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Alyson Hannigan
How 'How I Met Your Mother' is not a traditional sitcomOn a recent day here in Los Angeles, the sunny New York City set on a sprawling studio lot was a crowded place. Dozens of extras clad in running gear and drenched in fake sweat ran by cameras for take after take, as technicians, makeup folks and scores of staffers milled around. Given the number of people on hand and the scope of the production, it looked as though a feature film was being made. This is the set of a sitcom? A supposedly “traditional” sitcom at that? The sweaty runners were participating in the back-lot marathon for a February episode of “How I Met Your Mother.” The CBS show about five friends in New York City, which manages to be both whip-smart and endearingly sweet, is part of CBS’ Monday lineup of mostly traditional, multicamera sitcoms. That term refers to shows that use up to four cameras at once to film a half-hour comedy in front of an audience on a soundstage. Except we weren’t on a soundstage. And there was no audience. “HIMYM” does have a laugh track, but it’s inserted well after the show shoots for three solid days. Many traditional sitcom tapings last three hours. “It’s definitely … a lot easier than a one-hour [show], but it’s a lot harder than a traditional sitcom,” says Alyson Hannigan, one of the show’s leads. “People are like, `What do you mean, you need three days to shoot an episode?’” A lot has been written about the supposed demise - and even the comeback - of the half-hour comedy on network television. Traditional sitcoms, we’re often told, are too stodgy and predictable and are just not cutting it anymore, while “single-camera” comedies such as “The Office, “My Name Is Earl” and “30 Rock” are all the rage. But the line between “30 Rock” and “HIMYM” is not that distinct. Just as “Ugly Betty” isn’t quite a comedy and isn’t just a drama, “HIMYM” is something of a hybrid. For one thing, some “single-camera” shows use more than one camera at a time. And though “HIMYM” does have a laugh track, the fact that the laughs (from a studio audience that watches a tape of the show) are put in after filming means the comedy is not “a slave to the audience” as executive producer Greg Malins says. “You’re not writing to their reactions and writing to the lowest common denominator,” Malins said says. On other shows he has worked on, “any time you need to replace a joke and you just put the word `panty’ in there, the audience goes nuts. It’s hard to resist that.” “I come from multi-camera shows. I love traditional hard jokes,” says “HIMYM” writer Jamie Rhonheimer. “But with this show, we can do that and still tell emotional stories.” “HIMYM’s” stories are told with more scope than many traditional sitcoms employ. A typical episode of “Friends” might have had a dozen scenes, maybe 18 at the most, Malins says. The “HIMYM” episode being shot last Wednesday had 53. The show’s pilot had 60 scenes. “There’s no way we could shoot this amount of material in front of an audience,” says co-creator Craig Thomas. “It would blur the line between `audience’ and `hostage situation.’” “You have more freedom to make it more visual” with a longer shooting schedule, Malins says. “The traditional way is that you take three hours, you just put it on like a play and shoot it. You could never do the stuff we do here.” “The terms single camera and multicamera are vestiges of another era of TV,” says Carter Bays, the show’s other creator. “They’re pretty vague categories at this point. Every show is its own animal.” Another “HIMYM” anomaly: Five of the show’s 11 writers are women, which is an unusually large number, especially for a comedy staff. And director Pamela Fryman has helmed almost every episode of the show. Having a strong female presence on the staff was a conscious decision, according to Thomas, who, along with Bays, used to write for “The Late Show with David Letterman.” “At `Letterman,’ there was one woman on staff the whole time I was there, and she was only there for three months,” he says. “We knew we wanted it to have heart, and not just be totally snarky,” he notes. “With too many dudes in the room, it just becomes this total insult-fest.” Despite the things that make it distinctive and different, “HIMYM” is still thought of by many as a traditional sitcom. And the people behind the show are conscious of the fact that if they were perceived as a single-camera show, “HIMYM” - which is a steady ratings performer with an avid fan base - might be more of a media darling, and could even become a breakout hit. “I kind of feel like we get lumped in with some tacky shows sometimes,” says staff writer Brenda Hsueh. Graf can trim “If we were on NBC on Thursday, you’d