The ninth and final season of How I Met Your Mother, an American sitcom created by Carter
Bays and Craig Thomas, premiered on CBS on September 23, 2013, with two episodes, and
concluded on March 31, 2014.
The show was renewed for the final season on December 21, 2012, after cast member Jason
Segel changed his decision to leave the show after Season 8.
Cristin Milioti, who was revealed as "The Mother" in the Season 8 finale, was promoted
to a series regular, the first time How I Met Your Mother added a new regular cast member.
Season 9 consists of 24 episodes, each running approximately 22 minutes in length.
Taking place immediately after where the previous season left off, Season 9 covers the events
of a single weekend that lead up to Barney and Robin's wedding.
During the course of the weekend, "The Mother" is separately introduced to Robin, Barney,
Lily, and Marshall, before finally meeting Ted.
The season also features frequent flashbacks and flashforwards in order to fully integrate
The Mother's character with the rest of the cast.
Thomas said in an interview that Season 9 is like "the Wild West – anything can happen".
In February 2013, Bays and Thomas teased that Season 9 is "going to be a new way to tell
the story".
The initial reaction to the new storytelling structure of Season 9 was mixed.
Ethan Anderton from Screen Rant was concerned about how "24 episodes of television are going
to be crafted from just three days of time", and Alan Sepinwall of HitFix was exasperated
that after eight seasons, "They are really going to stretch Robin and Barney's wedding
weekend out over the entire final season", though he expressed more optimism after the
San Diego Comic-Con panel for the final season.
Casting The ninth season features a cast of six actors
who receive star billing.
Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris, and Alyson Hannigan all
reprise their roles in this season.
Cristin Milioti, who was revealed as The Mother in the Season 8 finale, has been promoted
to series regular, a first for the series.
How I Met Your Mother was initially scheduled to run for eight seasons after CBS ordered
a seventh and eighth season in 2011.
The show gained a resurgence in ratings during season seven, and CBS began discussing the
possibility of ordering a ninth season.
By 2012, Deadline.com reported that CBS, 20th Century Fox, and all regular cast members
except Segel wanted to continue with a ninth season.
Segel had initially wanted to focus on his film career, leaving the fate of a ninth season
uncertain.
Co-creator Carter Bays observed that the negotiations were stressful, with a lot of "white-knuckled,
nail-biting going on", but claimed that he was "confident that everything would work
out".
Craig Thomas noted the flexibility of the show's filming schedule, saying: "We've always
done everything humanly possible to allow [the actors] to do other things."
Segel ultimately decided to sign on for the final season, and Season 9 was announced on
December 21, 2012.
Thomas and Bays were relieved that a deal had been reached for another season, fearing
that having to wrap up the show in Season 8 would have "felt rushed" and been "disappointing".
Bays and Thomas were first introduced to Milioti as a possibility for playing The Mother through
casting director Marisa Ross.
Narrowing down the candidates to three actresses early on allowed the casting department to
avoid a publicized casting call for The Mother.
Milioti was flown into Los Angeles to do an on-camera "chemistry test" with Radnor as
part of her audition.
Harris, who is a Broadway fan and had recognized her in the makeup trailer, gave Milioti a
hug and exclaimed "You're The Mother!"
before she was actually cast.
Milioti was chosen partly because her musical history and time on Broadway, including her
performance in Once, would have allowed her to play the role of The Mother, a musician,
more convincingly.
Bays and Thomas wanted to avoid casting someone who was well-known, fearing that the audiences'
preconceptions of a famous actress might spill into her performance in the role.
Milioti's casting was well received by critics, many of whom lauded the show for resisting
the urge to cast a familiar face and instead opting for a relative unknown.
Bill Kuchman from TV.com observed that, because "Milioti is a blank canvas to many of us",
she has the "freedom to create a How I Met Your Mother character that's free of the burden
of being compared to her past work".
When asked at Comic-Con about guest stars, Bays revealed that, "If there's someone we
loved over the course of the series, there's a good chance they're coming back [for the
final season]."
Returning guest stars include Wayne Brady and John Lithgow as Barney's brother and father,
respectively, and Ellen D. Williams as Robin's co-worker Patrice.
Also reprising their roles as Ted's teenage daughter and son in "The Year 2030" are Lyndsy
Fonseca and David Henrie.
For the bulk of the series' run, stock footage of a younger Fonseca and Henrie from the series'
first season have been used, the better to reflect the kids not aging while hearing their
father tell his story.
The kids' scenes will include one key moment filmed before production on Season 2 began;
that scene, according to Bays and Thomas, will serve as the climax to Ted's story of
how he and the kids' mother met.
The climax was filmed on a set closed to everyone except Bays, Thomas, a camera operator, and
Fonseca and Henrie, who signed non-disclosure agreements.
Main cast Josh Radnor as Ted Mosby
Jason Segel as Marshall Eriksen Cobie Smulders as Robin Scherbatsky
Cristin Milioti as The Mother/Tracy McConnell Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson
Alyson Hannigan as Lily Aldrin Bob Saget as future Ted Mosby
Recurring cast
Release Promotion
How I Met Your Mother's cast and crew hosted a panel at the 2013 Comic-Con for the first
time in the show's history to promote Season 9.
The panel released a teaser trailer featuring Ted's children as adults, still listening
to Ted tell his story eight years from when he first began.
Angry at having spent years listening, they insist Ted finish his story so they can leave.
The panel answered questions from fans as well as releasing select plot spoilers planned
for the season.
Bays was enthusiastic about the trajectory of the season, saying that "we've never been
in a place where it's July and we've plotted out the entire season, but we have this year
because there's so much exciting stuff".
Distribution Season 9 premiered on CBS on September 23,
2013, with two 22-minute episodes, and will last for 24 total episodes.
Reception The ninth season of How I Met Your Mother
received mixed reviews from critics.
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave a 80% approval rating for the season
with an average rating of 7.3/10, based on 10 reviews.
At the end of the season, Max Nicholson of IGN gave the season a negative review, writing:
"Many How I Met Your Mother fans felt betrayed after watching the series finale -- and understandably
so after Season 9 spent 22 of its 24 episodes building towards a wedding that was basically
meaningless.
In retrospect, almost any other arc would have made a better foundation for Season 9,
including the series finale.
In the end, unbalanced storytelling, lack of focus and unfunny detours led to the show's
eventual downfall."
Gareth Mitchell at "House of Geekery" responded negatively, mostly criticizing the structure
of the season, stating that they are "struggling to come up with stories that last out the
22 minutes".
Adam Vitcavage of Paste Magazine gave the season a lukewarm review, saying that "Nothing
was over-the-top funny, but it was a perfect combination of laughter and sweet moments
that really do make up for all of the lackluster episodes in the past few seasons."
Episodes
References
External links
Official website