10 Best TV Pilot Cliffhangers Ever
9. How I Met Your Mother - Meet Aunt Robin
CBS's seminal hit sitcom had a few twists and turns along its nine-season run. Whilst definitely a funny show, it was normally concerned with artificially stretching the run time and leading audiences on many a mother-related goose chase.
The show was incredibly successful and generally kept us entertained with the million-dollar question of who the hell would actually choose to have kids with Ted Mosby.
The pilot episode entertains the notion we might discover the mother’s identity fairly early on, with Ted’s romantic overtures to Cobie Smulders' Robin hinting that she could indeed be the fated matriarch.
That is until Ted finally reveals he’d been stringing his kids - and by extension, us the audience - along with a shaggy dog story of how he met ‘Aunt Robin’. The fakeout would go on to serve a narrative function during the show’s final season. Here it’s revealed the titular mother has died and the whole point of telling his kids this long, long story was to gain their approval to date Aunt Robin. Yeesh.
Whilst irritating, this small rug pull during the pilot episode was enough to get us invested in the lovesick puppy’s love life for the next nine seasons.