"Its watching someone become a man"— Josh Radnor and Craig Thomas discuss the evolution of Ted Mosby over 208 episodes of How I Met Your Mother

In the recent episode of How I Met Your Mother podcast, aired on March 31, the showrunners of the sitcom talked about the character of Ted Mosby. The show's second episode, Purple Giraffe, was revisited by creator Josh Radnor and actor Craig in the episode.

They further talked about why the rooftop sequence and the Ted-Robin kiss was so crucial and the choice to centre the narrative around three parties that Ted invited Robin to impress her.

Further delving deep into Ted’s character, Josh Radnor, the actor who played the same character in the show, said:

“It feels to me like the arc of him throughout the series is like it's watching someone become a man, You know, it's really watching someone learn how to be whole within themselves, not walk around with this kind of like, are you my mother?”

Ted is the main character in How I Met Your Mother. Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on April 25, 1978, the character is an architect, an Eagle Scout, and a graduate of Wesleyan University.

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Josh Radnor played the character of Ted Mosby, a hopeless romantic who is in love with Robin

Josh Radnor played one of the five primary characters in How I Met Your Mother, Theodore Evelyn "Ted" Mosby. In the premiere episode, Ted decides to look for his soul mate after his best friend Marshall Eriksen gets engaged.

This quest shapes the overall plot of the show, as Ted Mosby searches for the love of his life along with his best friend Marshall, Marshall's wife Lily Aldrin, his ex-girlfriend and present friend Robin Scherbatsky, and his other best friend Barney Stinson.

Ted's path began in 2005 and has led him through numerous failed romances, including being dumped at the altar. The professor-turned-architect, however, isn't giving up on finding love. Ted is getting closer to meeting her with every episode of his life.

He grew up with his father, Alfred, and mother, Virginia, in Shaker Heights. Ted Mosby had a comfortable upbringing as the Mosby family is famous for avoiding any topic that can cause discomfort or controversy.

As a college freshman at Wesleyan, Ted Mosby quickly became friends with Marshall Eriksen despite having relatively few friends growing up. Ted Mosby is also a hopeless romantic and felt that he needed to fall in love quickly after Marshall and Lily got engaged, since his life was going too slowly, according to him.

He is a little geeky but also really nice, passionate, and hopeful. His quick wit and unwavering devotion to those he loves are what make him so endearing. On the other hand, he constantly corrects his friends' grammar and pronounces huge words "the correct way" to appear knowledgeable, which frequently irritates them.

However, Ted Mosby is the group's unifying factor. Additionally, the majority of the time, Ted's attempts to put himself out there don't work out. He consistently drives ladies away by seeming overly serious too quickly.

Meanwhile, talking about the character in How I Met Your Mother podcast’s recent episode, Josh Radnor said:

“Yeah, the other big thematic thing that started to become really clear to me, there's this Jungian concept of the poor air, which means the eternal child. And Ted has this youthful, childlike.

Further describing Ted Mosby's character, he continued:

“I mean, he wants to be a man. He's he who wants the trappings of man. He wants a house, he wants a career, he wants a wife and children…”

He then added:

“Like he wants, he ostensibly wants all these things, but his motor and his kind of worldview is childish in certain ways. There is something about him that is just, he cannot sit still. He cannot be in the present moment without needing to adjust the knobs of the present..”

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Meanwhile, the episodes of How I Made Your Mother podcast is available on Spotify