20 Facts About How I Met Your Mother That’ll Make You Question Your Fan Status

It was the year 2005 when the world first experienced the awesomeness of ‘How I Met Your Mother’. The show became an instant hit and its magic enthralled a million hearts for the first few seasons and a fewer thousand for the next 9 years.

But, as the saying goes “all things come to an end,” and in the post-HIMYM era we’d like to reminisce through happier times and recall landmark moments, characters, and the blue French horn. Here are some interesting facts about the series that will make you turn the pages and relive the moments.

The Cast ACTUALLY got to keep a few props used in the show. Josh Radnor took home the blue French horn while Neil Patrick Harris was allowed to keep the iconic booth from MacLaren’s.

When Britney Spears and Katy Perry guest starred in the show, Katy played the role of Honey in S06E15 while Britney starred as Abby in S03E15.

Barney Stinson cannot eat with chopsticks, and the only time he succeeds is in season 7 when they’re at the Hibachi Grill Restaurant.

Alyson Hannigan had initially declined kissing Jason Segel in the show because of his smoking habits. Segel paid her $10 for each cigarette he smoked before he finally quit.

By the end of the show Neil Patrick Harris went home with the most money, earning $210,000 per episode, in contrast to $120,000 per episode paid to the rest of the actors.

Robin Scherbatsky was from Vancouver because Cobie Smulders who essayed the character was from Vancouver.

Neil Patrick Harris was provided a lifetime supply of Red Bull and a mini-refrigerator by the company because of his love for the energy drink both on and off-screen.

Jason Segel in real life won a high school slam dunk contest that his character Marshall boasted about in the show.

The single ‘Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit’ that was sung by Neil Patrick Harris and the rest of the cast for the show’s 100th episode, charted at No.3 on the Australian iTunes Charts. The show’s creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas also received an Emmy nomination for writing the song.

Craig Thomas and Carter Bays who created the show are members of a power-pop band ‘The Solids’. Their song ‘Hey, Beautiful’ is the theme song of the show.

A few people knew who the mother in question was because one of the final scenes from the show was shot years before.

The pub MacLaren’s that has been featured rather prominently was inspired from McGees Bar in New York. Craig Thomas and Carter Bays got the idea after spending several evenings at this watering hole.

In Season 4, both Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders revealed that they were pregnant. However, the producers weren’t interested in making their respective characters pregnant too, so the costume designers used baggy tops and giant handbags to hide their pregnancies on-screen.

Having many scenes and the instant-cut pattern meant that it took a long time to prepare the set and so the show could not be filmed before a live studio audience. However, every finished episode was shown to an audience, their responses recorded and later incorporated into the broadcast.

Almost all the websites that appeared in the show are real. The creators made www.lilyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com for charity purposes and stuff from the show were put on auction there.

Of the five main actors, three had their real-life partners featured in the show. Sandy Rivers was played by Alyson Hannigan’s husband, Alexis Denisof; Cobie Smulders’ husband Taran Killam plays Blauman, and Scooter was played by David Burtka, husband of Neil Patrick Harris.

David Henrie and Lyndsy Fonseca who played Ted’s future son and daughter, had filmed the scenes in Season 1 itself in order to keep them the same age throughout the show.

Barney Stinson’s name was inspired after a heroin dealer from James Ellroy’s book ‘LA Confidential’.

Remember the scene when Robin mistakes Ted of proposing to her after she finds an engagement ring in a champagne glass, but it actually belongs to the man at the adjacent table? It was a real-life proposal and the man actually popped the question to his girlfriend by writing the script with the show’s producers, so that the proposal stays forever with the series.

In the eventuality that the show was cancelled after Season 1, the producers had conspired to declare Victoria played by Ashley Williams as the ‘mother’. But lucky for some we got to follow the saga through 9 seasons.