Theodore Evelyn Mosby[1] is a fictional character and the protagonist in the American sitcom How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Josh Radnor.

He serves as the show's narrator from the future, voiced by Bob Saget,[2] as he tells his children the "long version" of how he met their mother.

After his best friend, Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), gets engaged in the pilot episode, Ted decides to try to find his soulmate.

[2] This quest informs the general direction of the show, along with Ted's relationship with Marshall, Marshall's wife Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), Ted's on/off girlfriend Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), and his other best friend Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris).

[10] He and Marshall were randomly assigned as freshman-year roommates at Wesleyan, and became best friends on a long, ill-fated road trip.

[17] He also has a fondness for high culture such as classical literature and philosophy, and has a tendency to become boring and pretentious when discussing it.

The two eventually go on to see other people, and both seem fine until Robin and Barney sleep together in the third season, which causes a rift within their friend group.

[2][28] Their relationship is a core element within the series, with them rarely being at odds and sharing common interests in a wide variety of things, particularly the film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

The three enjoy watching Star Wars, hanging out at the bar, and talking about girls despite Marshall only ever sleeping with one woman in his life.

Despite sometimes feeling like a third wheel, Ted is extremely supportive of Marshall's relationship with Lily and would do anything to make sure they stay together.

She rejects his advances at first, but he wins her over after taking her on a two-minute date, complete with dinner, a movie, and a goodnight kiss.

On their wedding day, however, Stella leaves Ted at the altar for her ex-boyfriend Tony (Jason Jones), the father of her daughter.

She leaves her husband, The Captain (Kyle McLachlan), for him, and he briefly considers abandoning his dream of contributing a building to the New York City skyline so they can be together.

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.

[20] At a St. Patrick's Day party he and Barney attended, his future wife was also present, although he 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.

In "Ten Sessions," he falls for her, and after the tattoo is removed, Ted takes her on a "two-minute date" in which he fits an entire night of romance into the two minutes she can spare before work.

After being hired to design a project for Goliath National Bank, he is fired after weeks of unsuccessful work.

[47] He reaches a low point in his personal life in Season 7 and confides in Robin that he is beginning to believe he will never find "The One".

After a few months, Ted decides to patch things up with Robin, and she helps him realize that Victoria was the only woman who has even come close to being right for him.

Ted tells Victoria that although he is no longer in love with Robin, she is like family and an irreplaceable part of his life.

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 are married, and so plans to move to Chicago the day after the wedding.

He goes to extreme lengths to find a locket that Robin had buried in Central Park years before, which she wants as a "sign from the universe" that she should marry Barney.

The season also contains a number of flashforward scenes depicting Ted's life with the Mother, including their first date, the day he proposed and the birth of their second child.

Upon the conclusion of his story, his children tell him that it barely contained any mention of their mother and was more focused on Robin, who divorced Barney after a brief marriage.

In the final scene of the series, Ted stands outside Robin's window, holding the blue French horn from their first date.

[22] Future Ted, voiced by Bob Saget, narrates every episode to his children in 2030, framed as the story of how he met their mother.

In the third season premiere, "Wait for It", Ted's children already know the "short version" of the story of how he met their mother, and that it was an incident involving her yellow umbrella.

In the season premiere of the eighth season, Ted is reading a book while waiting at the "Farhampton" train station after Barney and Robin's wedding when "The Mother" (indicated by future Ted's voiceover and the appearance of the signature yellow umbrella) is shown arriving at the same station via taxicab, though whether or not they meet at that time is unconfirmed as the episode fades to credits with the two unaware of each other.

Future Ted reveals in a flashback that "The Mother" played bass guitar in the band that performed at Barney and Robin's wedding.