How I Met Your Mother season 9

How I Met Your Mother
Season 9
DVD cover of The Ninth and Legendary Final Season. The Rest Of Your Life Edition
Starring
No. of episodes24
Release
Original networkCBS
Original releaseSeptember 23, 2013 (2013-09-23) –
March 31, 2014 (2014-03-31)
Season chronology
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Season 8
List of episodes

The ninth and final season of How I Met Your Mother, an American sitcom created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, premiered on CBS on September 23, 2013,[1] with two episodes, and concluded on March 31, 2014. The show was renewed for the final season on December 21, 2012, after cast member Jason Segel changed his decision to leave the show after the eight season.[2][3] Cristin Milioti, who was revealed as "The Mother" in the season 8 finale,[4] was promoted to a series regular, the only time How I Met Your Mother added a new regular cast member.[5] Season 9 consists of 24 episodes, each running approximately 22 minutes in length.

Taking place immediately after where the previous season left off, season 9 covers the events of a single weekend that leads up to Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin's (Cobie Smulders) wedding.[6] During the course of the weekend, "The Mother" (Milioti) is separately introduced to Robin, Barney, Lily (Alyson Hannigan), and Marshall (Jason Segel), before finally meeting Ted (Josh Radnor). The season also features frequent flashbacks and flashforwards in order to fully integrate The Mother's character with the rest of the cast.[7] Thomas said in an interview that season 9 is like "the Wild West – anything can happen".[6]

In February 2013, Bays and Thomas teased that season 9 is "going to be a new way to tell the story".[8] The initial reaction to the new storytelling structure of season 9 was mixed. Ethan Anderton from Screen Rant was concerned about how "24 episodes of television are going to be crafted from just three days of time",[9] and Alan Sepinwall of HitFix was exasperated that after eight seasons, "They are really going to stretch Robin and Barney's wedding weekend out over the entire final season",[10] though he expressed more optimism after the San Diego Comic-Con panel for the final season.[11]

  1. ^ Porter, Rick (June 17, 2013). "CBS fall 2013 premiere dates: 'NCIS,' 'How I Met Your Mother' and more return in September". Zap2it. Archived from the original on August 12, 2013. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  2. ^ Mitovich, Matt (December 21, 2012). "Report: How I Met Your Mother Renewed for 9th Season After Jason Segel's 11th-Hour Reversal". tvline.com. Archived from the original on December 24, 2012. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
  3. ^ Anderton, Ethan (December 26, 2012). "Report: 'How I Met Your Mother' Renewed for 9th (and Final) Season". screenrant.com. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  4. ^ Kubicek, John (May 17, 2013). "'How I Met Your Mother' Promotes Cristin Milioti to Series Regular". BuddyTV. Archived from the original on July 30, 2013. Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  5. ^ Ausiello, Michael (May 17, 2013). "Exclusive: How I Met Your Mother Makes Cristin 'Mom' Milioti a Full-Fledged Series Regular". TV Line. Archived from the original on August 9, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  6. ^ a b Berkshire, Geoff (July 21, 2013). "'How I Met Your Mother' Season 9 spoilers from Comic-Con: Series finale plans and Cristin Milioti as the mother". Zap2It. Archived from the original on August 19, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  7. ^ Goldman (May 14, 2013). "How I Met Your Mother Season 9 Plans: The Final Season Will Take Place Over One Weekend". IGN. Archived from the original on October 19, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  8. ^ Dionne, Zac (February 5, 2013). "How I Met Your Mother's Final Season Taking a New Storytelling Approach". Vulture. Archived from the original on August 4, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  9. ^ Anderton, Ethan (August 13, 2013). "'How I Met Your Mother' Season 9 Details: Meeting the Mom & Single Weekend Story". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on August 12, 2013.
  10. ^ Sepinwall, Alan (May 14, 2013). "After 'How I Met Your Mother' finale, what comes next?". HitFix. Archived from the original on August 26, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  11. ^ Sepinwall, Alan (July 20, 2013). "Comic-Con 2013: 'How I Met Your Mother' panel live-blog". HitFix. Archived from the original on August 24, 2013. Retrieved August 21, 2013.