Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Who was the main character in How I Met Your Mother?
"How I Met Your Mother" (often abbreviated to "HIMYM") is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005. The 2013–14 season is the show's ninth and final season. The series follows the main character, Ted Mosby, and his group of friends in Manhattan. As a framing device, Ted, in the year 2030, recounts to his son and daughter the events that led him to meeting their mother.
After their short-lived television series "Family Album" was canceled, television writers David Crane and Marta Kauffman pitched "Friends" to then-NBC president Warren Littlefield as a sitcom about "that special time in your life when your friends are your family," basing the show on their own experiences as young people living in New York; the main characters themselves were inspired by their own friends. Conceived as a young woman who is unprepared for adulthood, the character Rachel Green (occasionally spelled "Greene") was originally named Rachel Robbins in the pilot. Although critics and audiences initially perceived Monica as the show's main character when "Friends" premiered, the writers had actually given Rachel the pilot's most prominent storyline. Before deciding that Rachel and Ross would be an item for the entire series, the writers had originally intended for the show's defining couple to be Joey and Monica. However, after the success of the pilot, in which Rachel and Ross' developing romance is first hinted at, and witnessing Aniston and co-star David Schwimmer's on-screen chemistry for the first time, Crane and Kauffman determined that the entire series relied on "finding all the wonderful roadblocks for them to be with each other."
Series creator Matthew Weiner says "Flight 1" is about how the characters deal with change. "The second episode to me is about...how you should react to anything and what you were told you should do..." Pete Campbell has to deal with the loss of his father, and goes to Don asking how he should react. Weiner had Pete's father die in the American Airlines crash because Christopher Allport, the actor who played Pete's father, had died in an accident. They thought since Pete and his father did not have a good relationship, that it was better to have him die rather than recast the part and keep that storyline going. Peggy Olson is still dealing with the birth of her child. Weiner still wanted to portray Peggy as a young girl. Although she had a child that does not stop her from going out and having a good time. Peggy seems to have done what was recommended to her by not keeping her baby, rather letting someone else raise it. This episode showed many characters do as they "should" and follow the advice of others.
1992 saw the weekly airing of his self-titled comedy show "Howie" with multiple guest stars such as Gilbert Gottfried, Little Richard, and Lita Ford as the in-house band guitarist. His character Bobby made a regular appearance on the show. In 1994, Mandel voiced the lead character, Little Howie, of the video game "Tuneland". He starred in the sketch comedy series "Howie Mandel's Sunny Skies" in 1995 on Showtime. Mandel appeared in the 1995 Clint Black country music video "Summer's Comin'". He played the lead role of the professor in the short-lived TV series "The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys", and guest-starred on a 1996 episode of the ABC TV series "" as DC Comics supervillain Mister Mxyzptlk. In 1998, he hosted his own syndicated talk show, "The Howie Mandel Show", which was cancelled after one season. In 1999/2000, Mandel played "Jason" in the film "", was the voice of Jack in the movie The Tangerine Bear in 2000, and in 2002 played the Sand Man in the movie "Hansel and Gretel". In 2006, he appeared as himself as a guest host in a parody of "Deal or No Deal" in the show-within-a-show of the TV series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". In 2007, he guest-starred as himself in an episode of NBC's "Medium", making a dream cameo of himself on "Deal or No Deal." In that episode, he booted off the nighttime drama's protagonist for "cheating", since in the show he is a psychic medium and appeared to "know" the contents of the cases. Mandel plays his alter-ego, Phil Skorjanc, in most of his comedy shows and these are a fan favorite. Bobby also made a cameo appearance in a February 2007 episode of "Deal or No Deal". On a special 2-hour Christmas episode, first aired on December 25, 2007, Mandel delivered one line with Bobby's voice, as per request of the contestant.
Michelle Fowler (also Holloway), played by Susan Tully from 1985 to 1995 and Jenna Russell since 2016, is the daughter of Arthur Fowler (Bill Treacher) and Pauline Fowler (Wendy Richard). Although she is one of the brighter people in Walford, that does not stop Michelle making some huge mistakes during her time in Albert Square. Michelle has a habit of choosing the wrong men and her stubborn nature means that she rarely accepts anyone's help or listens to good advice. She is tough, feisty, determined, outspoken and never afraid to defend herself or her beliefs. Early on in the series, the character of Michelle becomes central to the programme and is the focus of a controversial storyline involving her teenage pregnancy. Press interest in the show escalated to "record levels" as journalists continuously tried to predict who had fathered Michelle's baby. In whodunnit fashion, the audience had been kept in the dark as to the real identity of the father and were given teasers implicating several residents on The Square. The audience finally discovered the culprit in episode 66 of the programme, October 1985. The episode was written by series co-creator/script editor Tony Holland and directed by co-creator/producer Julia Smith, and was considered to be a landmark episode in the show's history. Four possible suspects are seen leaving the Square in the early half of the episode: Tony Carpenter (Oscar James), Ali Osman (Nejdet Salih), Andy O'Brien (Ross Davidson) and Den Watts (Leslie Grantham). As Michelle waits by their rendezvous point a car pulls up and finally the fluffy white legs of Roly the poodle bound out of the car, and give it all away: Den Watts is the man meeting Michelle and it was he who had fathered her baby. The rest of the episode consists of just one long scene, where Den and Michelle discuss whether or not to keep the baby. Up to that time it was the longest scene ever done in a soap-opera, lasting fifteen minutes.
In the first episode, Dr. Michael Rossi (Ed Nelson) arrives from New York City to set up practice in town. Newspaper editor Matthew Swain (Warner Anderson) tells him people usually try to get away from towns like Peyton Place, not move to them. Matthew's third cousin Allison MacKenzie (Mia Farrow), a close friend of classmate Norman Harrington (Christopher Connelly), has begun to fall in love with his older brother, Rodney (Ryan O'Neal); she is smitten as soon as they share their first kiss. At the end of the episode, Allison's mother, Constance (Dorothy Malone), makes it clear she disapproves of her daughter's newfound relationship with Rodney.
Mildred "Millie" Hubble is the protagonist of the series. She is a good-hearted, but bungling young witch-in-training, who never seems to get anything right. She is friends with Maud Spellbody and Enid Nightshade and has a strong rivalry with Ethel Hallow. It is Miss Hardbroom, her potions teacher, who calls her "The Worst Witch".
Drescher and Jacobson created their own television show, "The Nanny", in 1993. The show aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999, and Drescher became an instant star. In this sitcom, she played a woman named Fran Fine who casually became the nanny of Margaret ("Maggie") (played by Nicholle Tom), Brighton ("B") (played by Benjamin Salisbury), and Grace ("Gracie") Sheffield (played by Madeline Zima); with her wit and her charm, she endeared herself to their widower father: stuffy, composed, proper British gentleman, and Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). She reprised her "This is Spinal Tap" character of Bobbi Flekman, a look-alike for her Fran Fine character, in Season 5, Episode 3 of "The Nanny".
Michelle went on to feature in controversial storylines such as her daughter's kidnapping, a shooting, and a brief liaison with her best friend's ex-husband and her own nemesis Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) — which left her pregnant. This heralded one of the soap's best-kept secrets as Grant never discovered that Michelle had his child. Michelle remained central to the programme for 10 years and became one of the most popular characters of her time. She was written out of it in 1995 when Tully decided to move on. Tully since took up directing, and directed several episodes of "EastEnders".
The episode introduces the protagonist Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler, as well as the other regular characters played by cast members Rashida Jones, Paul Schneider, Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman. Knope is a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. In "Pilot", Knope sets out to turn a construction pit into a park after local nurse Ann Perkins (Jones) complains about the dangerous pit during a town meeting. Her anti-government boss Ron Swanson (Offerman) reluctantly allows her to form an exploratory committee after her friend and colleague Mark Brendanawicz (Schneider) secretly intervenes on her behalf.
The main characters of the show, despite being Soviet KGB officers, have to behave as American-born citizens, and therefore do not generally speak Russian on-screen. But other Soviet agents, immigrants and—later in the show—ordinary Soviet people, converse in Russian. Joe Weisberg explained that achieving believable Russian pronunciation was very important because the show was "so much centered on the world of the Russian Russians and the Russian illegals". In most cases, Russian was the native language for the actors playing Soviet characters. Other actors mastered their lines to sound almost native. In particular, Peter von Berg, who played Vasili Nikolayevich, has experience with Russian plays and was an accent coach. General Zhukov was played by a Polish actor. Annet Mahendru, who played Nina, has a Russian mother and speaks six languages. Mahendru praised Matthew Rhys for his efforts in delivering a few phrases in Russian, adding: "It's really important to everyone, so they're all trying, but it's a difficult language for all of us — even those of us who are fluent in it!"
