How I Met Your Mother

[Incarnadine]

It could be that the first episode is an hour then they'll go to 30 minutes after that.

[helpfulinformationperhaps]

It's a half hour show scheduled for mondays

CBS in 2005-06:
Six New Shows - Two Comedies and Four Dramas

CBS, the No. 1 network in households, total viewers and adults 25-54, will introduce six new series (two comedies and four dramas) in a schedule that is poised to keep the network's winning streak alive in 2005-06. CBS will make changes on five nights of the week (Thursday and Sunday remain unchanged), with veteran sitcoms The King of Queens, Still Standing and the surprise renewal of Yes, Dear all moving to new time periods. The King of Queens will anchor Monday, while Still Standing and Yes, Dear open Wednesday.

"This is a schedule that is both smart and aggressive," notes Les Moonves, Viacom co-president and COO, and chairman of CBS, who also pointed to CBS ranking first among adults 18-49 based on regularly scheduled programming. "We are a network positioned to attract viewers of all ages, including adults 18-49."

Mirroring the current hot trend, supernatural dramas, CBS' Threshold on Friday will deal with mysterious alien life forms, while lead-in Ghost Whisperer features perky Jennifer Love Hewitt communicating with the dead. In an ongoing staple on CBS, two of the network's new dramas, Close To Home and Criminal Minds, will be crime drama themed. Of the 22 primetime hours, in fact, half of the network's hours (including two hours of Crimetime Saturday, a repeat drama rotation) are crime related.

Coming up on CBS in midseason is former Dharma & Greg star Jenna Elfman in sitcom Everything I Know About Men, and 24 star Dennis Haysbert in action drama The Unit.


Missing from CBS' fall 2005 line-up are Judging Amy, Joan of Arcadia, 60 Minutes (on Wednesday) and JAG, four the network's five oldest skewing shows. Also not returning: Jason Alexander sitcom Listen Up, and Old Christine.

What follows is CBS in fall 2005 (with new shows in caps and a description of each new series immediately following):

Monday
8:00 p.m. The King of Queens (new day and time)
8:30 p.m. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
9:00 p.m. Two and a Half Men (new time period)
9:30 p.m. OUT OF PRACTICE
10:00 p.m. CSI: Miami

[sacinema]

Jup, di doodle di doo ... Yeah, Aly has a new show. Really great for her and for us. It will be so nice to have her back. And with her outstanding talent for comedy I think she will make it work. I hope she is more in the lead than it sounded when the show was anounced. And I have a slight cue who the mother will be.

[Dana5140]

Description from the Futon Critic:

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (Monday, 8:30 PM) is a comedy about Ted (Josh Radnor) and how he fell in love. It all started when Ted's best friend, Marshall (Jason Segel, "Freaks and Geeks"), drops the bombshell that he's going to propose to his long-time girlfriend, Lily (Alyson Hannigan, "American Pie"), a kindergarten teacher. At that moment, Ted realizes that he had better get a move on if he hopes to find true love, too. Helping him in his quest is Barney (Neil Patrick Harris, "Doogie Howser, M.D."), a friend with endless, sometimes outrageous, opinions, a penchant for suits and a fool-proof way to meet women. When Ted meets Robin (Cobie Smulders, "Veritas: The Quest"), he's sure it's love at first sight, but destiny may have something else in store. With voice-over by Bob Saget ("Full House"), the show is told through flashbacks from the future. Carter Bays & Craig Thomas ("Late Show with David Letterman") are executive producers for Twentieth Century Fox Television.

[urnofosiris]

Well I am definitely looking forward to seeing Aly on TV on a weekly basis. and there is only one comedy I follow at this moment, not counting Gilmore Girls. I don´t mind another one.

[Incarnadine]

Link.

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Through May 15, CBS' season-to-date margin-of-victory over second place ABC is nearly three million viewers, the largest by any network at this point in the season in 16 years. Despite that advantage, CBS' schedule for the 2005-06 season features some heavy tinkering, with several Emmy winners and established hits replaced by six new hopefuls.

Of CBS' bubble shows, "NUMB3RS," "Still Standing" and "Yes, Dear" all earned renewals, while the network did away with long-running hit "Judging Amy" and buzz-to-bust second-year drama "Joan of Arcadia" among other shows. Instead, four new dramas and two new comedies are set for the fall, with Friday and Monday getting the largest overhauls.

The departure of "Everybody Loves Raymond" leaves CBS' Monday a bit vulnerable, but the network decided to move an old friend back to the night. "The King of Queens" is back from Wednesdays, kicking things off at 8 p.m. ET and setting up the flashback comedy "How I Met Your Mother," which brings TV favorites Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan back to the small screen. As expected, "Two and a Half Men" will move to "Raymond's" old 9 p.m. home, serving as a launchboard for "Out of Practice" (formerly known as "Flesh and Blood"), an ensemble medical family comedy featuring Henry Winkler and Stockard Channing. "CSI: Miami" will continue to anchor the night.
The amount of money Ken Jennings won over the course of his winning streak on Jeopardy!


