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Twenty years ago on Sept. 19, 2005, a legen—wait for it—dary story began.
A 27-year-old New York-based architect had thought his life was “good,” but his best friend from college (and current roommate) went and “screwed the whole thing up,” as the protagonist says in How I Met Your Mother’s opening moments, telling the past occurrence to his son and daughter from the year 2030. The big shift was a looming engagement between the lead’s two closest pals, causing him to spiral on a subsequent guy’s night out as he worried about being the odd one out in their longtime trio. But that soon changed as he declared, despite not entirely being certain of his words, “I’m not ready to settle down. … But if I was, it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m ready. Where is she?’ ”
Boom. In walks a woman so striking, boasting long brunette locks and a dazzling smile. But don’t worry, he later assures his children that she’s just their aunt, even though what emerged from their first encounter was a memorable first date and nightcap that ended with him declaring “I think I’m in love with you” to said woman, much to her, his friends and kids’ chagrin.
A strong, memorable start from the Craig Thomas and Carter Bays-helmed series, which was largely directed by Pamela Fryman. It would go on to be a 208-episode, nine-season-long run, filled with an array of comical and emotionally-driven turns pulled off by impressive performances from stars Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby), Cobie Smulders (Robin Scherbatsky), Jason Segel (Marshall Eriksen), Alyson Hannigan (Lily Aldrin), Neil Patrick Harris (Barney Stinson) and eventually Cristin Milioti, who played the titular mother. (The late Bob Saget also masterfully narrated as Future Ted Mosby.)
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“To me, it feels like sometimes you watch a pilot and it looks like you can really hear the writing, or the construction feels a little creaky. I think with this pilot, certainly, it’s clever and it’s clearly from the minds of writers with a singular vision,” Radnor, 51, says. “But I think that everything the characters say sounds like they’re coming from the character rather than being shoehorned in from a writer or a network note.”
“I also think that we seem as a group of characters to be actually friends. Marshall, Lily and Ted all seemed like they had genuine history with each other. So it had a lived-in quality that I think is really appealing from the get-go. I think the show got funnier and sharper as it went,” he continues.
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From Thomas’ perspective, “The thing that jumped out to me was the clarity and the using every second pretty wisely,” he recalls of rewatching the episode for his and Radnor’s How We Made Your Mother rewatch podcast, which premiered in March.
“Everything’s in there kind of for a reason. Everything that’s in there is either character or moving the story forward or hopefully both,” Thomas, 50, explains. “I was impressed because this was really the first pilot Carter and I had ever written. I was able to say, ‘Hey, good job younger selves. Good job, younger Carter, younger Craig,’ because there’s just not much fat in there. It moves forward. You’re thrown right into these big questions, these two big questions of, will you marry me, and will you go out with me? The two big questions of love.”
Part of that “clarity” Thomas is referring to is “basically what connected ourselves to the story as writers to these characters,” he says, “meaning, I was married at a young age to my wife. We all went to Wesleyan, Carter, my wife Rebecca and I all went to Wesleyan. It was the kind of old married couple in their mid-20s and the single guy, and the pilot really kind of sticks to that in a very clear way.”
Hannigan, 51, tells PEOPLE of “a very distinct memory” she has from her time making that debut episode.
“We were on the backlot at CBS Radford. I was outside with some of the crew members. I can’t recall whether any cast were with us. All at once, hundreds of butterflies flew towards us, through us, around us,” she recalls. “We all stopped to take the moment in. It was profound, breathtaking, and we all agreed it had to be a good sign! I haven’t seen anything like it before or since.”
Radnor, too, remembers a shared “feeling” amongst everyone, knowing that what they had before them was bigger than they could have ever imagined.
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“You never know when you’re doing these things, what they’re going to turn into, but there was a really good feeling on set during that time,” the “Learning” crooner shares. “There was a feeling, it was a quiet feeling, but a feeling that we maybe had something really special.”
Radnor also notes that “it’s hard to look back on the pilot of How I Met Your Mother and not consider everything that came after it,” adding, “In the moment of shooting it, I remember feeling like everyone was really well suited to their role, and I felt like we were all telling the same story. I felt like we were all in the same world.”
“Which is not always easy to achieve, especially in a pilot,” he points out.
The starry ensemble brought Thomas and Bays’ words to life, and the former still counts the duo as being “so lucky” for the “magical” way they cast these roles. “It really was the casting. The Casting Gods just smiled on us. It’s just magic how it works out. You almost can’t fathom it,” he says.
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Kismet is the best way to describe it, especially as Thomas notes how some of the cast — Hannigan and Harris, as well as Radnor and Harris — knew each other prior to filming the first episode. Also, the cast and co-creators all being around “the same age” was an added bonus.
“We just were very lucky that everyone had this weird chemistry and kind of bonded,” Thomas says. “We all felt like this was our shot together, Carter and I and the cast, this was our chance to prove ourselves, and we just went all in.”
As PEOPLE caught up with Harris, 52, at the opening night of his new Broadway show, ART, starring opposite James Corden and Bobby Cannavale, he recalls how the cast “were all just having the best time” filming the hit show’s first season.
“For the first really four seasons of that show, we did not think there would be another season, so every time we finished, we thought we were done,” the actor continues. “And then, it was a nice surprise when we were coming back.”
Harris, whose husband David Burkta later made multiple appearances on the show as Lily’s ex Scooter, refers to it as “a kinetic and sort of singular experience.”
“God bless streaming services, because now people continue to watch it,” he concludes. “And I love that.”
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As fans continue to watch (or, maybe, discover) the show on streaming, they can also tune into the Radnor and Thomas’ accompanying podcast, How We Made Your Mother. So far, it’s explored the CBS comedy’s freshman season and is currently gearing up to revisit season 2 of the series.
The pair even “got more into the minutiae of things” when discussing How I Met Your Mother’s 2005 pilot on the March 24 episode, Radnor notes.
“How I Met Your Mother, it rewards watching it as a series because there are little things that are dropped that go on to pay off later. It was something I always thought they were so smart about,” Radnor says. “I think that’s why people watch it over and over again, because there’s something not just comforting about the familiarity of it and the world that is a little bit more contained, and maybe safer. But there’s just something satisfying about how they constructed the narrative.”
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The love between the sitcom’s fandom and those involved is mutual, to say the least. As Hannigan thinks about how deeply the series has resonated with fans 20 years later, the actress says she has “endless gratitude.”
“Someone approached me just yesterday and said that How I Met Your Mother is their comfort show,” she concludes. “I love being part of someone’s comfort show!”
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How I Met Your Mother is available in full on Hulu and Netflix, and the companion podcast, How We Made Your Mother, can be listened to everywhere podcasts are streamed.
