How I Met Your MotherLists about the sitcom about Ted Mosby, architect, and his pals Barney, Marshall, Lily, and Robin, as they lived, laughed, and loved in New York City, which aired on CBS from 2005 to 2014. It was—wait for it—legendary.
Updated December 27, 2019 18.5k votes 2.8k voters 50.8k views
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Ted Mosby, protagonist of the long-running CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, dated a lot of women before finally meeting the one he would settle down with by the end of the show. Ted's girlfriends could be catalysts for change in the series, featured either as repeating characters to highlight his growth over the years or sometimes used for simple comedic effect during one episode.
It is remarkably odd that 2030's Future Ted deems it appropriate to regale his children with tales of not only his most important girlfriends before eventually meeting their mother, but of his romantic escapades as well. Without his unusual storytelling, however, we wouldn't have nine seasons of Ted Mosby's girlfriends walking out on him and leaving us with the anticipation of who the mother is. And as Ted's girlfriends can attest, he is a bit of a jerk.
Ah, the titular Mother herself. For the character that the show is technically all about, Tracy only appears in 22 episodes, and only 14 of those is she played by Cristin Milioti (the other eight appearances are teasing cameos where the audience never sees her face). Though Ted and Tracy's relationship appears somewhat truncated when compared to the rest of the series, it is clear to all viewers that there is an immediate spark between the two.
From their initial moments of falling in love, their sharing of the one exception to Ted's "Nothing Good Ever Happens After 2 am" rule, and the heartbreaking scene of Ted by her side in the hospital bed near the very end of the series, there is an effortless chemistry between them.
Victoria is a fan-favorite love interest of Ted's who was introduced in the first season. After having a meet-cute at a wedding where both kept their identity purposefully a secret, Ted tracks Victoria down and the two start dating. Everything goes swimmingly for the couple at first, until Victoria gets a fellowship at a culinary institute in Germany. The pair try long distance but quickly find that maintaining a connection is arduous at best, and they break it off. All the while, Ted is lying to Robin about being single again because he thinks he has a chance to be with her.
Plenty of fans assumed Victoria would end up being "the Mother" before Tracy came on the scene, and this almost came to pass as Ted actually proposes to Victoria after they rekindle their relationship in the seventh season. Victoria agrees to marry Ted only if he gives up his friendship with Robin, which is something he just can't come to terms with.
Who doesn't love a little Robin Sparkles? Robin Scherbatsky is Ted's first love interest on the show and one of the main characters of the series. Their relationship starts with a resounding bang - and subsequent whimper - as Ted professes his love for Robin mere days after meeting her. Unsurprisingly, she does not think the two should continue dating after this, and the pair remain friends until they finally become a couple for most of Season 2.
After the pair break up just before the wedding of their good friends Lily and Marshall, things become even more complicated. Robin moves in with Ted after losing her apartment, and they live together for years while dating other people. Of course, the complications don't end there, and Robin ends up marrying one of Ted's best friends, Barney.
Ted meets Tracy - the mother of his children - at Robin and Barney's wedding. Tracy gets sick and passes in 2024, setting up the final scene of the show, which revisits Robin and Ted's first date from the pilot, implying they end up together when it's all said and done. Though Robin and Ted established themselves as friends for much of the series, it is hard to deny the chemistry between the two and, in some ways, it feels like they were meant to be together all along.
Zoey is an activist who begins her appearances on How I Met Your Mother as a thorn in Ted's side. When Ted is hired by Goliath National Bank to design a new headquarters for the company, Zoey tries to rally public support to protect The Arcadian, which is the historical building that will be torn down and replaced with Ted's design. Zoey ultimately befriends Ted's friends at their hangout MacLaren's Pub, and though it is clear the pair are attracted to each other, nothing can come of it as she is already married.
This changes about halfway through Season 6 when Zoey gets divorced from her husband, and she and Ted begin to date. Even though Zoey gets along with everybody in the friend group, she and Ted can never get over the proverbial elephant in the room of their relationship: The Arcadian. Ted comes to terms with the fact he'll have to choose between designing his own building in the New York City skyline and his relationship with Zoey. Spoiler alert: He chooses the building.
Ted first meets Stella because of an unfortunate tattoo he acquires on one particularly boozy night out. Stella is the dermatologist tasked with removing Ted's tattoo, and she initially rejects his advances as she cannot, in good conscious, date a patient. Once the pair do start dating, their relationship moves very quickly and they are engaged by the time of her fourth appearance on the show. What's worse is that Ted tried to break up with her earlier that same day.
While the pair clearly have on-screen chemistry and appear to have a lot of fun together, there was always something a little off about the couple. Stella ends up leaving Ted at the altar in order to get back together with her ex-husband Tony. Tony even ends up writing a movie about the love triangle called The Wedding Bride, where Ted is the villain of the story.
Natalie is the unfortunate recipient of a Ted Mosby breakup on her birthday not only once, but twice. In the Season 1 episode "Return of the Shirt," Ted begins to realize his tastes are shifting in his old age when he rediscovers an old shirt he thought he used to dislike but now loves. This gets Ted waxing poetic about former girlfriend Natalie. Three years before the episode, Ted actually broke up with Natalie via a voicemail... on her birthday.
When Ted tries to reconnect with Natalie, she is obviously weary of him in light of his cowardly past actions. Ted breaks down her defenses and the pair rekindle their relationship only to have Ted realize, again, that she is not the one. Cut to Ted and Natalie out to dinner where he realizes it is her birthday again, and tries to break up with her - again. Natalie doesn't take too well to this and uses her Krav Maga training to give him a beatdown.
