# The official HIMYM alternate ending... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554 "2014-10-17T01:48:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/1 "2014-10-17T01:48:20Z")
I don’t like the background music (it’s too jaunty) but [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoHUs8J7x94) is how it should have ended… (Not fan made; this is from the DVD set) ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/2 "2014-10-17T03:18:38Z")
Much better. I _like_ to be happy. So sue me! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/3 "2014-10-17T04:14:54Z")
Here’s a third for “Much better.” ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/4 "2014-10-17T06:43:38Z")
I didn’t watch the show much, but I know about the controversy over the ending. Is the entire “alternate ending” just spliced-together footage that ran earlier in the series? It felt like it to me, from my limited knowledge (mostly because none of it struck me as stuff that wouldn’t have run in the series proper). If so, that’s pretty lazy, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/5 "2014-10-17T09:39:20Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > I didn’t watch the show much, but I know about the controversy over the ending. > > Is the entire “alternate ending” just spliced-together footage that ran earlier in the series? It felt like it to me, from my limited knowledge (mostly because none of it struck me as stuff that wouldn’t have run in the series proper). If so, that’s pretty lazy, isn’t it? This wasn’t made in reaction to fan criticism; they had made it and chosen not to use it (wrongly, as it happens). ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/6 "2014-10-17T09:42:04Z")
I know that — what I was asking was, it seemed to me that this “alternate ending” was just stitched together footage that had already aired earlier in the series, but everything I read seems to treat it as new footage. That first meeting scene certainly LOOKS like something they would’ve already aired in its entirety earlier (and in fact, seems to match some stuff I’ve read about that first meeting from before the finale aired). So is any of the footage used in the alternate ending “new” or not? ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/7 "2014-10-17T09:53:56Z")
The whole conversation with Tracy would be the first time we’d heard it. Presumably they would also do the catch up with Marshall and Lily, and have some different outcome for Robin. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/8 "2014-10-17T11:17:54Z")
I prefer the one that aired. This one is boring. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/9 "2014-10-17T11:53:27Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > The whole conversation with Tracy would be the first time we’d heard it. > > Presumably they would also do the catch up with Marshall and Lily, and have some different outcome for Robin. Huh? The under the umbrella conversation was in the ending that aired. Actually, I prefer the version they used. The alternate is just too much a standard schmaltzy Hollywood happy ending. As aired, Ted wound up with two real loves in his life and wound up with Robin who perhaps was his true soulmate. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/10 "2014-10-17T13:22:08Z")
The footage was all the same but the narration was different. I am one of the few that didn’t hate the ending we got originally (I think watching the Pilot just before I watched the finale helped me appreciate it more) but I still liked this better. The scene under the umbrella was so perfect it seemed good to end on it and I liked how this tied the entire series up in bow. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/11 "2014-10-17T14:10:45Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Huh? The under the umbrella conversation was in the ending that aired. > > Actually, I prefer the version they used. The alternate is just too much a standard schmaltzy Hollywood happy ending. As aired, Ted wound up with two real loves in his life and wound up with Robin who perhaps was his true soulmate. Personally, my issue wasn’t with the eventual trajectory, but rather that most of the really interesting stuff was done in the span of a few minutes by way of flashback. The unsatisfying part wasn’t that Ted ended up with Robin in the end, but rather that we had 7 years of hijinks and then in the span of a few minutes, we get all the really life-changing stage-setting stuff. I mean, marriage, kids, and the death of a spouse in 5 minutes for Ted, and marriage and divorce for Robin and Barney, and a kid for Barney was just kind of overwhelming, and considering that we’d just met Tracy for the most part, to unceremoniously kill her off was pretty annoying as well. The happy ending one didn’t really do that, even if it was kind of the trajectory we all sort of expected out of the show. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/12 "2014-10-17T14:24:16Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Huh? The under the umbrella conversation was in the ending that aired. I said **would be** , not **is.**. Leaper was talking about if this was the ending that had aired would it just be clips from previous episodes. The answer is no, The TM/TM conversation would have been new. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/13 "2014-10-17T19:42:53Z")
I like the alternate ending better. Going through all of that for seven years for him to end up with the woman that was never right for him? Puh-lease! ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/14 "2014-10-17T23:04:56Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I prefer the one that aired. This one is boring. Ditto. I thought they did an excellent job with the ending. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/15 "2014-10-18T04:54:27Z")
This alternate ending just felt like it went out of its way to undo all the things people disliked about the original ending. The mother lives (in spite of the pre-existing groundwork they laid for her death) and there’s a line suggesting that Barney and Robin might get back together. I didn’t like the original ending, but this one just felt sloppy and bland. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/16 "2014-10-18T14:40:41Z")
The original finale didn’t work. The original storyline would have worked if they’d paced out the last season entirely differently. Had there been only 2-3 weeks at the wedding (maybe 5 at the absolute most), followed by 15 episodes of developing what happened between Ted & Tracy showing us more of the many hints they’d dropped over 8 years about how well the clicked together along with how they dealt with the illness, some time showing the Barney and Robin marriage dissolution (and coming up with a better reason for it other than “her career meant he was bored” - which is something that didn’t make sense for either character), some time showing Ted grieving & allowing the audience to go through it with them, and then wrapping back around to Ted with the blue french horn - it might have worked. It would at least have had a shot in hell of working. (It still has some problems. There’s still the “I don’t want to have _kids_ in Argentina” v. “I don’t want to have kids in _Argentina_” problem with Ted & Robin as a couple. Of course, had we spent more post wedding time with the characters and seen what had happened to them, it would be easier to understand how they were going to get over that.) As it was, with them stretching out the wedding weekend for over 10 hours, there were several episodes about how Robin & Barney were meant to be together. Not one, but several where they convinced the characters and argued to the audience that that was a relationship that made sense. There were more than a few about how Ted and Robin had let go of each other. Trying to undo all of that in under 30 minutes was crappy storytelling. Also, those 30 minutes turned 3 of the 5 main characters into horrible people (there are arguments that they already were horrible, but the ending they wrote cemented Lily, Robin, and Barney as just awful human beings.) The “alternate ending” (which I don’t think they put together until after the reaction to the first ending) is trite. But it fits more with the tone and arc of 9 years leading up to it than the original. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/17 "2014-10-18T14:55:37Z")
**amarinth** , I mostly agree with your assessment, but what in the finale made Lily so horrible? ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/18 "2014-10-18T15:28:22Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I like the alternate ending better. Going through all of that for seven years for him to end up with the woman that was never right for him? Puh-lease! The ending actively pissed me off. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/19 "2014-10-18T15:49:52Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I prefer the one that aired. This one is boring. Me too. But of course I was sure the whole show’s run that Ted and Robin would end up together, and I was right. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554/20 "2014-10-18T16:00:01Z")
I also prefer the one that aired. The only thing I would’ve done differently is after the show fades to black, it comes back to 2030 Marshall and Lily, she gives him $1, he says “Told you they’d end up together.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-official-himym-alternate-ending/701554.md?page=2)