So I watched it (is actually worth watching for the interviews with both the main cast and the minor cast members) I turned the sound off when there was a clip of the stupid future Ted scene at the end of the finale but aside from that I watched it all and actually enjoyed most of it. But CFB confirms that T/R was decided mid season 1 and not at the beginning because he thought they worked so well together and it was only then they twisted the story to make the mother dead. Ass. Also, I think it implies that right at the beginning they weren't even sure if T/R were going to be in a relationship (though that's debatable).
It was a little insulting what they skipped out on though, literally Cristin got 5 seconds of speech on the video and no one even talked about casting her, there was actually a little about B/R sandwitched between CB's T/R idiocy but it was cut very short and had no mention of the wedding, the lenth of the relationship or how it ended (it's like they don't want to highlight the real and dangerous issues of divorces caused by lack of wifi!) It was much more about the cast, crew and community (though no other writers interviewed) and I have to wonder if there was a reason there was very little focus on the story (which there should have been given it's the end to a 9 season long series and it's called "all out of spoilers a retrospective").
I didn't see the part about B/R what did they say?
I feel so bad for Cristin and this cast but it still upsets me that they just didn't care about what the actors put into these characters and what the audience loved about this show. It's appalling that these asses thought living in their dream world would pay off but it failed miserably.
Not masses, just Carter saying at the beginning they weren't going to do B/R because there was no way Barney would do anything with the girl Ted had declared his love for but then "Zip Zip Zip" came along, explored the idea and "Barney being Barney he made a move" and there was such chemistry between them that if they got past one season that could be something they showed at some point. It's not offensive really, at least it doesn't demean them, but it's truly pitiful given this is the main love story on the show.
Makes me want to scream BARNEY & ROBIN WERE THE MAIN LOVE STORY OF THE SERIES cause that's just how it was from the start no matter how you look at it they are the main love story and the story they told for 9 seasons was their story. From their friendship or broship if you will to falling for each other and growing and changing along the way.
Oh please, Barney tried something with Robin in Zip, Zip, Zip but that was the just the beginning cause it was Robin who fell for him. It started with a maybe? And ended at the alter at least that's what the real story told us and the end the true ending was BR's wedding.
Also, Ted never declared anything for Robin he just pointed at her and thought she was the one before even knowing her. If it wasn't for Barney being a good wingman Robin would never be introduced to the gang and Barney would have stayed the way he was because she's the only one who truly changed him for the better and opened him to real love without making it look forced. If they never had Zip, Zip, Zip and didn't explore this relationship a little more there wouldn't have been this arc or story it was them who created that relationship plus the chemistry helped make it more of thee love story of the series.
Yeah, I resent the "Barney being Barney," comment, because if you're going to put that there at least mention that Robin very nearly said yes. But of course, mentioning B/R for more than a few seconds would just lead to them having to babble and admit they don't know why they broke them up.
To be fair they didn't mention T/R for more than a few seconds either - and no mention of Robin's feelings at all (don't you know women don't have them? they just follow the whims of a "good guy" or they'll wind up alone). Just that they liked the "chemistry" they had together and through that they decided future Ted telling the story alone was a sign the mother was dead and he was asking for permission to move on. Any more focus on that and they'd have to had flat out admit the only reason they put them together was because CFB likes to masturbate to it.
Brain twin! Barney and Robin were the romantic core of this series, they were the couple we saw grow together in a very natural manner, the ones who overcame their own pasts and problems and the couple who got their HEA in the true finale, 9x22. End there, and we have all three couples happy.
Ted...:sigh: pointing is about right, and if he wanted to pick a perfect wife out of a catalogue, there are introduction agencies that will do that, but then we'd have had no show, am I right? Pfft. The more CB blathers, the more Gary Stu-ish it all seems, and the farther removed from what we actually saw. The real growth and change and romance was Barney and Robin; those are the two who went from strangers to friends to lovers to spouses, and I do not accept that they ended up as estranged exes. Does not compute.
Zip Zip Zip was the on ramp here. If they hadn't gone there, well, Ted and Robin still wouldn't have been right for each other, but it's possible we wouldn't have seen B/R, or it would have happened at another time, in another way. An "It's a Wonderful Life" sort of episode (during the run) or fic (now) about what the gang would be like if Barney had never tapped Robin on the shoulder would have been/would be extremely interesting. Lots of variables.
Exactly, you read me like a book I swear if I didn't love this site and you already Unzadi I don't know how I would understand this show and my love for this couple more if it wasn't for you and I talking about this lately.
