The impressive reception of How I Met Your Father season 1 should be encouraging for the upcoming That '70s Show reboot That '90s Show, as the Netflix series has fewer obstacles standing in the way of sitcom success. How I Met Your Father had a shaky start. The How I Met Your Mother spinoff’s pilot episode earned mixed reviews, with many critics calling How I Met Your Father a stale attempt to bring back a series that viewers did not even have enough time to miss.

However, against the odds, by How I Met Your Father’s season 1 finale, the show’s reception had largely turned around. How I Met Your Mother's spinoff earned impressive critical write-ups and won over a large part of the earlier show’s fandom. What made this all the more impressive is the fact that How I Met Your Father didn’t rely on excessive cameos from How I Met Your Mother cast members and callbacks to the earlier show to establish a fanbase.

Related: How I Met Your Father’s Finale Twist Fixed Another Sitcom’s Sad Ending

How I Met Your Father successfully rebooted a sitcom that was only off the air for less than a decade, and that is good news for the potential success of Netflix’s upcoming That '70s Show reboot, That '90s Show. How I Met Your Father faced many potential problems when rebooting How I Met Your Mother, and on the face of it, That '90s Show has a lot more going for it. That '70s Show has been off the air much longer than How I Met Your Mother, meaning there is more audience nostalgia for its return. Not only that but That '70s Show was already a period piece, whereas the humor of How I Met Your Mother was almost cringe-inducing-ly rooted in 2010s culture. As such, the fact that How I Met Your Father managed to win over a solid audience bodes well for That 90s Show which, by all rights, should have a smoother road ahead.

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Although How I Met Your Father's season 1 finale did cash in on audience nostalgia for How I Met Your Mother, until that episode, the series did a solid job of standing on its own merits. How I Met Your Father established a lineup who were as likable as How I Met Your Mother’s leads (despite a shaky first few episodes) and allowed their chemistry to develop over time without stressing the similarities that Sophie, Jesse, and company shared with Barney, Robin, Ted, Lily, and Marshall. In contrast, the fact that an entire generation separates the cast of That '70s Show from the characters of That '90s Show means viewers will be predisposed to view them as inherently different friend groups.

However, How I Met Your Father’s Robin cameo also proves that That '90s Show will have to overcome some struggles that How I Met Your Mother’s sequel series didn’t need to worry about. For instance, the cast of That '70s Show is not as easily available for cameos as that of How I Met Your Mother, whether it is due to their high profile fame, their ongoing litigation, or their untimely passing. As such, it is true that That '90s Show won’t always have an easier time rebooting That '70s Show than How I Met Your Father did with its franchise predecessor, although the success of the sitcom spinoff should still bode well for Netflix’s upcoming release.

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