...

(

Alyson Hannigan Alyson Lee Hannigan (born March 24, 1974) is an American actress. After starting her career at age four with appearances in commercials, she moved to Hollywood at age 11 and soon got an agent. Hannigan began her film career with supporting r ...

), a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

teacher, who have been dating for almost nine years when Marshall proposes. Their engagement causes Ted to think about marriage and finding his soul mate, much to the disgust of his self-appointed best friend

Barney Stinson Barnabus Stinson is a fictional character portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris and created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series ''How I Met Your Mother'' (2005–2014). One of the show's main characters, Barney is known f ...

(

Neil Patrick Harris Neil Patrick Harris (born June 15, 1973) is an American actor, singer, writer, producer, and television host. Primarily known for his comedic television roles and dramatic and musical stage roles, he has received multiple accolades throughout ...

). Ted begins his search for his perfect mate and meets an ambitious young reporter,

Robin Scherbatsky Robin Charles Scherbatsky Jr. is a fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series ''How I Met Your Mother'', portrayed by Cobie Smulders. Robin is the on and off love interest of Barney Stinson (Neil ...

(

Cobie Smulders Jacoba Francisca Maria "Cobie" Smulders (born April 3, 1982) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her starring role as Robin Scherbatsky in the CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother'' (2005–2014) and as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill in the Ma ...

), whom he quickly falls in love with. Robin, however, doesn't want to rush into a relationship and the two decide to be friends. However, Robin begins to develop feelings for Ted while he begins dating a baker, Victoria, but when she moves to Germany for a culinary fellowship, Ted leads Robin to believe that she broke up with him. As a result, Victoria breaks up with Ted and Robin begins to distance herself from him, though they eventually reconcile. As her wedding date approaches, Lily begins to wonder if she's missed any opportunities because of her relationship with Marshall and decides to pursue an art fellowship in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, breaking her engagement in the process. At the end of the season, Marshall is seen looking desolate and miserable, while Ted and Robin agree to pursue a relationship. The first season garnered mixed-to-positive reviews. On the review aggregation site,

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported that 63% of 16 critics gave the show a positive review. Despite the mixed reception, the show appeared on several television best lists, including ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine and ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

''. The first season garnered an average of 9.47 million viewers per all 22 episodes in the U.S. Out of all regular primetime programming that aired during the 2005–2006 American television season, ''How I Met Your Mother'' ranked 51st out of 156, according to the

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

system. The pilot was watched by 10.94 million viewers, while the finale was watched by 8.64 million viewers.

Casting

The first season features a cast of five actors who receive

star billing Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works. Information given in billing usually consists of the companies, actors, directo ...

portrays Ted, a young architect who is searching for his future wife.

and

portray Marshall Eriksen and

, respectively, a newly engaged couple.

plays

, an ambitious reporter whom Ted falls for.

, Ted's self-appointed best friend and a womanizer, is played by

. Season one also introduced several recurring cast members, including

Lyndsy Fonseca Lyndsy Marie Fonseca (born January 7, 1987) is an American actress. She began her career by appearing as Colleen Carlton on the CBS daytime soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'', on which she starred between 2001 and 2005. Thereafter, she ...

and

David Henrie David Clayton Henrie ( ; born July 11, 1989) is an American actor, writer, and director. He is noted for playing Ted Mosby's future son Luke on ''How I Met Your Mother'' and Justin Russo in ''Wizards of Waverly Place'', as well as starring in th ...

as Ted's children, and Ashley Williams as Victoria, Ted's love interest for the second half of the season. The season one pilot episode was recognized by the

Casting Society of America The Casting Society, formerly known as Casting Society of America (CSA), was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1982 as a Professional association, professional society of about 1,200 Casting (performing arts), casting directors and associate ...

with a nomination for the Best Comedy Pilot Casting Artios Award. ''How I Met Your Mother'' was inspired by creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas's idea to "write about our friends and the stupid stuff we did in New York", where they previously worked as writers for ''

Late Show with David Letterman The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...

''. The two drew from their friendship in creating the characters. Ted is based loosely on Bays, and Marshall and Lily are based loosely on Thomas and his wife. Thomas's wife Rebecca was initially reluctant to have a character based on her, but agreed if they could get Hannigan to play her. Radnor and Segel were relative unknowns, but Smulders, another relatively little-known actress, was cast as Robin after

Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Love Hewitt (born February 21, 1979) is an American actress and singer. Hewitt began her career as a child actress and singer, appearing in national television commercials before joining the cast of the Disney Channel series ''Kids I ...

turned down the role in favor of ''

Ghost Whisperer ''Ghost Whisperer'' is an American supernatural television series, which ran on CBS from September 23, 2005, to May 21, 2010. The series follows the life of Melinda Gordon ( Jennifer Love Hewitt), who has the ability to see and communicate with ...

''. Bays and Thomas commented on her casting by saying, "thank God we did for a million reasons ... when Ted's seeing her for the first time, America's seeing her for the first time — the intriguingness of that propelled the show going forward and kept the show alive". The role of Barney was initially envisioned as a "

John Belushi John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known for being one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Throughout his ca ...

-type character" before

won the role after being invited to an audition by the show's casting director Megan Branman. Harris's character was widely reported to be the

breakout character A breakout character is a character in serial fiction, especially a member of an ensemble cast, who becomes much more prominent, popular, discussed, or imitated than expected by the creators. A breakout character may equal or overtake the oth ...

