I have learned that the controversial sequence was not the only conclusion the HIMYM writers considered. I hear creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas also contemplated an alternate ending, which will be included in HIMYM‘s upcoming DVD set. I hear the alternate ending does not involve additional footage but rather a different editing of the episode. HIMYM producers and studio 20th Century Fox TV would not comment on any specifics of the alternate closing, but a source described it as a “happy ending.”
Source:
More at Deadline
Are you fucking kidding me right now, Bays and Thomas? ARE YOU SERIOUS WITH THIS?
ReplyDeleteLOL, look at me raging all over again. I told my parents - both of them have never watched an episode - about the ending and my mom called it "fucking stupid". They ruined every single character to get the ending they wanted.
The only way I can accept this finale is to believe that Barney and Robin end up in a Perry Cox/Jordan Sullivan-like relationship.
Beat my to it by a minute.
ReplyDeleteYay, I will definitely consider this canon if I like the alternate ending.
If this is better than what I saw than I will watch this before buying the DVD. I wasn't going to buy it but now I think if this ending is any good I will.
ReplyDeleteRaging again. So angry right now. Ranted to both my parents, who had never even watched the show, and Mom called it stupid.
ReplyDeleteThey ruined every single character just to get the ending they wanted, and I am not happy about this.
The only way I can accept the finale is to believe Barney and Robin end up in a Perry Cox/Jordan Sullivan-like relationship.
Yeah, I hope someone puts on youtube.
ReplyDelete''I hear the alternate ending does not involve additional footage but rather a different editing of the episode.''
ReplyDeleteMeh, still doesn't sound like I'd enjoy it tbh... but maybe I'll be surprised.
People can certainly consider this their head canon, if they like –– doesn't change the way the show ACTUALLY ended...
ReplyDeleteWe've elected to ignore it because it was stupid and ruined everything they've spent nine years building up to.
ReplyDeletePoint still stands, lol. The way it ended...was the way it ended, and the way the creators saw fit to.
ReplyDeleteYEEEEESSS!!!! Oh boy, I can watch HIMYM again <3
ReplyDeleteSame here
ReplyDeleteYeah sure, but they also saw this one as a possibility, so it depends on how you want to luck at it. For all we know, they might have flipped a coin to decide which finale was going to air
ReplyDeleteLOL seems like negative reviews of the finale got to the creators. I sorta wan't to know if that one's any good so I can watch HIMYM all together.
ReplyDeleteCarter confirmed it on twitter just now.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the "real" enging was a happy one:)
ReplyDeleteMass Effect 3 like Damage Control!
ReplyDeleteAh... so they're releasing Sheinberg's "Love conquers all" version?
ReplyDeleteVery well put.
ReplyDelete"I hear the alternate ending does not involve additional footage but rather a different editing of the episode."
Someone already did this and posted it on vimeo.
This isn't more than damage control by CBS and the studio to avoid the DVD set sales going down. If you hated the ending then don't fall for this. If you liked the ending then go buy the series on DVD.
I have no plans on getting the DVD Box Set either way. Will probably wait till someone uploads the alternate ending online.
ReplyDeleteHa, okay. Only point was – it doesn't change or affect the narrative. Same as JK Rowling's comment about Ron & Hermione being a mistake. It happened. It's done. An interview doesn't change that, neither does an edit of the episode that COULD have happened, but didn't. :)
ReplyDeleteEven if you put the same footage into a different sequence of events, it won't negate Barney's sudden reversion to season two (since when do you have to have a playbook to get a woman pregnant accidentally anyway?), the fact the mother died with much glossing over and without really getting to know her, the fact Tracy is just Ted as a woman since she was never fleshed out, and I mean all you can really do is cut the blue French horn scene out, but even then, it's still the same ending we had before. I'll withhold judgement until I see it for myself, but if they aren't adding new footage, I can't see how changing the sequence of events changes the mistakes. The final episode should have been the final season instead of the wedding being the entirety of the final season.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of Marvel Studios finally bringing in a true Mandarin after the flack they received for making Aldrich Killian the Mandarin.
ReplyDeleteBarbar can you upload this is into youtube also ?
ReplyDeleteHow I Met Your Mother - TM / TM - Ted Mosby and Tracy McConnell (The Mother)
http://vimeo.com/90960377
How I Met Your Mother - TM / TM - Ted Mosby and Tracy McConnell (The Mother)
ReplyDeletehttp://vimeo.com/90960377
We don't care. We'll believe in our ending and what we want. I don't recognize Dexter ending or S8. Far as I'm concerned, Debra shot Dexter at the end of S7.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it will be removed from YouTube due to copyright violation.
