Opinions: How I Met Your Mother & other long running tv shows

          I remember when I first heard about How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM), I though what an interesting idea it was and when I saw my first episode I fell in love with the show, the characters were new and genuinely funny, which I quiet rare in sit-coms today. But as the seasons went on and we kept getting hinds and teases about who Ted’s wife (the mother) was I thought of how I’d do the reveal. So here’s what I would of done in season 8 of HIMYM, I would of just introduced the Mother. Now you might think that’s strange seems as though the whole premise of the show is how they met, but taking some liberties with that idea, who says the fall in love the first time them meet? So after introducing her I’d start her and Ted dating and then we’d get to know more about her and be introduced to her friends, this bits key to me and you’ll see why later. So season 8 ends maybe with Ted and the mother having a fight. Now instead of doing a season 9 straight away we have a season of How I Met Your Father, told from the mothers view with her and her friends and how she’s always in the same places as Ted and the gang have been but just keep missing each other and depending on how successful this series if there could be more seasons, maybe season 2 runs concurrently with season 9 of HIMYM. And lastly by season 10 I’d wrap up the story line and have Ted and The Mother marry.

          Now on to the second part of this opinion piece. Long running TV shows in general, as constantly happens TV shows run out of steam after about four to five seasons, this is generally because the original idea of the show has been exhausted and then the writers look to introduce new idea’s into the plot to extend the run of the show, in some cases this works brilliantly in most though it doesn’t. So in my opinion ten in the magic number of seasons for any TV show assuming it survived the slump after season four or five as generally after ten the show will have to jump the shark again, if not for story reasons then because of actors or writers wanting to move on. How many shows can you think of that would of benefit from ending early? Everyone’s favourite example is The Simpsons, “Wasn’t The Simpsons a great show?” and when it ends it will be very fondly remembered but as the seasons keep on coming they turn older viewers away. Anyway back to my point, great television shows know when to end, when to take their bow and move on to other projects, they know there is no point flogging a dead horse and know to wrap up existing story lines and plot points. But that’s just my opinion, I hope you agree, but if you don’t feel free to comment.