Characters sweeten stereotypical romantic comedy

This is from the 2/3/06 Daily Orange. Cool news ... a publicist from 20th Century Fox, which makes "How I Met Your Mother" e-mailed me to say she liked the article. Thanks to my darling sister for bearing with me and playing the show with me on speaker so I could transcribe quotes.

Never judge a book by its cover or a television show by its title. Despite being terribly named, "How I Met Your Mother" is a sweet romantic comedy that endearingly portrays the years between college and settling down.

Architect Ted (Josh Radnor) is desperate to fall in love after his best friend Marshall (Jason Segal) gets engaged to his longtime girlfriend, schoolteacher Lily (Alyson Hannigan). When he meets local cable news reporter Robin (Cobie Smulders), he thinks he's met "the one." Instead, Robin becomes part of his tight-knit circle of friends, a group rounded out by the obnoxious womanizer Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). The show is narrated via flashbacks from a grown-up Ted (voiced by Bob Saget), who is telling his teenaged children how he met their mother.

"How I Met Your Mother" is like watching "When Harry Met Sally" in weekly half-hour increments. It is romantic without being overly sappy. It is imbued with hopeful optimism about love, without forgetting how ridiculous the search can be.

When Ted meets a mysterious girl at a friend's wedding, they agree not to exchange information, so they will have one perfect night together (just like in the romantic comedy "Serendipity"). When he ultimately tracks the girl down, he launches into a sappy soliloquy about love to his friends, only to be shut down by them for thinking too much.

"How I Met Your Mother" also has a surprising amount of depth for a traditional sitcom when dealing with issues faced by people in their 20s. Although Lily practically lives at the guys' apartment, she is reluctant to give up her own place because it's important for her to maintain her independence.

"It's like fat pants," Lily tells Robin. "You hope you never have to use them, but you're glad to know they're there."

Meanwhile, Ted fears he will lose the apartment to Marshall and Lily, so he begins fighting with them. Marshall and Ted wind up in a silly sword fight scene, but what Ted says expresses the loneliness he really feels.

"You and Lily get to be married," said Ted. "What do I get? I get to be unmarried, alone, minus two roommates and on top of that, I get to be homeless. Does that seem fair?"

Adding to the comedy of the show is a very un-Doogie-like Harris, whose character sounds like he read a manual teaching him how to be a player. When Ted asks him to call a bridesmaid from the wedding to track down his mystery girl, Barney refuses. He reasons that he can't call the girl

"because we just hooked up last night. I can't call the girl the next day. I have to wait at least, like … forever. Oh snap. Never gonna call her," he says.

Likeable characters keep "How I Met Your Mother" from becoming just another sitcom about young professionals living in impossibly large Manhattan apartments while looking for love. Instead, it balances romance, comedy and a realistic look at the issues facing post-graduates.