Ted Mosby - Character History

Character History

Ted, the central character of the show, was born April 25, 1978, is from Shaker Heights, Ohio (like show creator Carter Bays), a graduate of Wesleyan University (like Bays and show co-creator Craig Thomas), and an architect. After his best friend Marshall Eriksen gets engaged in the pilot episode, Ted decides to try and find his soulmate. This quest informs the general direction of the show, and Ted's relationship with the other main characters Marshall Eriksen, Lily Aldrin, Robin Scherbatsky, and Barney Stinson.

He is prone to socially questionable romantic gestures; in the pilot episode, for example, he steals a blue French horn (nicknamed "The Smurf Penis") that was a topic of conversation in his first date with Robin. In a similar vein, in "Slutty Pumpkin", he dresses up as a "hanging chad" every year for Halloween, in the hopes of meeting the "Slutty Pumpkin," a woman dressed as a jack-o'-lantern (complete with strategically placed holes) whom he once met at a Halloween party.

For a time in the first season, he dates a baker named Victoria, whom he meets at a friend's wedding. She accepts a culinary fellowship in Germany, prompting a long-distance relationship, which does not last, due in large part to his persistent feelings for Robin. Ted upsets Robin by implying that Victoria broke up with him when she didn't; Ted and Robin make out before both women realize they've been deceived. Ted and Robin ultimately reconcile as friends, and, in "Come On", Ted makes one last attempt to win her over, hiring a chamber orchestra with blue instruments to play in her apartment while he makes his appeal. She finally falls for him some time later when Ted apparently summons a storm with a complicated rain dance. They date throughout the second season, breaking up in "Something Blue" upon realizing that they want different things from life.

Ted comes from Shaker Heights, Ohio (in real life, Josh Radnor grew up in the Columbus, Ohio area), and described himself as "half-Jewish." He was seen cheering for the Cleveland Indians when they were playing the New York Yankees at a baseball game in the episode "Where Were We?" and also alluded to once being trapped under a fake rock at a mall in Ohio when he was nine in the episode "Slap Bet." He also wears a Cleveland Indians t-shirt in the episode "Sandcastles In The Sand". He and Marshall were randomly assigned as freshman year roommates at Wesleyan, and became best friends on a long, ill-fated road trip. This story was told in "Arrivederci, Fiero".

For a while Ted claimed to be "vomit-free since '93", meaning he had not vomited for any reason since 1993. However, in the episode "Game Night", he reveals that this is not true, and that he vomited on Robin's door mat. He knows French and sign language (presumably American Sign Language), and has a strong tendency to correct everything that people around him say. He also apparently at least reads Spanish, as Pablo Neruda is one of his favorite writers.

It is revealed in "No Tomorrow" that at a St. Patrick's Day party he and Barney attended, his future wife was also present, although he (fortunately) did not meet her that night. Once he returns to the room of the party the morning after, he picks up a yellow umbrella which can be seen blowing in the wind in the season promo. Also, he becomes the second main character to actually own a car (a blue Toyota Camry Hybrid) after getting a raise at his job in "The Chain of Screaming." By the end of the episode, Ted decides to get rid of the car to help Marshall with his money problems.

In "The Goat," Ted tells Barney that he no longer wants to be friends after Barney breaks the "bro code" by sleeping with Robin. The two eventually reconcile in the Season Three finale "Miracles", after both were in accidents (Ted in a taxi crash, Barney being run over by a bus on the way to visit Ted in the hospital). At the end of season 3, it is also revealed that by Ted's 31st birthday, Robin will be living in the apartment.

At the beginning of the third season, an inebriated Ted gets a tattoo on his lower back (his "tramp stamp"). He goes to see Dr. Stella Zinman in order to have it removed, and goes on a date with the doctor in "The Platinum Rule." In "Ten Sessions," he falls for Stella, and after the tattoo is removed, Ted takes her on a two-minute date. They begin dating, and at the end of "Miracles" Ted proposes to her. She says yes at the beginning of the fourth season. In "Shelter Island", Ted invites Stella's ex-boyfriend, Tony, to his wedding; Stella and Tony rekindle their relationship, and Stella leaves a devastated Ted at the altar.

Ted's life continues to see a negative turn during the fourth season. After being left at the altar, Ted has trouble getting back into the dating world, and his job becomes a source of trouble as well. After being hired to design a project for Goliath National Bank, he is fired after weeks of unsuccessful work. He attempts to remedy this by starting his own firm, Mosbius Designs, but it is largely unsuccessful. In the season four finale "The Leap", Ted ultimately accepts a job as an architecture professor offered to him by Tony as a peace offering, though Tony's movie The Wedding Bride, released in the next season, pits a caricature of Ted as its villain against a romanticized version of Tony and Stella.

He reaches a low point in his personal life in Season 7 and confides in Robin that he is beginning to believe that there is no "The One" for him. This reaches a breaking point when he tells Robin he still loves her after she breaks up with her boyfriend Kevin. However, Robin does not reciprocate his feelings and moves out. Eventually Ted gives the apartment back to Marshall and Lily and moves into the apartment Barney's girlfriend Quinn used to live in. In the episode "Trilogy Time" it is revealed that by 2015, Ted's daughter will already be born.

After a few months, Ted decides to patch things up with Robin, and she helps him realize that none of the women he pursued previously, including her, were right for him, with the exception of Victoria, whom she encourages to call. When Ted calls Victoria, she shows up in a wedding dress and says she is ready to run away with him. Initially, he tells her that he would take her back to her wedding, but after realizing how much he likes her he changes his mind and they ride off in the sunset. After dating for a few months, they again break up when Victoria only agrees to marry Ted on the condition that he is no longer friends with Robin. Ted tells Victoria that although he is no longer in love with Robin, that she is like family and is too much a part of his life to not be friends with her anymore.

Although happy for them, Ted is upset when Robin and Barney get engaged. All of his best friends are now involved with each other. In "The Time Travelers", he fantasizes about seeking out The Mother weeks before they actually meet, so that he can tell her how desperate he is to meet her. He is supportive of his friends' engagement, but ultimately realizes his lingering feelings for Robin would make it difficult to be around them once they're married. He plans to move to Chicago the day after they get married.