The How I Met Your Mother Blog

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?)

Yesterday was a little serious so let’s lighten up today with a little irreverence, How I Met Your Mother style.

Watch this clip from The Onion where an FCC representative details the differences between lewd and artistic displays of nudity on television. Where’s the line drawn? Right across Alyson Hannigan’s bosom.

My favorite moment:

“That would be acceptable?”
“That would be beautiful.”

Enjoy.

TV Guide recently ranked the top ten married television couples. Guess who came in at number five? Lily Aldrin and Marshall Ericksen. Not bad after less than a year of marriage. The rest of the ranking was as follows:

1. “Friday Night Lights” Tami and Eric Taylor, played by Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler
2. “Medium” Allison and Joe Dubois, played by Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber
3. “Desperate Housewives” Lynette and Tom Scavo, played by Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant
4. “Everybody Hates Chris” Rochelle and Julius, played by Tichina Arnold and Terry Crews
5. “How I Met Your Mother” Lily Aldrin and Marshall Eriksen, played by Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segel
6. “The Unit” Mollly Blane and Sgt. Major Jonas, played by Regina Taylor and Dennis Haysbert
7. “Lost” Rose Henderson and Bernard Nadler, played by L. Scott Caldwell and Sam Anderson (editor’s note: my second favorite on the list)
8. “Ghost Whisperer” Melinda Gordon and Jim Clancy, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt and David Conrad
9. “Family Guy” Lois and Peter Griffin, voiced by Alex Borstein and Seth MacFarlane
10. “Scrubs,” Carla Espinosa and Chris Turk, played by Judy Reyes and Donald Faison

Found this today, thought it was adorable:

Alyson Hannigan was turned down for a job as a bartender when she couldn’t get work as an actress because she looked too young. During a lean period in her acting career, the 33-year-old star took a course and tried to get a job pouring drinks at Hollywood hotspots.

The How I Met Your Mother star tells the New York Post, “I never got hired anywhere. I looked 12. They said, ‘Honey, people are just gonna laugh when you try to card them (ask for their identification) – they’re gonna want to card you.”

via Hip-Hop Elements

PS. In that photo, Lily is holding a “World’s Greatest Couple” cup that has a photo of her and Barney on it. I don’t remember that from the eponymous episode, do you?

PPS. While looking for Hannigan pictures I found a few nice ones. Check it:

It looks like HIMYM will not suffer as much or as immediately as some of the other shows on TV. Last week the cast finished filming all the written scripts before the strike started. This positions the show to continually serve up new episodes, possibly well into December. A potential blessing in disguise–if this is the only new show, maybe it will gain a lot of new viewers!

The cast has been positive. Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders both showed up outside the picket lines this week to pass out food and keep people company.

In related news, Neil Patrick Harris will appear on The Price is Right Wheel of Fortune next week, playing for charity this time rather than discovering his father (who is definitely NOT Drew Carrey Pat Sajak). I’m not sure of the exact day but The episode will air Monday Nov 12 so keep your eyes peeled to see if Neil can clean house the same way Barney did last season.

both stories via BuddyTV

UPDATE: Apparently I can’t read properly, which Voltaire was kind enough to point out. Good call.