“Our show doesn’t need stunt casting”: Neil Patrick Harris Warned Everyone About Britney Spears, Didn’t Want Her in How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is one of the most classic sitcoms to ever exist. When the pop idol Britney Spears gets combined with it, it gets a whole new flavor. For the unversed, How I met Your Mother is a very successful American sitcom. It had a total of 9 seasons and 208 episodes during its run time and has numerous awards to its name.
Britney Spears was a huge fan of the show like many. Thus, she wanted to be part of it and ended up saving it from cancellation. However, this did not sit right with one of the most famous characters of the show, Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris.
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Why wasn’t Neil Patrick Harris a fan of Britney Spears’ cameo?
Neil Patrick Harris learned from his experience that too many cameos can hurt a show terribly. Thus, he did not want How I Met Your Mother to follow that path. He did not have anything personal with the pop idol– Britney Spears, as opposed to the speculations done by many. The cameo was needed for the show to spike up its viewership, this is what Neil Patrick Harris had to say about the situation.
“I’m in the minority that our show does not need stunt casting in order to succeed. I worry that if they start ‘Will and Grace’-ing us too much, that the show will suffer. And we’re all really proud of the content of the show. I mean, viewership is not our game. It’s the network and the studio’s game, you know. It’s the promotion department’s game.”
According to him, an actor’s job is to act and nothing more, and blamed the network for not promoting it in the right way. Evidently, he loved the show very much and therefore was concerned about its well-being. But in the end, Britney Spears did end up getting on board with the cast, which proved beneficial for both the show and herself.
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Did Britney Spears save How I Met Your Mother?
The show needed Britney Spears the same way Britney Spears needed the show. The time when the singer joined the cast, the ratings of the show weren’t doing so well. Britney Spears’ team was searching for a fresh breath of air to paint the image of the pop idol as well. Thus, her team contacted the show. Both parties were relieved by the opportunity.
“As far as I remember, Britney Spears appeared from nowhere. Her team thought she needed a reset, to be re-presented in public, and they wanted something nice and fun.” said the Executive Producer Chris Harris.
Though a bigger role was in stores for Britney Spears, she chose to go for a smaller one to test the waters. The role of the receptionist felt right at the moment for the pop diva.
“Britney instead wanted to play the smaller role, this character Abby who had maybe two scenes–“We were kind of surprised by this choice. But she came in and she really shone in those scenes and we brought her back for another episode.” said Carter Bays the co-creator of the show.
Turns out the Britney Spears cameo is just what the show needed. The ratings of the show were back up.
Carter Bays further stated,
“It brought a lot of eyes to the show. We were doing okay in the ratings but we weren’t really exploding, and brought a ton of new eyes to it–I’m very thankful that happened to be an episode I was really proud of and that had a lot of funny stuff in it. It was a big turning point in the show, our audience grew sizeably that day.”
The news of Spears appearing in the show spread like wildfire, so much so that helicopters were seen circulating over the shooting campus, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the pop diva. Neil Patrick Harris must also be relieved that Britney Spears proved him wrong.
Source: The Things
