A sexless innkeeper is just the kind of thing you’d expect on a show like How I Met Your Mother. While you probably don’t have a clue as to how this person will stir the comedy up, I’m sure all sorts of crazy ideas are already running through your mind. Just hearing it actually sounds hilarious. But wouldn’t it be funnier if we knew the sexless innkeeper’s identity?

So who’s the sexless innkeeper? It’s none other than…Ted Mosby! When How I Met Your Mother returns this fall, we all know that he’s already landed an architectural teaching job at Columbia. He’s probably the same old Ted we’ve known for the past four seasons but to his students, he’s just the “Sexless Innkeeper.”

We’ll learn more about this when a batch of girls comes to his apartment and immediately fall asleep, according to Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello. Later, Ted is bummed when he realizes that he is a “Sexless Innkeeper” whose “dates” are only interested in a comfy place to crash.

Sounds funny? That’s not all you can expect from How I Met Your Mother’s fourth episode this season. We’ll also see Marshall and Lily, seeing that they’re not the only couple in the group anymore, wanting to hook up with Barney and Robin for some fun double-dating. However, their desperation and enthusiasm eventually becomes a huge turn-off.  

How I Met Your Mother kicks off its fifth season on Monday, September 21 at 8pm on CBS, serving as lead-in to new comedy, Accidentally on Purpose, which airs at 8:30pm.

“Definitions” — When Marshall (Jason Segel) and the gang finds out that Barney (Neil Patrick Harris, right) and Robin (Cobie Smulders, second right) are hesitant to define their relationship, Lily (Alyson Hannigan) forces them to confront their biggest fear. Meanwhile, Ted (Josh Radnor) is anxious about teaching his first lecture at Columbia, on the fifth season premiere of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, Monday, Sept. 21 (8:00-8:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Just a few days before production began on How I Met Your Mother: Season 5, I had the chance to talk to one of the show’s creators, Carter Bays. Season 4 ended with a couple of major plot developments, including Barney and Robin admitting their feelings for each other and Ted taking a job as a professor – where we know he will ultimately meet his wife to be, who is one of his students. Bays spoke about the next step in these plot turns and more.

IGN: At the end of last season, you went a long way towards revealing the mother. You know your fans will play Where’s Waldo with that last shot of Ted’s class.

Bays: We would expect nothing less from our fans! We were actually thinking of sneaking in… Someone had the idea of getting, like, Amy Adams, and just put her in the back row as an extra. So if you freeze it and you look carefully, it’s like, “Oh yeah! Wait a minute…” But we didn’t do that unfortunately.

IGN: I would assume you might still hold off awhile on actually introducing the mother, but the way the show works, she could be snuck in there at some point, right?

Bays: As always, we want to take our sweet time with it, but it’s definitely… The pond just got a little bit smaller. As opposed to saying she’s somewhere in the giant city of New York, she’s somewhere in this little world that Ted’s going to be in. Not every story is going to be in that world next year, but we’ll be seeing more and more of it and we’ll get tantalizingly closer than ever before.

IGN: Was it fun for you to do a bit of a bait and switch and then bait again with Stella?

Bays: That was tremendously fun and it was so cool to have someone like Sarah Chalke playing that role. She’s game for anything. There’s few actors where you can take a character that’s really sweet and lovable and turn her into a demon and then turn her into a sweet, lovable person again and have it be pulled off as seamlessly as it was. I think it’s to Sarah’s credit… It’s hard to not like her I think!

IGN: You must be very relieved to not have to hide pregnant actresses this season.

Bays: Oh, I don’t know what we’re going to do with all our giant purses and giant throw pillows! I guess we’ll have a giant purse charity auction or something.

IGN: She was obviously the one who was pregnant for more of the season, but you guys got especially creative with Alyson [Hannigan].

Bays: She didn’t give us much of a choice! She just walked in one day and said, “Guess what guys? You’re going to have to deal with this.” It was a fun challenge to have. There’s kind of a family first mentality at the show and more than anything we’re just so happy for Aly and Cobie [Smulders] and that they had beautiful, healthy babies. The whole thing was fun. It was fun that there’s now a second generation of How I Met Your Mother.

IGN: The Barney and Robin relationship has taken a big new step. As the season opens, how are they doing?

Bays: Well, it’s not classic happily ever after, to say the least. It’s two people that aren’t programmed for happily ever after and never would have prioritized that, were it not for the fact that they’re crazy about each other. So it’s going to be a bumpy road for them. We’ll have a lot of good stories. Now that things are out in the open for Barney and Robin, there’s a lot of fun to be had.

IGN: Anything you can tease about what’s to come?

