The How I Met Your Mother Blog

The first new episode since The Platinum Rule and not a lot has changed for our friends. Ted joins the dark side, Marshall and Lily have some steep concerns about their new apartment, and Robin continues to look hot and crack wise. Welcome back everyone, How I Met Your Mother has returned. Continue reading…

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That’s a title I never thought I’d write, although I’m quite excited to be sharing this with you. This again breaks my “three posts in one day” rule but I’m tired of Britney taking up my entire homepage so I bring it to you anyway.

Neil Patrick Harris will star as Dr. Horrible in Joss Whedon’s online musical mini-series “DOCTOR HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG”. What is it? Why is it happening? Who knows, but I bet it’s going to be awesome.

Whedon recently posted this on his fan site:

So…..The bag is catless.

During the strike I started writing a musical intended as a limited internet series, 3 episodes of approximately 10 minutes each. Writing with me was my brother Jed, his fiancee Maurissa, and my other brother Zack. To my shock and surprise, we finished it. To my greater shock and surprise, we managed (with the help of many people I’ll be praising at length soon) to drag it into preproduction (yes, just as DOLLHOUSE was given a start date two months away and all my comics were due.) And today, after a grueling week of writing everything ever while trying to be a producer, I got to start shooting. A musical.

This much I will say: It’s the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to. And I’m having the time of my life.

“DOCTOR HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG”

Neil Patrick Harris…..as Dr. Horrible
Nathan Fillion……….as Captain Hammer
Felicia Day………….as Penny

And a cast of Dozens!

Coming soon.

Source

This is kind of awesome. It’s like a fanboy (or girl)’s dream come true. I get a little reticent whenever a writer talks about what they were doing during the break but the works produced involving other HIMYM cast members were good, so I think this will be too. What do you think?

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Personally, I’m getting tired of covering this type of thing. I prefer analysis of the show on the blog, rather than the brainless reporting of information. I’m happy to share these photos though as anything concerning new episodes of the show are exciting at this point. Come back tomorrow for more of the episode discussion that made the pre-strike weeks so awesome around the halls here at Have You Met Ted. In the meantime, what do we think of these pictures?

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For the first time in 14 weeks we have a new episode of HIMYM to look forward to. I’m excited. Are you excited? Tonight’s episode, “No Tomorrow“, shows Ted partying with Barney in a decidedly non-Ted fashion. He seems to have “joined the Dark Side” but maybe he’s just spent too much time with Broda. By the end of the episode, Marshall will have straightened out Mr. Mosby. Tune in later tonight or tomorrow morning for an episode recap.

Tonight’s episode, however, is not the one that’s being talked about in the news. For those of you living under a rock, that would be next week’s episode starring Britney Spears. As the time draws neigh, more details surface. The episode will be called “Ten Sessions” which, I assume, refers to the visits Ted will make to his Dermatologist, Stella, played by Sarah Chalke. Britney will be Stella’s receptionist. It would seem that in classic Mosby fashion, Ted will fall hard for his doctor and try to navigate the tricky course of convincing a girl who’s removing a butterfly tramp-stamp from just above your ass crack that you’re a guy worth dating. While wooing the lady-doctor Ted will be oblivious to the fact that Abby, the receptionist played by Spears, has fallen head-over-heals for him. We’ll watch her go from glasses-wearing mousy dork to a sexier…mousy dork as she vies for Ted’s attention.

Last week I asked if Britney would continue her odd public displays of lunacy on set or if the legendary laid back nature of the How I Met Your Mother world would keep her on an even keel. It seems like the latter has been the case since all reports from on-set have been overwhelmingly positive. A few random snippets from the cast and crew:

With helicopters flying overhead, the writers were hoping for more drama, and even encouraged Jason Segel to try to make out with Britney to increase ratings for the Forgetting Sarah Marshall debut. More

The cast welcomed Britney and all wanted scenes with her. Neil Patrick Harris got his wish, with a episode-ending tag that is both hilarious and leaves a window open for Spear’s character to return in a future episode. Alyson Hannigan unfortunately didn’t get screen time with Britney but tried to befriend her nonetheless. More 

Ranjit will be back next week as well! More

Josh Radnor has moved out of his apartment and bought a house. More

So, have a good St. Patrick’s Day everyone. In honor of Segel’s new writing gig, let’s all celebrate, Muppet style:

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I don’t like to post thrice in one day but this was too good to pass up. I’ll keep it short.