ReplyDeleteHow I Met Your Mother Finale Alternate Ending
ReplyDeleteThanks to Julianna Bixby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQrSAC2LVsA
"the alternate ending does not involve additional footage but rather a different editing of the episode." Surprise! The kids are dead too.
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, I don't know what to make of this. Before the finale aired I had every intention of buying the series box set, then afterwards had no intention of watching an episode ever again. If this alternate ending fixes some of the finale's damage then I'll maybe reconsider... Won't ever change the damage they've done with Plan A though, that's for sure.
We're def. in the minority here, but I'm with you. =D
ReplyDeleteAnd...everyone claiming Tracy was just a place holder, and how him & Robin reuniting, somehow negated the love he had for her –– are forgetting she had Max before Ted.
Saying that, is essentially diminishing HER love for Ted, by saying she shouldn't have/couldn't have moved on either.
They're both reunited with their first (not ONLY) loves now. Her in death, and him with Robin now. It's tragic, and poignant, and to me, made for a bitter-sweet end.<3
It affects it if you have two choices and you decide to go for one or another. The difference between this and Harry Potter is that JK Rowling didn't develop an alternate ending (at least not at the time) and so there is only a vague idea of how things could have done differently, whereas Carter Bays and Craig Thomas developed an entire different ending that does affect the narrative, which I imagine is not as vague as saying a couple worked out for the best or not. It will be up to the fans to choose the ending they are going to consider as real. Both of them seem equally valid to me at least, after all they came from the minds of the creator
ReplyDelete...Just not the one they stand by. And as of that tweet, STILL stand by, which makes it more real, in my opinion. The other can def. be seen as a "head canon," as what was supposed to happen...but didn't. Though we can just agree to disagree. :)
ReplyDeleteI personally don't like the idea of reuniting with your first love, and I saw this show as being about people who managed to move on and find something better along the way. I wanted Ted and Tracy to last together and live happily with their kids because it would have meant that all the pain that Ted went through with Robin meant that he could get past her, but chasing after her after Tracy's death instead of dating anyone else in the world makes me think that Ted is exactly the same guy that we saw on the pilot, with no character development whatsoever and that makes me mad.
ReplyDeleteBut as I said, that is because I saw the show that way, because that's what the show seemed to be about for me. I don't think I'm wrong for looking at it that way, after all before the finale the meaning of the show was always open to interpretation and you could take any position you wanted on the subject. I think this ending could have worked for me if the show wasn't so insistent on the subject that Ted had to move on from Robin, or if it didn't push Robin and Barney as hard as it did. Since it didn't, the finale seemed like a copy paste of what they planned 9 years ago to me
I agree to disagree in this instance ;)
ReplyDeleteI think we can agree on that. I think there were good raw ideas in the finale, but as a whole it wasn't build up well enough and well... the whole Robin/Ted thing I will probably never accept, but that's me, and I admit there's something in the personal level on why I will never like the couple
ReplyDeleteUh, I wonder how "alternate" this ending could be...cutting it at the train station? Don't know where that would leave Robin...but either way, still incredibly pleased with the REAL ending, which just seems better and better as I think on it. And not to mention aided by the extremely well-timed reruns I've seen that shows how well the series was tied together (pilot, "Something Blue," etc).
ReplyDeletethey cant take this "ending" back like some sorta defective manufacturing. its always gonna be out there.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely with you as well. It was a bittersweet ending, but still a happy one. Seeing an alternative ending could be interesting, but it will never be the real, original one. Carter & Craig clearly saw this as the perfect ending to the story they were telling, and I think it's perfect as well.
ReplyDelete"If this alternate ending fixes some of the finale's problems then I'll maybe reconsider."
ReplyDeleteThat's their plan! Don't fall for it! They screwed up big time and now this is all damage control because the backlash threatens their bottom line. If I were you, I'd wait till someone uploads it online; save yourself the money.
New ending: Robin & Barney never divorced & even adopted a baby. The Mother is alive & kicking and hence still married to Ted. End of story!
ReplyDelete2 words: damage control
ReplyDeleteMeh. "Here's crap you hate but for $40 you can buy the alternate."
ReplyDeleteNow
accept an alternate ending where Tracy isn't killed off as canon and
have that be the version sold into syndication, then I'll be impressed.
It could potentially cut off mention of Tracy's death which would be a very popular move, though would it then just not mention illness, or even why they were crying in Vesuvius? But yeah doubtful it undoes the error of making a three year story arc between Barney and Robin worthless in 15 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI never liked Ted and Robin as a couple because I was told for 9 years not to like them as a couple, given loads of evidence why they don't work, topped with just the right amount tortuous teasing about the upcoming pairing that promised to be so much better.
