In the years since How I Met Your Mother aired its polarizing finale in 2014, I have heard people argue that the central protagonist, Ted Mosby (played by HIMYM cast member Josh Radnor), is the worst character on the show. Speaking as a longtime fan of the beloved TV sitcom, I am not going to lie and say that these arguments are totally invalid.
However, I also believe that the hopeless romantic is still a decent human, a great friend, and is absolutely worthy of the love he eventually finds. In case you still don’t agree, I reviewed the best HIMYM episodes and compiled more than enough evidence to prove that Ted’s strengths outweigh his weaknesses.
Ted Steals The Blue French Horn For Robin
In the very first episode of How I Met Your Mother, Ted Mosby proves his chivalrous romantic side by stealing a uniquely colored brass instrument from the restaurant where he and Robin (Cobie Smulders) had their first date. This sort of thing is, of course, frowned upon and not something I would recommend, but Robin does admire the trouble he goes through to acquire such a meaningful gift.
Ted Tries To Help Barney Become A Better Boyfriend
In "Robin 101," Robin begins to have second thoughts about her new relationship with the formerly commitment-phobic Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris). Robin's ex, Ted, instead of using this as an opportunity to break them up, tries to help the relationship by offering Barney dating tips based on her personality, known habits, etc.
Ted Convinces The Gang To Do The Right Thing
"False Positive" sees the gang meet for a screening of It’s a Wonderful Life, but Ted ends up going alone after giving the others a much-needed talk about their priorities. He encourages Robin to chase after her dream job instead of taking a job flipping a coin for a game show, Barney to use a surplus of money for charity instead of a diamond-encrusted suit, and Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan) to continue trying to conceive, which they began to grow hesitant of.
Ted Invites Lily To Be In His And Marshall’s First Roommate Photo
Much of Season 5's "Say Cheese" sees Lily criticizing Ted for "ruining" group photos by inviting his then-girlfriends to pose in them, until they remember when Ted asked Lily to join him and Marshall for their first photo as roommates. Marshall and Lily had only been dating for a short while, but a refreshingly optimistic Ted encouraged his friend not to fear a potential breakup that could have made the picture an awkward memory.
Ted Spends Thanksgiving Volunteering At A Homeless Shelter
How I Met Your Mother's first Thanksgiving episode, "Belly Full of Turkey," sees Ted and Robin showing up at a kitchen feeding homeless people, where they are very surprised to see Barney (who turns out to be completing court-ordered community service). Ted even steps in to do right thing when he discovers that some of the volunteers have been stealing some of the food for themselves.
Ted Helps Robin Find Her Locket
In Season 8's "Something Old," Robin comes close to finding a locket she once buried in Central Park with Ted's help – an otherwise kind gesture that Barney was later angry at Ted for doing behind his back. Ted later jumps through several hoops to retrieve the lost heirloom but does not end up giving it to her, based on the advice of others who believe it could potentially ruin her engagement with Barney. Regardless, his commitment to relocating something so personal to her was heartwarming.
Ted Sells His Car To Help With Marshall's Financial Woes
Season 3's "The Chain of Screaming" sees Marshall reach a breaking point over his insurmountable debt, crooked apartment, and demanding boss, leading him to quit his job when he needed it the most. To help keep his best friend afloat for a little bit in his time of financial need, Ted decides to sell the blue Toyota Camry Hybrid he had recently purchased (but never had a chance to drive) and hand Marshall the profit.
Ted Puts On An Astonishing Holiday Light Display To Cheer Robin Up
Season 7's "Symphony of Illumination" is a How I Met Your Mother episode that puts Robin in the spotlight, focusing on her emotional reaction to learning she cannot have children. Ted, without even knowing this secret, makes it his solemn duty to cheer his roommate up by decorating their apartment with a beautiful holiday light display set to an AC/DC song.
Ted Covertly Prevents Barney From Manipulating A Woman
In a flashback to the night they first meet each other from Season 3’s “How I Met Everyone Else,” Barney coerces Ted into helping him pick up a woman named Audrey by posing as his non-hearing friend, Edward, but is shocked to learn he actually speaks American Sign Language, as does Audrey. Barney believes Ted put out a good word for him in ASL, only for Audrey to give him a fake number. As it turns out, Ted, who was still far from calling this womanizer a friend at that point, revealed Barney’s dishonesty to Audrey and convinced her to give him the fake number.
Ted Takes Stella On A Two-Minute Date
In Season 3's "Ten Sessions," Dr. Stella Zinman (former Scrubs cast member Sarah Chalke) admits she likes Ted but tells him that, by juggling work with being a single mom, she would only have time for a "two-minute date." Instead of giving up on them, he sets up an elaborate date involving dinner, a movie, dessert, and a stroll down the street all within that tight timeframe, marking the start of their relationship.
