Premier Week for broadcast TV

Quote: Fleastiff

I do have one very important question. I understand there is a show entitled How I Married Your Mother.

The narrator is Bob Saget who I don't think has been seen (just heard). He is telling the story to his kids who were bored in the pilot episodes. The 9th season will be the final one.

The show never broke the top 40 overall, but ranks very highly among people under the age of 50 (which is what advertisers care about).

The five stars: Alyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, receive a salary of $225,000 per episode, but most of them earn more than that in outside projects (hosting, directing, film acting, etc.). Cobie Smulders, was the big breakout star who used to be unknown. She is the initial love interest, but in the pilot they make it clear that she is not the mother.

In the finale of the 8th season Cristin Milioti (a 28 year old actress who did most of her work on Broadway) is introduced as "the mother". Since she has been on television only a few times, most people don't know her.

Neil Patrick Harris plays a promiscuous and sometimes predatory straight man, which seems to be the standard part for gay actor to play on television. While many straight actors portray gay characters, they are never promiscuous.

======

While most TV stars are well paid, some manage to use their notoriety better than others. The most extreme example is Sofia Vergara. She is paid over $4 m a year for acting on Modern Family, but may earn 6 to 7 times that amount outside of the show.

Quote: boopsahoy

is a comedy about Teds search for his true love as he tells his kids the story.

Oh, I get it. Its a story of his entire dating history that merely culminates in one episode probably entitled "Finally". How many men sit and tell their kids their entire dating history and yet survive their wife's wrath when she starts hearing some of the incidents that took place before she met that loser?

Quote: Fleastiff

Oh, I get it. Its a story of his entire dating history that merely culminates in one episode probably entitled "Finally". How many men sit and tell their kids their entire dating history and yet survive their wife's wrath when she starts hearing some of the incidents that took place before she met that loser?

Quote: Pilot episode

The Year 2030
Narrator: Kids, I’m going to tell you an incredible story. The story of how I met your mother
Son: Are we being punished for something?
Narrator: No
Daughter: Yeah, is this going to take a while?
Narrator: Yes. (Kids are annoyed) Twenty-five years ago, before I was dad, I had this whole other life.
Narrator: It was way back in 2005. I was twenty-seven just starting to make it as an architect and living in New York with my friend Marshall, my best friend from college. My life was good and then Uncle Marshall went and screwed the whole thing up.
...
Scene pans out
Narrator: I asked her about it years later, and yeah, that was the signal. I could’ve kissed her. But that’s the funny thing about destiny.
Flashback to Robin Throwing Drink in Ted’s face
Narrator: … it happens whether you plan it or not. I mean I…
Flashback to Robin laughing at Ted’s “Smurf Penis” joke
Narrator: … never thought I’d see that girl again. But it…
Flashback to Robin looking down at Ted from her apartment window
Narrator: …turns out, I was just too close…
Flashback to Robin and Ted dancing

Narrator: …to the puzzle to see the picture that was forming. Because that kids…Cut to year 2030. Kids intently listening keenly interested …is the true story, of how I met your Aunt Robin.
Son: Aunt Robin?
Daughter: I thought this was about how you met mom!
Narrator: Will you relax? I’m getting to it. (Son and daughter sit back unpleased) like I said:
Cut to panning out at the bar
Narrator: …it’s a long story.

So we are supposed to believe a 52 year old father can tell a story about how he used to boink their Aunt Robin before he met their mother with stories where she laughs at a Smurf Penis joke.

You can see why the show is more popular with people under the age of 50, since older people don't think it is very coherent.

Incidentally, the actress who was cast as the daughter was age 18 during the pilot episode. She will be age 27 by the final episode as 9 years have passed in real time. They have to keep making her up to disguise the fact that she is a grown woman.

You will note that the two principal actresses on the show HIMYM made the following amounts of money last year (only one actress on the Forbes list made over $11 million)
Cobie Smulders: $9 million
Alyson Hannigan: $8 million

It's a shaggy dog story. The mother is a MacGuffin. Or has been for the last 8 seasons, at least.

Quote: TheCesspit

The mother is a MacGuffin.

Interesting theory. The show HIMYM premiered only 1.5 years after "Friends" final episode. The writers wanted to make it clear from the pilot that this couple would be different than Ross and Rachel who fell in and out of their relationship for 10 years before finally marrying. So they made it clear that Robin was not going to be the "mother".

It would be an interesting twist if their was a feint at the pilot episode, and Robin turns out to be the mother after all. Since the narrator is controlling the story, he could have been using fake names and he really met the mother in the initial episode.

Cobie Smulders was in the Avengers I believe

Quote: boopsahoy

Cobie Smulders was in the Avengers I believe

Yes, she has her career mapped out already for when the TV series ends.

Quote: boopsahoy

Cobie Smulders was in the Avengers I believe

Cobie looks good but Meryl Streep she ain't. But then,
who is.

Quote: Evenbob

Cobie looks good but Meryl Streep she ain't. But then, who is.

"Josh" Radnor and Cobie Smulders who are the primary love interest in the TV show, are actually eclipsed by the other three supporting actors. The lions share of the talent are invested in Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris, and Alyson Hannigan.

The Q Score measures an actors likeability. The two actors have very high Q, which can translate into large money-making potential in TV.

I think we need federal legislation that no TV-guide may be printed or shown on cable unless there is a precis for each show giving a full explanation of what the situation is and how reasonable it is. "Man tells his kids how he met their mother but after umpteen zillion episodes he still hasn't finished the darned story." I think all advertisers should be required to sign off on such a statement.

And people think that I am certifiable because I look at satellite images of the Tasman Sea.