By Meryl Gottlieb| mg986611@ohiou.edu| @buzzlightmeryl
How I Met Your Mother airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBS
I'm cringing with anxiety for the return of How I Met Your Mother on Feb. 24. A two-week hiatus is simply much too much. In the mean time, let's discuss all the new info in the HIMYM world that I've obsessively consumed in my longing for the return. It's OK; I'm fine.
It doesn't look like Cristin Milioti, our beloved Mother, will return to the Broadway stage anytime soon. It has been confirmed the actress will star in Rashida Jones' upcoming pilot for NBC. Milioti will play one of two leads in A to Z, a single-camera comedy. She will play Zelda, a lawyer at a small public-advocacy firm, who is known for her “realist” outlook on life. According to a casting description: “Alternately serious and hilarious, Zelda loves being a grown-up and doesn’t understand why anyone over 20 would go see an animated movie or eat ice cream sundaes. Destiny and fate are not in her vocabulary; she believes she controls her own destiny." The show will focus on the relationship of a young couple, Zelda and Andrew, from meeting to breakup.
There's no doubt in my mind that this comedy could do very well. I'm falling ever more in love with Milioti as I see her in more things. Her small role in the Oscar nominated The Wolf of Wall Street was an excellent surprise to me and she performed just as well as Leonardo DiCaprio. I'm so excited to see her career blossom into something amazing.
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The HIMYM spinoff, How I Met Your Dad, has finally got its star: Greta Gerwig. The indie film star made a name for herself in Frances Ha, in which she starred and co-wrote. Gerwig will play Sally, “a female Peter Pan who has never grown up and has no idea of where she’s going in life and is thinking of getting a divorce from her husband of a year, Gavin.” Gerwig will not only star in the spinoff, but she will also be co-producing AND writing. Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the creators of HIMYM, are geniuses, but I think having main writers and producers of the opposite gender is going to help them tremendously, especially since this show's main character is a woman.
I'm still quite iffy about the mere fact that a spinoff is happening. I love HIMYM and honestly I don't see how replicating it is going to be good. I can admit there are points in the show when it lagged and I just don't see how re-doing the show will be good for its overall legacy. Sometimes it's good to leave well enough alone.
Despite many mixed emotions, I'm still interested in following it along, so I was intrigued to see the other roles they are casting for the show.
- Juliet: Sally’s sexy, flamboyant, energetic, party-girl BFF. She runs a successful fashion blog. She’s delighted to learn Sally is ending things with the terminally boring Gavin.
- Danny: Sally’s older gay brother, a Type A, overachieving lawyer whom she shares little in common with. They nonetheless share a tight bond, although Sally’s decision to move in with Danny after her split with Gavin promises to test that bond.
- Todd: Danny’s warm, outgoing husband and one of Sally’s closest friends from college. Unlike Danny, Todd welcomes Sally into their home.
- Frank: The head of IT for Juliet’s fashion blog. He’s a hot nerd. He has genuine feelings for Sally, but it’s a one-sided flirtation. At least for the moment.
- Narrator: It’s Sally from the future. She’s reliving the events of her past to her kids.
It's hard to see how this isn't going to be a stereotypical, poor spinoff but let's try to think positively. I'm now off to research Gerwig and watch Frances Ha so that I can finally garner some excitement for this project.
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On the day the latest episode ("Sunrise") aired, Bays and Thomas went on Reddit for an "Ask Me Anything" and a lot of fun facts were revealed. Most notably, Jennifer Love Hewitt ended up doing The Ghost Whisperer instead of HIMYM, and Scandal's Scott Foley was originally asked to play Ted. That would have been one weird show.
The pair even confirmed they "have not changed the very end of series at all." They even filmed part of it back in 2006, before the actors who play Ted's kids got any older.
"We just looked at that footage, which will factor into the end of the series—it totally worked and was kind of haunting to watch," Thomas said. "Shot eight years ago and it will now help end our series on March 31st."
I still don't think I'll ever be prepared for the show to end. It probably won't hit me until I go to turn it on next season.
How are you coping? Have any HIMYM fun facts I should know about? Let me know @buzzlightmeryl
