ALYSON HANNIGAN: HIMYM review
Spotted in San Jose Mercury News:
BEVERLY HILLS - Sometimes you can tell just how good a new series might be from how the creators and cast interact when they meet reporters at the Television Critics Association's semiannual press tour.
Sometimes, the writers and actors are totally out of sync with each other, as if they have different ideas about where the show is going or even what it's about. Sometimes, cast members lack any real chemistry, looking as if they were just on the series to pick up a paycheck.
When press conferences go south like that, the TV reporters start taking bets on how long the series will last.
Then there are sessions such as the one held by the producers and cast of CBS's new ``How I Met Your Mother,'' which gets the juicy Monday night slot between ``King of Queens'' and ``Two and a Half Men'' come the fall.
The show, which has a nice twist to it that I don't want to spoil, revolves around a group of friends trying to help a buddy find the right girl. Writers have already pegged it as one of the better new offerings for the fall season, and the session just amplified that good will.
The actors -- who include such veterans of the TV wars as Neil Patrick Harris (``Doogie Howser'') and Alyson Hannigan (``Buffy'') -- were clearly on the same page when it came to the ensemble comedy. The creators -- relative newcomers Carter Bays and Craig Thomas -- were funny and charming and seemed to have a fresh take on the traditional sitcom.
``I didn't want to do a sitcom,'' said Harris, who admitted he didn't have a lot of fun on NBC's ill-fated ``Stark Raving Mad'' a few years back.
``Neil actually sat in my living room'' after ``Mad'' went off the air ``and kept going, `I don't ever want to do a half-hour sitcom again,' '' injected Hannigan with a laugh.
``But then this script came along and the character was really fun,'' continued Harris, who added that CBS ``did very little meddling from the very beginning. They let us do our thing.''
Which was a sentiment echoed by Bays and Thomas, who didn't seem to be reciting the usual pat lines about how great the network had been.
``We decided, `Let's go write about our lives, the real things we deal with,' '' said Bays. ``Let's just see happens. And every step along the way -- where you think that's not going to work, this is CBS -- it's just been green light all the way.''
BEVERLY HILLS - Sometimes you can tell just how good a new series might be from how the creators and cast interact when they meet reporters at the Television Critics Association's semiannual press tour.
Sometimes, the writers and actors are totally out of sync with each other, as if they have different ideas about where the show is going or even what it's about. Sometimes, cast members lack any real chemistry, looking as if they were just on the series to pick up a paycheck.
When press conferences go south like that, the TV reporters start taking bets on how long the series will last.
Then there are sessions such as the one held by the producers and cast of CBS's new ``How I Met Your Mother,'' which gets the juicy Monday night slot between ``King of Queens'' and ``Two and a Half Men'' come the fall.
The show, which has a nice twist to it that I don't want to spoil, revolves around a group of friends trying to help a buddy find the right girl. Writers have already pegged it as one of the better new offerings for the fall season, and the session just amplified that good will.
The actors -- who include such veterans of the TV wars as Neil Patrick Harris (``Doogie Howser'') and Alyson Hannigan (``Buffy'') -- were clearly on the same page when it came to the ensemble comedy. The creators -- relative newcomers Carter Bays and Craig Thomas -- were funny and charming and seemed to have a fresh take on the traditional sitcom.
``I didn't want to do a sitcom,'' said Harris, who admitted he didn't have a lot of fun on NBC's ill-fated ``Stark Raving Mad'' a few years back.
``Neil actually sat in my living room'' after ``Mad'' went off the air ``and kept going, `I don't ever want to do a half-hour sitcom again,' '' injected Hannigan with a laugh.
``But then this script came along and the character was really fun,'' continued Harris, who added that CBS ``did very little meddling from the very beginning. They let us do our thing.''
Which was a sentiment echoed by Bays and Thomas, who didn't seem to be reciting the usual pat lines about how great the network had been.
``We decided, `Let's go write about our lives, the real things we deal with,' '' said Bays. ``Let's just see happens. And every step along the way -- where you think that's not going to work, this is CBS -- it's just been green light all the way.''
posted by Simon Hayes Budgen at 9:35 AM
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