<Tr> <Td> ← Previous--</Td> <Td> Next → "Purple Giraffe" </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> List of How I Met Your Mother episodes </Td> </Tr> <P> The pilot episode of the American television sitcom How I Met Your Mother premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005 . It was written by series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, and directed by Pamela Fryman The pilot takes place in 2030, as a future Ted Mosby (Voiced by Bob Saget) is telling his kids the story of how he met their mother . It flashes back to 2005 to a younger Ted (Josh Radnor) who meets Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), a reporter who he becomes smitten for . Meanwhile, Ted's lawyer friend Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel) plans on proposing to his girlfriend Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher . </P> <P> The episode introduces several of the show's storytelling tools, including the framing device of future Ted as the narrator, his children, and many flashbacks to the past, present, and future . Future Ted reveals early the ending of a possible relationship story when he tells his children that Robin is not the mother, but "Aunt Robin". When asked if he regretted revealing that Robin ultimately becomes Ted's platonic friend in the pilot episode, series creator Craig Thomas explains they stick by the decision because they didn't want the show to be about "will they or won't they" like Friends and that, despite their chemistry, it would have been criminal for Ted to decide he was ready to find someone and to have it happen so quickly . He and co-creator Carter Bays said that the show is about how "Ted meets the perfect woman, and it's (still) not his final love story ." </P>

In how i met your mother ted looks back on his life from which year