Blackadder
This show is like Monty Python -- well not exactly. This is similar British humor in a sitcom type show. This is not Mr. Bean, except for the mannerisms. Rowan Atkinson still make all kinds of facial expressions. He is an instigator. The show does take a bit of getting used to.
It's lots of fun.
Want to know more? Wait. I can't type that fast. You email me using the form below and I could put a rush on it.
I will have to put this great bowl of jello aside or use a straw and suck it up while I type more......is that what you want.
I'll even send you a picture of me choking on the straw or shooting jello out of my nose.......
Okay so I made time and I started the page. Read on.
Genre: Period, Situational comedy
Created by: Richard Curtis, Rowan Atkinson, Ben Elton
Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson, Tim McInnerny, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie
Theme music composer: Howard Goodall
Country of origin: UK
Language(s): English
No. of series: 4
No. of episodes: 24 (plus 3 specials) (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s): John Lloyd
Camera setup: Multi-camera
Running time: 30 min. approx
Broadcast
Original channel: BBC One
Picture format PAL (576i)
Audio format: Monaural sound
Original run: 15 June 1983 – 2 November 1989
Blackadder is the generic name that encompasses four series of an acclaimed BBC One historical sitcom, along with several one-off instalments. The first series was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, while subsequent episodes were written by Curtis and Ben Elton. The shows were produced by John Lloyd, and starred Rowan Atkinson as the eponymous anti-hero, Edmund Blackadder, and Tony Robinson as his sidekick/dogsbody, Baldrick.
In 2000, "Goes Forth" ranked at 16 in the "100 Greatest British Television Programmes", a list created by the British Film Institute. Also in the 2004 TV poll to find "Britain's Best Sitcom", the show was voted the second best British sitcom of all time, topped by Only Fools and Horses. It was also ranked as the 20th Best TV Show of All Time by Empire Magazine.
Overview
Each of the series was set in a different time era. We get to see the adventures of Rowan Atkinson as Edmund. Edmund is always trying to climb the social and financial ladder by stepping on people.
Edmund has a servant that gets dumber as Edmund becomes smarter. The servant's name is Baldrick. They both seem to be working for a member of the upper-class, who is almost as dumb as Baldrick. The later upper-class characters were played by Hugh Laurie. Yes House! ..... and he has a British accent. I'm so used to him having an American accent or is it having no accent???? I have been watching a lot of House. I have seen Hugh Laurie in many different types of projects including movies and television shows. Every time Laurie is interviewed I get confused because of the accent. I'm used to House but when I see Laurie in other places it's like a whole new person and he's not torturing people who want to keep a job and go on with life.
Anyway, let's talk more about Mr. Bean.....I mean Rowan Atkinson as Black Adder. I still can't say I know a lot bout the show yet but I want to know more. Okay read on.
Each series is based in a different period of English history.
Developments over the series
There is always a hint that each Black Adder is a descendant of the previous one.
As we get to each newer Black Adder the character of Black Adder is of a lower social standing. The order from start to most recent are as follows: prince, lord, royal butler of Prince Rengent, and then finally a regular army captain in the trenches of World War I.
His great-grandfather was a king although for only thirty seconds
In the second series, Edmund (Rowan Atkinson) almost marries Elizabeth I.
Similarities over the series
Theme tune
The theme, which was created by Howard Goodall, is used for all the series. The tune is modified to match the time era of each individual series.
Popularity and effects on popular culture
Most of the episodes involve Black Adder (Edmund) getting in trouble and then Baldrick offering a solution. Most of the time the solution actually makes things worse.
Origin of Name
Dr. Eric Blackadder, Chief Medical Officer at the BBC at the time of the first programme, claims that the series is named after him.
Series and specials
Chronological order
"(BA Unaired Pilot)" (1982)
The Black Adder (1983)
BA II (1986)
"The Shakespeare Sketch" (1989)
"BA: The Cavalier Years" (1988)
BA the Third (1987)
"1775" (US series pilot) (1992)
"BA's Christmas Carol" (1988)
BA Goes Forth (1989)
"Woman's Hour" Invasion (1988)
"BA and the King's Birthday" (1998)
"BA: Back & Forth" (2000)
"BA: The Army Years" (2000)
"The Royal Gardener" (From the Queen's Jubilee) (2002)
"Jubilee Girl" (2002)
Series and specials
Series 1: The Black Adder
The Black Adder was the first series of Blackadder and was written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, and produced by John Lloyd. The series was originally aired on BBC 2 from 15 June 1983 to 20 July, 1983, and was a joint production with the Australian Seven Network.
Atkinson and Curtis came up with the idea of Black Adder when they were working on Not the Nine O'Clock News. Black Adder dealt with all kinds of medieval British topics including: witchcraft, Royal Succession, European relations, the Crusades and the conflict between the Crown and the Church. The show had a large cast and did a lot of location shooting. Shakespearean language was used a lot also to make things funnier.
Series 2: Blackadder II
This series was set in England during the time that Queen Elizabeth was in power (1558-1603). The Queen was played by Miranda Richardson. The main character in the series is Edmund, Lord Blackadder, the great-grandson of the original Black Adder. Black Adder meets the Queen on many occasions along with her Lord (Stephen Fry) and nanny Nursie (Patsy Byrne).
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Following the BBC's request for improvements to be made to the show, several changes were made. The second series was the first to establish the familiar character of Blackadder: cunning, shrewd and witty, in sharp contrast with Prince Edmund of the first series. To make the show more cost effective, it was also shot with far fewer outdoor scenes than the first series and several, frequently used, indoor scenes, such as the Queen's throne room and BA's front room.
A quote from this series was placed in third position for the top twenty-five television 'put downs' of the last 40 years by the Radio Times magazine. It was the following insult directed at Lord Percy by Edmund Blackadder: "The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr Brain has long since departed, hasn't he, Percy?"
