How I Met Your Mother Forums

I've been catching re-runs of Friends recently on TBS and in watching them it's obvious that the show marks life around the turn of the century. Then turn on CBS Mondays at 8pm and it's hard to not say that HIMYM is not doing the same for life today. When HIMYM first came out I remember being anti-HIMYM (don't judge me!) because I saw it as trying to replace the void of Friends. Eventually the promos got to me and I fell deeply in love with the show and realized that HIMYM distinctively stands on its own and was not created as a Friends replacement (or at least not solely). Being two of my all-time favorite television shows it's easy for me to draw a lot of similarities between the two, while at the same time draw distinct differences. Thus I pose the following questions to the devoted HIMYM (and Friends) fans:

- Do you see HIMYM being our generation's Friends?

- What are some of your favorite HIMYM allusions or spoofs on Friends? (opening scene of 2.7: "Swarley" with the guys chilling in a coffee house is mine)

- What similarities between the two shows do you like? Not like?

- Are there any aspects (plot, characters, ect.) of Friends you wish to see on HIMYM? Or aspects you hope HIMYM completely avoids?

The shows are very different, so I please ask you to not turn this into a Friends vs. HIMYM debate and instead debate the qualities and characteristics of the two shows, not which one is better than the other.

This could easily be likened to Friends of this generation. Whether or not one show is better is irrelevant, because it isn't the issue at hand. It is about a group of friends and life in NYC. Granted, one lost cast member, but that is the mother! The similarities that I see is that they each hang out in one apartment often (Ted's or Monica and Rachel/Chandlers) and a location(bar/coffee house) and all start off single with one member in love with (or attracted to) another. (Ross with Rachel, Ted with Robin) Both have a womanizer (Joey/Barney) and eventually an old married couple. (Lily Marshall and Monica Chandler) I think other than that, the charaters aren't terribly similar. HIMYM doesn't have one castmember be exclusively anything, where Friends had so many differences at times it was hard to see how some of them could have been such great friends in real life, but they are all tied together very well. However, I think Friends grew up a little better than HIMYM is. That isn't to say it isn't still a good show, it is. However, Ted started as a more together guy, and now he is more of a slut. I know that they had to drag some things out because he hasn't met the mother, but I think that negatively affected the character at times. I also sometimes have a hard time that these are stories that he is telling his kids about... all the women that he bedded on his way to meeting their mother. I can't imagine having any kind of discussion like that with my kids, whether it happened or not, as there are some things that it is okay to not talk about. I think I am just looking forward to seeing Ted get his stuff together so that when he meets the mother, he isn't some man-whore who eats a lot of sandwiches.