Ted Stays By Tracy’s Side Through Her Illness
At the end of How I Met Your Mother's series finale, "Last Forever," we discover that, during the entire time Future Ted (voiced by Bob Saget) has been telling his children this story, his wife, Tracy McConnell (Cristin Milioti), has been dead from an unnamed disease. During her illness, he has the strength to commit to caring for her at every step and to raising their children on his own after she passes.
Ted Chooses His Friends Over Karen
After Ted reunites with his pretentious, manipulative college girlfriend, Karen (Laura Prepon), in "The Front Porch," she dumps him when she finds another woman’s earring in his bed, which Ted later learns was planted by Lily to break them up. Lily comes clean about it to Karen, who tells Ted they can never hang out with her or Marshall again, which ends up being the long-awaited final nail in the coffin for their toxic relationship.
Ted Helps Marshall Get Over Lily
How I Met Your Mother's first season had a bittersweet ending, with Ted and Robin finally getting together and Marshall and Lily suddenly splitting up after a decade together. The Season 2 premiere sees Ted doing whatever he can to help make his buddy feel better... with his new girlfriend around for much of it. Then again, Robin was very supportive, too.
Ted Aspires To Make Up For Hurting Victoria
In Season 1's "Nothing Happens After 2 AM," Ted commits his all-time stupidest mistake by making out with Robin when he is still in a long-distance relationship with Victoria (Ashley Williams), who is at a culinary institute in Germany. After running into her years later at the Architect's Ball in Season 7's "Ducky Tie," he immediately strives to earn the now-engaged baker's forgiveness by offering to do her dishes, which does, admittedly, almost lead to Victoria making the same mistake Ted made that ended their relationship. Still, Ted's initial effort to atone for his sin in this episode is aspirational.
Ted Gives Marshall The Perfect Christmas Gift Idea For Lily
In Season 2's "How Lily Stole Christmas," Lily gets angry at Ted when she hears an answering machine message he left when she and Marshall were broken up in which he calls her an insult we only hear as "grinch." However, they are able to patch things up after Lily learns that Marshall's idea to give her the same Easy-Bake Oven she wanted as a child came from Ted.
Ted Invites Robin To Stay In His Guest Room
At the beginning of Season 4's "Not a Father's Day," the unemployed and homeless Robin is staying with Lily and Marshall, which cuts significantly into their plans to start a family. By the end, Ted comes up with the idea to let Robin stay in his spare bedroom until she finds another place to live, but, as Future Ted points out, this would mark the beginning of the exes' new, years-long relationship as roommates.
Ted Pays Milt To Get Marshall’s Charts Back
In Season 4's "Right Place, Right Time," Ted unwittingly throws out the important charts that Marshall made for work, along with his unnecessary ones. He finds them with a homeless man named Milt (Dan Castellaneta), who demands $1 million in exchange for them. Ted agrees to pay him $1 per day for the next one million days and is able to get Marshall his charts back so he can continue on with his work presentation.
Ted Chooses To Spend Thanksgiving With The Lonely Zoey
"Blitzgiving" marks the end of Ted's rivalry with Zoey Pierson (Jennifer Morrison), but only after it comes to a searing peak when the gang attempts to spend Thanksgiving with her, during which he compares her to Cinderella's wicked stepmother. Ted comes to realize that her step-daughter actually hates Zoey, which explains why she was spending the holiday alone, and decides to share the meal with her after all and become her friend.
Ted Encourages Robin To Admit Her Feelings To Barney
In Season 8's "The Final Page," Ted (whose feelings for Robin had recently resurfaced) learns that Barney plans to propose to Patrice and promises to keep it secret, but instead tells Robin, knowing she still has feelings for Barney. He takes her to the World Wide News building so she can have a chance to do something about it. While we later discover that he was being manipulated by Barney as part of an elaborate plan to propose to Robin, Ted's willingness to put her interests before his own was one in a million.
Ted Moves Out Of The Apartment For Marshall And Lily To Keep
Many changes to the gang have come to pass at the beginning of Season 7's "Karma," including Robin moving out of Ted's apartment, leading to a search for a new purpose for the now-empty guest room. Ted eventually decides to make it a bedroom for Marshall and Lily's unborn child after he realizes his time at the apartment has ended and leaves it to them.
Ted Urges Victoria To Leave Her Groom A Note
In the Season 7 finale, “The Magician's Code: Part 2,” Victoria chooses to leave her fiancé, Klaus (Thomas Lennon), at the altar for Ted, who learns in the Season 8 premiere, “Farhampton,” that she has not left him a note explaining her absence. Having been on the other side of this situation when Stella left him, he convinces her to go back to the venue to at least make sure she gives him a proper goodbye. As it turns out, though, Klaus was too nervous to go through with the marriage anyway.