Series and specials continued
Series 3: Blackadder the Third
Main article: Blackadder the Third
BA the Third is set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period known as the Regency. In the series, E. Blackadder Esquire is the butler to the Prince of Wales (the prince is played by Hugh Laurie as a complete fop and idiot). Despite Edmund's respected intelligence and abilities, he has no personal fortune to speak of, apart from his frequently fluctuating wage packet from the Prince, as he says: 'If I'm running short of cash all I have to do is go upstairs and ask Prince Fat-head for a rise'.
As well as Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson in their usual roles, this series starred Hugh Laurie as the Prince Regent, and Helen Atkinson-Wood as Mrs. Miggins. The series features rotten boroughs (or "robber buttons"), Dr. Samuel Johnson (played by Robbie Coltrane), William Pitt the Younger, the French Revolution (featuring Chris Barrie, Nigel Planer and Tim McInnerny as the Scarlet Pimpernel), over-the-top theatrical actors, squirrel-hating highwaymen, and a duel with the Duke of Wellington (played by Stephen Fry).
Series 4: Blackadder Goes Forth
Main article: Blackadder Goes Forth
This series is set in 1917, on the Western Front in the trenches of the First World War. Another "big push" is planned, and Captain BA's one goal is to avoid getting shot, so he plots ways to get out of it. BA is joined by the idealistic Edwardian twit Lieutenant George (Hugh Laurie), and their cook, Private S. Baldrick. General Melchett (Stephen Fry) rallies his troops from a French mansion thirty-five miles from the front, where he is aided and abetted by his assistant, Captain Darling (Tim McInnerny), pencil-pusher supreme and BA's nemesis, whose name is played on for maximum comedy value.
Except for the final episode, the episode titles are all plays on words involving military titles, e.g. "Captain Cook" (about food), "Private Plane" (involving Rik Mayall as a pilot).
The final episode of this series, "Goodbyeee ...", is known for being extraordinarily poignant for a comedy – especially the final scene, which sees the main characters (BA, Baldrick, George, and Darling) finally venturing forward and charging off to die in the fog and smoke of no man's land. Melchett remains at his office but blithely orders a reluctant Darling to fight with the others. "Goodbyeee ..." had no closing titles, simply fading from the protagonists charging across no man's land under fire, to a field of poppies in the sunlight: like the poem "In Flanders Fields". This particular poignant moment illustrates how the series had the capacity to be more than just a sitcom. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, BA Goes Forth was placed 16th.
Specials
The Pilot Episode
Main article: The Black Adder (pilot episode)
The BA pilot was shot but never aired in the UK. One notable difference in the pilot, as in many pilots, is the casting. Baldrick is played not by Tony Robinson, but by Philip Fox. The script of the pilot is roughly the same as the episode Born to be King, albeit with some different jokes, with some lines appearing in other episodes of the series.
BA: The Cavalier Years
This takes place at the time of the English Civil War. It is a short episode, shown as part of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day in 1988.
The 15-minute episode was set in November 1648, during the last days of the Civil War. Sir Edmund BA and his servant, Baldrick, are the last two men loyal to the defeated King Charles I of England (played by Stephen Fry, portrayed as a soft-spoken, ineffective, slightly dim character, with the voice and mannerisms of Charles I's namesake, the current Prince of Wales). However, due to a misunderstanding between Oliver Cromwell (guest-star Warren Clarke) and Baldrick, the King is arrested and sent to the Tower of London. The rest of the episode revolves around BA's attempts to save the king, as well as improve his standing.
BBC One, Friday 5 February 1988, 9.45–10pm
Blackadder's Christmas Carol
The second special was broadcast in 1988. In a twist on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Blackadder is the "kindest and loveliest" man in England. The Spirit of Christmas shows Blackadder the contrary antics of his ancestors and descendants, and reluctantly informs him that if he turns evil his descendents will enjoy power and fortune, while if he remains the same a future BA will live shamefully subjugated to a future incompetent Baldrick. This remarkable encounter causes him to proclaim, "Bad guys have all the fun", and adopt the personality with which viewers are more familiar.
BBC One, Friday 23 December 1988, 9.30–10.15pm
Woman's Hour Invasion
Woman's Hour is a show on BBC Radio 4 consisting of reports, interviews and debates aimed at women, and also includes short serials during the last quarter of the show. On one instance of the show, in 1988, Blackadder and Baldrick show up, travel back in time and talk to Shakespeare (not for the last time!) and others.
The purpose of the "invasion" was to raise money for Children in Need.
The Shakespeare Sketch
This non-canonical sketch was performed on stage at the Sadlers Wells Theatre on September 18, 1989. It was written for, and performed at an AIDS benefit concert directed by Stephen Fry, and features Rowan Atkinson as a Blackadder-esque character chatting with Hugh Laurie as "Bill" Shakespeare, talking about cutting various sections of Hamlet – in particular the "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Ultimately, BA talks Shakespeare down from an over-long speech to the familiar 'snappy' phrase. From Will's first draft:
"To be a victim of all life's earthly woes, or not to be a coward and take Death by his proffered hand" via BA's suggestion
"To be a victim, or not to be a coward," ultimately condensed to "To be, or not to be".
To which Shakespeare naturally replies: "You can't say that – it's gibberish!"
The sketch was available on video as part of Hysteria 2 – The Second Coming, released by Palace Video on 21 May 1990.
Specials
1775 (US series pilot)
This was the pilot for a prospective US BA series. It was shot in 1992 and aired once, but failed to be picked up. Its cast was completely different and it was set in colonial Philadelphia.
BA and the King's Birthday
A short sketch performed at the Prince of Wales' 50th Birthday Gala. It featured Rowan Atkinson as Lord BA and Stephen Fry as King Charles II, and was televised on ITV (in the UK) on 14 November 1998.
