The How I Met Your Mother Blog

Thank you to Jess for this:

Michael Ausiello (of TVguide.com):

Not so much scoop as a call to action: Josh Radnor’s stopping by tomorrow to guest-star on my vodcast, so send any/all questions to ask_ausiello@tvguide.com

source

Josh is in NYC this week doing all kinds of press. Look for him on The Early Show, Regis, and The CW Morning show. So if you have questions, email them in!

I actually have an embarrassing story (about myself) that has to do with Mr. Radnor that I’ll share with you all later this week.

I’d love to know what questions you mailed in. Let me know in the comments.

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:

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?)

There are a lot of videos about the writers strike deliberations. This is the first one I’ve seen with Josh Radnor however. He’s got his breakup beard and does not appreciate puppets.

On this day I bring you a treat. Josh Radnor and Neil Patrick Harris in full costume. I have to say, Neil is looking damn creepy as that clown: