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HIMYM Co-Creator Says the Show's Team Was 'Very Aware' and 'Nervous' About 'Seeming Too Much' Like Friends

'How I Met Your Mother' co-creator Craig Thomas explains how the show's flashbacks and framing device differentiated it from 'Friends.'

When How I Met Your Mother premiered in 2005, co-creator Craig Thomas knew that the series was bound to draw comparisons to another hit sitcom about a group of friends dating and mating in New York City. Thomas, who co-created How I Met Your Mother with Carter Bays, notes that while the two shows didn’t overlap, HIMYM ’s creative team was “very aware of not wanting to seem like we were aping Friends." While the show’s main storylines centered on the misadventures of Ted Mosby ( Josh Radnor), Barney Stinson ( Neil Patrick Harris), Robin Scherbatsky ( Cobie Smulders), Marshall Eriksen ( Jason Segel) and Lily Aldrin ( Alyson Hannigan) in the present day, HIMYM ’s unique framing device featured the voice of Bob Saget as an older version of Ted narrating the story of how he met his future wife to his two teenage children 30 years later.

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