Blackadder: Back & Forth
Blackadder: Back & Forth was originally shown in the Millennium Dome in 2000, followed by a screening on Sky One in the same year (and later on BBC1). It is set on the turn of the millennium, and features Lord BA placing a bet with his friends – modern versions of Queenie (Miranda Richardson), Melchett (Stephen Fry), George (Hugh Laurie) and Darling (Tim McInnerny) – that he has built a working time machine. While this is intended as a clever con trick, the machine, surprisingly, works, sending BA and Baldrick back to the time of the dinosaurs, where they manage to cause the extinction of the dinosaurs, through the use of Baldrick's best, worst and only pair of underpants as a weapon against a hungry T.Rex. Finding that Baldrick has forgotten to write dates on the machine's dials, the rest of the film follows their attempts to find their way back to 1999, often creating huge historical anomalies in the process which must be corrected before the end. The film was notable for featuring cameo roles from all the main BA actors, as well as a number of famous stars of stage and screen.
Blackadder: The Army Years
A short monologue performed at the Dominion Theatre for the Royal Variety Performance 2000. It features Rowan Atkinson as the modern-day Lord Edmund Blackadder of Her Royal Highness's regiment of Shirkers. The sketch was written and introduced by Ben Elton, who was the compère of the evening.
The Jubilee Girl
The Jubilee Girl was a 29 December 2002 BBC special about Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee Concert. The concert was hosted by Sir Osmond Darling-BA (Keeper of Her Majesty's Lawn Sprinklers) and Dame Edna Everage. Earlier, a BBC "advertisement" for the celebrations also featured this incarnation of BA, in which Sir Osmond is told to announce the event, even though he thinks it is a terrible idea:
We don't want thousands of people wandering around here willy-nilly, leaving orange peel on the petunias and frightening the corgies.
I said to her, I said, you're the Queen, not Fatboy Slim.
Potential fifth series or film
In January 2005, Tony Robinson told ITV's This Morning that Rowan Atkinson was more keen than he has been in the past to do a fifth series, set in the 1960s (centred around a rock band called the "Black Adder Five", with Baldrick – aka 'Bald Rick' – as the drummer). Robinson in a stage performance June 1, 2007, again mentioned this idea, but in the context of a movie. However, aside from a brief mention in June 2005, there have been no further announcements from the BBC that a new series is being planned. Furthermore, in November 2005, Rowan Atkinson told BBC Breakfast that although he would very much like to do a new series set in Colditz or another prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, the chances of it happening are extremely low.
There were a couple of ideas that had previously floated for the fifth series. Batadder was intended to be a parody of Batman with Baldrick as the counterpart of Robin (suggested by John Lloyd). This idea eventually came to surface as part of the Comic Relief sketch "Spider-Plant Man" in 2005, with Atkinson as the title hero, Robinson as Robin, Jim Broadbent as Batman and Rachel Stevens as Jane Mary. Star Adder was to be set in space in the future (suggested by Atkinson), though this too was touched upon in BA's Christmas Carol.
On April 10, 2007, Hello! reported that Atkinson was moving forward with his ideas for a fifth series. He said, "I like the idea of him being a prisoner of war in Colditz. That would have the right level of authority and hierarchy which is apparent in all the Blackadders."
A post on www.BlackAdderHall.com from Ben Elton in early 2007 states that BA will return in some form, whether it be a TV series or movie. Elton has since not given any more information on the putative BA 5.
During an interview in August 2007 regarding his latest movie, Mr. Bean's Holiday, Atkinson was asked about the possibility of a further BA series, to which the simple reply "No, no chance" was given:
"There was a plan for a film set in the Russian revolution, a very interesting one called The Red Adder. He would have been a lieutenant in the Secret Police. Then the revolution happened and at the end he is in the same office doing the same job but just the colours on his uniform have changed. It was quite a sweet idea and we got quite a long way with it but in the end it died a death."
Stephen Fry has expressed the view that, since the series went out on such a good "high", a film might not be a good idea.
During his June 2007 stage performance, chronicled on the Tony Robinson's Cunning Night Out DVD, Robinson states that after filming the Back & Forth special, the general idea was to reunite for another special in 2010. Robinson jokingly remarked that Hugh Laurie's success on House may make that difficult.
Anachronism
The BA series contain many instances of anachronism or anachronistic references. For example:
In The Black Adder, the Duke of Edinburgh is one of Edmund's titles. However, Scotland had a separate monarchy at this point, and this title had not yet been created. The series suggests repeatedly that Scotland and England were united at the time, which did not in fact happen until much later (they had the same monarch starting in 1603, and were formally united only in 1707).
In several episodes of BA II, BA and others use the term dago to refer to the Spanish, even though this term did not come into being until the 1800s.
BA the Third encompasses many historical persons and events from throughout the reign of George III (1760–1820) and even beyond, despite the appearance of taking place over a relatively short period of time. For example, Samuel Johnson completed his dictionary in 1755, which is the premise for the second episode. In the same installment, Dr Johnson is seen with Lord Byron, despite the fact that in real life, the latter was born four years after the former died. The most common setting appears to be during the English Regency (1811–20) despite the fact that Prince George is portrayed as thin and young, when actually he was in his early fifties and very, very fat. (Despite this disparity, jokes are made about Prince George's great weight.) There are also a number of references to Napoleon Bonaparte throughout the series, beginning as early as the first episode, yet the French Revolution only takes place in the third episode. BA also refers to the Duke of Wellington as the Iron Duke, even though the Duke of Wellington had not been given that nickname at that time.
Cast
Ben Elton's arrival after the first series heralded the more frequent recruitment of comic actors from the famed "alternative" era for guest appearances, including Robbie Coltrane, Rik Mayall (who had actually appeared in the final episode of the first series as Mad Gerald), Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Mark Arden, Stephen Frost, Chris Barrie and Jeremy Hardy. Elton himself played an anarchist in BA the Third.
However, aside from the regular cast listed above, only one actor – Lee Cornes – appeared in an episode of all three Curtis-Elton series. He appeared as a guard in the episode Chains of BA II; as the poet Shelley in the episode Ink and Incapability of Blackadder the Third; and as firing squad soldier Private Fraser in the episode Corporal Punishment of BA Goes Forth.
