HIMYF Season 1 recently ended, and it was quite a trip down memory lane. The spin-off doesn’t do justice to the original show but has a few moments that make us reminisce about old times.
The countless similarities and parallels between the two shows make you nostalgic but leave you disappointed because it looks like the writers are reusing the same tropes.
It’s almost like different characters in HIMYF complete the moments and arcs that remained incomplete in HIMYM.
What makes the show even more underwhelming is how hard it tries to stay relevant to current times. The writers are looking to make the show more inclusive and Gen-Z friendly but fail to truly understand the vibe of today’s culture.
However, when all is said and done, there were quite a few callbacks and references to HIMYM that we all loved and relived in HIMYF. So, let’s jump in.
HIMYF has numerous callbacks to HIMYM, including the Captain, Ted, and Marshall’s apartment, the swords they won in college, a cameo by Robin Scherbatsky, and many more.
1. The HIMYM Title Track—Hey Beautiful by The Solids
The iconic HIMYM title track is reprised in HIMYF, and we listen to a much more mellow and soothing acoustic version while looking at snapshots of the current gang.
Like the Friends track, you just can’t skip this. In fact, it’s one of the few good things that HIMYF has recreated from the original show.
2. Sophie’s Best Shot and Ted’s Dream Project
We all know Sophie is the new Ted Mosby. However, there are some minor differences between these two characters. While Sophie is a photographer, Ted was an architect.
On one hand, Sophie is always looking for the perfect photograph. On the other hand, Ted looked at the Arcadian as his dream project, which he would renovate to perfection. Sophie’s picture directly references Ted’s perfect design of the Arcadian.
3. Sid-Hannah and Marshall-Lily
Sid and Hannah are the exact counterparts of Marshall and Lily. Both Sid and Marshall proposed to their would-be partners in the pilot episode.
Both of the couples have a long-distance relationship. However, Sid and Hannah’s long-distance relationship is relatively healthier than Marshall and Lily’s.
4. Ted and Marshall’s Apartment and the Swords
Jesse and Sid live in the same apartment Ted and Marshall had rented in HIMYM. What makes this even better are the swords hanging on the wall.
Ted and Marshall had won these swords in college, and it looks like they are right where they used to be. We see these swords across multiple HIMYF episodes, and it’s a subtle homage to the original show.
5. The Captain and the Boats
The Captain in HIMYM was a recurring character who owned many boats and was a womanizer. He was introduced as Zoey’s husband, and Zoey happened to be one of Ted’s girlfriends.
In HIMYF, the Captain again appears with Becky deciding to take all his “Boats, boats, and boats.” The scene is a classic callback to one in HIMYM.
6. Goliath National Bank
Jesse’s sister Ellen interviews for a job at the Goliath National Bank. This is the same bank where Barney Stinson worked until the original show’s end. In fact, he was like a CXO-level employee at the company.
This callback resulted in the theory that our beloved Barney would appear in the HIMYF season finale, but that didn’t quite happen. However, never say never because HIMYF Season 2 is going to come, and we just might catch him in it.
7. Sid’s Bar and Barney’s Puzzles
In HIMYF, Sid leaves his career in medicine to buy an actual bar. If you remember, Barney and Ted always joked about buying a bar and naming it Puzzles. “Why is it called Puzzles, you ask? That’s the Puzzle!”
This is yet another arc picked from HIMYM and incorporated in HIMYF. However, the writers didn’t really attach any other gag to Sid and his bar, thus laying minimal emphasis on it.
8. Valentina and Lily Like Stealing Things
In HIMYM, Lily used to steal things from people to teach them a lesson. When she stole Ted’s boss’s emblem because he was rude, it made up for a hysterical scene. Valentina recreates this by stealing her boss’ $15,000 bag for being rude.
Throughout HIMYM, Lily stole a bunch of things, including Zoey’s toy turkey and the Captain’s ashtray. So maybe there’s a chance we might see more of Valentina “swiping” things just to teach people a lesson.
9. Robin is Canadian, and Charlie is British
Robin was always made fun of for being the only non-American in the group. She was the butt of a lot of jokes in the OG series for being Canadian.
In HIMYF, Charlie goes through similar situations where people either do not care about his English roots or make fun of his accent, the English breakfast, English football, and the usual stereotypical things.
10. Ted-Robin and Sophie-Jesse
It is obvious that Sophie and Jesse are the new Ted and Robin. Like in the original show, even Sophie and Jesse don’t date each other in Episode 1.
The first time Robin kissed Ted, it was because she was stood up, and the first time Sophie kissed Jesse was when she had a bad date.
While there are multiple other parallels between the two couples, these two are the strongest hints of how the new couple pays tribute to the old one.
11. Robin Scherbatsky in the House!
The Season 1 finale gives us a cameo we didn’t expect. We see the famous reporter Robin advise Sophie about her love life. It’s the first time Sophie enters the bar where most of HIMYM was set in, and it is there that she meets Robin.
It was a pleasant surprise that makes us think about multiple possibilities in Season 2. If you look at the timeline of the two shows, Ted started telling his story in 2030, while HIMYF is set in 2022.
This means that Robin and Ted are still not together. In fact, they only get together eight years later. Whether this will be explored in Season 2 or not depends on the makers’ plans.
These are all the major callbacks and references to HIMYM in HIMYF.
While there are numerous other minor Easter eggs, none of them are as significant as the ones mentioned above. HIMYF has been renewed for Season 2, and I can only hope that we get more than just nostalgia from it.
12. About How I Met Your Father
How I Met Your Father (HIMYF) is a spinoff series of the incredibly successful CBS show, How I Met Your Mother. The original show ran for nine seasons, from 2005 to 2014, quickly making its mark with a dedicated cult-like fanbase.
HIMYF was announced to start production in April 2021 with the Lizzy McGuire star Hilary Duff playing the lead called Sophie, narrating her journey to her children in the future.
The show’s flashbacks will start from Sophie and her close friends navigating love, life and struggles in the modern era of dating, paying bills and more, in 2021.
Created by writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger of This Is Us fame and directed by the original show’s director, Pamela Fryman, the first season of HIMYF is revealed to have 10 episodes. No further details have yet been released.
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