Ted Chooses Acceptance Over Revenge On Stella
At the end of "Happily Ever After," the Season 4 episode that follows when Stella leaves Ted at the altar, Ted is ready to tell her off about picking her ex, Tony (Jason Jones), over him and moving with him to New York. However, after seeing how happy they look together with their daughter, Lucy, he realizes that he and Stella were never right for each other in the first place and chooses to leave them be and move on.
Ted Gives Up His Best Man Position
In Season 2's "Bachelor Party," Marshall discovers that Barney was partially responsible for helping get him and Lily back together. After hearing that story, Ted tells his longtime best friend that Barney deserves to be the Best Man at his wedding. Of course, Marshall ends up choosing to make both of them his co-Best Men.
Ted Tries To Avoid Hurting Naomi’s Feelings
How I Met Your Mother's first Halloween episode follows Ted's longtime search for a woman in a suggestive pumpkin costume, whom he finally meets again in Season 7. Unfortunately, he soon realizes that Naomi (Katie Holmes) is not the one for him, but takes his time working up to the break-up so he can let her down easily. However, it turns out she felt exactly the same way, and it took a drink of her specialty cocktail, The Tootsie Roll, to find the courage to be honest with him.
Ted Honors The Robots Versus Wrestlers Tradition
The gang’s history of attending Robots Versus Wrestlers has a rocky beginning in the Season 5 episode of the same name, in which Ted initially chooses a high society party over the sporting event. He later realizes that, although they sometimes give him a hard time, he should put his friends first. Future Ted later explains that, no matter what, the gang would reunite for the event every year, as seen in a moment from the series finale.
Ted Buys A House
After attending his mother's wedding to her new husband in Season 5's "Home Wreckers," Ted begins to feel a bit stuck and decides, hoping to speed things up in his life a bit, to put a down payment on a house. Some fans may call this an impulsive and desperate move, but I believe it is a beautiful way of holding on to his dream of one day having a family and making sure he has a home to give them when that happens.
Ted Invites Tony To His And Stella’s Wedding
Few people would have the backbone to invite their fiancée's ex to their wedding, but that is just what Ted does in Season 4's "Shelter Island." He could not help but feel sympathy for Stella's former boyfriend, Tony, who felt shunned from seeing the mother of his child get married. I still recognize this as a perfectly mature and quite bold gesture, even if it did lead to Stella's decision to leave Ted at the altar.
Ted Tries To Suppress His Crush On The Married Zoey
Ted's rivalry with Zoey Pierson eventually turned into a friendship that slowly evolved into something more, but he initially tried to prevent it from moving in that direction to avoid wrecking her marriage to George "The Captain" Van Smoot (Kyle MacLachlan). It turns out Ted had nothing to worry about as Zoey was going through a divorce at this time, but choosing to keep things platonic and not act on his feelings toward a woman he believed was still married is the mark of a stand-up guy.
Ted Replaces Robin’s Door Mat
In Season 1's "Game Night," Ted is forced to reveal that he, while heavily inebriated, broke his “vomit-free since ‘93” streak onto Robin’s welcome mat. The episode ends with Robin opening her apartment door to find a new, personalized mat on the floor, which we are led to believe came courtesy of Mosby.
Ted Rents A Limo For New Year’s Eve
Future Ted opens How I Met Your Mother's first New Year's Eve episode reflecting on how rare it can be to have a good time ringing in the New Year, which Present Day Ted is out to change. He goes out of his way to make sure his friends enjoy the transition from 2005 to 2006 by renting a limousine (driven by their cabbie friend, Ranjit, played by Marshall Manesh) and mapping out a guide to all the best parties in New York.
Ted Chooses His Friendship With Robin Over Marrying Victoria
In a Season 8 storyline that feels borrowed from a Friends episode (and not the only time the show was accused of that, as pointed out by ScreenRant), Victoria accepts Ted's marriage proposal, but on the condition that he stops being friends with Robin, whom she believes has kept him from maintaining a relationship. No person should force their romantic partner to cut ties with someone they consider family, even if Victoria may have been right that Ted still had some lingering feelings for Robin. Regardless, it was clearly a difficult decision, and Ted made the right call.
Ted Decides To Move To New Jersey For Stella
Despite his fervent disdain for New Jersey, Ted decides he is willing to leave New York and move in with his fiancée, Stella, instead of the opposite like he previously assumed the arrangement would be. He ended up staying in New York after all, due to the ill-fated wedding, but it was still a selfless gesture.
