By debuting in January, mistakes of HIMYM’s finale give it an advantage, the spin-off series may miss out on one of the best aspects of the original show.
While HIMYM season 1 primarily set up Ted’s pursuit of love, will they/won’t they dynamic with Robin, and the gang’s personalities, the series used an important trick to underscore its big moments and memorability early on. In the first season alone, How I Met Your Mother features three major holiday-themed episodes, each of which help move forward the plot while establishing themselves as some of the series’ greatest installments. HIMYM season 1 episode 6, “The Slutty Pumpkin,” is the show’s most iconic Halloween episode, episode 9’s “Belly Full of Turkey” kicked off the show’s Thanksgiving traditions, and episode 11’s “The Limo” proved Ted and Robin’s endgame love story wasn't over as they kissed on New Year's Eve.
By virtue of premiering in the Fall, How I Met Your Mother had the opportunity to include multiple holiday-themed episodes just within its first 11 episodes, thus sealing its rewatchability factor extremely early on. On the other hand, How I Met Your Father season 1 debuts on January 18, 2022, thus suring the most popular annual holidays of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. While there are still a few minor holidays set within the timeframe of How I Met Your Father’s 10-episode order like Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, these holidays don’t have the same yearly impact or thematic memorableness as the celebrations in HIMYM’s debut season.
While How I Met Your Father's pilot episode premiering in January does most likely signal the absence of Christmas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, it doesn’t mean that this is absolutely the case. Ted Lasso season 2 debuted in July and still managed to include a Christmas episode in August, though this wasn’t the show’s original plan. Apple TV + ordered two extra episodes for Ted Lasso season 2, which meant tacking on Christmas-themed and Coach Beard-centered episodes. Hulu may ask for the same treatment for How I Met Your Father so as to maintain the big celebrations and moments depicted in HIMYM, thus including a major holiday outside of the normal timeline.
That said, How I Met Your Father’s release window is truly risking the loss of such memorable episodes, especially since its sitcom format lends itself perfectly to holiday installments. Through How I Met Your Mother season 9, the show never abandoned its clever use of holidays for progressing its plot, with Thanksgiving specials, Christmas episodes that hinged on the main characters’ friendships, and zany Halloween premises lending some of the show’s most iconic moments. If How I Met Your Father’s season extends past St. Patrick’s Day in March, it still has the chance to repeat HIMYM’s important season 3 episode centered on this holiday in which Ted and the mother were unknowingly at the same bar. How I Met Your Father doesn’t necessarily need holiday-themed episodes to succeed, but it would be missing out on a key element that made How I Met Your Mother so special.