The How I Met Your Mother Blog

Alyson Hannigan turns 34 today. She’s had a lucrative acting career even before Lily Aldrin was one half of L.A.M.E. We first saw her as the band camp geek from the American Pie movies. Then she played Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer—one of her most memorable roles. She’s also appeared on Veronica Mars. With her film and television roster, and her girl-next-door charms, Hannigan has set geek’s hearts swooning for many years.

In Alyson’s honor, here is a short bio:

Date of Birth

March 24, 1974, Washing D.C., USA

Birth Name

Allison Lee Hannigan

Height

5′ 6″ (1.68 m)

Trivia

• Was a clarinet player in junior high school.
• Played soccer until she got an injury in her early teens.
• Has a tattoo of tribal dolphins on her ankle, and a japanese kanji, for luck and happiness, on her back.
• She is a spokesperson for breast cancer, and appeared in a brochure to raise awareness about the disease.
• Married to Alexis Denisof. Denisof proposed during a trip to Northern California wine country during the 2002 holiday season. They were married in October 2003. We know Alexis Denisof as egotistical anchorman Sandy Rivers.
• Is of Irish-American decent
• Owns a mansion in Sacramento, California.
• Attended California State University in Northridge, California majored in Psychology
• Was Bob Saget’s babysitter in her teens. Once went on vacation to Hawaii with his family.

Editor’s note: I want to give myself extra-credit for the banner pic above. Do a Google Image Search for Hannigan and see how hard it is to find a good photo. There are some unfortunate Photoshop collages out there of her.

Last week we learned that Jason Segel would be penning a new Muppet movie. I was quite excited about this. Who doesn’t  love The Muppets? Segel recently chatted with MTV about the direction he plans to take with the film:

“I’ve just grown a little disappointed with ‘Muppets in the Old West,’ ‘Muppets Under Water,’ and all these weird concept movies. I just want to go take it back to the early 80’s, when it was about the Muppets trying to put on a show. That’s what I’m trying to bring back,” said Segel, who also wants to bring back the big name cameos of the earlier films. “All of our friends that I’ve brought it up to are pretty excited by the prospect of it. Everyone loves the Muppets; they’ve got a warm place in most people’s hearts. We want a lot of cameos. You look back at Charles Grodin, Charles Durning, there were just such great performances in those movies.” “We’ve got a great plot. I think if we can execute it right, it will be terrific. But I can’t tell you more – it’s top secret.”

Segel also weighed in on his opinion of Kermit the Frog:

“I remember thinking that Kermit was the original Tom Hanks – he was the everyman for a kid. I remember watching Kermit and thinking ‘That’s what I want to do when I grow up.’ I don’t think I realized he was a puppet.”

All this via Slash Film, who also have some excellent points on Segel and the script.

I still think that Segel’s the perfect writer for this movie. The key to what made the Muppets so cool was how they were written and geared for adults, rather than children. Do you have any favorite Muppet moments?

This is a weekly column where the episodes from seasons one, two, and three will go head to head in a humor cage match. This week, the episode twelve’s.

Season 1: The Wedding

Robin accepts Ted’s invite to a friend’s wedding, but thanks to Ted, the couple may never make it down the aisle.

This was the first episode in the Victoria arc—one of the best plot lines the show’s ever had. I liked it, but the ones to follow were superior. This was also the first episode where Robin started to really warm up to the idea of dating Ted. It was at this time that we first met Stuart and Claudia (Matt Boren and Virginia Williams)—when Ted almost inadvertently stopped their marriage. The theme of the episode was how Ted saw himself—how any of us see ourselves: as a single person or someone looking for a relationship. Bonus: the last moment of this episode was our first view of Victoria, smiling that charming smile she has.

Lily got most of the good lines in this episode:

Ted: “We can’t sneak her into the wedding, we’re not ninjas.”
Lily: “I wish we were ninjas.”

Lily: “Jeez, don’t “Ted” out about it.”

Lily: “Claudia is getting married tomorrow and so help me God if I catch you even so much as breathing the same air as her I will take those peanuts you’re trying to pass off as testicles and I will squeeze them so hard until your eyes pop out and then I’ll feed them to you like grapes.”
Barney: “Wait… my eyes? Or my testicles?”
Lily: “One of each!”

Fun trivia: In the scene where Ted runs into Claudia on the street and she’s screaming at someone on the phone about her wedding cake, it’s actually Victoria she’s yelling at even though we haven’t met her yet. Victoria was later revealed to have made the cake.

Season 2: First Time in New York

Robin wants to tell Ted that she loves him, but she can’t tell him. Meanwhile, her sister visits and brings her boyfriend, and Robin doesn’t know how to react when her sister says she’s ready to lose her virginity.

This is one of my personal favorite episodes. The premise is clever and all the flashbacks are hilarious. From Ted’s switcheroo story of a love ‘em and leave ‘em tryst to Robin’s gay first boyfriend to Barney-as-Swayze Dirty Dancing fib I think this was one of the funniest episodes ever. We learned a lot about all of the characters and everyone was involved in the same plot—no lame B plot to cut back and forth between.

