Pilot (How I Met Your Mother)

"Pilot" is the first episode of the television series How I Met Your Mother. It originally aired on September 19, 2005.

Plot

The episode (and series) begins in 2030 with an older Ted Mosby telling his children the story of how he met their mother. The story begins in 2005, with Ted's best friend and roommate Marshall Eriksen proposing to his girlfriend Lily Aldrin, prompting Ted to begin a search to find his own soulmate. At a pub called MacLarens, alongside his friend Barney Stinson, Ted meets budding news anchor Robin Scherbatsky, with whom he is instantly smitten. Ted asks her out on a date, and the date is successful. The date concludes with Robin being called away for a news story.

Ted's friends tell him that he was supposed to kiss Robin before she left. Ted goes to Robin's house (“Suited up”, much to Barney's delight), with the company of Marshall, Lily and Barney. He stops at the restaurant of their first date and symbolically steals the blue French horn on the wall and continues on to Robin's apartment with the gang. Things are going great and they are about to kiss when Ted inexplicably tells Robin that he loves her, prematurely destroying his chances with her. After a lingering goodbye, and with the afterthought that he may or may not have missed “the signal” (missing out for the second time on his first kiss with her), Future Ted tells his children that is the story of how he met their aunt Robin.

Production

When asked if he regretted revealing that Robin ultimately becomes Ted's platonic friend in the pilot episode, series creator Craig Thomas explains they stick by the decision because they didn't want the show to be about “will they or won’t they” like Friends and that, despite their chemistry, it would have been “criminal” for Ted to decide he was ready to find someone and to have it happen so quickly.^[1]

Reception

The episode received generally favorable reviews, garnering a score of 69 from Metacritic.^[2] Nielsen Media gave it a viewership rating of 7.9/8 for households with 3.3 rating for adults age 18-49.^[3]

Music

Theme Song: The Solids - “Hey Beautiful”

• Otis Redding - “Cigarettes and Coffee” (included only in broadcast episode)
• Kool Blues - “I Want to Be Ready”
• The Pretenders - “Back on the Chain Gang”

Continuity

• Ted says he was present in Lily and Marshall's first time. This is explained in season 2 episode "First Time in New York"
• There's a flashback that shows Barney talking to Ted the night they first met. In season 3 episode "How I Met Everyone Else" we see the whole history.
• The scene where Marshall opened the champagne bottle and the cork hit Lily's eye was shown in the episode “Zoo or False” and it was also shown that Marshall accidentally hit Lily many times.
• Robin's recently dumped friend reappears in “Zip, Zip, Zip,” again recently dumped.
• Ted talks about having to take "The Leap".
• Barney is introduced to Ted's kids and the audience as “Uncle Barney.” Forty-two seconds later, Ted expresses concern about being single forever and comments that Lily and Marshall’s kids will think of him as “that weird middle-aged guy their kids call Uncle Ted.” Barney’s inability to commit to relationships is a recurring theme.
• This episode does not use the opening used in the rest of the series. Instead of the yellow-tinted montage of the photographs containing all five main characters, a series of non-tinted photographs of Ted, Marshall, and some unnamed female friends is shown. As of the finale of season 6, the only other episode which doesn't use the standard opening is “Hopeless.” The DVD release changed the opening to the usual version.
• In several season 1 episodes, exterior shots of MacLaren's Pub show the Royal Diner on the opposing street corner. This would place the Arcadian Hotel (demolished in Challenge Accepted) less than a block from Ted's apartment. However, in Subway Wars, Ted hops on a bus from MacLaren's a rides for several blocks before pointing out the Arcadian.

Barney's Blog

• Barney tells Ted that his suiting up will be going in Barney's blog; it is indeed the first entry made in the blog and in the same entry, he talks of his new love of Lebanese girls.^[4]

Recurring elements introduced in this episode

• The blue French horn, is referenced when Ted brings a whole musical ensemble with blue instruments to Robin's apartment as a surprise in “Come On.”
• Ranjit, the cab driver, who drives a limo for them on New Year's Eve in the later episode “The Limo,” reapears in several other episodes during the series.
• Marshall doing the robot.
• Barney's catchphrase “Suit up!,” which has been modified and used in many later episodes.
• The “Have You Met Ted?” game, which is used by Barney and Ted to introduce women to Ted, and later is adapted for other characters (Robin, Marshall and Barney).
• Barney insisting that he is Ted's best friend.
• Dibs—Marshall calls dibs on a Pop Tart and later a pudding cup (in “Come On”) and he, Lily, and Barney call “no dibs” on cleaning up after Ted if he vomits, in “The Pineapple Incident.”
• Barney breaking up words by saying “wait for it” in between syllables.
• Barney's phrase “What up!”
• References to Barney's blog.
• Barney's love of laser tag.
• Lily shaking her head at Barney when he raises his hand for a high five.
• This is the first episode in which Future Ted ruins the ending of a possible relationship story. Here, he tells us that Robin is not the mother, but merely “Aunt Robin.” In the episode “Okay Awesome,” he also states that the coat-check girl was not the mother, and in “Cupcake” he states that his attempt at a long-distance relationship didn't work out.
• The scene where Future Ted's kids saying "What!" is shown from the episode Last Cigarette Ever.
• Ted clutching his left side of his chest as if his heart is 'breaking'

References

External links

• Pilot at TV.com
• Pilot at the Internet Movie Database