Robin Scherbatsky

Development

Show creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas always intended for Robin Scherbatsky not to be the mother of Ted Mosby's children, stating that the show is about how "Ted meets the perfect woman, and it’s [still] not his final love story." In various interviews, Bays and Thomas said that "a pretty famous actress" turned down the role of Robin; they revealed in February 2014 that Jennifer Love Hewitt had turned down the part. They then cast Cobie Smulders, an unknown. Bays and Thomas later said: "Thank God we did for a million reasons... when Ted’s seeing her for the first time, America’s seeing her for the first time — the intriguingness of that propelled the show going forward and kept the show alive."

Early life

Robin Charles Scherbatsky Jr. was born on July 23, 1980 to Robin Charles Scherbatsky, Sr. in Vancouver, British Columbia. Robin had a minor career as a bubblegum pop singer under the stage name of Robin Sparkles, with one hit single, "Let's Go to the Mall." After an accompanying music video and the ensuing year-long mall tour, she developed a serious aversion to shopping malls that lasted for years. Robin followed "Let's Go to the Mall" with the "artistic follow-up" "Sandcastles in the Sand."

As Robin Sparkles, she also appeared on the Canadian educational children's show Space Teens with Alan Thicke and Nicole Scherzinger as Jessica Glitter, where two teen girls traveling through space in a curling stone–shaped spaceship "solve mysteries using math" featuring the song "Two Beavers Are Better Than One," further parodying Canadians. It was also implied that the aforementioned show had some sexual hints, but Robin insists that it was just a children's program. Toward the end of her musical career, Robin attempted to shift from teen pop to grunge by adopting a new stage name of Robin Daggers, and penning a track entitled "P.S. I Love You." Robin performed the song at the 84th Grey Cup, effectively ending her career in music.

As an adult, Robin is embarrassed by her teenage stardom, and though she admits resenting her father's methods of raising her as if she were a boy, she still enjoys cigars, frisbee, hockey (she roots for her hometown Vancouver Canucks), scotch, guns, and saying 'eh'.

Character history

Robin is originally from Vancouver and has a teenage sister named Katie. After moving to New York City in April 2005, Robin became a news anchor for a New York cable news channel, Metro News 1, and later became a host of her own early-morning talk show.

Robin lives in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn. In September 2005 she meets Ted Mosby, the show's main character, and they are immediately attracted to each other. They go on a date in which Ted steals a blue French Horn for her, but Ted spoils his chances with her by impulsively saying he is in love with her. They resolve to be friends, but their relationship is complicated by lingering romantic feelings. Robin is reluctant to date Ted because he wants to get married and settle down, but they become a couple anyway at the end of season one. They break up at the end of season two after realizing that they want different things.

In the fifth season, she moves back in to Ted's apartment after her boyfriend Don breaks up with her and moves to Chicago. Although she was a reporter for "fluff news pieces" at the end of news segments at the time of first meeting Ted, over the series she has worked her way up to be lead news anchor at Metro News 1. She briefly takes a prominent anchoring position in Japan, only to return to New York and, with help from Barney Stinson, host her own talk show.

Robin is an independent, confident woman throughout the series. She has stated numerous times that she doesn't want to get married and have kids, in episodes such as "Purple Giraffe", "Something Blue", "Little Boys" and "Symphony of Illumination".

Robin is also an avid gun enthusiast, shown in multiple episodes brandishing a Desert Eagle, as well as having a subscription to Guns & Ammo magazine.

She has dual citizenship in Canada and the United States.

Despite having been in a relationship with Barney, and having rekindled her friendship with Ted, it is implied Robin never let Barney go. Despite spending most of "Challenge Accepted" plotting with Barney to find a way to prevent Ted from pursuing a meaningless relationship and rekindling her relationship with him in the process, she also pressures Barney into approaching Nora, a woman he likes. However, when Barney asks Nora for a cup of coffee, Robin realizes she may still have feelings for him.

In the season 7 premiere episode "The Best Man", Lily confronts Robin about her feelings for Barney, and advises her to tell him. She is about to do so when Barney pulls her onto the dance floor at a wedding. Whatever tension there is between them is broken when Barney receives a call from Nora. Barney isn't sure what to say to Nora and asks for Robin's help; Robin feeds Barney the words that she had intended to say to him, which he uses to convince Nora to meet him again. In "The Stinson Missile Crisis", Robin assaults a woman setting out to destroy Barney's relationship with Nora and is sent to court-mandated therapy with a therapist named Kevin (Kal Penn). They start dating shortly after. Their relationship is tested when Robin cheats on him with Barney, and she decides to break up with Kevin. She changes her mind when Kevin tells her how much he cares for her, and they stay together. After Kevin proposes to her, Robin thinks she is ready to settle down, but he ultimately takes back his proposal when she says that she is unable and unwilling to have children.

In the seventh season, Robin discovers that she is unable to have children. Although she had always believed she did not want to have children, she is devastated by the knowledge that she no longer has the option. She lies to the gang about why she is depressed, saying that she has just found out she can't be an Olympic pole-vaulter. Ted senses that something more serious is going on, however, and surprises her by putting up Christmas decorations in her apartment and comforting her as she cries.

In the episode "Tailgate", Robin is put in charge of a New Year's Countdown show on her news station. Sandy Rivers is host but flakes off after breaking up with his girlfriend before going on the air. He gets drunk live on the show and Robin is forced to replace him, just before midnight, saying, "When that ball drops, we all get a fresh start, and, I don't know about you, but I could really use one." In the season finale, it is revealed that she will be the bride at Barney's wedding. In the "The Final Page", Barney proposes to Robin, and Robin accepts.

The final season of the show depicts the 56 hours before her wedding to Barney. On her wedding day, she gets cold feet when she learns that Ted went to great lengths to find a locket she had buried years before; she takes it as a "sign from the universe" that she should be with Ted. Wanting her to be happy, Ted tells her that he no longer loves her in that way. She goes through with the wedding after Barney vows to always be honest with her.

The series finale, "Last Forever", reveals that Robin and Barney divorced after three years because her hectic travel schedule prevents them from spending any time together. By 2030, Robin is a very successful television news anchor, and lives with her dogs in New York. The last scene of the show depicts Robin looking outside her window to see Ted holding out the blue french horn, implying that they will get back together.

Discography

In other media

The Robin Sparkles song "Let's Go to the Mall" was included on the video game Just Dance 3.