Bays: There’s a lot of good stuff. Our 100th episode is going to be this year, and we’re writing a big musical number for that. That’s going to be fun. We’re going to finally get to see Neil [Patrick Harris] and the rest of the cast show off their musical theater chops. And I think you’ll be surprised. Everyone’s seen Cobie do her thing, but Josh [Radnor] is a bit of a song and dance man and Jason [Segel] of course has written his share of music too.

IGN: I know Alyson was very happy to have little to do on the Buffy musical. Will this be a similar situation?

Bays: We haven’t spring her aria on her yet, but she’s going to have a fifteen minute solo. Just a capella. It’s going to be great. I think she’ll be up for it.

IGN: Any hints as to what would cause all the characters to sing together?

Bays: It’s pure whimsy and fantasy. I think everyone at the show has pretty romantic sensibilities and it’s going to be classic, old time Hollywood, good old fashioned musical number.

How I Met Your Mother: Season 5 premieres Monday, September 21st at 8:00pm ET/PT on CBS.

September 21 marks the return of How I Met Your Mother season 5 and so far, we’ve only heard a few vague hints on what’s in store for the new season. Fear not, there are still some pretty juicy spoilers lurking around the internet and you can learn more about it after the jump.

Take note, however, that these spoilers are not confirmed by the network and are just rumors or speculations at this point so read at your own risk.

Episode 5.1 “Definitions”
Airdate: September 21, 2009

The season premiere kicks off with a panicky Ted, who is about to face his first college class so he decides he must maintain control of his students by releasing his “inner douche.” Unfortunately, this approach backfires miserably. Meanwhile, there’s a pretty girl in Ted’s architecture class who appears in Ted’s nightmare, mocking him and questioning his credentials. In class, however, she comes across as a perfectly polite young woman who is just trying to give Ted a head’s up that he’s making a fool out of himself though he’s not listening.

Additionally, there are other college students who are featured in Ted’s nightmare where they rudely confront their new professor, questioning his abilities and his intelligence. One student, on the other hand, is confused when Ted fires a question at him about architecture when he’s actually in an economic class. Subsequently, one of the veteran college economics professor clues Ted in on the fact that he’s been lecturing the wrong class in the wrong classroom. But it gets worse: Ted’s architecture student informs him that his blunder has already made the rounds on YouTube.

As for Robin and Barney, they resist their friends’ pressure that they should have “the talk” about their relationship.

Episode 5.02 “Double Date“
Airdate: September 28, 2009

During a blind date, Ted and Jen realize they’ve met before — on the exact same blind date seven years ago. They try to go back over what happened since they met and correct each other’s mistakes in an effort to change the outcome of the current evening.

Meanwhile, Marshall has fantasy sequence in which an attractive delivery woman, who smiles at him in real life, appears in a fantasy wearing a much sluttier outfit and making out with him. Moreover, a female preacher resides over Lily’s funeral and orders a tearful Marshall to get some from the sexy delivery woman. Also in Marshall’s dream, a solemn doctor gives Marshall and Lily some dire news about her hiccups.

Another How I Met Your Mother spoiler for this episode revolves around a cocktail waitress at a strip club who mistakes Lily for a stripper named Jasmine.

Robin and Barney resist their friends’ pressure that they should have “the talk” about their relationship. Meanwhile, a panicky Ted, about to face his first college class, decides he must keep control of his students by releasing his “inner douche” — a tactic that backfires miserably…

PRETTY GIRL:- A student in Ted’s beginning architecture class, this pretty young college coed appears in Ted’s nightmare, belittling him and questioning his credentials. In class, she proves a perfectly polite young woman who is just trying to give Ted a head’s up that he’s making a fool out of himself -sptv050769- but he’s not listening…3 speeches & 3 lines, 1 scene (2)

GIRL 2 AND 3, GUY AND GUY 2:- These college students are also beginning architecture students who feature in Ted’s nightmare. They rudely confront their new professor, questioning his abilities and his intelligence…1 speech, 2 scenes; 1 line, 2 scenes; 1 speech, 2 scenes; 1 line, 2 scenes respectively (20)

STUDENT:- This college student is perplexed when Ted fires a question at him about architecture (when this is actually a economics class)…1 line, 1 scene (41)

PROFESSOR CALZONETTI:- This veteran college economics professor clues Ted in on the fact that he’s been lecturing the wrong class in the wrong classroom…2 speeches, 1 scene (43)

STUDENT 2:- This architecture student lets Ted know that his gaffe has already made the rounds of YouTube…1 line, 1 scene (45)

Watch “Definitions” Episode Online