HIMYM: Farewell!

The series finale of How I Met Your Mother airs tonight on CBS, and I will go ahead and confess upfront that there will be tears at the Jones' residence.  We have been fans of the show for a very long time, and have watched most of the first 8 seasons over and over again in syndication. I dearly love this show and these characters. And tonight we say goodbye. It won't be easy.

But I do realize that there are those among you who have not watched much of HIMYM, or who are just getting into it because of all the hoopla over the wedding last week and the finale tonight. And if that is true for you, then I am guessing you don't see what all the fuss is about. You see, HIMYM has been the rarest of TV shows- 9 years with the same cast, the same writers, the same director and the same story line. It has more continuity than any show I have ever watched. Just this past week I watched the pilot immediately after watching the most recent episode, and they feel completely connected- 206 shows later. Plus (as I have written here before) HIMYM has always rewarded faithful viewers with inside jokes and references. And nowhere has that been more evident than in this final season. Every show has been a treat for those of us who have watched faithfully, full of little things that let us know the writers remember us. It is brilliant. And it makes HIMYM my favorite show ever. Sorry, Seinfeld.

So as we say farewell, HIMYMers will remember the classic moments that will stay with us long after the show is gone. We will always suit up, always give high fives and never forget to be legen...wait for it!- dary. We will fear the cockamouse while believing that Nessie is a gentle creature, and that Sasquatch is very real. We will continue to search old music stores for vintage Robin Sparkles vinyls. We will treasure last words and understand the importance of being there when friends are hurting- even if it means dancing Christmas lights set to AC/CD music. We will occasionally hum Bang, Bang, Bangity Bang and Marshall Vs. the Machines. And I, for one, will have Nothing Suits Me Like a Suit as my default ringtone. We'll remember that we have indeed met Ted, that nothing good happens after 2 am, that new is NOT always better and that most anything can be "the dream." We will remember the crazy eyes and that there is a "hot/crazy scale." We will still be expecting one more slap to finish off the bet. We will remember that nothing is more romantic than stealing a blue French horn for a girl the first night you go out, throwing 3 parties in 3 days just to see her again, or making it rain (by doing a rain dance!) so you can get together with her again. And most of all, we will remember that nothing we do in life is legendary unless our friends are there to see it. To call this show a comedy is to miss out on the many dramatic moments and life lessons that have been offered up along the way. To not see it as a comedy is to miss 9 years of hilarity. HIMYM is the complete package.

My family has fallen in love with Ted. Marshall, Barney, Robin, Lilly and now The Mother. We will miss Ranjit, Carl the Bartender, Wendy the Waitress and even Patrice. We will even wonder what could have been for Ted and Victoria. We will miss so many things. I wish everyone could have been on this ride as long as we have. There may well be sadness tonight, as this show has never dodged reality. But any tragedy or dramatic twists will be within the context of the last 9 seasons. For Mother Lovers everywhere, it will be the end we need. But please...PLEASE...don't let tonight be your first time watching. You'll be cheating the series and yourself. The finale will have some mystery to it, but I do know this much. At the very end, we will hear future Ted look at his two teenage children (Luke & Penny) in the year 2030 and say, "And that, kids, is the story of how I met your mother." And we'll all say farewell...