Broadway Joe vs Hollywood Skank

Joel Keller at TV Squad has an interview with Carter Bays of HIMYM up. They discuss this season, the impact the strike had, the switcheroo casting of Sarah Chalke for Alicia Silverstone, and some other topics. Now, what other topics did they discuse, let me think...oh yah, Brit-Brit. Bays has this to say about how she fit organically into the show:

The example that is always in my mind is it goes to the classic... you know, Joe Namath's tour bus breaks down outside the Brady Bunch house. And he comes out teaches Bobby how to throw a football.

We would never do that. What was great about the Britney thing from the beginning is that it was a funny character that helped fill out the world of this new character Stella as she is related to Ted and it sort of all came out of something natural to the show.

Really? That's the party line? Oh yeah, he also said,

I guess what I'm saying is that there was never a moment where we as writers were like, "This isn't funny but we've got to get Britney on the show so let's do it." I mean, we've – I stand by that episode. I thought it was funny. I thought it was good.

So now I have to assume he's either completely full of shit or a consummate liar. That was the worst episode of the year. And I'm *not* limiting my assessment to HIMYM. I've seen episodes of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody better than the pile of manure I watched this past Monday.

Trust me Carter: I'll take Joe tossing footballs with Bobby Brady over Britney Spears stinkin' up the joint any day and twice on Mondays. I'm not alone.

The clock starts the next time Britney shows up on HIMYM. Every second she's on screen it runs. When the clock hits 15:00, the TV goes off and HIMYM is dead to me.

Trudy, Trudy, Trudy

While 30 Rock has become the funniest, most consistent show on the air - the Seinfeld or Arrested Development of the latter naughts - my heart still belongs to How I Met Your Mother. Despite some painful misfires early in this third season, HIMYM still brings the funny with heart each Monday.¹ I think it's that heart - worn on the sleeve or as a fetching codpiece - the gives HIMYM a slight edge over Tina Fey's chaos-fest over on the PeaCORK.

The other thing creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas bring to the table is an OCD-sufferer's attention to continuity. It doesn't matter if a throwaway joke is three years old; Bays and Thomas won't forget it. I was reminded of this in a round-about way this morning which I'll quickly share (to demonstrate how much of a continuity wank I can be as well.)

I was driving to work and saw a Trans-Am. That made me think about Knight Rider. That made me think about how they're using a Mustang instead of a Trans-Am in the new version NBC is airing in January. But, I thought, that's okay. In the original pilot, the Trans-Am was actually Michael Long's car that Knight Industries updated while The Hoff was recovering from his gunshot to the face. So it only makes sense that the Knight Industries Three Thousand (yes, they thought that was a clever name this go-round) would be whatever car it happened to be.

Aha! says I! When KARR appeared (that's the evil supercar Knight Industries built before KITT) it was also a Black Trans-Am! Horrible continuity error. If only everyone could be like Bays and Thomas. But wait...at the end of "The Pineapple Incident", didn't future-Ted say "I left Trudy a message but she never called me back." And didn't Trudy show up again this season on "Third Wheel"??? So maybe these aren't the exemplars of...

That was my train of thought this morning. It's not an original complaint. Back when episode 3.3 aired, lots of people noted that Bays and Thomas had slipped up. Although technically the Dad had said she never called, the implication was that Ted and Trudy had never seen again. This was an unusually big continuity glitch for the show. Then it occurred to me that maybe the kings of continuity wanking had pulled a fast one.

Trudy was played by the adorable, hilarious, awesome actress slash role model slash math whiz² Danica McKellar. Danica's no virgin stranger to continuity dust-ups.

Kevin and Winnie...did they? Depends. Do you believe the narration in the pilot of The Wonder Years, or what happened in the series finale? That's an epic gaffe. It's one every writer and producer who cares about continuity remembers. It's one that cont-wanks like Bays and Thomas surely remembered as they cast Danica.

I now believe that HIMYM pulled a fast one, a meta-gag on the fans of the show. "We're so obsessive about continuity that we'll intentionally tweak it and cast Winnie goddam Cooper in the role!"

Or, you know, they screwed up.

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1 This is obviously not true right now, as Les and Pals WON'T NEGOTIATE IN GOOD FAITH!!!)
2 If you've got a school-age girl, buy her Danica's book Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail.

Dowisetrepla

There's video above, FeedReader
The Mosby Boys and the Peanut Butter Bandit.

Horatio wishes he were as cool as Ted Mosby.

All I did was add science. And a love seat.

My week ahead, like my week and -end passed, is gonna suck. But I had some seriously good laughs tonight to release some endorphins. First, there was this week's HIMYM. A return to good. I didn't have to pick one or two moments in the episode that made me laugh; I'd have to search for the moments that didn't. Fingers and toes are crossed hoping Carter and Bays have reminded Old Scratch that their souls are still forfeit. And kudos for inventing yet another Mendoza Line.

After the joy of watching my old friends getting baked on sandwiches, we watched a few first season 30 Rocks which kept the juices flowing. Finally, I cracked open Tales from the Bully Pulpit which arrived today. Now, I've been trying to get my hands on one of these since I first read about it on Chris Sims' old site (as opposed to his fresh, clean, new site.) You can't begin to know how excited I was for it to arrive.

How hard is it to find a copy of this one shot from Benito Cereno and Graeme MacDonald from *way* back in 2004? Damn near impossible. I'd bid on one a few months back and lost when I wouldn't go above $75 for it (cover price on this three-year-old Image comic: $6.95.) Two weeks ago, I had an email notifying me that another copy was available for auction. This time, I got lucky.

Question: How can you go wrong with Teddy Roosevelt, the ghost of Thomas Edison, and the ol' rail splitter hisself, Abe Lincoln, opening a can of whupass on robot Hitler on Mars?!?!?!?



Answer: you can not.



Indeed you are, Mr. President. Indeed you are.

I'm not saying this is the greatest comic ever, but it's damn close. Martians, race wars, flying elephants and giant cats. This book's got *everything*. Even science.