i know i'm one of the only people on ilx who watches *how i met your mother* on a regular basis, but did anyone else see the robin sparkles episode? where robin didn't want people to know that she had

because we're a week away from November Sweeps

what are november sweeps?

one of several 'sweeps' periods during the course of the US television season. generally they are times when they establish that more people watch tv than at other times of the year (i think this is how it works?) so they all compete with as much new programming and, usually, bigger storylines.

most important thing is that the ratings during sweeps are used to determine advertising buy rates, so this is when every network puts out their most gimmicked programming, attention grabbing stunts (am I fired because I'm a lesbian?), celebrity stunt casting, and even pulling weak shows temporarily just so keep their numbers up (current example: Dollhouse being pulled until December for reruns of House... it's doing that badly).

it's typically held in November, February (mid-season debuts and returns), May (season finales) and July (this one I don't totally get, but I guess summer still needs to be monitored). note how the month before all these tends to be stuffed with reruns

if you remember earlier this year there was a kerfluffle because sweeps had been "moved" from february to march because the mandatory switch for broadcasters going from analog to digital signals was originally supposed to be in feb. -- nielsen said they didn't want this to effect metering -- of course, then the date was pushed to June. this led to some mix ups, some networks went with it and moved their new episodes to march (including this show, i believe), others took the usual route anyway

just laughed all the way through barney's one man play.

epic episode

shut the bagpipe up!

Loved Ted calling himself "T-Mose"

best episode of the season so far, but still not really feeling it. maybe i'm just not that interested anymore.

yeah i don't want to be a downer - i'm still enjoying the show, but i don't feel like any episode's really hit it out of the park yet, it feels like they're kind of coasting on standard sitcom relationship plots still (i mean, this one had two: committed couple vs. newly in love couple, and the couple that pretends everything is great when shocker! they're fighting all the time), like they don't know what else to do with the Barney/Robin pairing. but what's nice about their pairing is that they don't care about maintaining the typical relationship facades, like lily/marshall do... in theory

otoh, lily's extra sluttiness this season has been wonderful

haha yeah, between the stripper lily and the barney fantasy sequence it's almost like she's asking the writers to find ways to have her slut it up without totally changing the character

'people upstairs making lol noises' also a pretty obvious sitcom convention.

i have really enjoyed this series but only since i finally admitted to myself that it would never do anything as awesome as say the original Slap Bet or the one about seeing a friends play again.

i don't think the plots or the Barney/Robin pairing are bad per se, but considering how funny Robin had gotten in the last couple seasons i think they're kinda squandering her by making her the new default straight man to Barney's antics -- her shutting down Ted's nicknames was like a little glimpse back of the stuff they used to give her to do more often

you're totally right, Robin is strangely subdued for these arcs, when the last couple years she's really gotten awesome

Ted making up New Relationship Smugness, or NRS for short, is a further sign of him becoming Barney.

well that made me :(

love horny lily so much tho.

best ep of the season i thought, i was dying when they were all in the station wagon

oh it was a great episode, i just wasnt expecting them to kill off robin/barney so quickly.

i got squat!

can't believe they didn't use the opportunity to bring back Ted Moseby: Sex Architect, though

also whenever Murder Train comes back it's always amusing!

^^^yes!!! to both of these!!!

yeah the stakeout and "legend WAIT FOR IT...s of the fall, legends of the fall" were great but it was definitely subpar for me, although a lot of that was just cringing at them totally going for it with NPH in fat makeup.

they seem to kind of change relationships once every season but maybe they saw that there wasn't that much fuel in the barney/robin thing after all. although marshall and lily only stayed broken up for like half a season so nvm.

marshall and lily have tons of chemistry, but barney and robin have pretty much none, hate to say

the fat suit stuff was kind of lame, but lily's kraken plan was really amusing. i'm kind of glad they did this, though, to end the generic sitcom couple plots - that they cut it off so early probably means they realized it just wasn't working, as you say

I thought it was dumb for the writers to put Barney and Robin together and then have them act like a conventional couple, so I'm glad it's over.

tonight's episode in the uk featured Winnie Cooper and Audrey from Dawson's Creek...

tricycle ep, right? that was ok, but it's always nice to see those two. and she is Kim Kelly from Freaks and Geeks!

cbs seems to be delaying putting the full episodes up on their site by a week now. lame.

oh, i just assumed they weren't doing it at all after the first few episodes. now i can catch up.

just watching an old episode + the school teacher from mad men is on it

crazy eyes?

no it was blah blah

http://www.have-you-met-ted.com/wp-content/uploads/howimeteveryoneelse2.jpg

well, blah blah is the crazy/hot scale girl, but i can see how that's easily confused w/ crazy eyes girl

that girl is, and i quote wikipedia, "also known for her role as the blogging enthusiast in Twix advertisements."

that girl is, and i quote myself, "slammin"

would slamsh

two volume set, right here

It was kind of weird seeing Susan Sarandon Jr. with her top on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_von_Matterhorn

After the airing of this episode, "Lorenzo von Matterhorn" (one of Barney's playbook aliases) became the most common Google search for the day of November 16, 2009

oh man, yesterday that was a page dedicated to how big Lorenzo's penis was, and how he floated down a river as a baby and was adopted, and references to how the river & adoption was in Milan probably contributed to his excellent sense of style.. Too bad it's gone!

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lorenzo_von_Matterhorn&oldid=326284305

Great episode, the mozart music during the intertitles was a good touch I thought.

I wonder if they'll do something special for the 100th episode that's coming up. It struck me the other day that CBS rarely if ever does the extended hour long sitcom specials that NBC does.

It's supposed to be a musical, I think? I hope Jason Segel gets to do a dracula song.

last 5 minutes of tonight's episode were most excellent. also the convienence store man's widow crying.

shocked they didn't milk that ted "i love you" gag, that was great

The ILY gag almost got me, it really felt like one of Ted's dramatic/romantic declarations for a second.

brittney and sarah chalke just then. nice episode, i am a sucker for ted's concept dates (see also 'drumroll please')

is this the first time we've seen ted's kids this season?

love marshall's time-traveling adventures.

surprised they did it two weeks in a row. i loved the post-credits thing in both episodes

lilly's voice was an easy joke but done to perfection. also the chair cameraman a+