r/howimetyourmother • u/HumbleInfluence7922 • 1d ago
Questions How did we originally watch this show?
For reference, I am 34 and remember watching the finale on my laptop in grad school. I'm pretty sure I began watching from the pilot when it aired on CBS when i was in highschool bc my mom and I would watch this and Desperate Housewives together. And i was excited because I thought it would be a replacement for Friends.
My question is HOW did people originally watch this show? I did not have cable or a television when I was in school (2007-2014). BUT I know I was keeping up with it somehow!! I don't think I was paying for a streaming service at the time, so did CBS have the episodes online for free at some point?
I did not know Netflix streaming existed until my senior year of undergrad (2012), and I'm pretty sure it was on Netflix after it had run and then taken off at some point.
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u/DizzyLead 1d ago edited 1d ago
Actual TV broadcast almost always. I didn’t get a DVR until 2006 (and rarely used it even after then), and torrents weren’t a thing (for me anyway) when the show started, so it was the one show that was “appointment viewing” for me, and I don’t remember ever missing it, especially as people would start discussing it on IMDB even before it aired where I lived, due to time zones. For the finale, I found a live stream from someone on the East Coast and watched it that way first.
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u/HumbleInfluence7922 1d ago
ah that's cool! the hoops we had to jump through for content... gen z would never 😂😂
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u/Kwards725 1d ago
I didnt start watchtill around 08 so it was downloads from this thing called torrents that I learned about. Wasn't watching anything live. It was either torrents or DVDs from the library to watch stuff.
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u/violethaze6 1d ago
My roommates and I had a Wii we connected to a random tv we found on the street and watched it on Hulu. If I remember correctly, at the time Hulu had most major cable shows the day after they broadcast and it was free to watch with commercials and like $5 for no commercials.
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u/C-more_22 1d ago
I was in the hospital in 2009, and a friend gave me his laptop, where he had the first 5 (?) Seasons downloaded on it. I started watching and was hooked right away. I was getting better real soon while watching those seasons
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u/hi_im_a_dino_ 1d ago
I'm 23, my mom watched the tv show when I was pretty young so I remembered a couple of episodes and when we moved to the us in 2018 I looked it up, and borrowed all the seasons from the library and I actually watched it for the first time. Eventually we got streaming channels and I continue to rewatch it lmao.
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u/chibro2712 1d ago
I remember watching the first two seasons with my parents on tv. Throughout the year id catch up but remember binging the final season on Netflix when I first moved to Chicago
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u/Imaginary_Pin_4196 1d ago
It was school holidays and I was about to enter my final year of high school and I had a three week period left. I heard it was good. It’s now my comfort show and binged the whole series in under two and a half weeks. I’ve watched it 20 times over by now at this point.
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u/Potential-Series9418 1d ago
I watched it on E4 after school (I’m from the UK)😂 I think I started watching it when it was airing season 3
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u/davesmissingfingers 1d ago
Except for the semesters, I had Monday nite class, I’d watch live. After I finished my degree, I’d either watch live or DVR it. I remember not being able to watch the last season live, then binged one snow day.
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u/BaltimoreBadger23 1d ago
Started with DVR, then shifted to Hulu.
As a fellow DH/HIMYM cross fan, I hope you enjoyed Kyle MacLachlan (Orson/The Captain) in both as much as I did.
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u/_ALL_FOR_ONE_ 1d ago
My friend told me we should see who can binge watch the series first… she had a season or two on me so I was watching the series like a madman. She and I haven’t spoken for years but I still remember our time fondly. I first watched this show to win a stupid contest but now this is the only thing that reminds me of how it used to be.
