Three Days of Snow 

Ted and Barney get an opportunity to run their own bar during a historic blizzard, while Marshall and Lily try to defy the odds and continue one of their cherished traditions.

Director:

Pamela Fryman

Writers:

Carter Bays (created by), Craig Thomas (created by)

Stars:

Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Josh Radnor	...	Ted Mosby
Jason Segel	...	Marshall Eriksen
Cobie Smulders	...	Robin Scherbatsky
Neil Patrick Harris	...	Barney Stinson
Alyson Hannigan	...	Lily Aldrin
Joe Nieves	...	Carl
Eileen April Boylan	...	Melissa (as Eileen Boylan)
Amy Gumenick	...	Amanda
Jordan Masterson	...	Colin
Cal Gibson	...	Ryan
Marshall Manesh	...	Ranjit
Yves Bright	...	Patrice
Pat Crawford Brown	...	Thelma
Gita Isak	...	Rachel Sondheimer
Ute Werner	...	Viveka

Storyline

The storm of the century has hit New York in early 2009. The snowfall is supposed to last for three days, meaning that the city is at a virtual standstill for that long. Ted and Barney are supposed to meet two out- of-town college girls at MacLaren's, but without the girls' phone numbers they can only sit there and wait to see if they show up. Carl wants to close the bar early to volunteer at a shelter, and Ted and Barney convince him to let them run the bar while he's gone. The start of their stint has them living their dream as they've talked about buying a bar and never having last call. Their dates arrive, but the night doesn't end up as they envisioned. Meanwhile, one of Marshall and Lily's rituals is that whenever one goes out of town, he or she brings a 6-pack back from the visited city and the other meets her/him at the airport with a chauffeur's sign. But they decide that they've matured past such things and won't carry out this ritual upon Lily's return from Seattle. But ...

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Plot Keywords:

six pack | canadian abroad | bare chested male | marching band | playing trumpet | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 January 2009 (USA)

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bays Thomas Productions, 20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the band is in Ted's apartment, Barney asks one of the band members "Is the flute section seeing anyone?" Alyson Hannigan's character in American Pie played the flute.

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Goofs

Robin is from Canada, and since it snows in Canada they should have snowplow trucks to clear the snow on the roads. Robin should have known what a snowplow truck would do to cars on the side of the road when it passes by them.

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Quotes

Lily Aldrin: [Lily calls Marshall while he is with clients] Hey, baby. It's lunchtime, and I love you.
Marshall Eriksen: I reciprocate in principle, although with the caveat that there seems to be a bit of a surplus here on my end.
Lily Aldrin: No, I love you more.
Marshall Eriksen: Do we need to get in a room together and bang this thing out?
[pause]
Marshall Eriksen: Those sound like agreeable terms, although I may need to adjust my briefs.

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Connections

References Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

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Soundtracks

Hey Beautiful
Written by The Solids
Performed by The Solids

User Reviews

A bit uneven, but still very good

This one is part of a string of excellent episodes that in my opinion make season 4 the best season of How I Met Your Mother. Everything since 'The Naked Man' has been gold. And maybe that exalted standard of comparison is the only reason this particular episode doesn't seem to shine quite so bright.

It's still a very good one. The interaction of Barney and Ted is great. Ranjit has an appearance, so does Carl. There are telepathic conversations. Marshall does an amazing robot impression. We get flash forwards to scenes from later episodes ("I can jump that far", "I'm gonna win her back"). The "bingo" conversation between Barney and Ted might be one of the funniest dialogs in the entire series. It's just the Marshall and Lily storyline that, albeit being sweet, doesn't get me excited. It makes the episode a bit uneven, because the Barney and Ted storyline is awesome and way superior.

We also get to see more Marshall and Robin interaction. This has been a common feature in the last few episodes. They always appeared to be people that happen to have mutual close friends rather than actually being close friends with each other. Earlier in the season, this has been further established. Robin insulted Marshall in 'Not a father's day', Marshall insulted Robin in 'The Naked Man', and in 'Woooo!' Robin expressed the desire to spend more time with Lily without Marshall being around. And then, with 'Little Minnesota' we got an episode dedicated to the things they have in common. And they finally spend some time together outside of the group. This episode continues on that path, although the dichotomy of their respective characters becomes once again apparent. Maybe Robin respects Marshall more since she found out that he can be a bad-ass fighter...

A final thought on Ted. He seems to have become more cynical and Barney-like lately. Since he got left at the altar, he had meaningless sex with the elevator girl, Robin, and now possibly a college chick, but no new love interest. In 'The Fight', he explicitly said: "I remember that nice guy being left at the altar for a taekwondo instructor." This shattering event might have had a bigger impact on his character than he was ready to admit directly afterwards.

Remember what old Ted said in the first episode of season 3: "This is the story of how I became who I had to become before I could meet your mother."