When How I Met Your Mother debuted in 2005, it became popular right away. Under the direction of Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, the show featured Josh Radnor’s character Ted Mosby as he narrated his children the story of how he met their mother, captivating viewers with its unique narrative technique. In addition to Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris’s portrayal of the well-known womanizer Barney Stinson gave the show the necessary comic edge.
Although Harris enjoyed his time on the show, initially he didn’t think the title was really fitting. So much so that he predicted that the sitcom may suffer from the title, ultimately leading to its failure.
The Title HIMYM Did Not Sit Well With Neil Patrick Harris
How I Met Your Mother quickly became a cultural phenomenon and ruled the CBS screens from 2005 to 2014. Not just the storyline, but the title as well, appealed to the masses. But surely not everyone, as Neil Patrick Harris had his own reservations about the name even before he auditioned for the role.
To him, it seemed like a mouthful of jumbled words. In a GQ interview, he also stated:
I got an audition for this show called ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ which I thought was a terrible title, when you have ‘Friends’ and ‘Three’s Company,’ you know, something that looks good on a cap. […] And I thought it would just be up to pilot and would never go, because of the title. Who names a show ‘How I Met Your Mother’? There’s not even any rhyming to it. Like, a bunch of basic words put together as a sentence; it’s not a title. But I digress.
But despite the actor’s reservations and skepticism regarding the title, he knocked the audition out of the park. In the same interview, the actor also detailed how Barney’s character evolved from the original audition. In the series, Barney was envisioned as a “retoud, cigar-smoking, Jack Black” kind of a character. Harris, however, added a novel perspective to the part that the makers chose to go forward with.
The decision seemed perfect given the popularity the character still holds to this day. Harris is openly gay, but he had no reservations about playing a straight character on screen (via The Things). He emphasized that, as an actor, his main goal was to play the role to the best of his abilities, regardless of how different it was from his own personality.
While Neil Patrick Harris had a great time on the show, the same cannot be said about Jason Segel, who was quite unhappy during the final seasons of the sitcom.
Why Was Jason Segel Not Happy During the Latter Seasons of HIMYM?
The hit sitcom was a reason for the happiness of the masses. But the behind-the-scenes happenings were something that the audience could have never predicted. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Comedy Actor Roundtable, Segel revealed that despite his cheery persona on the show, he was quite unhappy in real life.
The reason for this is that he was grappling with a sense of creative constraint despite having a thriving television and movie career. He added:
There was a period in my life and career around the last couple of years of How I Met Your Mother where things were firing in both movies and TV, and everyone was telling me how well it was going,” he shared. “And I was really unhappy
The actor’s reasoning for this was that during the latter seasons, he was balancing a lot of projects at the same time. Alongside the CBS show, Jason Segel was also a part of movies such as The Muppets, This is 40, and The Five-Year Engagement. Further, he wanted to explore diverse roles and characters and not conform to comedy.
He particularly wanted to be a part of more dramatic roles following the finale of HIMYM. While this transition posed its own set of hurdles, his role as David Foster Wallace in The End of the Tour marked his departure from his comedic roots.
You can stream all seasons of How I Met Your Mother on Hulu.