, with ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' calling him "the major breakout" and ''

Boston.com ''Boston.com'' is a regional website that offers news and information about the Boston, Massachusetts, region. It is owned and operated by Boston Globe Media Partners, the publisher of ''The Boston Globe''. History ''Boston.com'' was one of t ...

'' noting that his character was the "most buzzed about element of the show". Robert Bianco from ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' observed that Harris "sparkled" in his role, and further praised Hannigan's performance as equally "delightful" as her role in ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...

''.

Main cast

(uncredited) as Future Ted Mosby (voice only)

Recurring cast

as Penny (future daughter) *

as Luke (future son) * Ashley Williams as Victoria * Joe Nieves as Carl *

Alexis Denisof Alexis Denisof (born February 25, 1966) is an American actor. He is primarily known for playing Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in the television series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and its spin-off ''Angel''. He also had a recurring role on ''How I Met You ...

as Sandy Rivers *

Marshall Manesh Marshall Manesh (born August 16, 1950) is an Iranian-American actor. Biography When Manesh was young, his father died; he was raised by his mother, from whom he feels he got his strength to make it in show business. He went to the United S ...

as Ranjit *

Charlene Amoia Charlene M. Amoia (born September 25, 1982) is an American actress. She is best known for her recurring role as Wendy the Waitress in the sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother''. Her film credits include ''American Reunion'' (2012), ''Authors Anonymous'' ...

as Wendy the Waitress

Guest cast

Virginia Williams Virginia Williams (born March 18, 1978) is an American actress known for playing C.J Hargenberger in the Netflix sitcom Fuller House. Early life Williams first began her acting education in New York, earning a B.A. in Theatre Performance fro ...

as Claudia *

Kelly Stables Kelly Stables is an American actress who has appeared on stage, as well as in film and television. She is known for her television roles, such as Melissa on ''Two and a Half Men'', Eden Konkler on ''The Exes'', and Kelly on '' Superstore''. Pers ...

as Masseuse

Release

Critical reception

Season one of ''How I Met Your Mother'' received mixed reviews from television critics.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, a review aggregation site that collects critical opinions, gave the first season a score of 69 out of 25 reviews collected, signifying "generally favorable reviews". Many critics compared the show to the recently concluded sitcom ''

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...

'', with some calling it a "worthy successor" and others a "well-executed ... rip-off". Including it on his annual "Best of Television" list,

James Poniewozik James "Jim" Poniewozik (; born July 12, 1968) is an American journalist and television critic. He is the chief TV critic for ''The New York Times''. Earlier in his career, he wrote ''Time'' magazine's ''Tuned In'' column for 16 years. Early life ...

of ''

'' observed that "just a few episodes into the show's run, the writers know these characters inside and out". However, Poniewozik derided the premise of the show, Future Ted's narration, as a "gimmicky distraction". Hal Boedeker of ''

The Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, ''Tribune Pu ...

'' disagreed, saying that "the twist should keep viewers coming back" and praises the five leads as "irresistible".

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

also called the premise "a winner" and the actors "appealing", but complained that the show stuck too closely to standard sitcom one-liners, as did Doug Elfman of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'', who disparaged the script as little more than a series of "cheap jokes". Robert Bianco from ''

'' was more upbeat, praising the "fine cast" and "humorous script", and calling the show the "most inventive" of new series that year. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said that the show was "pleasant to watch" has "potential to improve", but will not "revolutionize" sitcoms or start a pop culture phenomenon. Charlie McCollum of ''

The San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

'' writes that ''How I Met Your Mother'' was a prime candidate for replacing ''Friends'' in the sitcom category, praising the show as "something with real wit and considerable charm". He praised the writers for "giving a fresh spin to bits and pieces of the sitcom formula" and the cast for "hitting on all cylinders from the very first scene", predicting that the show could be an unexpected creative breakout with audiences.

Awards

The first season was nominated for four awards, winning two. Both wins were from the

58th Primetime Emmy Awards The 58th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, August 27, 2006, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on NBC at 8:00 p.m. ET (00:00 UTC) with Conan O'Brien hosting the show. The ceremony attracted 16.2 million viewers, 2. ...

, where the show won the Outstanding Art Direction for a Multi-Camera Series and the Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series categories. In addition, the show was nominated for the

People's Choice Awards The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls until ...

for Favorite New Television Comedy and was recognized by the

for Best Comedy Pilot Casting.

Distribution

CBS premiered the show in the United States on September 19, 2005. Internationally, the show premiered in the United Kingdom on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on May 7, 2006, and is aired by

Citytv Citytv is a Canadian television network owned by the Rogers Sports & Media subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The licence of the original Citytv station, granted the callsign of CITY-TV by the CRTC on November 25, 1971 to Cable Television Ass ...

in Canada and

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

in Australia. Season one also runs in

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

in the United States. The first season was released on DVD in the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

under the name ''How I Met Your Mother Season One'' with the tagline "A Love Story in Reverse" on November 21, 2006, as a three-disc box set. The DVD cropped the original

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

broadcast to a full frame 4:3 format, and no widescreen format has been released. The set was released in Region 2 on May 7, 2007, and Region 4 on January 10, 2007. Every episode in this season is available for purchase from the U.S.

iTunes store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

Episodes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:How I Met Your Mother (Season 1) 1 2005 American television seasons 2006 American television seasons