I've said this before but it's true B/R grew through each other and made the relationship real and interesting, yes the chemistry was always there but for me they fell for The Real Them. The real Barney and the real Robin, not the animated Robin and Barney that CFB dreamed up in his head. If the show didn't go there with B/R there would have been no reason to do the Zip, Zip, Zip storyline and make something more of it later on in the series if they wanted to stick with the original unrealistic plan. Even in that original story, Robin is alone for a while while Ted is with the mother who was supposed to be Victoria at this point. But, they didn't so they went the B/R route and it took over the show leaving CFB to tidal his thumbs sulking that his precious blue french horn had to take a back seat to the real story going on.
I just read in Neil's book that they want Robin to be the mother originally, which is true cause I heard that already but she wasn't because of the supposed amazing chemistry Cobie and Josh had at the beginning of the series but she became AUNT ROBIN who ended up not being able to have kids at all which is CFB's warped idea of sticking Robin and Ted together without a real thought of what the story went on to be. So, if Robin was going to be the mother the plot of her not being able to conceive a child is useless but they only did that storyline so that they can stick with the original idea of Robin pining over Ted which never happened cause she simply did not love Ted.
If she had Ted's kids it would've been okay and great but if she had Barney kids it's not okay in the world of CFB sad, pathetic, stupid mind which is really disturbing cause obviously he thinks everyone woman should bow down at the feet of Ted Mosby and that makes me want to vomit just typing this.
I just read in Neil's book that they want Robin to be the mother originally,
Can you explain this please? As in they wanted Cobie to play the mother, they were going to show from the pilot that Robin was the mother, or there was going to be a stupid twist showing she was the mother despite what future Ted had already said? I don't get what you're saying.
No, they wanted Cobie/Robin to be the original Mother but they saw this "chemistry" between the two actors so they wrote this part for her to be a main cast member. But, originally she was going to be the original mother who probably wouldn't have died for that ending with another mother.
I'm not sure what they were doing, they were young and immature boys who probably (and it looks to me now) that they didn't know what they were doing so they wrote the Pilot and that ending of the Pilot then after that, I think CB went on record as saying they made a mistake which probably was making Robin Aunt Robin not the mother of his kids.
I have the book so let me post the quotes from it give me a minute.
I understand his comment different: As I see it the quote "Robin was the potential mother in the pilot, ..." refers to the structure of the pilot as Robin could be the Mother till the end.
If I remember right the character that later became Robin should be the Mother in their HOW I MET YOUR FATHER script, that should be told from the point of view of the Mother.
Robin already wasn't the Mother in the 2005 script and at that time no one was casted and CTCB imagined Jennifer Love Hewitt as Robin and Jack Black as Barney. So I think they really changed the ending around the time they wrote 1x13.
Foreverinlovebr, it is entirely mutual, I assure you.
Barney and Robin grew through and alongside each other. Keeping it a platonic friendship could have worked, if they hadn't changed the course of their arcs with Zip Zip Zip. Robin did allow that Barney's plan of starting something casual did make sense, and if Barney hadn't been the one to back off once he realized Robin liked Ted (at that point) things might have gone differently. Thing is, it didn't go differently. That's the route the show took. Once Barney and Robin opened that door, that was a promise to the viewer, and it's something interesting and different from the standard sitcom romance arc. That's the arc, the one we saw, that viewers latched onto and the one we're still discussing months after the AUE.
If the original plan was to make Robin the mother (and if Future Ted had not said in the pilot that Robin was Aunt Robin, and not Mom) it could have worked in season one or possibly two to have Ted marry and have kids with poor doomed Victoria who would die of hiccups in the finale and then Ted makes a triumphant return with the blue French horn. Even then, Ted and Robin still didn't work as a fully realized couple. Robin was the Pretty Girl that the Nice Guy pointed at in a crowded room and decided, not even taking her desires into account, that was the gal for him. If that's how the Ted character wanted to go, pick out a woman on sight alone, again, introduction services, and then we can have a lovely photo montage of him visiting her home country and taking a ton of pictures at mixers to prove there really was a relationship, etc (and why did Ted never try that, because there could be some interesting stories and maybe an important life lesson learned, Teddy Boy, hm?) If Robin's feelings and wants and goals don't matter, then sure, she can sit on the sidelines and twiddle her thumbs while Ted woos, weds, and spawns with Victoria, whose only purpose is to be cute, make cupcakes, make babies (fighting bun in the oven pun here with everything in my undercaffienated body) and then contract terminal hiccups so Good Guy Ted can get back to his original plan of taking that brunette in the green sweater, and a side of curly fries. Bah.
Contrast this with the very organic way B/R grew on the show and in the hearts of fans. But that's not good enough for the showrunners? Allrighty then. Good to know.
