Pilot (How I Met Your Mother)

Infobox Television episode


Caption=Ted and Robin meet
Title = Pilot
Series = How I Met Your Mother
Season = 1
Episode = 1
Airdate = September 19, 2005
Production = 1ALH00
Writer = Carter Bays and Craig Thomas
Director = Pamela Fryman
Guests = Lyndsy Fonseca (Daughter), David Henrie (Son), Joe Nieves (Carl), Jack Shearer (Cab Driver), Gary Riotto (Waiter #1), Monique Edwards (Producer), Saba Homayoon (Yasmin), Sarah Loew (Dumped Friend), Marshall Manesh (Ranjit), Tony Rossi (Waiter #2)
Episode list =List of How I Met Your Mother episodes
Next = Purple Giraffe

"Pilot" is the 1^st episode in the first season of the television series "How I Met Your Mother". It originally aired on September 19, 2005.

Plot

The episode (and series) begins with an older Ted explaining to his children the story of how he met their mother. The story begins in 2005, with Marshall proposing to Lily, prompting Ted to begin a search to find his own soulmate. At MacLaren's, alongside Barney, Ted meets budding news anchor Robin, with whom he is instantly smitten. After hitting it off, and after a successful date which concludes with Robin being called away for a news story, Ted decides to take the plunge and make his move. He symbolically steals the blue French Horn from the restaurant of their first date, and heads to Robin's apartment with the gang ("Suited up", much to Barney's delight). Things are going great until he 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), we then return to the older Ted telling his children that that's how he met their... Aunt Robin.

Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily are now happily engaged, although the engagement gets off to a rocky start when Marshall inadvertantly pops a cork from a champagne bottle into Lily's eye.

Continuity

*Robin's recently dumped friend reappears in "Zip, Zip, Zip", again recently dumped.

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 [http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/community/barney_blog/index.php blog] . In the same entry, he also talks of his new love of Lebanese girls.

Recurring elements introduced in this episode

* The blue French Horn, which 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 later drives a limo for them on New Year's Eve. Ranjit is one of several cab drivers whose name Barney reads on their cab licenses.
* Marshall doing the robot
* Barney's phrase "Suit Up!," which has been modified and used in many later episodes
* The "Have You Met Ted?" game, which is used by Barney and Robin 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 and he, Lily, and Barney call "no dibs" on cleaning up after Ted if he vomits
* Barney breaking up words by saying "wait for it" in between syllables
* Barney's phrase "What up"
* References to [http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/community/barney_blog/index.php Barney's blog]
* Barney's love of laser tag
* Ted holding his heart as if it is in pain

Trivia

* MacLaren's restaurant and Carl the bartender are named after executive producers Carter Bays and Craig Thomas's assistant Carl MacLaren.
* In his audition, which included the laser tag scene, Neil Patrick Harris did the dive roll that he does in the episode. Alyson Hannigan, who was in the next room during Harris's audition, asked Harris to bump the wall when he did the dive so that she knew that he had done it. Harris misjudged the space and he hit the wall harder than he intended knocking himself out.
* Lily shaking her head at Barney when he raises his hand for a high five -- an exchange that became a recurring element -- was ad-libbed by Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris.
* Another recurring element, Marshall doing the robot, was suggested by Jason Segel on the day of filming.
* The champagne that the group drinks at the end of the episode was real champagne, but the actors -- including Marshall Manesh who doesn't drink alcohol because of religious reasons -- didn't know that fact until they drank it.
*In the scene where Lily first has her eye patch, when she jumps after Marshall says "Lily?", you can see Jason Segel almost break character
*Robin is pulled away from her date with Ted to cover a potential suicide live for her TV station. It is standard practice at virtually all television stations NOT to cover anything that could be a suicide attempt as breaking news.

Cultural references

* When Ted sees the blue French Horn, he calls it "Smurf Penis," which he tells his son is typically a bad idea on a first date.

External links

* " [http://www.tv.com/how-i-met-your-mother/pilot/episode/423465/summary.html Pilot] " at TV.com
* " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0606110/ Pilot] " at the Internet Movie Database