The Muppets are back back back – and you’re not going to believe who’s behind their glorious big-screen revival.

For it’s only Nick Stoller and Jason Segel – the director, star and co-writers of the forthcoming Judd Apatow-produced comedy, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

…when Segel was invited to a general meeting with Disney executive, Kristin Burr, he pitched his concept for a new Muppets movie, and was hired on the spot.

That explains the Muppet references on the ilovesarahmarshall.com blog. I’m really excited about this, who better to bring back the Muppets to their former glory?

Read the whole story here. Thanks to reader Liz for pointing this out to me. And no, I don’t think the story is serious about Segel leaving HIMYM. Those Apatow boys are busy beavers, I think he’ll take all this on in stride. Hell, he’s probably already got it written.

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The first reports are coming back from the set where Britney is currently filming her episodes. Alyson Hannigan was pleased:

“I have been quite impressed by Britney’s performance. The character she is playing is very sweet and endearing, which seems to come naturally to her. Not to mention, she has good comedic timing, which helps, given we’re a sitcom.”

As per usual, Neil Patrick Harris had more to say. Full Q&A here but here are some highlights.

It looks like security was tight on set:

They have different wristbands every day, and it’s like the ultimate after-party. I wasn’t given a wristband, because I’m on the show, but then they swapped out security people and they wouldn’t let me on the stage because I didn’t have the proper wristband.

This is good to hear, and makes me feel better:

…it should be clear, and I hope you state this, Britney’s camp came entirely to us with the idea of it, and in fact, we all thought it was a joke. It wasn’t like CBS or How I Met Your Mother is trying to get ratings, and said who can we star-cast to get attention.

We were literally just filming last week and told, “You’re not going to believe who just called and said they wanted to be on the show.” That’s sort of how it all went down. My only reservation about her being on the show at all is that it appears that we are desperate for ratings, and that’s not the case, we’re sort of in a good comedy groove. So, my only concern is one of appearance.

I knew it! This confirms what I was saying about the show being intellectual:

Sarah [Chalke]’s the perfect fit for the show. Josh Radnor has a real intellectual sensibility to his acting, and I think Sarah matches him step for step and beat for beat, so when we started our run-through yesterday, or started rehearsing, rather, it was like she’d never not been on the show. I hope and my fingers are crossed that Sarah manages to do more than one episode with us because she’s just terrific.

This all makes me feel much better. It also seems to suggest that the show might not be in as much trouble as it has seemed. I can’t wait for Monday to see how much momentum will be gained with new episodes finally airing.

There’s also some quotes from Britney about working on the show that I didn’t think were terribly interesting.

Thirdly (is that a word?) there is a nice short bio on Josh Radnor. Turns out he’s Jewish, intellectual, and awesome (we already knew all that right?)

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Last week I mentioned the blog for Fogetting Sarah Marshall at ilovesarahmarshall.com. Well, the URL now redirects to ihatesarahmarshall.com and the focus of the blog has changed a bit:

F her. F the shit out of her. You know I’ve been thinking about it and it’s like five years! You’re just going to throw that away. I guess she is! So it’s all out on the table now. Struggling, insecure, low self-esteem, doesn’t know what she had TV actress Sarah Marshall dumped me last night. yes, the one on the stupid crime TV show with Daniel Baldwin. Or Adam or Billy or Pablo…who the F can keep ‘em straight? She probably screwing ‘em all anyway.

This is great. I really love this kind of marketing. Cheers to Segel for making all the videos. I bet he actually writes the blog posts too. I’m actually really excited to see the movie. It’s generating a lot of buzz online. Hopefully all that buzz, and any box office success the film has, will catapult Segel to more of a “star” status and in turn help the show.

It’s nice to see the actors popping up elsewhere. Maybe the movie Cobie Smulders is working on will also be good (don’t tell anyone: I doubt it will be) and will give her some more visibility as well.

