This seems to be Neil Patrick Harris' year. A tour-de-force season on How I Met Your Mother was followed by hosting stints on the Tonys and TV Land Awards that showed how natural he was in the role of awards host. Heck, he even managed to get the Tonys some viral street cred by doing a Billy Crystal-esque medley at the end that stated the show "could not be any gayer if Liza was named mayor and Elton John took flight."
If you had DVR'd the Tony Awards on CBS last night, or switched off the set after Elton John's Billy Elliot, The Musical won the final big award of the night -- Best Musical -- you missed the best thing in the entire show. In a word, Neil Patrick Harris.
At a few minutes after 11 o'clock, Tony host Neil Patrick Harris wrapped up the broadcast, but instead of just saying goodnight and urging viewers to go see a Broadway show, Neil did a musical number and it was the high point of the night. In true Barney Stinson style, the How I Met Your Mother star (and sure bet Emmy nominee), performed a song that was as good as any Billy Crystal Oscar opening. Funny, snarky and pointed, it really skewered the Tonys, almost like a Mad magazine parody.
Neil Patrick Harris is hosting the Tony Awards this Sunday on CBS, and he stopped by The Late Show with David Letterman last night to deliver the Top Ten List, "Ten Signs You've Hired A Bad Tonys Host." My favorites are number five and number one.
(S04E24) It's been an interesting season for How I Met Your Mother, hasn't it? The ratings for the show have never been better, but longtime fans (me included) have been concerned about its inconsistency this season. Episodes that would be considered in the pantheon of Mother classics -- ones that mess with timelines and talk about the "mother mythology" and the stories of the rest of the Scooby gang -- were mixed in with standalone plots that were sometimes funny but other times were contrived and sitcommy.
I knew that the standalones would be more prevalent this season -- Carter Bays has told me and others as much -- but as I watched this season, I wondered why they were trying to make the show more accessible. Now that I've seen the fourth season finale, I completely understand why the show is going in that direction. And I'm not sure how I feel about it.
Ladies and gentlemen alike know that Neil Patrick Harris has got it all: Perfect comedic timing, a hit show, old-fashioned song-and-dance skills, a ridiculously diverse audience, and a body built for suits. With such overwhelming levels of snazzy, is anyone surprised that NPH has been asked to host the 63rd Annual Tony Awards?
Some of the theater-literate out there may know that NPH has done his fair share of musicals onstage, from RENT to Sweeney Todd to Cabaret. Most of you are probably most aware of his Joss Whedon project, Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, which provided us with endless joy (and by "endless", I mean "three installments' worth"). Regardless, NPH has the knowledge, the background and the charisma to pull this off.
(S04E23) Earlier today, I received a rough-cut copy of HIMYM's season finale. I was all giddy and wanted to pop it in the DVD player right away, but I wanted to wait until I saw tonight's episode first, figuring it would set up the finale, as it did in past seasons. This episode does so, at least a little bit. But the most important part of the story -- the results of Ted's chance meeting with Stella on that street corner -- was at once disappointing and refreshing.
Confused? Well journey with me after the jump and I'll tell you why.
(S04E22) Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are a couple of clever guys, aren't they?
They're not only good at playing with time and space in their show -- something they did exceptionally well in this episode -- but they're also pretty good at tweaking the wording of an episode to make the audience feel like they're getting somewhere in the story when in fact things have only inched forward.
Just think about the words they used to describe the monumental outcome of Ted's day. Did they say everything you thought they said? Ruminate on it a second before you rejoin me after the jump.
(S04E21) Perhaps this dates me a bit, but I remember an episode of M*A*S*H where Charles basically played both sides of a practical joke war between B.J. and Hawkeye, and ended up having the joke be on him in the end. That episode was what came to mind as I was watching this one, which was amusing but by far the least funny HIMYM episode in quite awhile.
The practical joke plot, with someone always being in the middle, is an old saw of the sitcom biz, and Bays and Thomas pulled it out of their bag of tricks this week. They tweaked it a little bit, though; this became more of an exercise in Marshall and Barney teaching Ted a lesson that ended up going way to far, and everything seemed to work out for Robin, who was the middlewoman. But it was familiar enough that it had the ghostly imprint of sitcoms past on it. And when that happens on this show, it's never good.
The thing that gets me about the TV Land Awards is this: they're celebrating the types of TV shows that TV Land will one day not even show anymore.
But before reality shows and movies take over the network, it's kinda fun to see the casts of Magnum, P.I. (too bad John Hillerman wasn't there) and Home Improvement again (but still no Jonathan Taylor Thomas ... guess that tension is still alive all these years later). Neil Patrick Harris was a good host, and the lineup of old and new stars they had is actually quite impressive.
(S04E20) For some reason, even though both stories in this episode were pretty light and piffly, Bays and Thomas gave us enough character-development pellets to keep the fans happy. That's the way it's been most of this season, hasn't it? Be very goofy and sitcommy for the most part, but with story development mixed in for flavor.
It really has made for a bumpy season; even though ratings are up, fans who have been with the show since day one can't help but be frustrated. That's why I tend to view episodes these days by simple comedy standards; if it made me laugh, I liked it. This one made me laugh.