More 'establishment'-style actors, some at the veteran stage of their careers, were also recruited for roles. These included Brian Blessed, John Grillo, Simon Jones, Tom Baker, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Paddick, Frank Finlay, Miriam Margolyes, Kenneth Connor, Bill Wallis, Ronald Lacey, Roger Blake, Denis Lill, Warren Clarke and Geoffrey Palmer who played Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig in Goodbyeee..., the final, fatal episode of BA Goes Forth.
Unusually for a sitcom based loosely on factual events and in the historical past, a man was recruited for one episode essentially to play himself. Political commentator Vincent Hanna played a character billed as "his own great-great-great grandfather" in the episode Dish and Dishonesty of BA the Third. Hanna was asked to take part because the scene was of a by-election in which Baldrick was a candidate and, in the style of modern television, Hanna gave a long-running "live" commentary of events at the count (and interviewed candidates and election agents) to a crowd through the town hall window.
List
Main article: List of characters in Blackadder
Each series tended to feature the same set of regular actors in different period settings.
The only character types to retain the same name throughout were:
Edmund Blackadder: (Rowan Atkinson) (although "The Black Adder" was an adopted name of Prince Edmund Plantagenet, who was significantly different from the other BAs)
S. Baldrick: (Tony Robinson) Some characters recurred as their own presumed descendants:
Melchett – Stephen Fry
Sycophantic Lord Melchett (a sort of William Cecil character), an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, series 2
General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett, a blustering buffoon and presumed descendant of Lord Melchett, series 4
General Melchecus – Blackadder Back & Forth
King Charles I
The Duke Of Wellington, not a Melchett, but definitely a precursor to the series 4 Melchett character (e.g. his use of Melchett's eventual catchphrase "Behh!"), series 3
Bishop Flavius Melchett – Blackadder: Back & Forth
Lord Frondo
Percy / Darling Lord Percy Percy – Tim McInnerny, Series 1 and 2
Captain Kevin Darling, Series 4. A somewhat smarter than Percy character but also an antagonist to BA instead of a sidekick.
The Scarlet Pimpernel (alias Lord Topper and Le Comte De Frou Frou) for one episode in the third series.
Archdeacon Darling and Duke of Darling / Duc de Darling – Blackadder: Back & Forth.
George – Hugh Laurie
HRH The Prince George Augustus Frederick, Series 3 Lieutenant The Honourable George Colthurst St. Bartleigh, Series 4
Hugh Laurie also played Simon "Farters Parters" Partridge (also known as Mr Ostrich) in episode five, and Prince Ludwig the Indestructible in the final installment of BA II, and Lord Pigmot.
Elizabeth – Miranda Richardson
Queen Elizabeth I in Series 2, Christmas Carol, and Back & Forth
Lady Elizabeth in Back & Forth.
Queen Asphyxia in the Christmas Carol.
Amy Hardwood (aka The Shadow) in "Amy and Amiability" in the third series
Mary Fletcher-Brown, a dutiful Nurse in "General Hospital" from the fourth.
Bob – Gabrielle Glaister – an attractive girl who poses as a man called Bob, before revealing her true sex and becoming romantically involved with Flashheart (2 and 4)
Lord Flashheart – Rik Mayall, a vulgar yet successful rival of Blackadder (2 and 4)
Mayall also plays Mad Gerald in The Black Adder series finale and a decidedly Flashheart-like Robin Hood in Back & Forth.
Black Adder
Non-recurring:
Elspet Gray played the queen (Blackadder's) mother in all six episodes of The Black Adder and the Blackadder pilot. As Brian Blessed and Robert East, who also appeared in all six episodes of the first series (as the black adder's father and brother respectively), Gray never appears again in another related show.
Patsy Byrne received plaudits for her crucial role as Nursie in all six episodes of Blackadder II but never featured in either of the subsequent series, either as a regular character or one-off. Her only future roles in Blackadder were in Blackadder Back & Forth and Blackadder's Christmas Carol, when she briefly reprised Nursie during scenes set in the Blackadder II era and then in Carol's Christmas future scenes, also playing a member of the "triple husbandoid" to Queen Asphyxia, credited as 'Bernard' (though not named in the special this was the name Nursie claimed to have been born under in Series II). Similarly, Helen Atkinson-Wood played the role of Mrs. Miggins in all six episodes of Blackadder the Third, but did not appear again in the programme, although she was mentioned in "Goodbyeee", the final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth and a Mrs. Miggins had been mentioned several times in Blackadder II A few actors have made multiple guest appearances playing different characters, notably:
Robbie Coltrane appeared in the Season Three episode Ink and Incapability as Samuel Johnson, and would cameo in the Christmas Carol as the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Jim Broadbent portrayed the interpreter, Don Speekenglish, in The Queen of Spain's Beard, and later reappeared as Prince Albert in the Christmas special.
Miriam Margolyes made appearances as three distinct characters: as the Spanish Infanta in Queen of Spain's Beard, as Blackadder's Puritan aunt in Beer, and as Queen Victoria in the Christmas episode.
Denis Lill played an MP in Dish and Dishonesty and portrayed Beadle in the Christmas Carol.
Lee Cornes also portrayed three characters: one of Prince Ludwig's guards in Chains, Percy Shelley in Ink and Incapability, and Private Fraser, a member of the firing squad in Corporal Punishment.
Black Adder
Precursors
The plot device of a 'modern' man in ancient times is not new, and has a venerable history in fiction.
In TV comedies, perhaps the most obvious 'ancestor' of the Blackadder series is Up Pompeii!. The series, starring Frankie Howerd as Lurcio, was set in ancient Rome and made similar play with historical characters. Even the apparent 'reincarnation' device found in Blackadder [16] is also used. The TV series inspired three feature films, the first of which, Up Pompeii!, was also set in Imperial Rome with Howerd as Lurcio. The film ended with the eruption of Vesuvius and had a final scene set in the present day, in which the actors all played tourists closely resembling their ancient roles, with Howerd being a tour guide, showing them around the ruins of Pompeii. The second was set in medieval times and called Up the Chastity Belt, with Howerd's character as 'Lurkalot' (cf The Black Adder). In this, Howerd's character is discovered to be a double of Richard Lionheart, and later assumes the throne under his identity while the real king leads a bawdy life as Lurkalot (cf Blackadder the Third). Most strikingly, the third and final Up ... film, Up the Front, sees Howerd's character reborn as 'Private Lurk' and fighting in the First World War (cf Blackadder Goes Forth).