What we're hearing now about the original intents of the show and what we actually saw over the last nine years (and we can roll tape anytime now, and are, in the rewatch) are two completely different things. I completely understand how a story can change from the original concept -I've had that happen to me on more than one occasion- and that a smart/competent/good/adjective of choice writer will do, when the story organically changes itself, is A) steer into the skid, and B) get all the way to the end and them make sure to change the previous parts so it reads like that's the way they meant to go all along.
I get that this isn't exactly how it works when it comes to the medium of television, but good writing is good writing, and there are too many loose ends, too many handwaves, too many "there were probably other reasons" and "oh I can't decide, " and furious backpedaling in flipflops.
If she had Ted's kids it would've been okay and great but if she had Barney kids it's not okay in the world of CFB sad, pathetic, stupid mind which is really disturbing cause obviously he thinks everyone woman should bow down at the feet of Ted Mosby and that makes me want to vomit just typing this.
I would not want to be a female character in a CB/CT story. It's nifty if Robin has Ted's kids because he's Ted and wants what he wants, but if Robin even thinks it might not be awful to have Barney's kids, we have to smash that to smithereens and punish both her and Barney? No. I'll go halvsies on barf bags with you.
Totally, point is B/R were the hearts of the show no matter how you look at it. They changed the original idea after a curtain point but the show itself turned into so much more and it was all due to the actors not the writers or the creators.
I will take a barf bag at anytime when it comes to discussing anything T/R so as much as I want to throw some TV's I agree with you on everything.
A platonic B/R relationship early on would have been interesting to see but the writers weren't smart enough to go there. Instead they made a romantic story that became the IT thing on the show and it's why people didn't like what happened after all the character growth and the romance they had shown us.
They seriously were (and are.) The show became more than a show, and the original concepts no longer fit. I would normally expect the creators to play to the strengths (Fonzie, Urkel, et al) but that's not what happened. The actors showed another option, and that was the option that took off like wildfire.
A platonic Barney/Robin friendship could have been interesting, but they made an either/or choice when they went with Zip Zip Zip, and I agree with that choice. I'd rather have the (successful) romantic relationship (that lasts a helluva lot longer than three years, as in until death do them part, thankyouverymuch.)
Does the fandom need blue French horn barf bags? We can meet behind MacLaren's and smash TVs.
Zip, Zip, Zip was the either or episode, the moment that we first were told that something might come of this odd but awesome pairing. The chemistry was there all they needed was the storyline that came after that. They didn't have to run with this idea if they wanted to stick to the original idea but they didn't and now they look like asses who will never have long running jobs again in this business of entertainment because they aren't creative enough to sustain an audience.
Look at HIMYM, it barely made it for three seasons so they were really good writing they just knew they wanted something but it didn't turn out that way. They had other shows that were flops and this one was almost a flop but they got lucky because the audience liked it. They/we weren't watching for the writing or the creators we watched for the great storylines, great cast and the great times these characters had.
If you don't want character growth and interesting plots stick to your bad ending cause nobody cares what they have to say now that it's months later and people are still hating on it. It will take a very long time to completely get over that ending so I'll stick with 922 as my ending and the real ending these two characters were and are supposed to have. The other characters, M/L had their ending at the start of the series, B/R had theirs at the end of the series and T/T had theirs which is what the viewers watched for and loved.
That is a really good point about HIMYM barely making the first three years. Now what happened around then to turn things around, hm? Makes sense to play to what viewers are responding to, and let success lead to success. Don't rein it in at literally the last minute to cram it into a decades old idea.
9x22 works beautifully as an ending, and it does bring all the major threads to their logical fulfillments. Three happy couples, a classic comedy ending that has worked for literally thousands of years. Thousands, CB/CT. Thousands. Millenia. If it's not broken, there is no need to fix it.
It was a little insulting what they skipped out on though, literally Cristin got 5 seconds of speech on the video and no one even talked about casting her, there was actually a little about B/R sandwitched between CB's T/R idiocy but it was cut very short and had no mention of the wedding, the lenth of the relationship or how it ended (it's like they don't want to highlight the real and dangerous issues of divorces caused by lack of wifi!) It was much more about the cast, crew and community (though no other writers interviewed) and I have to wonder if there was a reason there was very little focus on the story (which there should have been given it's the end to a 9 season long series and it's called "all out of spoilers a retrospective").
Reply
I feel so bad for Cristin and this cast but it still upsets me that they just didn't care about what the actors put into these characters and what the audience loved about this show. It's appalling that these asses thought living in their dream world would pay off but it failed miserably.
