Attention Britney Spears: You may want to watch out for Jason Segel.
"The writers were joking that Segel should just run up to Britney and try to make out with her," laughs How I Met Your Mother show runner Craig Thomas. "He has a movie coming out [Forgetting Sarah Marshall] and it could be, like, a $10-15 million bump in the opening weekend. Even if she’s like 'Get off me! What the f--k are you doing?!' "
This is just one idea the HIMYM boss and his crew joked around about to try and "spice up" what remains one of the most remarkably low-key sets in town—even with Britney in the house this week—and give the overhead helicopters something that's worth their time.
"Aerial photos of our set would be so boring—the writers were pitching ideas on how to spice 'em up a bit!"
(See? This is why we love the HIMYM writers. They be funny.)
Craig just phoned in to give me the full 411 on Britney's guest stint, how it happened, what it means for the show, what it means for Josh Radnor's ass crack (seriously), what happened with Alicia Silverstone and whether Britney will be back.
We even delved into this outrageous notion...Could Britney be "The Mother?" (The answer may surprise you!)
Read on for the full Q&A with Craig and all the scoop!
What is the episode about?
I think it's the best romantic-comedy episode we've ever done. Abby [Britney] has a crush on Ted, but he’s completely oblivious to it, because he’s going after her boss, the dermatologist who is removing Ted’s tattoo from earlier in the season. That’s who Sarah Chalke is playing. Sarah Chalke is playing the dermatologist who’s removing his butterfly tattoo just above his ass crack. And the episode recounts the high degree of difficulty trying to impress a woman who is removing a butterfly right above our ass crack. And he’s smitten with her and just from a love-at-first-sight kind of moment with Sarah Chalke.
Can you talk about what happened with Alicia and Sarah stepping into the role?
Alicia doing the show was kind of a leak by TV Guide or something before it was a done deal. And then her thing just kind of shifted, she wasn’t available for this week. As I said, everything’s been so last-minute. We still would love to work with her at some point, and we’ve talked to her a couple of times. I would not rule out seeing her in a future episode, but it’s great, because Sarah was available, since Scrubs hasn’t started back up, and we’ve always, always, always wanted to work with her. We didn’t plan on making her be a doctor again. Sort of like Sarah is falling into this weird sort of realm like how Tony Danza has to play a character named Tony. Sarah Chalke, for some reason, must play a doctor.
Like she's not recognizable without the scrubs on.
She literally, I’m even making this up, brought her own Scrubs lab coat. She’s cool, and it’s tailored to her. Sarah Chalke is so great she shows up in her own costume.
That’s awesome! So what are the chances that Britney might come back for more episodes?
You know, it’s been a complete pleasure to work with her, and we would love to have her back. This episode ends with a really funny tag that I think sets up how you might see her coming back. I don’t want to give anything away.
She’s the mother, isn’t she?
You know what, we don’t rule out anything on this show.
How crazy would that be? Think about that, you came up with the concept so many years ago and now, all of a sudden you guys just say, let's just make the Mother Britney Spears.
Yeah, and the spinoff is How I Met Your Father, and it’s all from Britney Spears’ perspective and then you do five years of that.
I love it!
You know what, she seems to be having fun. I don’t rule anything out. I think people will be really surprised by how different the character is from the public perception of Britney Spears and also just how good she is at doing it.