The shows draw on a variety of literary, historical, and film backgrounds for its story and characters. The first two series draw heavily upon the works of William Shakespeare. The first episode of The Black Adder, The Foretelling, references Richard III (the characters and setting), Macbeth (the three witches predicting Blackadder's rise to power and the appearance of King Richard's ghost at the dinner), and King Lear (the witches are named Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia). Bells, the first episode of the second series, draws on Twelfth Night with its cross-dressing "Bob" character. The third series parodies at various points classic novels such as The Scarlet Pimpernel (Nob and Nobility), Cyrano de Bergerac (Amy and Amiability), and The Prince and the Pauper (Duel and Duality), and the titles themselves parody Sense and Sensibility. There are also many references to classic films, for instance Blackadder's forming of his dark army in The Black Seal is parodic of The Magnificent Seven (down to Blackadder holding up fingers to indicate the number of men he has), the Season 1 episode The Archbishop explicitly parodies Becket.
Black Adder
Notes
^ The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time - Number 20: Blackadder, EmpireOnline.com
^ "List of Musicians and Singers who Played or Sang on Blackadder and Red Dwarf Themes"
^ It was me what spun it, The Guardian October 27, 2003. Accessed on May 29, 2008
^ MacGregor, James (2 February 2001). ""Step Forward The Real (Unhappy) Blackadder"". Netribution.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
^ "The Pilot Episode", BlackadderHall.com
^ "Woman's Hour Invasion", BlackadderHall.com
^ Shakespeare Sketch at Blackadder Hall. Accessed on January 12, 2008
^ http://www.thelogbook.com/logbook/blackadder/1775-us-series-pilot/
^ The King's Birthday at Blackadder Hall. Accessed on January 12, 2008
^ The Army Years at Blackadder Hall. Accessed on January 12, 2008
^ The Royal Gardner at Blackadder Hall. Accessed on January 12, 2008
^ "Faces of the week: Richard Curtis", News. BBC.co.uk, BBC News (3 June 2005). Retrieved on 2008-02-06. "… Rowan Atkinson, whose collaborations with Curtis include television and cinema's Mr Bean and TV's Blackadder, which is to enjoy a fifth series next year."
^ "Black Adder Program Guide"
^ "Rowan toys with idea of 'Blackadder' return", HelloMagazine.co.uk, Hello! (10 April 2007). Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
^ "Atkinson Developing "Black Adder" Film", Darkhorizons.com
^ "The Blackadder Guide to Reincarnation"
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother
I actually got to see one full episode or at least 80% of one. I have seen bits of other episodes and I wanted to see more. I just don't have time to see all the great comedy out there. This can change. If I can earn enough from this website and my blogs I will watch as much television as possible and then I'll tell you what you've missed. I may even convince you to go from full time at work to part time. You might even quit your job just to watch all the fun. There is a lot of quality stuff out there. Some examples are Anger Management, Rules of Engagement, In the Middle (Raymond's wife from Everybody Loves Raymond), and much much more.
Neil Patrick Harris, who I remember from Doogie Howser, is reasonably funny. He is the sensitive class clown but their not in class.
That wierd red-haired guy (Chris Elliot) who used to show up on the Letterman Show is the father of the woman who is married to the guy who works for the character played by Martin Short. Okay maybe she's not married to the guy but they seem to be partners in crime for the house party in the one episode I saw. The woman I'm talking about seems familiar too. Oh yeah she's the girl from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show. She was Buffy's best friend. Okay I did a Google search.
Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer plays the character of Lily Aldrin in How I Met Your Mother. She was Michelle Flaherty in the original American Pie film series (1999, 2001, 2003, 2012).
(page under construction)
I saw the episode where the main couple has a house party; that is the girl from her Buffy and her husband, who works Martin Short's character. Again....They aren't married but that was the feeling I got when I watched the episode. I need to see a few more episodes before I give you my personal thoughts. I have put the basic information in so you can learn about the show with me.
Read on and enjoy.......Hey.... Hey.....Hey!!!!! Did you fall alsleep? I'll work on that. I'll learn to juggle or .....okay I had many jokes but I realized that most of the jokes I remember being told are very inappropriate now. What do you call a blonde girl on a university campus?........lost.....(ducking as plate flies over his head.) Sorry but that wasn't too bad. I will read a book....before I die. I might even write a book.....It's hard to fold the pop up characters and I don't exactly color within the lines.
Okay so read on.
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, and directed by Pamela Fryman.
Set in Manhattan, the series follows the social and romantic lives of Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) and his friends Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), and Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris).[1] As a framing device, the main character, Ted,[1] using voiceover narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting their mother.
Known for its unique structure and eccentric humor, How I Met Your Mother has been a critical success, having received positive reviews throughout most of its run. The show has been nominated for seven Emmy Awards, winning six. In 2012, seven years after its premiere, the series won the People's Choice Award for Best TV Network Comedy and Neil Patrick Harris won the award for Best Male Comedy Actor.[2]
On December 21, 2012, the show was renewed for a ninth and final season after the cast members signed new deals with the network.[3][4]
MacLaren's, a bar in the middle of New York, in which some of the show is set, is based on a bar named McGee's.[8] It has a mural that Bays and Thomas both liked and wanted to incorporate into the show.[9] The name for the bar is from Carter Bays' assistant, Carl MacLaren; the bartender in the show is also named Carl.[10]
Each episode is usually shot over three days in the Los Angeles-based Soundstage Studio 22[11] and features upwards of 50 scenes with quick transitions and flashbacks. However, the "Pilot" episode was filmed at CBS Radford.[12] The laugh track is later created by recording an audience being shown the final edited episode. Thomas claims that shooting before a live audience would be impossible because of the structure of the show and the numerous flashforwards in each episode and because doing so "would blur the line between 'audience' and 'hostage situation'."[13] Later seasons started filming in front of an audience on occasion when smaller sets are used.
