There's this new show on Mondays, see...

Are you familiar with the term appointment television? Sharon introduced me to the idea. I believe it's a term used in the TV industry. Basically, appointment television is a show that you consistently watch each week. Becoming appointment television for a huge segment of the population is, of course, the goal of every TV producer out there. For me, appointment television almost always consists of various dramatic shows - Lost, Battlestar Galactica, 24 - and a couple reality TV shows - Survivor and Amazing Race. Sitcoms almost never make the list. In fact, until Arrested Development came along a couple years ago, there were zero sitcoms on my appointment television list.

Well, now there's two. The aforementioned Arrested Development is one and now I have added How I Met Your Mother. It's extremely convenient for me that one follows the other on Mondays nights, albeit on separate networks. (Incidentally, Two and a Half Men, which follows HIMYM is one I usually watch too, mostly because I don't want to get off the couch. This is why some timeslots are better than others. Get paired with a good show and your ratings go way up even if you don't deserve it.)

So why is HIMYM so good? It doesn't break as many comedy boundaries as Arrested Development and cetainly isn't as laugh out loud funny, but it is damn funny combined with something AD doesn't really have - heart. I, of course, am a sucker for heart. It also has a great narrative trick. The story is told in flashback by a dad explaining to his two kids how he met their mother. The most recent episode was a homage to the Charlie Brown Halloween episode. Ted, the main character, met a woman at an annual rooftop Halloween party four years ago. She was dressed in a provocative pumpkin costume, and in the telling of the story is called the Slutty Pumpkin. They hit it off and Ted got her number, but then lost it so he couldn't follow up with her. The Slutty Pumpkin became "the one" for Ted. So every year, he goes back to the annual rooftop party in hopes that the Slutty Pumpkin will be there. Of course, just like Linus who waits for the Great Pumpkin each year, Ted is disappointed. But, and this is where the heart comes in, at the end of the episode Robin, one of Ted's friends, shows up questioning herself and why she doesn't seem to want that fulfilling relationship that Ted so desperately wants. "I want to want it," she says. Ted explains that he has faith that someday his Slutty Pumpkin will come. And so will hers. And so, like Lucy joining Linus in the pumpkin patch, Robin joins Ted on the rooftop as they wait for their slutty pumpkins.

Now I haven't even mentioned the funniest character on the show yet: Barney played by Neil Patrick Harris. Yes, Doogie Howser. You know, it's kind of funny that a whole generation will know Harris as the guy from HIMYM mother and my generation will forever remember him as Doogie. I imagine it's kind of like those people for whom Michael Landon will always be remembered as Little Joe from Bonanza and not the dad on Little House on the Prairie, which is how I remember him.

Barney is constantly funny. He's the Kramer character, the wacky friend who does the most outrageous things. If there is a laugh out loud moment in the show, it's almost certainly a Barney joke. Barney even has his own blog.

Finally, there's another character on the show named Lilly played by Alyson Hannigan, who apparently was on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and in the American Pie movies, neither of which I followed. (Side note: Why are actors "on" TV shows and "in" movies?) Anyway, there's a debate raging in Sharon's office about whether or not Alyson Hannigan is hot. (And when I say raging, I mean there's three people quietly arguing about it.) My feeling is she's not hot. She's cute, sure, but hot? I don't think so. Now I don't mean this as a put down on Alyson. I prefer cute to hot frankly. And I am sure she can be hot from time to time if she'd like to be. Here's a picture. Feel free to make your own judgment.