Reply
Reply
Oh please, Barney tried something with Robin in Zip, Zip, Zip but that was the just the beginning cause it was Robin who fell for him. It started with a maybe? And ended at the alter at least that's what the real story told us and the end the true ending was BR's wedding.
Also, Ted never declared anything for Robin he just pointed at her and thought she was the one before even knowing her. If it wasn't for Barney being a good wingman Robin would never be introduced to the gang and Barney would have stayed the way he was because she's the only one who truly changed him for the better and opened him to real love without making it look forced. If they never had Zip, Zip, Zip and didn't explore this relationship a little more there wouldn't have been this arc or story it was them who created that relationship plus the chemistry helped make it more of thee love story of the series.
Reply
To be fair they didn't mention T/R for more than a few seconds either - and no mention of Robin's feelings at all (don't you know women don't have them? they just follow the whims of a "good guy" or they'll wind up alone). Just that they liked the "chemistry" they had together and through that they decided future Ted telling the story alone was a sign the mother was dead and he was asking for permission to move on. Any more focus on that and they'd have to had flat out admit the only reason they put them together was because CFB likes to masturbate to it.
Reply
Ted...:sigh: pointing is about right, and if he wanted to pick a perfect wife out of a catalogue, there are introduction agencies that will do that, but then we'd have had no show, am I right? Pfft. The more CB blathers, the more Gary Stu-ish it all seems, and the farther removed from what we actually saw. The real growth and change and romance was Barney and Robin; those are the two who went from strangers to friends to lovers to spouses, and I do not accept that they ended up as estranged exes. Does not compute.
Zip Zip Zip was the on ramp here. If they hadn't gone there, well, Ted and Robin still wouldn't have been right for each other, but it's possible we wouldn't have seen B/R, or it would have happened at another time, in another way. An "It's a Wonderful Life" sort of episode (during the run) or fic (now) about what the gang would be like if Barney had never tapped Robin on the shoulder would have been/would be extremely interesting. Lots of variables.
Reply
I've said this before but it's true B/R grew through each other and made the relationship real and interesting, yes the chemistry was always there but for me they fell for The Real Them. The real Barney and the real Robin, not the animated Robin and Barney that CFB dreamed up in his head. If the show didn't go there with B/R there would have been no reason to do the Zip, Zip, Zip storyline and make something more of it later on in the series if they wanted to stick with the original unrealistic plan. Even in that original story, Robin is alone for a while while Ted is with the mother who was supposed to be Victoria at this point. But, they didn't so they went the B/R route and it took over the show leaving CFB to tidal his thumbs sulking that his precious blue french horn had to take a back seat to the real story going on.
I just read in Neil's book that they want Robin to be the mother originally, which is true cause I heard that already but she wasn't because of the supposed amazing chemistry Cobie and Josh had at the beginning of the series but she became AUNT ROBIN who ended up not being able to have kids at all which is CFB's warped idea of sticking Robin and Ted together without a real thought of what the story went on to be. So, if Robin was going to be the mother the plot of her not being able to conceive a child is useless but they only did that storyline so that they can stick with the original idea of Robin pining over Ted which never happened cause she simply did not love Ted.
If she had Ted's kids it would've been okay and great but if she had Barney kids it's not okay in the world of CFB sad, pathetic, stupid mind which is really disturbing cause obviously he thinks everyone woman should bow down at the feet of Ted Mosby and that makes me want to vomit just typing this.
Reply
Can you explain this please? As in they wanted Cobie to play the mother, they were going to show from the pilot that Robin was the mother, or there was going to be a stupid twist showing she was the mother despite what future Ted had already said? I don't get what you're saying.
Reply
I'm not sure what they were doing, they were young and immature boys who probably (and it looks to me now) that they didn't know what they were doing so they wrote the Pilot and that ending of the Pilot then after that, I think CB went on record as saying they made a mistake which probably was making Robin Aunt Robin not the mother of his kids.
I have the book so let me post the quotes from it give me a minute.
Reply
If I remember right the character that later became Robin should be the Mother in their HOW I MET YOUR FATHER script, that should be told from the point of view of the Mother.
Robin already wasn't the Mother in the 2005 script and at that time no one was casted and CTCB imagined Jennifer Love Hewitt as Robin and Jack Black as Barney. So I think they really changed the ending around the time they wrote 1x13.
