Weekly Poll: Who should be the mother?

We haven’t done weekly polls in a while so I figured we’d come back strong.

If the mother is yet to be chosen and cast, which of the following young starlets would you most like to see be The One for Ted? Think about the characters these actresses normally play and any roles where they’ve been a girlfriend or wife. Choose wisely!

Shiri Appleby
Best known as: Liz Parker on “Roswell”
Last saw her: on “Six Degrees”
Connection: She was on an old episode of Doogie Howser. Starred with Katherine Heigl in Roswell who worked with Jason Segel in Knocked Up.
Kristen Bell
Best known as: Veronica Mars
Last saw her: on “Heroes”
Connection: Starring with Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Rachel Bilson
Best known as: Summer Roberts on “The O.C.”
Last saw her: on “Chuck”
Connection: She was on an episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with Alyson Hannigan. Wishful thinking.
Lizzy Caplan
Best known as: Sara on “Freaks and Geeks” with Jason Segel
Last saw her: on “The Class” last year.
Connection: “Freaks and Geeks”
Linda Cardellini
Best known as: starred as Lindsay Weir alongside Jason Segel on “Freaks and Geeks”
Last saw her: on “ER”
Connection: “Freaks and Geeks”, worked with Sarah Michelle Gellar on “Scooby Doo” movies, SMG worked with Alyson Hannigan on “Buffy”
Charisma Carpenter
Best known as: Cordelia Chase on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel”
Last saw her: on “Veronica Mars”
Connection: starred with Alyson Hannigan on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Emma Caulfield
Best known as: Anya on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Last saw her: she hasn’t done much lately. Now’s the time!
Connection: starred with Alyson Hannigan on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Lacey Chabert
Best known as: Claudia Salinger on “Party of Five”
Last saw her: she was in Mean Girls and also did a guest spot on “Ghost Whisperer” recently
Connection: Starred with Lizzy Caplan who was on “Freaks and Geeks”
Rachel Leigh Cook
Best known as: Laney Boggs in She’s All That
Last saw her: on “Las Vegas”
Connection: Starred alongside Freddie Prinze Jr. who is married to Sarah Michelle Gellar who worked with Alyson Hannigan on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Eliza Dushku
Best known as: Faith on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Last saw her: she had her own show “Tru Calling” and she’s recently appeared on Ugly Betty
Connection: starred with Alyson Hannigan on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
Danielle Fishel
Best known as: Topanga Lawrence on “Boy Meets World”
Last saw her: in weight loss commercials
Connection: former teen idol (ala Danica McKellar), needs work, some episodes on Full House with Bob Saget

I tried to choose actresses that are in the right age range and might actually appear on the show. All these actresses are connected to someone on the show by a few degrees.

PS. What’s with all the hot young lady-actors having last names that start with C? That’s kind of freaky.

In Casting/Gueststars, Polls, Predictions @ 06/12/2007 | By JD

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Comments to “Weekly Poll: Who should be the mother?”

eduardo | December 6, 2007 @ 10:50 am

I love Kristen Bell, but hell no.

Rachel Bilson got my vote; she seemed nice.

jennie | December 6, 2007 @ 10:50 am

I voted for Lizzy since I love her, but she has another connection besides the obvious Freeks and Geeks one. David Henrie who plays the son also played Lizzy’s younger brother in a short lived comedy series “The Pitts”.

Andy | December 6, 2007 @ 4:03 pm

I’d never heard of Shiri Appleby, but she is…yummy. I voted for her.

Rachel Bilson would be a decent choice but I’d prefer someone who would then best be known as ‘The Mother’ once cast - Bilson, obviously, wouldn’t fit that bill.

Ranier | December 6, 2007 @ 9:32 pm

Good poll!
Rachel Bilson, she would be perfect!
And if you look the kids, the daughter totally looks like her!

Shiri Appleby is pretty good too.

Thomas | December 7, 2007 @ 3:12 pm

Elisa Dushku, since I have a crush on her and unabashedly so.

The Mix | December 8, 2007 @ 9:30 pm

Though another part of me says Eliza Dushku…part of me knows that she is WAYYYYY too hot for Ted. When I think about a wife for Ted I think about 3 things.

1. Plausibility. Though this is, yes, a TV show and therefor not the real world. I’d like to think there’s at least a tiny portion of believability to the plot line. Now as much as a fan of Ted as I am….he is not gonna land over half of these girls. Even Robin is a little bit of a stretch. He’s a good looking dude, but would he get together with someone like Rachel Bilson or Shiri Appleby. Along these lines, I’d prefer an unknown, not unlike Cobie….cute, but not too cute.

2. Likable. Most of the girls, nay, pretty much all of the girls Ted has dated, with the exceptions of Robin and perhaps Victoria, haven’t really been all that likable….which is, I assume, the point. However, there’s a general sense among my friends that watch the show and I that whoever the Mother is, she’s going to have to be spec-goddamn-tacular, but somehow still retain her plausibility.

3. I think she has to be a lot like Robin. Robin was great, save her drive to travel. So I think this girl has to be much like her, but somehow relieved of what in Ted’s mind are drawbacks or faults. I.E. - want to live abroad, dislike of children, republicanisms….etc.

Overall, not only an intensely hard person to cast, but also an exceedingly difficult character to play. You’re basically walking into a firestorm, because at the beginning people were setup with this notion that Robin is the one Ted should marry. He spent over half of the first season trying to be with her and all of the second season being with her. It would be a very tough dynamic to work with. There’s no way to go back without seeming like you’re trying to push it, plus you’ve already told the kids that their “aunt Robin…..”. And going forward is very tough because of all of the preconceived notions we have in our minds of who and what this character should be like.

So to sum up…find: an unknown that is not only pretty but not too pretty, and can act their ass of and make us somehow think she’s a believable person, but is also better than Robin. Yikes. I think I said Lacey Chabert, just for the simple fact that I think she would be the closest to pulling it off, but I don’t think any of the options, with the possible exceptions of Lacey and MAYBE Rachel Leigh Cook, could truly pull off the plausibility factor.

Jason

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