$2,112,300

$1,775,900

$2,520,700


Tuesday begins with some stability for CBS. "NCIS" has even held up against competition from "American Idol" and should return strong in the fall as a lead-in to the latest series of "The Amazing Race," which achieved its highest ratings yet this past installment. A female-centric legal drama is scheduled for 10 p.m., but instead of "Judging Amy," it's "Close to Home" (formerly "American Crime") from CBS' personal savior Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Jennifer Finnigan.

CBS will start Wednesday with a comedy block of "Still Standing" and "Yes, Dear," before moving into "Criminal Minds" (formerly "Quantico"). The network hopes that the FBI procedural, which stars Mandy Patinkin and Thomas Gibson, will provide a better lead-in for "CSI: NY" at 10 p.m. than an assortment of comedies did this year.

Given that CBS has come to dominate NBC's once-impenetrable Thursday fortress, it's no surprise that nothing will change. The new "Survivor" -- this one set in Guatemala -- will set up "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which will flow into "Without a Trace."

Friday starts with "Ghost Whisperer," CBS' equivalent of NBC's "Medium," a supernatural-themed drama about a newlywed (Jennifer Love Hewitt) who can talk to the dead. Keeping with the trend, the alien drama "Threshold" is scheduled for 9 p.m., with "NUMB3RS" sticking around at 10.

Both Saturdays and Sundays will also remain unchanged. CBS will continue to air a pair of crime procedural encores for the first two primetime hours, followed by "48 Hours Mystery" on Saturday. The venerable newsmagazine "60 Minutes" will still lead off on Sunday, with "Cold Case" and an assortment of original and theatrical movies to follow.

CBS has also picked up one drama and one comedy for midseason.

[Warduke]

Pics of Aly and the rest of the cast.

[Incarnadine]

Slightly larger pics of Aly at the upfronts.

Link.

[Incarnadine]

Group shot of the cast.

[Incarnadine]

CBS now has a 6 minute preview of HIMYM, Aly's character seems very similar to her Michelle character from the AP movies.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/

[DaddyCatALSO]

Maybe it's the lighting; that doesn't seem like her tradeamrk true red hair or ehr natural deep-wine shade. Looks like she's been cast in a brown shade this time, auburn or chestnut at most. Kinda cute,a ctually.
Then again, if it gets her back where she belongs, namely in front of a national audience, it'd be okay even if it *weren't* a good shade for her.



Semi-coincidence;a couple days ago I was revising one of my futrefics for possible posting and caught myself in a mistake, saying to myself, "Hey, Willow's 8 months pregnant in this story, she's *not* going to be a redhead!")

[helpfulinformationperhaps]

from media week

On the CBS Panel Front:

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
Monday 8:30 p.m.

-The Premise:
Narrated through flashbacks from the future by former Full House Dad Bob Saget, the horrifically title How I Met Your Mother is a comedy about a 20something year old guy named Ted (Josh Radnor) and how he fell in love.

-Lead-in: The King of Queens
-Competition: Wife Swap (ABC), Surface (NBC), Kitchen Confidential (Fox), All Of Us (UPN), 7th Heaven (WB)

-Who Was on the Panel:
Josh Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris, Cobie Smulders, Alyson Hannigan, Jason Segel and executive producers Carter Bays and Craig Thomas.

-The Scoop:
While one look at the young cast would lead you to believe that CBS is looking for the next Friends, the twist is the narration and knowing which characters end up together. "We want to be about a guy searching for the right person who he hopefully will fall in love with," said Craig Thomas. "We want to explore the process of that search rather than finding the answer right away."

-The Reality:
Although relocated lead-in The King of Queens (which successfully ran in the Monday 8 p.m. time period from 1999-2003) is not as strong as it used to be, if How I Met Your Mother can hold the King of Queens audience CBS could have a minor hit here. Considering the competition is far from severe, the bar of comparison is former failed occupant Listen Up, and HUT levels are higher at 8:30 p.m., this should not be particularly difficult to do. Word of advice to CBS: shorten the title. No one watching How I Met Your Mother will stand at the water-cooler the next day and remember what the name of this show is.

-Chance of Survival for How I Met Your Mother (Based on a scale of 1-1 to 10-1):
4-1

-Did You Know?:
Neil Patrick Harris' former Doogie Howser, M.D. sidekick, Max Casella, went from wisecracks to brawls in his occasional role as Benny Fazio on HBO's The Sopranos.

[willowlove]

CBS has stated that "How I Met Your Mother" will premiere September 19. Start your countdown now.

