Guys, remember 2005? Friends had just ended and we were left with a miserable gaping hole in our sitcom-loving lives.
Happily in 2014, Ted, Marshall, Lily, Robin, and Barney on How I Met Your Mother have gallantly stepped onto the scene to save us from a Friends-esque fallout. How I Met Your Mother is on the cusp of shuttering shop after nine seasons of unraveling one of the most compelling love stories to ever grace the small screen. (As well as one of the most frustrating. We just wanted Ted to find the mom!).
Not ready to move on? Rejoice! Here's the new cast How I Met Your Dad.
Yup that’s right—CBS has announced the full roster of quintessential pals that'll play the new friend group in the spin-off series.
Greta Gerwig, co-star of 2010’s Greenberg and star/co-writer of 2012’s Frances Ha was announced several weeks ago as the “new Ted.” Gerwig’s character, Sally, is a kid-at-heart newlywed already on the verge of divorce, boasting a “Peter Pan” complex (which is basically the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype). Workaholics star and ex fiancé of Dr. Mindy Lahiri on The Mindy Project, Anders Holm, will play Gavin, Sally’s almost-ex-beau.
The rest of the characters (nearly all of which are actors and actresses from other small screen favorites) serve as friends, coworkers, and family members who in turn have back stories they're poised and ready to fuel sitcom dramedy. Smash’s Krysta Rodriguez will join as Sally’s BFF Juliet, and Nick D'Agosto from Masters of Sex plays Juliet’s co-worker, Frank, who has a thing for Gerwig’s character. Andrew Santino from ABC’s Mixology will also be making appearances from time to time as Sally’s gay older brother who is married to Todd, Sally’s college bud played by Drew Tarver.
The questions is, even with all that charm, talent and inevitable hype, it's dubious whether How I Met Your Dad can shed the Spin-off stigma; so many are doomed to (and have) failed miserably. Between the expectations of superfans who have aleady imagined the whole damn thing in their mind's eye to creating enough consistency between two disparate — but overlapping — worlds, flop-dom is a kindgom just around the riverbend. (Not to mention the whole "we know your just trying to capitalize on previous success" thing which makes people double wary about getting on the bandwagon.)
While the new show hasn't debuted yet we're still wondering: if this show isn’t going to include any of the old people or story lines, why even make it a spin-off? Why not just make a whole new show? We still reeling from trace amounts of anxiety while watching HIMYM even though we’ve met the mother. We. just. don’t. know. if we can take that same drawn out uncertainty again with a new series!
Don’t get us wrong though, we’re intrigued. And not all spin-offs have experienced the one-season demise of Joey — Fraiser, Angel, The Jeffersons, Melrose Place and Rhoda(!) were all spin-off success stories.
Guess we’ll just have to see what HIMYD will hold come Fall premiere time — maybe the finale of HIMYM on March 31 will give us some indications of what’s to come...
But that dear Ravishers, is a story for another day.