Ben Mears, a successful writer who grew up in the (fictional) town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine (known to locals as "Salem's Lot" or "The Lot"), has returned home following the death of his wife. Ben plans to write a book about the “Marsten House”, an abandoned mansion that gave him nightmares after a traumatic (and possibly supernatural) childhood experience. Once in town, he meets local high school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a romantic relationship with Susan Norton, a young college graduate.
The popular television sitcom "Full House" made child stars out of Jodie Sweetin and the Olsen twins. After the show, Sweetin went on to develop an addiction to methamphetamine, as well as alcoholism. She later overcame this and wrote a memoir describing her experiences. Mary-Kate Olsen and Tracey Gold ("Growing Pains") developed eating disorders, for which they were treated with intensive rehab. Anissa Jones, of "Family Affair" fame, overdosed on August 28, 1976 at age 18.
Naomi Clark was initially developed by the series' original show-runner, Rob Thomas, who was succeeded by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah prior to the premiere. Early press releases described the character as a privileged, attractive, and popular teenager, prompting the media to draw comparisons to Kelly Taylor of "Beverly Hills, 90210", the first series of the franchise which launched "90210". As production of the spin-off began, the part would become more defined, with actress AnnaLynne McCord, who received the role, labeling Naomi an intelligent girl who possessed both manipulative and sensitive sides. She further described the character as "kind of a chameleon", stating that "she'll be someone with the principal and then someone else with her mother and then someone else with her friend."
Rick falls out of love with Caroline and begins falling for an underprivileged aspiring actress, Maya Avant (Karla Mosley); he attempts to dump her but Caroline begins scheming to remove Maya from his life. By this point, she was described by Jamey Giddens of the website Zap2it as "cunning" and scheming "blonde vixen", enjoying her new "fantastically-bitchy" persona. Joanna Johnson, upon her return to the series, characterized Caroline as having changed into "a total bad-ass crazy person" who needed "mothering". Speaking on her character's progression, Godfrey explained: "I really love the dimension that [the writers] added to Caroline because when I first came on the show, she was this very sweet and very meek girl. Then she became this very sassy, aggressive 'mean girl.' I was so excited when they turned her into a layered woman who had these very strong thoughts and opinions and didn’t back down to anyone, but she also wasn’t being a catty little girl any more. She was just strong."
The season nine premiere episode aired on September 23, 2013 and the one-hour series finale aired on March 31, 2014.In the year 2030, Ted Mosby (voiced by Bob Saget) sits his daughter and son down to tell them the story of how he met their mother.
Even though the interest most people have in Mr. Palin comes from his involvement in Monty Python (and that defines the range of dates for the diary, as we learn that the first day of filming for "Monty Python’s Flying Circus" was Tuesday, July 8), the book mainly takes the reader through the common life of the author, who manages to keep his feet on the ground through the stresses of fame and fortune, and someone whose happy family make his achievements as an entertainer less enviable than his home life.
The finale episode of "The Good Wife": "End" had a divided reaction among viewers and critics, with many praising a fitting ending to a complex character with others who argued of its ambiguity and absence of a conclusion - particularly with Alicia's love life. The finale drew controversy in its last scene when Diane Lockhart slaps Alicia Florrick after betraying her in court to save Peter from jail. Alicia is then left alone in a hallway before walking away to a future of uncertainty regarding her relationship with Jason, her career and political life. Vanity Fair noting "As Breaking Bad famously tracked the evolution of Walter White "from Mr. Chips to Scarface," "The Good Wife" followed Alicia as she evolved into Peter. The Kings claim the show was "moving in the direction where there wasn't much difference between who Alicia was and who her husband was." Is Alicia a villain or an anti-hero? It's hard to quite see her that way after all the good she's done for so many seasons. But the inclusion of Will Gardner in the finale momentarily humanizes Alicia while also highlighting the idea that Alicia's transformation into Peter has been a longtime coming." and claiming that "The show's incredible finale belongs to an earlier age of television." Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker said "it was an ending that commanded respect." The show garnered a huge backlash on social media and has been rated one of the lowest episodes of the series on IMDB. In anticipation of a divided audience, Robert and Michelle King penned a letter to the fans explaining their creative decisions.