The full CBS lineup is up here.


Edited to add (from USA Today):

Mirror, mirror: CBS wants you to look

CBS' promotion of How I Met Your Mother reflects the network's confidence in the new sitcom — literally. In a campaign launching Sept. 12, trick mirrors placed in bars and other nightspots will transform into color ads for the show, which stars Josh Radnor, Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris. The campaign also includes a partnership with dating site PerfectMatch.com. How I Met Your Mother premieres Sept. 19 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT.


Thanks to whomever edited the first post to fix the link!

[molsongrrrl]

from matt roush's q & a column on tvguide.com:

Question: As a big fan of both Buffy and Freaks and Geeks, I can't help but wonder about this scheduling of CBS' new How I Met Your Mother (featuring Freaks' Jason Segel and Buffy's Alyson Hannigan) and Fox's new Kitchen Confidential (with Freaks' John Daley and Buffy's Nicholas Brendon). Both shows are airing on Mondays at 8:30 pm/ET. What I'm wondering is, who decided it was a good idea to do this? What are the chances that two shows would premiere in the same season, each featuring cast members from huge cult shows? Wouldn't it have been much better to put them at different times, allowing both networks to get fans of both shows for the premieres? — Anthony S.

Matt Roush: Somehow I don't think either CBS or Fox is banking on the Freaks and Buffy factor as selling points for either of these shows. (If anything, Alyson Hannigan's American Pie movie appearances are more promotable to the mainstream.) This is purely a coincidence, and as much as I like these individual actors, they're very much ensemble players in these shows (especially where Kitchen Confidential is concerned; Segal and Hannigan truly stand out in the Mother cast). From my perspective, the scheduling is most problematic because it pits two promising new comedies against each other. (If I had to pick, I'd go with How I Met Your Mother, which is much funnier than Kitchen, but I'm also intrigued by that show.)

[Sheridan]

The clash may not be a big factor but given how cutthroat the competition is among the US networks even a small factor can be the difference between a full season pickup and cancellation.

[Hemiola]

Saw my first HIMYM promo last night on CBS and AH looks adorable as always, especially with that funky eyepatch!

I loved her delivery of a line: "Kiss her Ted! Give it to 'er good!"

It'll be great if the whole season is like this!

[AquarianSky]

I haven't seen any promos, however, a huge HIMYM billboard went up several blocks from where l live last week. It's nice to have a larger-than-life Aly smiling down at you every day as you pass by. :-) (And it's such a beautiful picture of her, too!)

I found this article (about a month old) while surfing around tonight. I'd read elsewhere that one of the creators' wife was a big Buffy fan, but this goes into a little greater detail about it.

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_ma ... 1|,00.html

'Buffy' Fandom Leads to 'Mother' Lode for Hannigan
(Wednesday, July 20 04:03 PM)
By Rick Porter

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) The character Alyson Hannigan plays in the new CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother" is based on co-creator Craig Thomas' wife -- who, on some level, may be responsible for her husband casting the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" alum.

In the show, Hannigan plays Lily, a close friend of the main character, Ted (Josh Radnor) and the new fiancee of Ted's best friend Marshall (Jason Segel, "Freaks and Geeks"). Thomas describes her as "very self-assured ... more in control" than Marshall, who's based on himself.

"[She] kind of wants the Marshall character to kind of step up and be more aggressive and confident, but also secretly, I think, kind of likes wearing the pants in the relationship a little bit," Thomas says, implying things are not that different between him and his wife, Rebecca.

Hannigan says she didn't meet Rebecca until after she started work on "How I Met Your Mother's" pilot, "so I didn't steal too much from her. But I will."

Rebecca is also an "enormous 'Buffy' fan," says Carter Bays, who created "How I Met ..." with Thomas and on whom Radnor's character is based. "And she got both of us into it, and ..."

"Yeah, arguably that's why we cast Alyson," Thomas adds. "None of us knew about 'Buffy,' and my wife said, 'Watch "Buffy."' And we became almost embarrassingly huge 'Buffy' dorks to the point where I think Alyson is uncomfortable around us sometimes."

"Extremely," Hannigan deadpans.

For her part, Hannigan says her real-life counterpart is "awesome," and she's looking forward to playing the TV version of her in the coming season ("How I Met Your Mother" will air at 8:30 p.m. ET Mondays in the fall).

"It's really cool to be playing somebody who's alive, I think," Hannigan says. "Until she hates it. And then you're like, 'Oh, I don't know. Sorry.'"

[Renee85]

Thanks for the article! I really hope this show does well, I have seen so many shows get cancelled without the networks giving it a chance. Anywhoo, I’m looking forward to seeing it on CBS! I now have one more reason to tune in every week, with all the crappy shows I was on the verge of giving up on TV altogether.

