I remember my first glance of How I Met Your Mother very well, and ever since, I've not watched another American comedy, NEIGH, PROGRAMME OVER ANY GENRE that comes close to it.

It was a Sunday in the Summer of 2006, the 13th of August if my memory serves me well (I didn't google it... HONEST!), just came back from my first completed month of my new job. I went upstairs to my room, turned on the PC and then the TV next to it as I tend to have it on in the background for something to watch while the PC gets going. I was flicking through the channels... not much on, not much on at all, the same old rubbish that seems to be on television on a Sunday. But then I saw this programme, a new programme. I didn't think much of it at the time, just thought I'd keep it on the channel as I like to give new programmes a chance. It turned out to be How I Met Your Mother, with the episode 'The Wedding'. Safe to say I never looked back from then on.

The next couple of Sunday's, they had me working an extra half-hour so I'd just be clocking off as HIMYM was starting. Of course now we're in the 21st Century, I didn't panic, I knew of such sites like youtube or veoh that would have fellow fans upload episodes. And I only watched the episodes BBC Two were showing at the time, I felt like I had the patience to wait episodes out, and I also wanted to stay on track and not be episodes ahead so I could talk to friends about the episode aired that night. But then BBC got stupid. They started messing around with the start time of each episode. link. So from a comfortable Dinner Time slot of 6:30 on BBC Two, it moved to closer to midnight, AND THEN beyond to be listed as late as 2:45... IN THE MORNING! In the UK, this happened to Third Watch, when episodes were too gory or violent and such, they'd put the one episode on at about 3am on a Sunday because of it, but where's the violence in HIMYM? Slapbet? PA-lease!

So it seemed upsetting how a great programme seemed to be neglected by the BBC, but I stayed up and still watched all of those episodes late night like my life depended on it. Then came Season Two. Now this was a time before I found out about fanpop (God bless it), so I found it hard to find videos anywhere, so I had to wait it out. Soon enough I found this glorious site but some episodes of Season Two weren't up at the time, so I could only watch it up to a specific point, the rest I felt like again I had to wait.

Then a cable/satellite channel came to my rescue, 'Trouble' showed HIMYM seasons one AND two in one hour blocks EACH DAY. So as much as I loved watching it online and the sporadical listing times on BBC Two (sense the sarcasm?), I found a home and so did this gem of a programme!

Now reading and hearing that How I Met Your Mother is question marked for the axe, I can't understand why. Programmes like Friends, The Simpsons, Big Brother, CSI (sorry to say it, but recent episodes don't have a leg to stand on compared to the first ones), 24, Charmed, and South Park go on for WAY too long for what kind of programmes they are. And then great Programmes like Firefly, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Undeclared, Freaks & Geeks, Popular, Dark Angel and the biggest programme that was axed... Arrested Development, THESE get taken before their time!

It's a shame the good die young, could say the same about tv programmes. Whoever has the job to make or break programmes must be riddled with hate-mail each day as they are in fact... "questionable".

HIMYM is EVERYTHING the 18-40 demographic wants. Play sword fights, a Fonz-like character, romance, Confederate Soldier ghosts, catchphrases, blue instruments, "sandwiches", a Pontiac Fiero, SLAPBET, a "grinch", a Paralegal, a slutty pumpkin (actually, it didn't, actually it did... for a bit)! Now tell me, what idiot would EVER want to axe such a great show?