At one point or another during this latest season of Saturday Night Live, every viewer has wondered, "Who is this new guy, and why does he wear so many giant cat costumes?"
While I can't answer the second part of this question (it will remain one of the great mysteries of the late night universe), I can offer a little more information on SNL's resident new guy and rising star, Bobby Moynihan. Despite appearing as a featured player in only twenty episodes so far, Moynihan is fast becoming one of my favorite cast members on the show, right up there with Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig.
Fellow Moynihan fans, prepare to love him even more!
Bravo has announced the show Top Chef Masterswill begin Wednesday June 10th. The show is basically the celebrity version of Top Chef, where "world-renowned" chefs will compete for $100,000. The money will be given to their favorite charity. The format hasn't changed: the quickfire and the elimination challenges remain, but there will be a five-star grading system implemented.
There are 24 chefs, but I will have to trust the producers with their use of the words "world-renowned" since I'm just an average guy. One of the few chefs I know is Top Chef guest judge Wylie Dufresne, who is well known for his work on molecular gastronomy. The contestants' bios are available on the Bravo website.
(S04E19) As a steadfast HIMYM watcher, the fan in me always struggles with the TV critic in me. The critic wants the show to go back to the continuing storyline goodness of the show's early seasons. But the fan in me doesn't want to be weighed down with all that semi-serious thinking and just wants to laugh his ass off at 8:30 every Monday evening.
This week, the fan won out. Like most of the episodes this year, the story was a standalone, not full of Mother searches or Ted/Robin/Barney triangular angst. It was goofy as hell, more full of gags than crafty jokes. But it was funny as hell. And considering this is a sitcom, funny should be good enough, right?
I mean, how can anyone hate an episode that has Barney wearing a pink wig and a fishnet tank top while sporting an earlobe that looks like a rotting cheesesteak?
(S04E18) Here's why I sometimes wish I was a sitcom writer: While breaking down a story to use for an upcoming episode, someone brings up the idea of names for Canadian sex acts. Then what occurs is what I would imagine to be one of the all-time funniest brainstorming sessions, where the table of writers just blurts out names like "Musty Goaltender," "Squatting Eskimo," and "Old King Clancy." Then someone comes up with the idea of having Barney find those phrases on a cheesy website, so more hilarity ensues as the website gets created, with the added joke that clicking each phrase generates a picture of an angry Alan Thicke explaining that the site is out of order (My favorite: "Thicke mad. Thicke smash!")
I mean, the cascading jokes on that website alone (see what happens when you right-click on Alan Thicke or click on the words "crack a brown pop," for instance) made this a silly but funny episode, where we find out how funky Canadian sex acts are and also find out how Ted might be able to use his douchery for good.
(S04E17) This episode proves that Bays and Thomas can do silly, sitcommy things in an episode and still take their loyal audience on an emotional ride with the characters they've grown to love.
Because of that, this was a fun one. We not only got a glimpse of what four of the gang might look like when they're seniors (Ted somehow looks 20 years younger than Marshall, even though they're the same age) but we got to find out about the joy of nightshirts and a morning broadcast that would make Al Roker jealous.
This seems to be Neil Patrick Harris' year. A tour-de-force season on How I Met Your Mother was followed by hosting stints on the Tonys and TV Land Awards that showed how natural he was in the role of awards host. Heck, he even managed to get the Tonys some viral street cred by doing a Billy Crystal-esque medley at the end that stated the show "could not be any gayer if Liza was named mayor and Elton John took flight."
(S04E24) It's been an interesting season for How I Met Your Mother, hasn't it? The ratings for the show have never been better, but longtime fans (me included) have been concerned about its inconsistency this season. Episodes that would be considered in the pantheon of Mother classics -- ones that mess with timelines and talk about the "mother mythology" and the stories of the rest of the Scooby gang -- were mixed in with standalone plots that were sometimes funny but other times were contrived and sitcommy.
Ladies and gentlemen alike know that Neil Patrick Harris has got it all: Perfect comedic timing, 
(S04E23) Earlier today, I received a rough-cut copy of HIMYM's season finale. I was all giddy and wanted to pop it in the DVD player right away, but I wanted to wait until I saw tonight's episode first, figuring it would set up the finale, as it did in past seasons. This episode does so, at least a little bit. But the most important part of the story -- the results of Ted's chance meeting with Stella on that street corner -- was at once disappointing and refreshing.
(S04E22) Carter Bays and Craig Thomas are a couple of clever guys, aren't they?
The thing that gets me about the TV Land Awards is this: they're celebrating the types of TV shows that TV Land will one day not even show anymore.
(S04E20) For some reason, even though both stories in this episode were pretty light and piffly, Bays and Thomas gave us enough character-development pellets to keep the fans happy. That's the way it's been most of this season, hasn't it? Be very goofy and sitcommy for the most part, but with story development mixed in for flavor. 
At one point or another during this latest season of 
Bravo has announced the show 
(S04E19) As a steadfast HIMYM watcher, the fan in me always struggles with the TV critic in me. The critic wants the show to go back to the continuing storyline goodness of the show's early seasons. But the fan in me doesn't want to be weighed down with all that semi-serious thinking and just wants to laugh his ass off at 8:30 every Monday evening. 
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