"How I Met Your Mother" Completes Its Second Season on CBS

"How I Met Your Mother" is one of those shows that you don't mean to watch regularly but just keep coming back to week after week because you like the characters and want to find out what's going to happen to them next.

Like the casts of "Seinfeld" and "Friends," the characters on "How I Met Your Mother" are a group of twenty-somethings who live and work in New York City. (How any of these people can afford their relatively-spacious Manhattan apartments is a question that none of these shows ever seems to address.) The five regular characters on the show are an architect named Ted (Josh Radnor), his TV journalist girlfriend Robin (Cobie Smulders), Ted's friends-since-college Lily (Alyson Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel), and their self-absorbed friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). Television fans will immediately recognize several of these talented actors from previous starring roles:

Neil Patrick Harris will be forever remembered as "Doogie Howser, M.D." which had a four-season run on ABC from 1989 to 1993. Since then, Harris has worked steadily in television, film, and theater, including major roles on Broadway in "Proof," "Cabaret," and "Assassins." Despite his remarkable accomplishments, however, Harris will always be best-known as the teenaged doctor he portrayed at the beginning of his illustrious career.

Alyson Hannigan endeared herself to TV viewers from 1997 to 2003 as the computer-savvy lesbian witch Willow Rosenberg on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Hannigan later went on to achieve film stardom in the "American Pie" series and other popular movies.

Jason Segel shot to TV stardom as Nick on the short-lived but extremely popular "Freaks and Geeks." He has since appeared in numerous TV shows and movies, including the current film "Knocked Up," in which he again plays the friend of "Freaks and Geeks" cast mate Seth Rogen. Segel, whose character on "How I Met Your Mother" is a former college classmate of Alyson Hannigan's character, is actually six years younger than his costar.

Josh Radnor is best known for his starring role in the 2002 Broadway production of "The Graduate," with Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone. As the unseen narrator on "How I Met Your Mother," the role of Ted is voiced by Bob Saget of "Full House" fame.

Cobie Smulders was an international model before beginning her acting career. Her various TV roles have included a recurring part in "The L Word." Like the character she plays on the show, Smulders is Canadian. Her real name is Jacoba Fransisca Maria Smulders.

Although set in the present, the action in "How I Met Your Mother" is presented as a series of flashbacks related by the character of Ted Mosby in the year 2030. As suggested by the title, Ted is giving his son and daughter a very lengthy account of how he met their mother. In the pilot episode, first aired in September 2005, the engagement of his friends Marshall and Lily inspires Ted to seek out his own true love. Guided in this enterprise by his endlessly self-confident pal Barney, Ted meets and begins dating the beautiful Robin. Contrary to viewers' expectations, however, Robin is revealed at the end of the episode not to be the future mother of Ted's children. Ted continues to search for his true soul mate throughout the 22 episodes that comprise the show's first season. By the end of that season, Ted is sure that Robin is the woman of his dreams. Meanwhile, Lily has broken her engagement to Marshall-as well as Marshall's heart-to accept an art fellowship in San Francisco.

Season Two begins with Lily and Marshall renewing their relationship and ends on May 14, 2007, with their marriage. After a year of happiness together, Ted and Robin reveal to Barney their decision to break up. Despite their ongoing love, Ted's interest in settling down doesn't jibe with Robin's desire to travel the world in pursuit of her journalistic career. Barney, meanwhile, is delighted that he will once again have the opportunity to serve as Ted's wingman, guiding his newly single friend through the rocky shoals of bachelorhood.

How I Met Your Mother" is scheduled to return for a third season on CBS in the fall of 2007. Fans of this charming show can only hope that the writers have a chance to reveal to viewers the true identity of Ted's future wife before this popular series reaches its inevitable end.