How I Met Your Father Doesn't Need To Copy HIMYM But It's Disastrous

Hulu's How I Met Your Mother's twist on How I Met Your Mother's title query poses a major problem for the show's writers.

How I Met Your Mother is different from its parent series, which ensures that Hilary Duff's sitcom can forge its own identity, though it may have disastrous consequences. In its pilot episode, How How I Met Your Mother messily introduced a series of characters and seamlessly inserted the intriguing titular "father" into the mix without revealing his true identity. It neatly flips How How I Met Your Mother's grueling nine-year quest for Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) to find his yellow umbrella, also known as "The Mother."

How I Met Your Father is right to take a different approach. However, its originality could cost the show dearly in future seasons. Since Sophie Tompkins (Hilary Duff) gets to know her father early on, this effectively shortens the run time of the episode as it narrows Sophie's marriage prospects considerably. Given How How I Met Your Mother's popularity, it should be obvious that How How I Met Your Mother follows the sure-fire formula of its predecessors. However, it chooses to set itself apart by tweaking its main mystery for a new perspective.

Why HIMYM's Mother Gambit Paid Off

How I Met Your Mother took the opportunity of a mother mystery. By using the revolving door of possible mother candidates Much of How I Met Your Mother keeps viewers on their toes; always wondering if Ted's next love match will be "The One." Giving the show the edge of unpredictability, it's a gambit that has zero chance of an incomplete narrative. Whereas How How I Met Your Mother will always end up with a mother, regardless of whether the intended narrative is successful or not.

How I Met Your Mother has so many expectant mothers that the show could have ended with Stella, Victoria, Robin, Tracy or someone else, but it doesn't matter. Because the show keeps throwing Ted from one romance to the next, the motherhood is always an element of surprise that makes sense no matter who she is. Whichever way the producers go, the storyline of How I Met Your Mother is a win-win. By contrast, How I Met Your Mother sabotages itself with trivial choices and fundamentally changes the title query.

How HIMYF Can Fix Its Season 1 Problem

How I Met Your Mother is based on How I Met Your Mother from Who Was the Mother? to "Who is the father, and how did we get together?" While Dad, Dad, Honestly has obvious limitations, it presents a more Much more interesting mystery than a reboot that just rips out the original. How I Met Your Mother may have left out details about the father prematurely in the pilot episode, though, but there's an easy fix.

How I Met Your Dad Season 1 only states that the father is in the pilot (not really part of the core group). Leaving the showrunners out, it gave them the freedom to pair the dad with someone else, or place him somewhere else entirely, as a precursor to Sophie's romantic radar. Meanwhile, the hopeless romantic in How I Met Your Dad gets to learn a thing or two about herself as she traverses the dating pool in search of "the one," despite She already knew him unconsciously.