23 surprising things you lot probably didn't know near 'How I Met Your Mother'

how i met your mother

"How I Met Your Mother" ran for nine seasons.
CBS
  • "How I Met Your Mother" ran for nine seasons, but even big fans might not know all of these facts.
  • Britney Spears' guest role helped to save the bear witness from low ratings and an early cancellation.
  • Many of the leading cast members' meaning others appeared in small roles on the show.

The narrator, who was supposed to be an older Ted Mosby, was voiced by Bob Saget.

In that location's a reason the voice of future Ted sounds and then familiar.
Rich Fury/Getty Images

Josh Radnor played Ted on the CBS evidence, but Bob Saget was bandage to exercise the "future Ted" voice-overs that narrated the series.

The show wasn't actually filmed in New York City.

Sometimes the NYC prepare was pretty convincing.
20th Century Fox

New York City may be a fundamental character in the serial, but according to the New York Post, they really filmed on a studio lot in Los Angeles that was designed to look like the Big Apple tree.

Jim Parsons was nigh cast as Barney.

Jim Parsons played Sheldon on CBS' "The Large Bang Theory" instead.
Chuck Lorre Productions

Before Neil Patrick Harris landed the role, Jim Parsons auditioned for Barney on the show. But there are no hard feelings from the "The Big Bang Theory" star.

"Look, it all worked out fine … Neil'southward ameliorate for the part, let'south be honest," Parsons said on a 2015 episode of "Live With Kelly," co-ordinate to Yahoo.

Jennifer Love Hewitt almost played Robin.

Jennifer Love Hewitt opted for a function on "The Ghost Whisperer."
Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images

Real-life Canadian Cobie Smulders eventually snagged the function of Robin, just only afterward Jennifer Dearest Hewitt turned it down.

According to E! News, cocreator Craig Thomas wrote on Reddit that Dear Hewitt decided to do CBS' "The Ghost Whisperer" instead of "HIMYM."

Britney Spears saved the show from low ratings.

Britney Spears helped bring in new viewers.
CBS

The pop vocaliser invitee-starred every bit Abby the receptionist on flavor iii, episode 13. According to Due east! News, cocreator Carter Bays told Reddit that she helped bring in new viewers and saved the show from low ratings.

"By golly she put our prove on the map. It tin can't be overstated," Bays wrote. "Britney Spears rescued the states from ever being on the [renewal] bubble over again. Thanks Britney!"

The show's creators are in a real-life ring, and they wrote and performed the series' theme vocal.

Carter Trophy and Craig Thomas are in the band The Solids.
CBS

The theme vocal of "HIMYM" is known for its infectiously tricky tune, and it turns out the show'south creators had a big paw in creating it.

The vocal, "Hey Beautiful," is by the band The Solids, which Trophy and Carter are both members of. Bays does vocals and guitar, and Thomas plays the drums.

A existent proposal happened during the filming of the show.

A lot of viewers had no idea the proposal was real.
YouTube/Tim Ru via Fox

Co-ordinate to the New York Daily News, Jana Rugan and Timothy Russo really got engaged on the season-two finale.

Russo'south friend wrote for the series and arranged for the couple to stand in equally extras since it was Rugan'due south favorite show.

On the episode, Robin and Ted were on a date when the waiter mistakenly brought Robin a champagne glass with a ring at the bottom. She freaked out — and so did Ted since he wasn't actually proposing — so Russo came over to claim the ring equally his and proposed to Rugan for real.

"At starting time she thought I was messing upwards the scene, then information technology dawned on her and she started crying and everyone was clapping. It was awesome," Russo told the Daily News.

Some of the prove's famous props went abode with the pb actors.

Cobie Smulders kept her Robin Sparkles jacket from "How I Met Your Mother."
CBS

In 2014, Bays and Thomas told Yahoo News that some of the show'southward iconic props ended up going home with the stars afterwards the serial ended.

Harris took Barney'southward Playbook and the tabletop from their booth at McLaren's, Smulders kept Robin Sparkles' bedazzled jean jacket, Alyson Hannigan concluded up with a little red British phone booth, and Radnor got to keep Ted's coveted blue French horn.

Bays likewise ended up decorating his ain home with the ii swords that were hanging up in Ted and Marshall's flat, and Thomas ended upwards taking a few set pieces from McLaren's, including one of the gang'due south ruddy booths.

Harris fabricated it his mission to get Barney and Robin together on the show.

Neil Patrick Harris was in favor of the characters getting together.
Ron P. Jaffe/Play tricks

Smulders was humble when there were initial chats about the characters getting together, just Harris actively tried to make it happen throughout filming.

"I'd try to do little things in our scenes together where I gave her an actress look and an actress glance or would stare but at her during a whole scene just to run into if anyone was noticing," Harris told The Fan Carpet of his own personal mission to become Barney and Robin together.