The theme song is a portion of "Hey Beautiful" by The Solids, of which Bays and Thomas are members. Episodes from Season 1 generally started with the opening credits. A cold opening has been used since Season 2. Viewers then occasionally see Ted's children on a couch and hear him talking to them, telling the story of how he met their mother. Alternatively, scenes from previous episodes or shots of New York City with Ted narrating over the top are shown. Thomas has explicitly said Future Ted is an unreliable narrator since he is trying to tell a story that happened over 20 years earlier;[14] this has been a plot point in several episodes such as "The Goat", "Oh Honey", "How I Met Everyone Else" and "The Mermaid Theory". Nevertheless, Thomas has also emphasized maintaining a coherent and consistent universe, and trying to avoid continuity errors, based on his experiences of being a fan of other shows.[15]
A scene directly relating to the identity of the mother, involving Ted's future children, was filmed near the beginning of Season 2 for the show's eventual series finale.[16] This was primarily done because the teenage actors portraying them will be adults by the time the final season is shot.[17]
During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, How I Met Your Mother shut down production; but, when the strike ended, the show returned on March 17, 2008, with nine new episodes.[18] A change in timeslot was also announced, to 8:30 pm ET/7:30 pm CT, flip-flopping from the summer schedule with The Big Bang Theory.[19] CBS renewed the show for a fourth season on May 14, 2008,[20] which premiered on September 22, 2008.[21]
In September 2008, it was announced that Lifetime Television had purchased the right to rerun How I Met Your Mother at a rate of about $725,000 per episode.[22] The four-year syndication contract stipulated that the studio deliver at least 110 half-hour episodes by the year 2010, and allowed for up to eight seasons of the show. At the end of the fourth season only 88 episodes had been produced, and a further 22 episodes were required, ensuring that there would be a fifth season.[23] On May 19, 2009, the fifth-season renewal was announced.[24] On May 20, 2009, CBS announced that How I Met Your Mother would again be aired at 8 pm, leading into the new comedy Accidentally on Purpose. On January 12, 2010, the show hit the milestone of its 100th episode. It was also announced that the series would return for a sixth season on CBS.[25] In response to being syndicated, Thomas said, "We're thrilled that it will live on in other forms," and they were proud of the show and it was great to see the strong demand.[26]
On September 13, 2010, reruns of the series began airing on local U.S. broadcast television stations and on Chicago-based cable superstation WGN America. Featured in these airings are vanity cards previously unseen in the CBS and Lifetime airings due to marginalized credit sequences used by the two networks. Shown in between the closing credits and the production company credits, these vanity cards show portions of "The Bro Code", a list of rules frequently referenced by Harris' character, Barney Stinson, on how men should interact with each other, with an emphasis on activities involving pursuing members of the opposite sex. The opening theme song for the syndicated reruns is also slightly edited, running shorter and not using all the pictures seen in the opening montage that runs on DVD and the original CBS broadcasts. The episodes are also slightly edited, leaving out a few details.
One of the series' ongoing traditions involves giving guest roles to actors from various Joss Whedon productions, many of whom co-starred with Hannigan on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Bays attributes this to their being "huge fans" and to those casts representing "a big talent pool".[27]
Another tradition involves the use of euphemisms for culturally sensitive issues. These include "eating a sandwich" for smoking marijuana, "thumbs up" for giving the middle finger, as well as "playing the bagpipes" for loud, raucous sex acts. These euphemisms, among others, have been used extensively throughout the show and have even been used as central plot themes, such as the episode "Benefits" in Season 4.
On March 4, 2011, CBS announced that the show had been renewed for two more seasons,[28] with the seventh season premiering with back-to-back episodes on September 19, 2011.[2]
On July 27, 2011, it was announced that the FX channel had picked up the show for syndication. FX began airing the show on September 5, 2011.[29]
Although cast members have stated that the show will not run longer than eight seasons,[30] a ninth season was secured in December 2012 amidst tense negotiations with the studios and the actors - especially Jason Segel, who had wanted to move on to other ventures after the eighth season.[3][4]
The main cast at a celebration of the 100th episode of the series. From left: Neil Patrick Harris, Cobie Smulders, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan and Josh Radnor.
The series begins in 2005 with Ted (Josh Radnor) as a single, 27-year-old architect living with his two best friends from his college years; Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), a law student, and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher and aspiring artist. Lily and Marshall have been dating for almost nine years when Marshall finally proposes. Their engagement causes Ted to think about marriage and finding his soul mate, much to the disgust of his self-appointed best friend Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), whom he met in the restroom at a bar four years earlier. Barney is a serial womanizer who concocts elaborate con games, usually involving costumes and fake identities, designed to bed women, whom he discards immediately afterward.
Ted begins his search for his perfect soul mate and meets an ambitious young reporter from Canada, Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), with whom he quickly falls in love. Robin, however, doesn't want to rush into a relationship and the two decide to be friends. Future Ted reveals that Robin is not the mother after referring to her as "Aunt Robin".
Ted begins dating a baker, Victoria (Ashley Williams), whom he meets at a friend's wedding, causing Robin to become jealous and realize she does have feelings for Ted. Victoria, having been offered a fellowship in pastry-making, moves to Germany; and she and Ted try a long-distance relationship. Once Ted learns Robin has feelings for him, he tells her he broke up with Victoria, even though he hasn't. They almost have sex when Victoria calls and Robin answers, mistaking Ted's phone for her own. Ted and Victoria then break up and an angry Robin distances herself from Ted, but they eventually make up and decide to date.
Meanwhile, Lily begins to wonder if she's missed any opportunities because of her relationship with Marshall, and decides to pursue an art fellowship in San Francisco, breaking up with Marshall in the process. The season ends with Ted coming back to the apartment, the morning after spending the night with Robin for the first time, to find Marshall sitting in the rain with Lily's engagement ring, devastated by their sudden break up.
