CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother” — which uses time as a central storytelling device — featured newspaper headlines in Monday’s episode to contrast fantasy and reality.
“The premise of it is how, throughout life, you’re always imagining what things are going to be like down the road, and you never quite guess correctly,” show creator and executive producer Carter Bays told TVLine.
That was deliberately true in the episode, in which the news headlines defied reality and belief. Ted Mosby, who is on a journey to meet his children’s future mother, imagined his future every three years. In each of those scenarios, which were never accurate, there was a newspaper signaling the gap. These headlines appeared on the front page of the Independent Metro-Daily:
- 2003: “President Gore signs historic bill into law”
- 2006: “President Dean calmly addresses the nation”
- 2009: “President Kucinich kicks ass, as expected”
- 2015: Mosby is surrounded by piles of newspapers; the only visible headline: “America regrets giving Bush surprise third term”
“How I Met Your Mother,” currently in its seventh season, is attracting its largest audience ever. The show airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
