‘Tonight was the night’: Watching ‘How I Met Your Mother’ at McGee’s, the bar that started it all

After nine long years, Ted Mosby met title character of “How I Met your Mother,” and minutes later fans got to do the same at the Midtown pub that helped create the show.

The CBS sitcom’s creators and Cristin Milioti, the 28-year-old actress who played the character during its final season, made an appearance at McGee’s Pub on 55th Street as it aired a finale party to a packed crowd. The show’s fictional watering hole, McLaren’s, is based off McGee’s where creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas would hang out when they lived in New York as young comedy writers.

“This is where it started. What better place to say goodbye to the characters?” Thomas asked as he and waited for his drinks and dinner.

The bar has had a strong following of “HIMYM,” fans who flock there every Monday to watch the show. For the finale, all three floors were filled with people who were decked out in the show’s memorabilia including Barney’s infamous duckie tie and t-shirts with the show’s catchphrases.

Some fans were lined up around the block twice, but the bar had to stop letting people in when it got too crowded around 6:30. For the fans who were able to make it or make reservations way in advance, the pub was the place to be.

“We always wanted to come here so we figured tonight was the night,” said Moira Turner, 30 of Murray Hill.

Rob Schmidt, 32, of the Upper West Side, said watching the final minutes with others who have stuck by the five main characters, Ted, Barney, Robin, Marshall and Lilly, was a quintessential New York moment.

“It’s all about the ambience and being moved together,” he said.

Emotions were all over the place as the hour long episode played before a silent crowd. They laughed at the last high five, gasped at the twists and raised their glasses during the final moments.

After the credits rolled, fans gathered around the table where Bays, Thomas and Milioti sat and gave them hugs, took pictures and even bought them drinks. Thomas said he and Bays are very grateful for the support the fans gave throughout the years.

“In the beginning we were hoping for hundreds of fans, we never expected millions,” he joked.?