Through the first quarter of the 21st century, various sitcoms have staked their claim to be the next Friends, but How I Met Your Mother is the one that came closest. The show clearly took a large helping of inspiration from its forerunner, as the New York-based story about a group of friends in their late twenties/early thirties who frequent the same local hangout for a drink most nights of the week, to dish on one another’s love lives. Many fans of both shows have even drawn parallels between most of their main characters.