Oct 01 2008
How I Met Your Mother to live a Lifetime
Variety reported last week that Lifetime, the network famous for made for TV tearjerkers came out on top in a competitive bidding war for the rights to air reruns of the criminally underrated CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
I’m of two minds about this. I’m happy that HIMYM will be getting some play elsewhere, as syndication is generally a good thing for shows that are still in production (though it’s currently not scheduled to start until September 2010, I’m crossing my fingers that Mother‘s still on the air then). However, I can’t help but be a bit snooty about this. Lifetime? Really? I mean, it’s been awhile since I’ve even accidentally found myself resting on that channel (it’s not in my customized guide so, therefore, it does not exist to my eyes), but the memory I have of it doesn’t gel with the audience that HIMYM speaks to. I’ve always kind of thought that Lifetime was affiliated with Kleenex, in an effort to make middle-aged, stay-at-home moms rub their noses raw while watching weepy stories about women fighting back against various forms oppression (rape, spousal abuse, single motherhood and on and on). There are a myriad of reasons why HIMYM doesn’t fit this mold, but for starters lets point out the obvious one: the main character is a dude! Granted, Ted Mosby started the series desperately searching for the bride of his dreams (kind of chick plotline, that), so maybe he counts as half woman. Which, I suppose, would make the numbers even. Mother‘s also a young show. The characters are all young professionals just starting to make they’re way in the world, no one has kids and for the first two years of the show, no one is married. The show looks and feels young, even if the narrator is a thirty or fortysomething guy talking to his teenage kids. I mean, has the average Lifetime viewer ever even played laser tag?
Still, Lifetime wanted the show bad. Variety says the sum they paid is second only to Two and Half Men (blech!) for the first cycle of exclusive cable rights. Perhaps the network’s trying to give their brand a newer, younger, funnier face. Lets hope.
