How I Met Your Mother revealed who the mother was during the final season, however, it changed the ending following the backlash it received from fans.
How I Met Your Mother is the hit comedy series from the 2000s, which for eight of its nine seasons hinged on the mystery of who Ted Mosby’s wife was.
In the series, Ted, who was played by Jason Radnor, tells the story of how he met his wife with the help of his four best friends as they navigated life.
With the series running for nine seasons, it was only during the series finale that the identity of the mother was finally revealed as Tracy McConnell, who was played by Cristin Milioti.
However, the sitcom ended up having two endings, as fans called for a revision of the first ending.
The legacy of How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother debuted in 2004 and was created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas.
It was one of the most ingenious sitcoms of the early 2000s, as it told its story through flashbacks as Ted Mosby detailed the events he and his four best friends experienced before meeting the mother of his teenage twins.
The convention of using flashbacks as a motif of storytelling in comedy has still not been explored.
That is until the announcement of the spinoff series, How I Met Your Father, which is created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger and is set to premiere on Tuesday, 18 January 2022 on Hulu.
Who was the mother on How I Met Your Mother?
How I Met Your Mother let the answer and overall looming question of the show linger until it concluded the series in 2014 after nine successful seasons. For eight seasons, we followed the adventures of Ted Mosby, Marshall Eriksen, Robin Scherbatsky, Barney Stinson and Lily Aldrin, who were characters played by Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan.
Throughout the first eight seasons of the sitcom, there were constant teases of the mother’s identity, and cameos like what would become one of the recurring motifs, which was Ted meeting the mother at the Farhampton station under the yellow umbrella.
The show did eventually reveal the mother’s identity as Tracy McConnell, and to everyone’s surprise, she passed away, which allowed for Ted and Robin to end up together.
Reception of the initial end of How I Met Your Mother
The first ending of How I Met Your Mother revealed that Tracy McConnell was the mother to Ted’s twins. However, the two, who were madly in love, were separated by death after Tracy died.
In Ted telling his children the story, they encourage him to go after Robin to rekindle their relationship.
The series ends with Ted sounding a horn from outside of Robin’s old apartment, indicating that the two ended up together. However, fans were not happy with this ending and made it known resulting in a revision of this initial conclusion.
How did How I Met Your Mother change the ending?
Following the backlash from fans of the show on the unsatisfactory ending of the show, the creators released an alternative version of the end. This time, Tracy McConnell does not die in the story and Ted does not end up with Robin.
Instead, the series concludes with Ted confirming that Tracy is the twins’ mother and that that’s the story of how he met their mother.
This alternative ending suggests that they went on to live happily ever after together. The rest of the main characters went on to live out their lives separately, as they all began to drift apart as time and life happened to them all.
What to expect from How I Met Your Father
In an effort to rekindle the magic of How I Met Your Mother, Hulu is set to release How I Met Your Father.
The upcoming sitcom is set to feature Hillary Duff in the lead role of Sophie, with Kim Cartrall set to play the older version of Sophie. Additional main actors include Grown-ish’s Francia Raisa, Tom Ainsley, Tien Tran, Suraj Sharma and Josh Peck.
IMDb shares the premise of the spinoff as, “Sophie and her close-knit group of friends are in the midst of figuring out who they are, what they want out of life, and how to fall in love in the age of dating apps and limitless options.”
Conclusion
How I Met Your Mother is still one of the best sitcoms to have come out of the 2000s. It subverts the notion that a story cannot be told through a flashback. It ran from 2005 until 2014, and in the process won over 25 awards.
While the premise was about how Ted Mosby met the mother of his twins, the story also focussed on Ted’s adventures with his four best friends as they navigated their twenties, career and relationships together.
In the series finale it is revealed that Tracy McConnell is the mother of the twins.