realize quicker that we’re more like `Scrubs,’” Thomas says. Though he’s a devoted fan of cult fare such as “Veronica Mars,” Bays says, quite simply, “I want it to be the big hit.” And they’re trying to make that happen through traditional and new-media promotional tactics. “Dancing With the Stars” champ Emmitt Smith was on the lot that day, filming a scene for the episode that will air the day after the Super Bowl. And Bays says that during May sweeps, there will be a wedding on the show. The creators also have their fingers crossed that “HIMYM” will turn up on iTunes soon (a deal to make that happen is in the works, Thomas says). The show’s ladykiller, Barney, has a blog on CBS.com, and a MySpace page featuring a music video from another character, Robin, in all her former glory as teen-pop princess “Robin Sparkles,” was a hit: Her video has been streamed more than 400,000 times since its debut. After the Robin Sparkles episode aired and the MySpace site’s traffic went nuts, “we got some of our best ratings the next week,” Thomas says. Still, don’t expect J.Lo-style stuntcasting anytime soon. The show will continue to be about friends who hang out at a bar and have hilarious and sometimes sad experiences in life and in the dating arena. Like the best sitcoms - single-camera or multicamera - it’s grounded in a funnier version of reality. As “HIMYM” writer Kourtney Kang says, “A lot of our stories come from `Oh, God, you won’t believe what happened this weekend.’” A few more bits and pieces from my “How I Met Your Mother” set visit: To film the “Robin Sparkles” music video, Cobie Smulders had to perform the song 40 times for the cameras. When she was finally finished that day, they brought a crepe cart to the set so she could have a crepe as a reward. She said that episode is her favorite thing she’s done on the show. The robot in the Robin Sparkles video sits in a place of honor in the “HIMYM” writers offices. It’s an Omnibot 2000 by Tomy, the same robot Bays wanted as a kid. In the February episode “Lucky Penny,” Barney ends up running a marathon, and the track suits that Neil Patrick Harris wore on Wednesday were quite fancy. He has one powder-blue track suit that was nearly blinding, with matching silver running shoes. He called the ensemble his “B. Diddy” look. Thomas says there was a big debate as to whether Barney would run the marathon in one of his regular “suit up!” suits, but in the end they decided that he could “track suit up.” In an effort to save money, the show decided to do one episode last year on one set - a limousine. It turned out to be a nightmare. “We never know what’s going to be hard for the production staff,” Bays said. “Shooting in a car was the most excruciating experience ever. We had to take it apart, it was so hard to shoot anything in there.” Bays dropped this tantalizing idea about Barney, when I asked whether he would ever have a steady girlfriend. “What if he had a girlfriend but he just wasn’t bringing her around?” Hmmm. 2006 at the Movies Part II: My Bottom TenGoing to the movies can be a painful experience. As much as I hope that everything I go to will be entertaining, there are many, many films that do not have much to offer. 2006 had its share of bad movies. Fortunately, I do not regret seeing any of them. I can take a little pain in order to better serve my faithful readers. I try to remain positive. Every movie has its fans and every movie has something to offer, even if it only serves to show how not to make a movie. What you are about to read is a list of the 10 films that landed unceremoniously at the bottom of my rankings for 2006. I have to say that it was not all that difficult to boil down my stew of films to the essence of bad. Well, the bad doesn't really need all that much introduction. Read on and see what films you can safely avoid, unless you like inflicting your eyes with the potentially pain inducing sights. Basic Instinct 2. Simply the worst. Sharon Stone must be getting desperate for a paycheck to do this. There is nothing sexy about it, nothing thrilling, nothing intriguing. This is a sequel that no one needed and no one wanted. What can I say. This was just a dull movie. The story moved on a straight line to a conclusion that was not satisfying. The highly touted eroticism and Stone's full monty was nothing terribly exciting. It was a film that did not get anything right. An obnoxious score, laughable dialogue and poor acting are the highlights. And to think, Sharon is considering directing a second sequel. Date Movie. Terrible. There is only one reason to go near this, and that is the lovely Alyson Hannigan. This is just flat out not funny. All they do is mimic scenes from other films and never take them anywhere or connect them in any worthwhile fashion. It is becoming apparent that spoof comedy is losing the creativity and spunk that was exhibited back in the days of Airplane and Naked Gun. This is proof that advertising yourself as two of the six writers of Scary Movie is not necessarily saying all that much. And to think, they have another one coming out this month, Epic Movie. I can't hardly wait. The Return. When the PR machine has to tell you that this isn't The Grudge 2, you know you're in for a bad time. Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in this borefest that goes nowhere slowly. It is a story that has characters appear and disappear for no particular reason. There are no scares, no ingenuity. It's just a poor experience all around. Trying to write about it is a chore as the viewer is left with mere scattershot ideas of just what the filmmakers were trying to do. The best thing to do is just skip it altogether. Although it does have an fantastic poster. The Covenant. It takes a lot of talent to make a movie this bad. Do not believe those who tell you that people who make bad movies have no talent. It merely takes the right combination of will power and astral alignment to come together for this type of output. This could just as easily have been called Supernatural 90210. If your thing is watching twentysomethings playing high school kids, walking around with an air of self importance while ultimately doing nothing, then this is the movie for you. I went in with low expectations, and even they were not met.Turistas. The posters say "Turistas Go Home." I say "moviegoers stay home." The marketing made it
purpose for this story, as it was made. There are nuggets that could have been a good base for a fictional film. The talents of the cast are wasted, and the direction is terribly lackluster. The only reason to even consider this would be the nice looking cinematography. Otherwise, avoid this stinker like the plague. It is based on the true story of the Bell Witch, but I don't feel as if I had learned anything about the actual event. Deck the Halls. I really should have known better. Deck the Halls does nothing to spread seasonal cheer. It does not embody the spirit of the holiday. It is a movie that sucks life out and makes a weak attempt to stop the haemorrhaging at the end with a half hearted climax which brings everyone together. This is the kind of movie that makes you loathe the holiday movie season. It is devoid of heart and soul and it grinds the holiday season down to a competition of lights. It presents a story in a town of some alternate universe, probably also inhabited by the Kranks of Christmas with the Kranks (which made last year's worst list), populated with paper thin characters and the superficial clichés of the season. When a Stranger Calls. Completely pointless thriller. Director Simon West takes a break from the slick action films he started with to make a side trek into the genre de jour of horror thriller remakes. This isn't exactly a mess so much as it just doesn't matter as a remake or as a story. There is a distinct lack of suspense and logical plot progression. I do like to have some sort of connection between the characters; this flick provides none, so the big reveal at the end is rendered meaningless. Whoops, did I just give it away? Sorry. Well, one less reason for you to bother with it. RV. You are about to enter the Twilight Zone: a place where movies have a strange sense of familiarity, but the faces are different. That was how I felt the further into this movie I got. I know I had seen something like this before, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then it dawned on me, this could have been known as Colorado Vacation, or perhaps Vacation Camper. Whichever way you slice it, this is a Vacation movie with a different cast and different names. A movie where Robin Williams has revealed his inner Chevy Chase. The movie was not really offensive. It was just dull. The story plodded on; everyone knew where it was heading so there were no real surprises. Williams seems awfully restrained here. There is very little life to his performance, which is a shame. Eragon. Every once in a while a movie comes along that you know is bad, but you don't realize just how completely awful it is until days later. Sometimes you just need some time to think it through and talk it out with some others who have seen it. The movie feels incomplete. Sections of story are mysteriously missing and the flow feels off. It is a half baked retread of what has come before. If you have seen Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, you have seen a better version of this. The effects and sets are good, but not enough to save it. |
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