Robin’s sister was adorable (she’s gone on to star in Bionic Woman) and her accusations of promiscuity were perfect little-sister embarassment for Robin:

“Oh come on, you’ve slept with like 100 guys.”
“It’s not 100 guys! It’s not 100 guys! I had different levels of affection for each of the very reasonable number of guys.”

This episode also focused on how hard it is for Robin to say “I love you”. To use Barney’s highway metaphor, Robin didn’t want to “get off the freeway, but saying ‘Hmm hmm hmmm’ is like getting into the car pool lane. And what’s in that lane? A big diamond”. Ted, on the other hand, turns out to be an “I love you” slut. By the end, Robin managed to say it. In a lesser show this could have been a corny moment but this is How I Met Your Mother—Ted replies “I’m gay” and it all feels so much more natural and authentic.

Marshall and Lily had their moments too. When Marshall found out that he might not have been the first person Lily slept with—turns out Scooter had splashed around in the shallow end—he didn’t take it well.

Season 3: No Tomorrow

Ted lives like there’s no tomorrow during a St. Patrick’s Day celebration with Barney. Lily and Marshall spend the evening at their new apartment with Robin.

I liked this episode. I think the future of the show will prove that this was a real turning point in Ted’s life. I think he’d been still recovering from his break up with Robin up to this point and maybe realizing how much of a “Low Point” he’d hit will snap him back on track. Say what you will about Marshall’s lecture to him at the end, but it was necessary and Ted’s face showed that it had sunk in.

The weak part for me here was the B plot. It was cute and funny, but I like LAME better when they’re not such a charade-playing cliche married couple. Robin needs something to do too, maybe now that Ted’s back on the wagon she can spend another night as Barney’s bro.

Advantage

This is a close call, but for me “First Time in New York” is just a killer episode. Its’ in my top three of all time and I have to give it the nod. I have a feeling you might disagree so be sure to vote for your choice below.

Vote

{democracy:16}

Previous Season vs. Season Showdowns

• Episode 1
• Episode 5
• Episode 6
• Episode 7
• Episode 8
• Episode 9
• Episode 10

I’ve removed the scorecard for now. I’m going to go back and make sure the tallies are correct for each episode and hopefully get the earlier ones posted that are not up at the moment.

So there’s been a lot of chatter online about whether or not we may have met the mother this week. As reader Jez pointed out to me in an email, it seemed strange for the episode to include Ted bumping into a girl, seemingly at random, while at the club (for those of you who have the episode, say from iTunes like I do, it’s around the 13:30 mark). We know that the mother was at the party, yet Future Ted says at the end that he didn’t meet the mother there. Could the girl he bumped into turn out to be the mom? Let’s examine the possibilities.

1. In the picture above, all we can see the woman with the yellow umbrella wearing is a leather jacket and jeans. We can tell she’s caucasian, petite, and has a bit of an olive complextion.
2. Check out the images below, screen captures from the moment Ted bumps into the woman at the bar.

This woman is also wearing jeans, but so are 99% of the other women in the bar (and, in fact, the world.) I say this evidence isn’t conclusive enough. With all the talk about potential mother casting and then subsequent changes in game plan, it could be that, in lieu of Dermatologist Stella turning out to be the mom, the writers have thrown in a curve ball hinting at something else for the future. Or it could be a red herring.

I decided to track down the actress who played the girl Ted bumped into to try and determine how likely she would be to, at some point, become a series regular. Based on the press release I tracked her down:

Her name is Nicole Muirbrook Wagner and she has not appeared in anything notable. That’s a good sign, if she isn’t a hugely popular, in demand character actor there’s a good chance she’d be both available and amiable to come back on the show in a larger capacity.

Also, she fits the profile of the mother that was established in season one’s episode “Milk” when they showed shots of the mom with her face covered. What we could tell about the mother in those pictures was that she a) was brunette b) was petite c) had a mild olive complextion. Again, Wagner fits the bill. Additionally, if you look at Future Ted’s kids, they too are petite brunettes with vaguely olive complextions.

Now we have to ask if the creators of the show would do this to us? Maybe I watch too much Lost but yes, I think they would. That’s not to say that I’m convinced this is the mother, but it’s a definite possibility.

What do you think?

{democracy:36}

PS. If you guys would digg this story I’d appreciate it.

Hi guys!

I want to apologize for the comments being broken last night. I had installed a new plugin and that didn’t bode well for any of the AJAX on the site. Everything should be back in working order now. Feel free to leave your comment on this week’s recap.

Again, sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks to all the readers who emailed me about the issue, you guys are the best!

I’d like to make it up to you. Since you couldn’t comment yesterday, here are some nice pictures of Sarah Chalke who’ll be on the show next week.