Now Josh Radnor just needs a hit role. He should go on Entourage as himself, but expose some fictional, ludicrous lifestyle of banging chicks and breaking hearts. That’d be great. It worked for future-Ted Mosby:

NSFW language

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So, it’s true:

Britney Spears’ havoc-wreaking cameo on How I Met Your Mother has already claimed its first victim. A Mother insider confirms that Alicia Silverstone — who was slated to appear in a multi-episode arc as Ted’s dermatologist/lover — has dropped out and will be replaced by Scrubs’ Sarah Chalke.

Pink Is the New Blog reports that Silverstone bowed out because her reps (understandably) feared she would be overshadowed by Spears, who, per my sources, will play an assistant to the dermatologist now being portrayed by Chalke. As a result, I’m hearing Mother bosses Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have reconceived the female doc character. Originally slated to appear in multiple episodes, she’ll now be in just one — mostly because that’s all Chalke’s schedule will allow. The diminished screen time would also seem to eliminate any hope there was of her being Ted’s future yellow-umbrella-carrying wife (aka the “Mother”).

But Mother still has big plans for Silverstone. “[Bays and Thomas] love Alicia,” whispers my mole, “and they intend to create another character for her.”

All of this begs a critical question: Is Spears worth the headache? Provided she brings in enough viewers to get Mother off CBS’ endangered list, I reckon she is!

source

The Alicia Part

We all know how excited I was when I first heard about the Silverstone casting. I still think that she’s note-perfect for this show. The thing I’ve always loved about How I Met Your Mother is its intellect and heart, a heart it often wears on its sleeve. I think this has brought criticism to the show—it’s not as superficial as shows like Friends, and not as acerbic as shows like Everybody Loves Raymond. It’s even been called sappy, which I have never agreed with. I can see Silverstone fitting in well with the sensitive, thoughtful tone of the show as well as rolling with the humor while keeping a certain level of sophistication (something Cobie Smulders has been doing without much credit since day one.)

Alicia Silverstone’s professional persona is rooted in a Gen X sensibility, something else the show has in spades (Ted is the classic wandering soul.) She would have been the perfect familiar face that would have worked on the show the same way Danika McKellar worked in the past. The show’s demographic has, for the most part, fond memories of Silverstone’s previous roles and I think she would’ve been accepted warmly.

The Britney Part

Britney Spears is none of those things. At one time the picture of virtue, how far we fall when we fly too close to the sun. Her recent antics are too numerous to account for here (and are better documented elsewhere). I’ve taken pot-shots at her like everyone else, and whether or not she was an active participant in her own Icarusian fall or merely the victim of those she trusted, we’ll never know. What I do know is that she represents everything about celebrity and pop culture that I try to get away from when watching shows like HIMYM.

That being said, she’s also not an actress. I don’t trust that she’ll be charming, funny, or even necessarily coherent. Mandy Moore did well, but she acts quite a bit, and has a reputation for being motivated and hard working. I’ve read stories of Britney showing up late for video shoots drunk or incapacitated in some way, being surly and difficult to work with, and generally bringing down those around her. I’ve also read that the set of HIMYM is one of the best—laid back, fun, easy going, and very efficient and affable. Which attitude is going to win out? Will the positive aura Pam Fryman has created win out over the venomous tendencies of a deranged pop star? These are the things I’m really worried about.

The Sarah Part

I love Sarah Chalke. I’m a huge Scrubs fan and find her to be a great female character. She’s quirky, awkward, sexy, strange, and filled with neuroses. Much like Silverstone, I think she’s great for the show. The only problem I see is being able to separate Sarah Chalke from Eliot Reed. Plus, an added bonus: she’s Canadian and, I believe, has a bit of a natural accent she tones down for Scrubs. This could play well into the established canon of Canada jokes on the show. If she could be on for more than one episode there could’ve been a side plot that involved her being Robin Sparkles’ biggest fan.