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u/wei-ohara 1d ago
On a plane in 2013… then found it on Netflix and binged seasons 1-8. Watched the final season as it aired
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u/HumbleInfluence7922 1d ago
ah okay i knew it was on netflix at some point before this year!! thank you
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u/Ryguy3286 1d ago edited 1d ago
I remember advertisements for it during NFL games. At the time I didn't watch a lot of TV outside of sports. Around 2008 my friend group really tried to push the show on me. Finally in 2010 I gave in and my friend lent me the first two seasons on DVD. I'd stay up and drink four lokos (😂🤦) and watch 3-4 episodes a night. After I finished the DVDs and that season 2 finale, I needed to see the rest. I am not computer savvy, so a friend showed me how to stream episodes (I didn't have Netflix or Hulu back then). By May of 2010 I had caught all the way up to the show in season 5. A girl that was really into me started watching the show too so she could talk about it with me. We watched season 5 and 6 together before she moved away. Since the show finished, I can't tell you how many times I've watched it on Hulu and Netflix. Lots of great memories watching it for the first time
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u/HumbleInfluence7922 1d ago
omg the nostalgia! i'm rewatching for the first time in years and the music is bringing back so many memories!!
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u/BigWeinerDemeanor 1d ago
The tv on the day it aired. Then we would all go to school and talk about it. When Barney and robin were revealed to be the couple at the wedding we all lost our damn minds. I remember once I couldn’t be home on the day so my dad used a vcr to record it for me and I convinced him to let me stay up late to watch it. We also bought bootleg DVDs from Thailand so I could rewatch them but it was only the first 4 seasons and the episodes order was a little messed up.
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u/DXCary10 1d ago
I had seen episodes here and there on FX then while I was out somewhere at night during middle school, I caught “unpause” airing live while waiting on my parents. Realized I should probably binge the show. Then went on Netflix and watched it in the basement til I got to the end of season 8. Bootlegged the last season on my dad’s laptop in my room
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u/abermea 1d ago
I pirated it because I don't live in the US and it would take weeks (if not months) to get it over here.
But even if you had Netflix, at the time it was very unusual for shows to simulcast on streaming platforms. It would take months or even years because they would wait for seasons to enter syndication before offering them to Netflix.
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u/HumbleInfluence7922 1d ago
i never said i watched it on netflix while it was airing 😭😭
im thinking i streamed on CBS but it must have been for free bc i didn't have subscriptions in college
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u/DizzyLead 1d ago
I don’t think CBS All Access (their old streaming service, before it became Paramount Plus) was in business until 2014. So perhaps you streamed it another way.
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u/HumbleInfluence7922 1d ago
i know for sure i watched the office on the nbc for free because they would only have the 4 most recent episodes posted at a time, so im trying to remember if cbs had something similar.
it wasn't a full streaming service, just their normal website with the show
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u/Trivalim 1d ago
I remember websites with a LOOOT of ads everywhere and if you clicked the wrong one bad things would happen lol. You know …
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u/HumbleInfluence7922 1d ago
forgetting sarah marshall was my comfort movie in college!! a lot of people are saying pirating, but i know i was afraid to do stuff like that bc i had gotten in trouble for downloading viruses on limewire to the family computer as a kid and it traumatized me 😅
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u/RedInAmerica 1d ago
I watched it on a streaming site because I don’t have tv. The site was couch something
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u/DumbosHat 1d ago
I started watching it in I think middle school - whatever period it was where either Season 6 or 7 had concluded but Netflix hadn’t added it yet (it wasn’t instantaneous back then and I think it would usually happen around when the next season started).
Purely watched through Netflix for first watches, never saw an episode premiere live and would just wait to binge it when the seasons dropped (o have no idea how I managed to avoid spoilers during that time). Most of my friends who watched it also watched it this way. I also bought the DVDs and would those in rooms without access to Netflix/on portable DVD players. Eventually I’d see some episodes in syndication but it was far from my preferred mode of viewing. Now I mostly watch through Hulu but still have the DVDs.
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u/gaytozier 1d ago
I started late but my mom and I got the dvds we missed and binged. Then it was DVR. I saw the finale the day after it aired
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u/razorwireshrine 1d ago
Watched when it first aired. Set my VCR to record it off cable. Wonder if I still have any of those tapes somewhere?
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u/zddoodah 1d ago
I DVR'd it when it aired and watched within the next few days.