ReplyDeleteI could have liked T/R but they would have had to tell the story differently. Not just the finale either, but most everything post-Stella,
They have chosen... poorly.
ReplyDeleteThe only edit I can think they'll make is the removal of the French horn. Other than that, I don't know what else they can really get rid of. Maybe Barney's #31 nonsense, though I though the best scene of the finale was Barney holding Ellie for the first time.
ReplyDeleteYeah I doubt they'd want to undo Barney holding Ellie, too. Even those of us who despised the finale think that scene, along with the meeting at Farhampton were done perfectly. #31 is obnoxious but far less so if they had just given us any name. (Well, preferably not the name "Quinn," that'd just be poking the fanbase bear in a different way...)
ReplyDeleteIf the alternate only cuts the french horn and leaves Tracy dead, I expect all that will do is reignite our disgust with the ending. It would be a major backfire... (salute)
Personally, from what it sounds like, it makes it seem like they're only just editing an alternate ending so the fans buy the DVD boxset. Maybe they did briefly consider an alternate ending, but from my standpoint, it looks like they're trying to get back their sales for the DVD by saying that they had an alt ending planned the whole time and they're releasing it with the Complete Box Set, just so people buy it. I personally don't think they were really going to have any alternate ending, not after what they've been tweeting about standing by their original ending and not seeing any problems with it.
ReplyDeleteBarney-Robin shippers= Losers,who never understood the show
ReplyDeleteBabar you are a delusion! a great HIMYM fan,who now hate the series only because he didn't like a bittersweet ending...come on!
ReplyDeletei agree =)
ReplyDelete"I am a delusion"? What does that mean?
ReplyDeleteI never said i hate the series, I said that I can't watch the episodes the same way again.
I think the proof that Carter & Craig saw this as the perfet ending is that the alternate one, apparently, is made of editing scenes, not new footage...
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can't see how it could be TOO different if they're using mostly the same footage...
ReplyDeleteIf I go by your logic I could say something equally as dismissive as Writers = people who don't understand the complexity of grief and so make fictional 'children' gloss over their mother's passing and have the exact same, unrealistic reaction to it and the idea of their father moving on.
ReplyDeleteBut you see, the reason this is dismissive is that the writers might have placed in this situation and so might understand it and might have had the events in their own life play out in a similar way. But nevertheless, that doesn't negate my own anger, or my reaction to something that I feel to be appalling.
I suppose the difference to our two situations is the fact that your anger is making you react to a fan's opinion rather than the actual show itself. For some reason you feel their reaction to be appalling, even when they offer a reasoning behind their emotive state. Which is just as equally bizarre as my own disportionate response.
I hope the dvd set will also have the 18 cut minutes. I'd like to see that scene between Ted and Robin where she mentions her encounter with a bull (and also Barney NOT wearing a suit).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'll get the season 9 DVDs as soon as they will be sold in France. There were great episodes, and though the ending did not bring what I hoped (I wanted a happily ever after for the Mosbys), I like it as it is.
- For me, Tracy is THE ONE. No doubt. All the flashforwards between Ted and her show clearly he was more happy than ever before. If she did not die, they would have still be together on that front porch
- Ted said it in "The End of the Aisle" : love is the best thing he does. It reminds me a bit of "The Day of the Doctor", with The Man who Regrets and The Man who Forgets. I see Ted as the Man who Loves. In the 6 years since Tracy died, he can have reconnected with Robin. And he admitted they were platonish at best. So I see Ted going to Robin because they both lost something, but they have a shot at being happy together as they are now.
My only complaints are eventually that I am sad to learn Tracy died (Cristin Milioti was so perfect as her), and that the scene with the kids would have been better without the laughs : I feel this scene has the tone of the first seasons, while a sadder tone would have fitted better now. I understand they filmed it because the actors are now adults; but a scene with them as they are now could have been fun and a bit meta (kinda "Kids, it seems to me you matured while listening to my story").
Anyway, HIMYM will remain a favorite of mine, and I am sad to think I'll never see new episodes with this awesome gang.
I'm with you on pushing Barney/Robin, (there is a reason Joey & Rachel stopped dating after like, a week). ;)
ReplyDeleteTo your other points, whether or not it was the right thing to do, wasn't exactly what I was getting at, ha –– it was more that saying how he 'used,' Tracy for kids, and was 'filler,' isn't true.
Tracy LOVED Max, just as Ted loved (and will always on some level) love Tracy, who, yes, I still view as his, 'soul-mate.'
Surely we can agree on that? Lol