The “Why It’ll be OK” Part

That brings me to my one regret with all of this casting news. Chalke can only appear for one episode, while Spears is rumored to return for several. That means that we won’t just see Spears in the doctor’s office as the assistant and she’ll probably end up dating Ted. I’ll say it here: Britney Spears will not be the mother. I don’t have inside sources, I just can’t imagine this is the outcome. At most, she’d be a Victoria—someone Ted dates for awhile and then breaks up with.

Silverstone’s character (which is now Chalke’s) was supposed to be recurring, maybe even the mother. With her out, the creators are having to re-work the story they wanted to tell. I hate to see scheduling conflict and things like that affect story telling. I’m sure it happens more than we ever hear, but it is an unfortunate compromise for the writers. Hopefully the hint that Silverstone will return is true, and they’ll postpone her arc for the future.

I don’t really understand why, if they had Silverstone cast in a roll they were ready to move forward writing, they’d let her go just to cast Britney in a supporting role. I know that it’ll be good for ratings (I haven’t seen a single news item spread quite so fast online since Heath Ledger died) but is it worth it? Again, we’ll have to wait and see. I have trust in the show, the writers, and the actors to take what seems like lemons and give us some lemonade.

What do you think?

Thanks to readers John d’Arc and Ranier for sharing this news with me.

PS. Sorry for the wonky feed stuff, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to post this as a new entry or just update the old one (I did the former.)

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UPDATE: Expanded edition now available.

I’m going to expand on the latter bit of this post later but did want to confirm the following:

Britney Spears’ havoc-wreaking cameo on How I Met Your Mother has already claimed its first victim. A Mother insider confirms that Alicia Silverstone — who was slated to appear in a multi-episode arc as Ted’s dermatologist/lover — has dropped out and will be replaced by Scrubs’ Sarah Chalke.

Pink Is the New Blog reports that Silverstone bowed out because her reps (understandably) feared she would be overshadowed by Spears, who, per my sources, will play an assistant to the dermatologist now being portrayed by Chalke. As a result, I’m hearing Mother bosses Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have reconceived the female doc character. Originally slated to appear in multiple episodes, she’ll now be in just one — mostly because that’s all Chalke’s schedule will allow. The diminished screen time would also seem to eliminate any hope there was of her being Ted’s future yellow-umbrella-carrying wife (aka the “Mother”).

But Mother still has big plans for Silverstone. “[Bays and Thomas] love Alicia,” whispers my mole, “and they intend to create another character for her.”

All of this begs a critical question: Is Spears worth the headache? Provided she brings in enough viewers to get Mother off CBS’ endangered list, I reckon she is!
source

Thanks to readers John d’Arc and Ranier for sharing this news with me.

More to come!

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We all know and love her as Wendy the Waitress but as several readers pointed out, Charlene Amoia pops up in a lot of commercials and guest appearances on other shows. Here is a random smattering going from most recognizable to least-in-English. Enjoy. The pictures at the bottom are just for you as well.

Speed Reel

Here is a reel from Amoia’s agency. It has clips from My Boys, The Young and the Restless, How I Met Your Mother, and Joey. Also, her information is at the end in case anyone is looking to cast her in something.

Wal-Mart

This is the first time I noticed her outside of HIMYM. I love the old guy in this spot.

My Boys

Here’s the extended clip from My Boys where Charlene gets hit on by Mario and Luigi’s younger brother Esteban.

Joey

Charlene is in Joey’s book club. Extended clip from the speed reel.

McDonalds

This is a surprisingly sexy commercial for the golden arches. Check out how she purrs “I like it cold”. Who could argue with that?

DCU Commercial

OK, this is a stretch but she looks cute and is smart about managing her money!

Meetic Commercial

I have no idea what Meetic even is. Is it a product? A show? A movie? It seems like it might be French. Keep watching past the initial part, it kicks over into English and gets very, very funny. It also has the song “Too Drunk to F***” by Nouvelle Vague (listen here).

Wash Day

Looking cute yet again. This guy is worse than Barney. Goldters? Cabana in Maui? Is this what happens to hot girls whilst they do their laundry?

There’s a few more videos with Amoia that aren’t as entertaining.

For you RSS’ers, this post is chuck-a-block full of YouTube videos so do click through to view them all.

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