"There’s something comforting about that," - How I Met Your Mother creator Craig Thomas explains why people in their 20s still resonate with FRIENDS 

On May 5, 2025, in the latest episode of the How We Made Your Mother podcast, Craig Thomson and Josh Radnor explained why people in their 20s still resonate with the sitcom FRIENDS.

During the podcast, Craig Thomas, the co-creator of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother(HIMYM), explained that old sitcoms like FRIENDS don't feature much modern technology, especially cell phones. He added that the lack of tech gives the show a "comforting" and "timeless" feel.

"I’ve read the same thing and more so about FRIENDS—like people, maybe young people in their 20s and teens, like the sitcom because there’s literally no cell phones really. And there’s something comforting about that," Craig Thomas said.

Josh Radnor(who played Ted Mosby) explained how he recently returned to analog experiences and avoided excessive screen time.

"There's this longing to find some analog piece, you know, to get back with real paper, real books, real newspapers, to put down the screens, to at least, I don't know that we're getting rid of these things, but to at least carve out time that is screen-free," Radnor said.

He further discussed the Jewish tradition of the Sabbath, a weekly day of rest, to disconnect from the screen and recharge, adding:

"It makes me think that you know Judaism had a really good idea in the Sabbath. I think you can do it any way you want, you could pick Wednesday to Thursday or whatever, it doesn't matter."

Josh Radnor also urged people to carve out screen-free time in their lives to protect their mental and emotional well-being.

"You know, like I think we're going to have to start carving out times for ourselves that are not screen-based, and our souls are dependent upon it," he stated.

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Craig Thomas explained how they set HIMYM apart from FRIENDS

Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders, Josh Radnor, and Christin Milloti at The Paley Center For Media's PaleyFest (Image via Getty)

In an exclusive interview with People Magazine on March 10, 2025, Craig Thomas explained that many shows before FRIENDS tried to replicate the sitcom but failed to do so.

"So, there was a long trail of failed attempts to harness what Friends was," Thomas added.

He admitted that the How I Met Your Mother creative team was "aware" that their show might look similar to the classic NBC series. He added that it was similar, especially in terms of marketing, saying:

"Of course, we knew that the poster for the show was going to look like a Friends-esque show."

He explained that this made them "nervous" because they didn't want people to think they were copying the sitcom.

Craig Thomas explained that to stand apart from the sitcom, they used a "different storytelling structure." It was done particularly by playing with time, narratives, flashbacks, and flashforwards.

Thomas further explained that their goal was for viewers to immediately recognize that How I Met Your Mother was not just another clone of the long-running comedy sitcom.

"Our hope was that the rhythm and the storytelling style, immediately, in the pilot, indicates that whether you love or hate How I Met Your Mother, you're not going to hold against it that it's just trying to completely emulate Friends, because we weren't. We were hoping not to do that," Thomas remarked.

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Aired on CBS from September 19, 2005, to March 31, 2014, How I Met Your Mother is a sitcom that follows Ted Mosby. He recounts to his children the story of how he met their mother, all while navigating life and relationships with his close group of friends in New York.

Meanwhile, the episodes of the How We Made Your Mother podcast are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Amazon Music.