Ted probably made Barney sound worse on purpose to brand himself expect better in the end.

Ted is telling the story to his kids, so he can stretch the truth a little.
CBS screencap

In 2018, Harris agreed with a popular fan theory in an interview with Digital Spy.

The theory speculated that Ted made Barney audio extra sleazy and womanizing in his story for his kids because he didn't want them to estimate him for falling for Barney's ex-wife, Robin.

"I think that that's very accurate," Harris told Digital Spy. "Given the story structure, and with [Ted] telling the story to his kids, everything was able to exist overdrawn."

Some of the leading actors' significant others made it onto the evidence.

David Burtka played Lily's ex-boyfriend Scooter.
CBS

Lily's high-school sweetheart Scooter was portrayed by Harris' real-life husband David Burtka.

Hannigan, who played Lily, also shared the screen with her husband, Alexis Denisof, who had a recurring office on the show as Robin's coanchor Sandy Rivers.

Smulders' husband Taran Killam was another spouse who fabricated it onto "HIMYM."  He actually played ii characters on the show, a one-time advent as Derrick and the recurring character Gary Blauman.

Hannigan wanted her daughter to play her on-screen child.

She looked too erstwhile for the role.
20th Century Fox

When Lily did end up having a child on the bear witness, Hannigan'southward young daughter was set to play the role.

Merely, Hannigan told the HuffPost in 2017 that they decided she was too old for the part.

"They fired my kid from that part. She was gonna be the baby, but Carter Bays was like, 'Nope. She's too old,' and she got replaced," Hannigan said.

Harris' love for magic was added to Barney'due south character.

Magic is one of Neil Patrick Harris' real-life hobbies.
Monty Brinton/CBS

According to Amusement Weekly, the actor has even written a children'south book about magic, and so it's articulate that Harris influenced Barney's hobby.

"The Bro Code" really exists.

You lot can buy your ain copy of "The Bro Lawmaking."
20th Century Fox

You can purchase the series-approved version of all of Barney'due south rules, and it's even "written" by Barney Stinson himself.

About of the websites from the show are real as well.

You lot tin can visit the bizarre websites mentioned on the show.
Richard Cartwright/Trick

Her Campus reported that most of the websites the characters shout out on the series are actually live on the internet.

See for yourself at tedmosbyisajerk.com, barneysvideoresume.com, and notafathersday.com to proper name a few.

The characters' favorite bar was named after the cocreator's banana.

McLaren'south name has a special significance.
20th Century Play a joke on

Bays told TV Squad that his assistant, Carl McLaren, lent his name to the bar, McLaren's, and to its bartender, Carl.

The fictional bar is also based on a real establishment in New York City.

McLaren's is modeled after McGee's pub in NYC.
Richard Cartwright/CBS

According to the New York Mail service, McLaren'southward is modeled after a pub in New York Metropolis called McGee's.

Trophy and Thomas reportedly spent a lot of time in the real-life establishment when they were both writing for "The Late Show With David Letterman" earlier in their careers.

Some fans constitute out who the mother was on Facebook before they had a run a risk to watch the episode.

The mail service spoiled the plot for a lot of people.
CBS

According to The Obsessive Viewer, the official "HIMYM" Facebook page posted a photo of the mother right after the episode that revealed her identity aired.

Withal, not every fan was able to watch the episode live, so they had the series-long plot signal spoiled for them if they scrolled past the post.

Victoria would have been the female parent if the bear witness had been canceled early.

Luckily the writers were able to play out their full vision.
20th Century Fob

According to East! News, Bays told Reddit that a season-one cancellation would have resulted in them writing Victoria in as the mother.

Of course, the show really went on for nine seasons, so that programme got scrapped.

The actors who played Ted'southward kids knew how the show was going to terminate for years.

All of the kids' scenes were filmed early on in the series.
20th Century Play tricks

According to CBS News, the final scene of Ted's kids learning that Ted still loved Robin was filmed in 2006 to ensure the actors playing the kids still looked the same.

That was only a year after the show premiered and eight years before the finale aired, then several precautions were taken to keep the catastrophe a secret.

David Henrie and Lyndsy Fonseca, who played the kids, had to sign not-disclosure agreements, and simply one camera operator was allowed in the room while they filmed the final scene.

There was nearly a spin-off starring Greta Gerwig.

Greta Gerwig is now a successful player and director.
How I Met Your Female parent screencap

"How I Met Your Dad" was in the works afterward the "HIMYM" series finale, only it was ultimately scrapped in 2014 due to creative differences between the writers and CBS, according to Deadline.

The unaired pilot starred Greta Gerwig as Sally, a recent divorcée on the hunt for new love.

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