Even though it’s been 20 years sinceHow I Met Your Motherwas released, fans are still debating whether it’s better than another major sitcom that ended a year earlier:Friends. Despite a slow start in 2005,How I Met Your Motherwent on to release nine seasons and a spinoff, cementing it as one of the most successful sitcoms of the 21st century.
How I Met Your Mother’s debut was especially significant following theFriendsseries finale in May 2004.Friendswas, and still is, one of the biggest sitcoms of all time.How I Met Your Motherneeded to differentiate itself if it was ever going to find any success in the wake of the hit NBC show.
Whether it did is still in question. Even now, years later, people still compare the two shows. Is that fair? Is one truly better than the other, or are they more dissimilar than they appear on the surface?
How I Met Your Mother Was Described As The New Friends When It Came Out
Both Sitcoms Featured 20-Something Friends Living In New York City
WhenHow I Met Your Motherfirst premiered, it was essentially described as the “new"Friends.CBS saw an opportunity to fill an upcoming void and did so, introducing five 20-something friends living in New York Citywho were trying to figure out their love lives, careers, and futures. Sound familiar?
WhileFriends’Rachel, Ross, Joey, Chandler, Monica, and Phoebe hung out at a coffee house named Central Perk,HIMYM’s Ted, Robin, Barney, Lily, and Marshall gathered at a bar named MacLaren’s. In both series, the group had dreamy, unaffordable apartments to visit each other in, and they never needed to call to spend time together. Someone was always just there.
Even one ofHow I Met Your Mother’s biggest relationships felt lifted fromFriends. Ross and Rachel’s and Ted and Robin’s continuous, will-they-won’t-they romances were leading story threads for both shows, shaping nearly every season and ultimately, their respective series finales.
Honestly, it’s no wonder thatHow I Met Your Motherwas compared toFriendswhen it first came out. It did take a while for the show to find its footing.Once the writers figured out the characters and their dynamics, though,How I Met Your Mothercreated its own space within the sitcom landscape, setting it apart fromFriendsonce and for all.
How The Friends Comparisons Hurt How I Met Your Mother’s First Seasons
Unfortunately, whenHow I Met Your Motherpremiered, network TV and audiences were still reeling from the loss ofFriends. This was a show that had been on the air for a decade. It was so popular that the actors were paid a million dollars per episode in the final season. How could any new show, especially one with such a similar premise, ever hope to compete?
Was Barney the new Joey? Was Ted the new Ross? In season 2,How I Met Your Mothereven slyly references the comparisons toFriends, when Barney, Ted, and Marshall sit quietly in a coffee shop (one with a similar color scheme to Central Perk’s), until Barney proudly declares:“Hanging out at a coffee place is not nearly as much fun as hanging out in a bar.”
OnceHow I Met Your Motherhit seasons 3 and 4, though, the show had become a quotable pop culture phenomenon, with a plethora of recurring jokes and theories surrounding the mysterious identity of the titular mother. The series finale was, likeFriends’before it, a must-watch event, even thoughHow I Met Your Mother’s ending was not the one we’d hoped for.
How I Met Your Mother Was Always More Than Just The New Friends
How I Met Your Mother’s Storytelling Is Completely Different
I would argue that, despite their surface-level similarities,FriendsandHow I Met Your Motherwere two very different shows. Their comedy styles are hard to compare.How I Met Your Mother’s comedic stylewas in tune with the kind of humor developing on the internet, especially recurring jokes like Barney’s Bro Code and the"Have you met…?“game.
How I Met Your Mother’s writing truly felt like a new era of network TV comedy, leaving behind ’90s-’00s sitcoms likeFriends,Frasier, andEverybody Loves Raymond.
Friends’humor feels more straightforward. The longer it went on, the more the show relied on our previous knowledge of the characters, leaning into situational and physical comedy. Both approaches worked for their respective shows, butHow I Met Your Mother’s writing truly felt like a new era of network TV comedy, leaving behind ’90s-’00s sitcoms likeFriends,Frasier, andEverybody Loves Raymond.
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Of course, it’s hard to forget thatHow I Met Your Mother’s andFriends’narrative structures are very different, too.Friendswas never working towards a specific goal; sure, the characters' relationships continued to develop, and certain storylines influenced others, butHow I Met Your Motherhad a narrative destination in mind from the very beginning: Ted meeting the future mother of his children.
The entire story is written with that fated meet-cute in mind. Yes, as the series continued, changes were inevitably made to the show’s hypothetical original outline, accommodating character development and the actors' performances. Yet every flashback, every flashforward, and every relationship brought Ted one step closer to meeting the Mother. The late Bob Saget’s narration frames the entire show.Friendsnever used any narrative devices like that.
How I Met Your Mothertruly belongs to a different graduating class, including shows likeThe Office,30 Rock, andScrubs, all of which, much likeHow I Met Your Mother, were trying something new and slightly more experimental, distancing themselves from the massive cultural behemoths that came before.
On the surface,FriendsandHow I Met Your Motherdo have a lot in common, but it’s hard to say whether one is truly better than the other; they might just be too different.
Friends
Cast
Friends is a television sitcom that debuted in 1994, revolving around six young New Yorkers navigating the complexities of adulthood. The series highlights their friendship as they support each other through personal and professional challenges, encapsulating the ups and downs of life in a comedic and relatable manner.
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is a television series that follows a father telling his children about his past. Released in 2005, it explores his experiences and adventures with four close friends, leading up to meeting their mother, as depicted through a series of flashbacks.