Reply
Reply
Barney and Robin grew through and alongside each other. Keeping it a platonic friendship could have worked, if they hadn't changed the course of their arcs with Zip Zip Zip. Robin did allow that Barney's plan of starting something casual did make sense, and if Barney hadn't been the one to back off once he realized Robin liked Ted (at that point) things might have gone differently. Thing is, it didn't go differently. That's the route the show took. Once Barney and Robin opened that door, that was a promise to the viewer, and it's something interesting and different from the standard sitcom romance arc. That's the arc, the one we saw, that viewers latched onto and the one we're still discussing months after the AUE.
If the original plan was to make Robin the mother (and if Future Ted had not said in the pilot that Robin was Aunt Robin, and not Mom) it could have worked in season one or possibly two to have Ted marry and have kids with poor doomed Victoria who would die of hiccups in the finale and then Ted makes a triumphant return with the blue French horn. Even then, Ted and Robin still didn't work as a fully realized couple. Robin was the Pretty Girl that the Nice Guy pointed at in a crowded room and decided, not even taking her desires into account, that was the gal for him. If that's how the Ted character wanted to go, pick out a woman on sight alone, again, introduction services, and then we can have a lovely photo montage of him visiting her home country and taking a ton of pictures at mixers to prove there really was a relationship, etc (and why did Ted never try that, because there could be some interesting stories and maybe an important life lesson learned, Teddy Boy, hm?) If Robin's feelings and wants and goals don't matter, then sure, she can sit on the sidelines and twiddle her thumbs while Ted woos, weds, and spawns with Victoria, whose only purpose is to be cute, make cupcakes, make babies (fighting bun in the oven pun here with everything in my undercaffienated body) and then contract terminal hiccups so Good Guy Ted can get back to his original plan of taking that brunette in the green sweater, and a side of curly fries. Bah.
Contrast this with the very organic way B/R grew on the show and in the hearts of fans. But that's not good enough for the showrunners? Allrighty then. Good to know.
What we're hearing now about the original intents of the show and what we actually saw over the last nine years (and we can roll tape anytime now, and are, in the rewatch) are two completely different things. I completely understand how a story can change from the original concept -I've had that happen to me on more than one occasion- and that a smart/competent/good/adjective of choice writer will do, when the story organically changes itself, is A) steer into the skid, and B) get all the way to the end and them make sure to change the previous parts so it reads like that's the way they meant to go all along.
I get that this isn't exactly how it works when it comes to the medium of television, but good writing is good writing, and there are too many loose ends, too many handwaves, too many "there were probably other reasons" and "oh I can't decide, " and furious backpedaling in flipflops.
If she had Ted's kids it would've been okay and great but if she had Barney kids it's not okay in the world of CFB sad, pathetic, stupid mind which is really disturbing cause obviously he thinks everyone woman should bow down at the feet of Ted Mosby and that makes me want to vomit just typing this.
I would not want to be a female character in a CB/CT story. It's nifty if Robin has Ted's kids because he's Ted and wants what he wants, but if Robin even thinks it might not be awful to have Barney's kids, we have to smash that to smithereens and punish both her and Barney? No. I'll go halvsies on barf bags with you.
Reply
I will take a barf bag at anytime when it comes to discussing anything T/R so as much as I want to throw some TV's I agree with you on everything.
A platonic B/R relationship early on would have been interesting to see but the writers weren't smart enough to go there. Instead they made a romantic story that became the IT thing on the show and it's why people didn't like what happened after all the character growth and the romance they had shown us.
Reply
A platonic Barney/Robin friendship could have been interesting, but they made an either/or choice when they went with Zip Zip Zip, and I agree with that choice. I'd rather have the (successful) romantic relationship (that lasts a helluva lot longer than three years, as in until death do them part, thankyouverymuch.)
Does the fandom need blue French horn barf bags? We can meet behind MacLaren's and smash TVs.
Reply
Look at HIMYM, it barely made it for three seasons so they were really good writing they just knew they wanted something but it didn't turn out that way. They had other shows that were flops and this one was almost a flop but they got lucky because the audience liked it. They/we weren't watching for the writing or the creators we watched for the great storylines, great cast and the great times these characters had.
If you don't want character growth and interesting plots stick to your bad ending cause nobody cares what they have to say now that it's months later and people are still hating on it. It will take a very long time to completely get over that ending so I'll stick with 922 as my ending and the real ending these two characters were and are supposed to have. The other characters, M/L had their ending at the start of the series, B/R had theirs at the end of the series and T/T had theirs which is what the viewers watched for and loved.
Reply
9x22 works beautifully as an ending, and it does bring all the major threads to their logical fulfillments. Three happy couples, a classic comedy ending that has worked for literally thousands of years. Thousands, CB/CT. Thousands. Millenia. If it's not broken, there is no need to fix it.
Reply
Leave a comment