This Day in Pop Culture for March 31

2014: How He Met Their Mother

The unique CBS sitcom, How I Met Your Mother had a clever twist. Both Josh Radnor and Bob Saget played Ted Mosby – Radnor in the current storyline and Saget 25 years later. In the series, Ted tells his teen children (Luke and Penny) about how he and their mom met. Then, the story would go into flashbacks.

Ted worked as an architect in New York. His friends included law student Marshall (Jason Segel) and his girlfriend kindergarten teacher Lily (Alyson Hannigan), Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) who thought of himself as God’s gift to women and Robin (Cobie Smulders), a Canadian news reporter. The show ran for nine seasons and Ted’s eventual significant other; Tracy (Cristin Milioti) did not appear in the series until the finale of the eighth season.

According to Mental Floss, the scenes which involved Luke (David Henrie) and Penny (Lyndsy) were all shot during the first season of the show, since the kids would no longer be kids by the show’s finale. They signed non-disclosure agreements and had to keep silent about how the Ted met Tracy for nine years.

The show began with good ratings and reviews. However, that all changed on this day in 2014 when the series finale revealed everything. It now has the distinction of being one of the worst TV series finale ever.

In 2013, CBS had planned a similar series (who no ties to the original) titled How I Met Your Dad. It never made it past the pilot stage. However, another series, How I Met Your Father streamed on Hulu in 2022, but was cancelled after two seasons.

1997: Invasion of the Teletubbies

Popular as it was controversial, the British pre-school TV series, Teletubbies aired for the first time on this day in 1997 and continued to air in the U.K. until 2001.

The show was created by Ragdoll Productions and was praised for its high production values but was criticized for being a show to get toddlers hooked on TV with little educational value.

In the U.S., controversy arose about the show in 1999 when the Rev. Jerry Falwell accused the Tinky Winky character of being a gay role model because he was purple, he had an antenna that was shaped like a triangle and carried a purse. Distributors of the show made it clear that the character was not gay and the “purse” was actually a “magic bag.” 60 more episodes of the series were created in 2015 for some reason. (Image: PBS)

1940: When ‘Oklahoma!’ Was a Broadway Flop

Much like the bad press that the Broadway show, Spiderman: Turn off the Dark received in 2010, another show in the 1940’s, Away We Go also received bad press before it even opened and was considered a “flop in the making.” However, unlike Spiderman which closed January 4, 2014, Away We Go changed a few tweaks, including the title.

Oklahoma! ran for 2,212 performances over 15 years. Oklahoma! opened on this day in 1943. It was the first project with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein working together. Since then, the show has been revived on and off-Broadway numerous times. So much for this flop.