In the season finale, Ted reveals to Barney that he and Robin have been broken up for some time due to their conflicting views on marriage and children. They didn't tell anyone in order to avoid taking attention away from Lily and Marshall's wedding. The season ends with Barney excited at the prospect of Ted and him being single guys on the town again, and ends the season with Barney saying "this is going to be legen- wait for it...".
Ted tells his children he met their mother through a story concerning her yellow umbrella. He finds the umbrella at a club and takes it home after attending a St. Patrick's Day party where his future wife was, although they did not meet. Ted attempts to woo Stella (Sarah Chalke), a dermatologist he sees to remove an embarrassing butterfly tattoo. This culminates in a memorable "two-minute date," which incorporates small talk, dinner, a movie, coffee, two cab rides, and a goodnight kiss, all within two minutes. Robin sleeps with Barney after he comforts her following a break-up with a past Canadian love; Ted is infuriated, and decides to stop being friends with Barney. Meanwhile, an unknown woman begins to sabotage Barney's attempts to hook up. His saboteur is revealed to be Abby (Britney Spears), Stella's receptionist, with a vendetta against him for not calling her after they had sex.
In the season finale, Ted gets into a car accident and ends up in hospital, Subsequently Barney gets hit by a bus on the way to visit him and ends up receiving treatment in the same hospital. Ted realizes Barney really cares about him and they renew their friendship. It is revealed Barney has true feelings for Robin, while Ted proposes to Stella in an arcade.
Marshall and Lily move to their new apartment and debate over whether or not they're ready to have children. Robin becomes roommates with Ted and gets a job as an anchor for a 4 AM news show after Barney sends out her video resume. Ted and Robin decide to sleep together constantly so they won't fight over each other's bad co-living habits. Barney attempts to make them stop fighting to prevent this, revealing to Ted his love for Robin.
Ted finds out Lily has sabotaged all of his relationships with anyone she doesn't approve of and indirectly may have inspired his breakup with Robin. Robin and Ted end up talking about it, causing their friendship to begin moving toward a positive note. After Barney finally sleeps with his 200th woman (and rubs it in the face of the childhood bully who taunted him into pursuing it), he begins to question the purpose of the remainder of his life, leaving him more certain of his feelings for Robin.
Ted, while carrying the yellow umbrella, bumps into Stella and Tony. Tony later decides to visit him, sympathizing with Ted over his loss of Stella. Tony offers him a job as a professor of architecture, which Ted initially turns down.
In the season finale Robin finds out that Barney loves her, and initially refuses to commit to anything but a sex-only relationship; they seemingly end up together anyway. Ted decides that being an architect is leading nowhere, and finally decides instead to become a college professor. The finale ends with Ted preparing to teach his first class and Future Ted revealing to his children that one of the women in the class is their mother.
Ted dates a graduate student named Cindy (Rachel Bilson) and it is revealed her roommate is his future wife. Robin meets Don Frank, her new co-anchor on her 4 AM TV show. Though she initially dislikes him, the two start dating and eventually she moves in with him. At the end of the season they break up when Don takes a job in Chicago — a job which Robin had previously turned down to stay in New York with Don. Marshall uses his fourth slap on Barney, once again at Thanksgiving. Ted buys a house, which needs to be fixed up badly, but is later revealed to be the future home for Ted and his children.
Lily and Marshall are still unsure about having children. After watching four doppelgangers of their group (Lesbian Robin, Moustache Marshall, Stripper Lily and Mexican Wrestler Ted) they decide to leave the big decision to the universe's "infinite wisdom" and start trying when they have seen Barney's Doppelganger. In the season finale, Barney disguises himself to have sex with a girl from every country in the world, and Lily and Marshall mistake him for the final doppelganger. When Marshall finds out, he decides not to tell Lily, fearing she will want to wait even longer to have children. Lily eventually finds out and decides to wait. In the season finale, Lily thinks she sees Barney's doppelganger as a hot dog vendor, which causes the group to realize she is seeing what she wants to see, and play along. Eventually Barney agrees having babies is not a stupid idea and Lily and Marshall should go forth. The season ends with Lily asking Marshall to "put a baby in my belly".
Having agreed to conceive a baby at the end of the previous season, Lily and Marshall keep having sex, hoping she will get pregnant. Around Christmas, they have a false alarm and later seek fertility testing. The fertility specialist, Dr. Stangel, turns out to be Barney's doppelgänger, fulfilling their promise with the universe in regard to their decision to have a child. However, tragedy strikes when Marshall's father passes away, leaving him devastated and the gang comforting him. Marshall tries to get over his father's death and live again. Despite a pledge to Lily to work harder for their future, Marshall resigns from GNB and follows his dream of being an environmental lawyer. Zoey also hires him as her lawyer in what became a futile battle to save the Arcadian. At the end of the season, Lily reveals that she is pregnant.
Barney finally admits to the gang that Bob Barker is not his real father, especially when his mother decides to sell the house he grew up in and his brother, James, meets his own father. Loretta offers the identity of Barney's father on a sheet of paper, but Barney tears this up after realizing her efforts as a single mother. At the funeral of Marshall's father, Barney tells Loretta that he wants to see his father at last. The man, Jerry Whittaker, is eventually revealed to be someone whom Barney thought was his guardian. Barney, who remembers Jerry as a fun-loving man, is disappointed after learning how Jerry has grown out of his free-wheeling ways. Although he tries to bring back Jerry's old behaviors, Barney admits that he wants to settle down someday. He is also introduced to Nora, a co-worker of Robin, for whom he develops feelings. After an initial falling out, the two reconcile at the end of the season after Barney asks her for coffee.
Robin continues to work at her talk show, Come On, Get Up, New York!, but the presence of a new hyperactive co-host forces her to leave. She is accepted as a researcher in another network, World Wide News. The gang also discovers more of her past as the Canadian pop star Robin Sparkles. Robin also encounters a man (Michael Trucco) she has had a secret crush on since first seeing him when she and Ted were dating, and Future Ted hints that they will see more of him later.