A principal cast of six actors received star billing in the show's first season. Poehler portrayed the lead character, Leslie Knope, the naive but well-meaning, eager-to-please deputy director of the parks and recreation department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Poehler said, upon reading the script provided by Michael Schur, "it took me five minutes to realize Leslie Knope was the best character ever written for me". She also felt it took a few episodes before she started "feeling my groove" with the character, but came to realize the cast was extremely talented and "would eventually become like family". Also among the cast were Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford, a sarcastic parks department employee, and Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, a nurse who befriends Leslie and tries to help her turn a giant construction pit into a park. Daniels and Schur intended to cast Ansari and Jones (who previously appeared in "The Office" as Karen Filippelli) from the series' earliest stages of development, but the ultimate "Parks and Recreation" concept did not coalesce until they learned Poehler would be available to star. After her recruitment, the general concept of the series was established and the script for the pilot episode was written.
Michelle Fowler (also Holloway) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", played by Susan Tully from the first episode in 1985 until the character's departure in 1995. In December 2016, it was announced Michelle would be returning to the show after 21 years, with actress Jenna Russell taking over the role making her first appearance on 24 December 2016. In her first stint Michelle made some huge mistakes during her time in Albert Square mainly through having a habit of choosing the wrong men and her stubborn nature meant that she rarely accepted help or listened to good advice. Being determined and outspoken, she has never been afraid to defend herself or her beliefs. Since the recast to Russell in 2016, Michelle's storylines have revolved around her having had an illegal relationship with her student, Preston Cooper (Martin Anzor) in America, a love triangle involving her niece Bex Fowler (Jasmine Armfield), crashing Phil Mitchell car into the local chip shop and being stalked by Tom Bailey (Daniel Casey). Russell's departure from the show was announced in March 2018, and Michelle departed on 17 April 2018.
On 23 December 2016, a day before her return, it was reported that Michelle would be returning, but that the part had been recast to Jenna Russell. Of her casting, Russell said: "It is a great honour to play such an iconic character. I know the audience loved Michelle Fowler so much, and even though she hasn't been on our screen for 20 years, she's very much in the fans' psyche. When I used to watch "EastEnders" all those years ago, she was one of my favourite characters. I'm extremely excited for what is in store for Michelle." Executive producer Sean O'Connor said he is "thrilled to have secured Jenna Russell to play Michelle Fowler, one of the show's most celebrated characters" and "the Square really has missed her over the past twenty years." O'Connor added, "Jenna was always in mind when I first started planning for Michelle's return". O'Connor also said Michelle is "still flawed, complicated and infuriating after two decades away, but still loveable all the same. It's going to be appointment TV watching Michelle's car crash of a life unravel all over again."
"How I Wet Your Mother" is written by Billy Kimball and Ian Maxtone-Graham and was directed by Lance Kramer. The title of the episode is a reference to the TV show, "How I Met Your Mother". The plot spoofs the film "Inception", with various scenes parodying certain moments from the film. The episode is also the fourth to feature the character of Mona Simpson, who had previously died in "Mona Leaves-a". The name of character B.F. Sherwood is a parody of American psychologist B.F. Skinner.
Tracy McConnell (colloquial: "The Mother") is the title character from the CBS television sitcom "How I Met Your Mother". The show, narrated by Future Ted (Bob Saget), tells the story of how Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) met The Mother. Tracy McConnell appears in eight episodes, from "Lucky Penny" to "The Time Travelers", as an unseen character; she was first seen fully in "Something New" and was promoted to a main character in season 9. The Mother is played by Cristin Milioti.
During its first eight seasons, "How I Met Your Mother" often hinted at the unseen character of The Mother. Carter Bays and Craig Thomas wanted to cast a lesser known actress in the role to avoid audiences associating the Mother with the actresses' previous roles, similar to how Cobie Smulders being cast as Robin Scherbatsky had "kept the show alive" when it began. Bays and Thomas also did not want a large casting call. They chose Cristin Milioti after seeing her on "30 Rock" and "Once"; her musical ability was also helpful, as The Mother had been described as a band member. Milioti filmed her first scene for the last episode of season 8 having never watched "How I Met Your Mother" before. She only learned of the character's importance after binge watching the show during the summer.
Kaitlin Thomas from TV.com has also given the episode a positive review, saying, "'How Your Mother Met Me' was a great 200th episode for How I Met Your Mother. It was something different, but it was also a long time coming. It fleshed out a character we've been hearing about for nearly nine years but still didn't really know, and it was one of those patented emotional episodes the series does so well that sometimes I wonder why it even bothers with pure comedy. How I Met Your Mother could easily be a successful 30-minute dramedy if it wanted to be, and I maintain that it's at its best when it's doing these kinds of emotional stories. I didn't expect the Mother to have loved and lost at such a young age, but it worked for the show and for her character, and it added a nice bit of depth to the woman Ted will soon love, and that we already do."