CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Put the emphasis on the first word of the title. That's where it belongs.
For some, of course, that means "How I Met Your Mother" has been a nine-season wait for Monday night's series finale. The mystery was posed in the first scene of the first episode, which aired Sept. 19, 2005.
We started in the year 2030 with Ted Mosby, voiced by an unseen Bob Saget, telling his daughter and son the story of how he met their mother. Everything that followed has been been a giant flashback, with Josh Radnor playing the younger Ted.
It has been one long story, all right, spanning nine years and 208 episodes. Well, remember, a favorite phrase for Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) has been, "Wait for it."
OK, the wait is over. Those patient kids finally learn the answer behind that five-word title. The comedy wraps up its CBS run with a special hour episode that airs at 8 p.m. Monday, March 31, on WOIO Channel 19.
So how did Ted meet the love of his life? We've already met the mother, played by Cristin Milioti. And Monday night we'll learn her name.
But how did they meet? How?
The word hangs over Monday's two-part finale, titled "Last Forever," just as it did that 2005 premiere. The wondering can't last forever, and it's time to put an end to all that fan speculation.
And there has been a great deal of speculation concerning Milioti's unnamed character. A popular fan theory has been that the children's mother is either dead or dying when future Ted sits them down and starts to tell the tale.
The Internet conjecture heated up last week, when series regular Alyson Hannigan went on Jimmy Kimmel's ABC talk show and said the finale will inspire a tidal wave of tears.
"I killed a lot of trees with my crying," Hannigan said Tuesday, describing the table read for the final script. "Ninety-nine percent of the room was crying. That's executives and everything."
Mind you, that's hardly confirmation of the widespread speculation about the mother's fate. Hannigan merely said Monday's farewell will be poignant, emotional and touching. She told Kimmel that "the writers really wrapped the show up the way the fans would want it to be wrapped up."
Those writers are Shaker Heights High School graduate Carter L. Bays and Craig Thomas, the show's creators and executive producers.
Bays took a writing class at the Cleveland Play House, and one of his works was a winner in the Dobama Theatre's 1992 Marilyn Bianchi Kids' Playwriting Festival. He was 16. Just five years later, he and his writing partner, Thomas, landed jobs on "Late Night With David Letterman."
Their ninth season of "How I Met Your Mother" has been framed by the wedding weekend for Barney and Robin (Cobie Smulders). All we know about the final episode is the very little released by CBS.
We know that Ted finishes the story of how he met the children's mother. And we'll learn what happened to the five main characters between Barney and Robin's wedding and 2030. There's plenty of room for emotional payoffs there.
Keep in mind, too, that Milioti has denied the theory that the mother is dead or dying in 2030. CBS is promoting the finale with the line, "Let them surprise you one last time." After years of speculation, such a frequently posed outcome would be anything but surprising.
This is all about plot, however, and, as intriguing as this guessing game is, there's bigger "how will it end" question posed by this series finale. How will it end creatively? Will plot and performances and execution merge into a satisfying ending for viewers?
It's the more compelling question by far, particularly when you consider how few long-running shows have managed strong conclusions. Endings are tough. Endings are killers, even when you don't kill off a character.
And, ultimately, reducing "How I Met Your Mother" to a guessing game diminishes its accomplishments as a long-running comedy. After all, if the guessing game was what truly defined the series, it wouldn't have lasted nine seasons.
Don't get me wrong. The final answers should be satisfying. But "How I Met Your Mother" has been more about the journey than the destination.
It wasn't a gimmick that kept viewers intrigued since 2005. It was the journey shared by Ted, Barney, Robin, Lily (Hannigan) and Marshall (Jason Segel).
Television is a character-driven medium, and loyal fans enjoyed being in the company of these five friends. The characters deserve a good sendoff. Viewers deserve it. But the true yardstick is how a show travels season to season, not how it ends.
"How I Met Your Mother" never has been an Emmy magnet like ABC's "Modern Family" or NBC's "30 Rock." It never has posted the kind of Top 10 ratings generated by such CBS juggernauts as "The Big Bang Theory" and, in its prime, "Two and a Half Men." It never has won the kind of acclaim showered on such NBC heavyweights as "Seinfeld" and "Frasier."
Yet it always has been warmly viewed by critics and devoted followers. It has been cheered for overcoming close cancellation calls in its early seasons, surviving and thriving on its own terms.
Bays and Thomas have turned their attention to a spinoff series for CBS, "How I Met Your Dad," which will not use any of the "How I Met Your Mother" characters. It stars Greta Gerwig as the lead character, Sally.
If you're sad about "How I Met Your Mother" ending, Bays Tweeted on Wednesday, "let me just say, day one of shooting 'How I Met Your Dad' is complete and it's going to be a lovely show."
Earlier in the month, he had Tweeted: "Nobody is going to miss HIMYM more than me, but it was time to end it. That being said, I'm starting to think HIMYD is going to be great."
How great? It's the "how" question hanging over the spinoff, because we have met its predecessor and know it will be a tough act to follow.
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