How I net your one-dimensional idea

I bought this pint-glass a few years back from the CBS store in New York. At the time, the first series of How I met your mother was coming to a close on E4. The series started off well, and there's one episode featuring the female focus and an umbrella and there's a hint of beauty, humour and pathos. For a sitcom, there was situation and comedy - always good.

And then halfway through season two, it dawned on me. In a distinctly non-nihilistic way, I realised it and I had come to the end and could go no further. In short, I fell out of love with it. I got the 'how' and bought it, but I stopped caring. It struck me that it was, really, a one-dimensional idea. The story I could tell my daughter about how I met her mother would include some exaggeration, some boasting and probably some made-up stuff, and I'm a romantic devil at heart so it would be a poetic tale. It wouldn't though last several seasons. I'd be lucky to make it last the ad break.

The mot d'argot is sustainable - any sitcom idea has to be sustainable. Fawlty Towers in all it's twelve episodes is the exception that proves the rule. Character development, plot, all of that, and if we can sell it internationally and make a packet, so much the better. Friends, now there's a sustainable sitcom idea, multidimensional it is. And funny too. How I met your mother had some of that but when you stop caring, or you lose interest in the story, there's no turning back. I'm trying to write one. I'll let you know if it ticks my own boxes. Of all them, I'm aiming for funny.