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How "How I Met Your Mother" changed the way we watch TV
Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2012
Category: General
Author: Scott Larkin
The internet and social media have revolutionized our lives, including the way we watch and experience TV. We don't just sit back and watch anymore-we interact. We follow our favorite characters on twitter and Facebook. We chat with people across the world while watching the same show. The list goes on.
But before we ‘liked' pages and tweeted hashtags, How I Met Your Mother led the way in using the internet to connect with its audience.
For those of you unfamiliar with HIMYM, it's about a dad telling his kids the story of how he met their mother. It's completely off-the-wall and there isn't another show like it on TV. Everything in the show is told as a flashback, so naturally it allows for some narrative flexibility and exaggeration that makes for hilarious TV.
From the pilot episode, HIMYM has used the internet to give its audience an unprecedented chance to interact with the show's characters and universe. In the pilot, Barney Stinson, one of the show's characters, references his blog. Sure enough, Barney's Blog exists.
That was just the beginning.
Every time the characters reference a fictional website, that site is up and running by the time the episode airs. This has resulted in several ridiculous websites over the years, including www.notafathersday.com and www.tedmosbyisajerk.com. If you want to laugh for a couple of hours, go here for a full list of HIMYM websites.
The creative forces behind HIMYM have also published three books, The Bro Code, Bro on the Go and The Playbook, after they appeared on the show. All of these tie-ins work to merge the show with the real world and provide a fun experience.
HIMYM led the way in developing interactive TV experiences using the internet, which further evolved with the introduction of social media channels. We will no longer passively watch TV shows, we experience them in ways never before possible. And as our channels continue evolving, so will the interactions between TV shows and reality.
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