[molsongrrrl]

entertainment weekly has listed how i met your mother as one of the 10 shows you need to see. included with that is this bit: Scene Stealers Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Hannigan and Freaks and Geeks' Segel are irresistible as Radnor's engaged pals.

[Hemiola]

Well, the TV Guide "Fall Preview" issue is out, and here's what they have to say:

First and foremost, they list the show as a "TV Guide Favorite" for the new season. They continue--

WE SAY: Fresh, endearing, laugh-out-loud funny. "Mother" surrounds a sympathetic lead with hilarious breakout characters, most notably Harris (a far cry from Doogie Howser) as an incorrigible bad influence and Hannigan (Buffy) as a funky bride-to-be."

THE OUTLOOK: We're in love. This is a great fit on CBS' strong comedy night.

Looks like we got ourselves a potential hit, folks!

[helpfulinformationperhaps]

this show has been getting raves from the critics
looks like aly has a winner on her hands!
I'm betting she and her male counter part will be the next big comedy couple - show stoppers on a par with "karen and jack" of the show "will and grace"

[AquarianSky]

I can't tell you how happy I've been to see all these rave reviews by the critics. When I saw the pilot screened (to record laugh track), I thought it was great and had enough hit-potential to stick around a few years, if given a good time slot. But, of course, there must always be the Doubting Thomases and Negative Neds (not on this board, elsewhere) who had to pooh-pooh any enthusiasm/optimism for one reason or another (i.e. it's just Michelle, again; It's all about the guys; etc). I knew they were wrong, but still, after some time passed, I did wonder if it was really as funny as I remembered it, or if it was my Aly-Colored-View of things. So, this has been *very* gratifying! It wasn't just me!

[Ben Varkentine]

The NY Times has an article, mostly about the two writer/creators of the show, but it does quote Alyson Hannigan at the end:

Alyson Hannigan, a star of the "American Pie" movie trilogy who plays Lily, Marshall's wife, said of her two bosses, who are both a year younger than she is, "It doesn't seem like they're in this industry."

"Which," she added, " is a really good compliment."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/arts/ ... gewanted=1

[umgaynow]

So, I just watched it...not a bad show...a little clunky but they always start out that way...definitely some good bits...many of which were of course Aly's...she was adorable and sexy and hilarious as usual...although that Doogie Howser guy plays a real pain in the ass...but as always our girl Aly was great!

umgaynow

[YMKA]

I must say that I really enjoyed watching it. Nice twist at the end

[xita]

We will see if this show improves because honestly it was really short on laughs and I can't stay I am too involved in the concept of the show. Aly was great, it was weird though cause she's kind of a foul mouth in it. I'll get used to it and she looked great!

[taralicious]

Aly was adorable and sexy in the space of the same sentence in all her scenes.
And wow but can she deliver the foul-mouthed innuendo the writers gave her!
That lovely smirk on her face as she delivered the lines about pop tarts under the fridge and the by now legendary taxi cab scene.
She does for eye patches what Amber did for crutches and leg braces.

[drlloyd11]

Allright, I'll say it.. I liked it. I never watch sitcoms, so my tolerence for them may be off, but it was good. I didnt squirm, I laughed at some of the lines, and I loved Aly in it. Doogie Houser was good too.
Given last week I was *forced* to watch bones, and found it agonizing, this was an improvement.

[FineyMcFine]

I liked it too. I've always liked sitcoms. I view the first few as exposition - introducing us to the characters and settings, so I'll probably continue to watch for another month or two and then make my final decision depending on how it's going. I thought Aly was super, and very funny. I liked it that she was foul-mouthed, it was unexpected to hear the spicy talk. And her goofy fiance cracked me UP - "It's on till the break of dawn!" And the combination of nerdy/pseudo-suave Neil Patrick Harris also made me laugh.

[Dana5140]

I wasn't all that taken by the program, but I loved Aly and her role. What I noticed was that whenever she was on screen, that is who I watched, and in talking with friends (some of whom who are not Buffyholics and don't really know Aly) they thought the same- the only real stand-out on the program was Aly. In fact, they liked the cab driver a lot, and he had only a bit part! What I did not like was the laugh track- very intrusive, and I don't like being told when to laugh. I thought that the writers sort of over-wrote their characters, so that they had to act in very broad ways. Neil Patrick Harris was played as a one-note character, and I know he can do better. The other characters were sort of forgettable, including Aly's fiance guy.

For a pilot, I thought they have some work to do. They need to humanize the characters more, so they are less one notes. And I have this feeling someone at the network said, "Hmm, Alyson Hannigan- Michelle Flaherty- play her like that girl from American Pie, only a bit less vulgar!" For me, I'd rather they play her more like Willow- quirky, beatific, loveable- but of course, as a new kind of character... if I had my druthers, that is. :-)