Alyson Hannigan - "How I Met Your Mother" Sitcom - Josh Radnor Tvguide.com Interview

Have you met Ted ? TV Guide’s New York City staffers did just that a few days ago when How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor paid a visit to our offices. What does the affable actor have going on this summer ? And what lies ahead for Season 2 of his hit CBS sitcom ? We asked Radnor those questions and more.

TV Guide : Are you only visiting us because TV Guide has an office in Radnor, Pennsylvania ?

Josh Radnor : You do ? You do....

TV Guide : Maybe your family founded it ?

Radnor : I wonder.... You guys have been so nice to our show. Thank you, on behalf of everyone. Really.

TV Guide : Are you OK with the fact that you didn’t make our "TV’s Sexiest Men" issue ?

Radnor : I just said that outside ! [Pretending to flip through TV Guide] "This must be where my profile is...."

TV Guide : What’s your favorite thing to do in New York City ?

Radnor : Well, I’m living in the West Village, which is my favorite area, like, in the world, so I’m just "exploring."

TV Guide : How do you like life in New York versus L.A. ?

Radnor : I actually love L.A. - I proudly say that after getting over my embarrassment in saying that. [Laughs] I haven’t been back here in a while, and I forgot that a great part of New York is, like, turning a corner and seeing someone you haven’t seen in years and saying, "Let’s get a drink, right now." In L.A. you have to, like, plan it out. "I can see you at the end of the month for an hour."

TV Guide : Back in L.A., are you still mooching off your friend’s cable ?

Radnor : Oh, you mean going across the street ? I kind of stopped watching TV entirely - sorry, everyone ! [Laughs] I’ve been so busy.... I like watching The Office. My friend Mindy [Kaling] writes for it, and she is the funniest.

TV Guide : What’s happening on How I Met Your Mother next season ?

Radnor : Is that what this is about, getting plot points ? [Laughs] I have no idea. I had dinner with [series creator] Carter [Bays] and I was trying to get info from him, but... they don’t know.

TV Guide : Is there any buzz about how much time will have elapsed ? Will the summer have passed ?

Radnor : Yeah, I think it will be like three months later - unless they show [Ted and Marshall] coming in from the rain for like a moment, after getting drenched. But I don’t know how long Ms. Scherbatsky and I are going to go. That might not last as long as Ted would hope. I feel like he was more in love with the chase of it all.

TV Guide : Besides, for all he and Robin know, the sex could be really bad.

Radnor : No, that, I hear, is going to be fantastic. Seriously. They might keep us kind of "enjoying each other" without totally being together. [Laughs]

TV Guide : Has your own dating life perked up, as hoped ?

Radnor : It’s not bad.... [Smiles]

TV Guide : Do you like how the show gets some things right about NYC, and some things not so right ? The New Year’s Eve episode had some glitches....

Radnor : Yeah, that was like, "Don’t pull the thread, don’t pull the thread." There were so many logic problems with the limo episode. Like, how did we get to all these parties ? Where did Marshall appear from ? That was the hardest episode we filmed. We were in a broken-apart limo for three days, and we were all getting sick. It ruined limos for us, which is such a sad story. [Laughs]

TV Guide : What are you doing on your hiatus ?

Radnor : Jason Segel got a house in Hawaii on the North Shore for a month, so I went and visited him for a week. Alyson [Hannigan] and [husband] Alexis [Denisof, aka Sandy Rivers] went to visit him, and then Cobie [Smulders] came when I was there.... I went to Coachella [Music Festival in Indio, Calif.], which was amazing.... I went to my 10-year college reunion, in Kenyon, Ohio. I was scared, but it wasn’t that weird. People were really happy for me.

TV Guide : And didn’t Neil Patrick Harris book a play ?

Radnor : Yeah, he did All My Sons at the Geffen [Playhouse in L.A.], and it was great. He and I did a play together, like, two months before we got cast [on Mother]. When I heard he got cast, I called him - "Are you kidding me ? We’re in the same pilot ?!"

TV Guide : What has been your favorite episode, moment, saying or "thing" ?

Radnor : We just recorded [Season 1] DVD commentary, and I was shocked at how well the pilot held up. It was really good. I think the club episode is really funny - from top to bottom, it just works. People really like "The Slutty Pumpkin," and I know it’s this whole Charlie Brown thing, but I was really confused by it. For three years, he goes to the roof, wearing the same costume, waiting for this one girl ? But it turned out great. And in "Mary the Paralegal," there was some stuff I couldn’t believe they let us do. That line where she says, "Talk about anal !" - I was like, "Are they going to let us do this ?" They said, "That’s why we’re shooting it in one tracking shot, so they can’t cut it." And I liked the last two episodes, including the one where [Lily] runs away and I have to go pick her up.

TV Guide : Lily and Marshall have to get back together... right ?

Radnor : I don’t know. I think they’re going to have some fun with the fact that Marshall hasn’t been on a date since he was, like, 17 !

TV Guide : So have they completely dropped Ted’s grown kids from each episode’s opening ?

Radnor : I think the boy was aging very aggressively. [Laughs]

TV Guide : Admit it - you started dating Lyndsy Fonseca, your "daughter," and it got kind of "icky."

Radnor : Lyndsy got a pilot, actually. She’s very sweet.

TV Guide : Have you met... Bob Saget ?

Radnor : Yes, and he is so funny. And filthy. A filthy man. At the network run-through, one of the stand-ins reads all the voice-over stuff, and one time we were in the middle of a scene and we heard Saget’s voice. He was visiting the set, and suddenly his voice was there. We were like, "Ahhhh !"