How I Met Your Mother: Story, Cast and Series Facts

How I Met Your Mother (2005): Drama, Comedy, Romance. Series details, synopsis, cast and season dates from TVmaze.

By the Pop Culture Files editorial team•Updated September 29, 2026•2 min read•✓ Fact-checked

Editorial graphic for: How I Met Your Mother: Story, Cast and Series Facts — Editorial graphic by Pop Culture Files · not a photograph

Story and premise

How I Met Your Mother is a comedy about Ted and how he fell in love. It all starts when Ted's best friend, Marshall drops the bombshell that he's going to propose to his long-time girlfriend, Lilya kindergarten teacher. At that moment, Ted realizes that he had better get a move on if he too hopes to find true love. Helping him in his quest is Barney a friend with endless, sometimes outrageous opinions, a penchant for suits and a foolproof way to meet women. When Ted meets Robin he's sure it's love at first sight, but destiny may have something else in store.

Series details

Title: How I Met Your Mother
Format: Scripted
Language: English
Genres: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Premiere date: 2005-09-19
Final broadcast date listed: 2014-03-31
Status in TVmaze: Ended
Network listed by TVmaze: CBS
Network country: United States
Typical episode runtime: 30 minutes
TVmaze community rating: 7.8/10
TVMaze ID: 171

Cast and credited roles

Josh Radnor — Ted Mosby
Jason Segel — Marshall Eriksen
Cobie Smulders — Robin Scherbatsky
Neil Patrick Harris — Barney Stinson
Alyson Hannigan — Lily Aldrin
Bob Saget — Narrator
Cristin Milioti — The Mother

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

Season 1: premiered 2005-09-19; final listed air date 2006-05-15; episode order: 22.
Season 2: premiered 2006-09-18; final listed air date 2007-05-14; episode order: 22.
Season 3: premiered 2007-09-24; final listed air date 2008-05-19; episode order: 20.
Season 4: premiered 2008-09-22; final listed air date 2009-05-18; episode order: 24.
Season 5: premiered 2009-09-21; final listed air date 2010-05-24; episode order: 24.
Season 6: premiered 2010-09-20; final listed air date 2011-05-16; episode order: 24.
Season 7: premiered 2011-09-19; final listed air date 2012-05-14; episode order: 24.
Season 8: premiered 2012-09-24; final listed air date 2013-05-13; episode order: 24.
Season 9: premiered 2013-09-23; final listed air date 2014-03-31; episode order: 24.

Source and licence

Adapted from How I Met Your Mother on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.