Short scenes during the season premiere and finale feature a wedding set sometime in the future, where Ted will meet his future wife. In the final scene of the season, the groom is revealed to be Barney.
While reminiscing about Hurricane Irene, it is revealed that Lily and Marshall had conceived their baby in Barney's apartment, and Barney and Robin end up sleeping together. Barney and Robin both realize what they've done and decide to break up with their partners. However, Robin reneges on the deal, returning to Kevin and leaving Barney alone and heartbroken. Marshall and Lily decide they want to move to Long Island, after Lily's paternal grandparents offer them their house there. They move back to New York City after realizing suburban life is not for them.
Robin gets a pregnancy scare at Thanksgiving and tells Barney the child is his, since she and Kevin hadn't slept with each other at that point. However, Robin's doctor informs her she cannot have children, which devastates her. Kevin proposes to Robin; while she loves him and is ready for the commitment, she reveals she can't have children and that she doesn't want children at all, so they break up. Soon after, Robin tells Ted everything that happened, only for him to profess his love for her, revealed to be the final time he declares his love for someone other than his future wife. Robin soon admits that she does not love Ted, and Marshall asks her to move out of Ted's apartment so Ted can finally move on with his love life. Ted gives his apartment to Lily and Marshall because he believes he cannot move on from Robin while living there.
Barney starts dating Quinn, a stripper who performs under the name "Karma". When the gang finds out through Ted, who broke a "broath" from Barney to not tell anyone about her profession, they begin to meddle in their relationship. This is revealed to be a set-up, with Quinn acting like a crazy girlfriend and Barney being spineless toward her. Quinn ends up moving in with Barney, and Ted buys Quinn's old apartment. Robin is eventually offered the news anchor job she wanted and subsequently achieves recognition after preventing a helicopter she is flying in from crashing. She reveals to Ted that with her raise she is moving into another apartment.
Lily, worried that Marshall is too stressed with the birth close at hand, arranges for Barney to "kidnap" Marshall to a casino, where Marshall proceeds to get very drunk. Meanwhile, Ted decides to patch up his differences with Robin. Lily goes into labor and frantically calls Barney and Marshall. Marshall is still in the casino, drunk and has turned off his phone. When Barney learns Lily is in labor, he promises to help Marshall get to the hospital provided that Barney can choose the baby's middle name. After many attempts to escape the casino, Marshall arrives in time for Lily's delivery. Because of his promise to Barney, Marshall and Lily name their son Marvin Waitforit Eriksen.
Marshall and Lily begin their new family with their baby. Barney proposes to Quinn through an airport fiasco after she tells him that she quit her job, and she accepts. Ted, after his conversation with Robin about his love life, calls Victoria to see if he still has a chance with her, even though she is getting married. She leaves her fiancé for Ted and wants to go off into the sunset with him. After some thinking, Ted eventually decides to go with her.
The season concludes with a flash forward to Barney's wedding that the season opened with, where Robin is revealed as Barney's bride.
Once the autumn is over, we learn how Marshall decided he wanted to become a judge and Barney starts dating Robin's co-worker Patrice until he reveals how that was just a cover to prepare his marriage proposal to Robin, which she accepts. This leads to complications including Barney meeting Robin's father in order to get his approval and Ted having to come to terms with the fact he and Robin have no romantic future together. It is revealed that Ted first saw his future wife playing in the band at Barney and Robin's wedding.
I actually got to see one full episode or at least 80% of one. I have seen bits of other episodes and I wanted to see more. I just don't have time to see all the great comedy out there. This can change. If I can earn enough from this website and my blogs I will watch as much television as possible and then I'll tell you what you've missed. I may even convince you to go from full time at work to part time. You might even quit your job just to watch all the fun. There is a lot of quality stuff out there. Some examples are Anger Management, Rules of Engagement, In the Middle (Raymond's wife from Everybody Loves Raymond), and much much more.
Neil Patrick Harris, who I remember from Doogie Howser, is reasonably funny. He is the sensitive class clown but their not in class.
That wierd red-haired guy (Chris Elliot) who used to show up on the Letterman Show is the father of the woman who is married to the guy who works for the character played by Martin Short. Okay maybe she's not married to the guy but they seem to be partners in crime for the house party in the one episode I saw. The woman I'm talking about seems familiar too. Oh yeah she's the girl from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show. She was Buffy's best friend. Okay I did a Google search.
Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer plays the character of Lily Aldrin in How I Met Your Mother. She was Michelle Flaherty in the original American Pie film series (1999, 2001, 2003, 2012).
(page under construction)
I saw the episode where the main couple has a house party; that is the girl from her Buffy and her husband, who works Martin Short's character. Again....They aren't married but that was the feeling I got when I watched the episode. I need to see a few more episodes before I give you my personal thoughts. I have put the basic information in so you can learn about the show with me.
Read on and enjoy.......Hey.... Hey.....Hey!!!!! Did you fall alsleep? I'll work on that. I'll learn to juggle or .....okay I had many jokes but I realized that most of the jokes I remember being told are very inappropriate now. What do you call a blonde girl on a university campus?........lost.....(ducking as plate flies over his head.) Sorry but that wasn't too bad. I will read a book....before I die. I might even write a book.....It's hard to fold the pop up characters and I don't exactly color within the lines.
Okay so read on.
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, and directed by Pamela Fryman.
Set in Manhattan, the series follows the social and romantic lives of Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) and his friends Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), and Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris).[1] As a framing device, the main character, Ted,[1] using voiceover narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting their mother.
Known for its unique structure and eccentric humor, How I Met Your Mother has been a critical success, having received positive reviews throughout most of its run. The show has been nominated for seven Emmy Awards, winning six. In 2012, seven years after its premiere, the series won the People's Choice Award for Best TV Network Comedy and Neil Patrick Harris won the award for Best Male Comedy Actor.[2]
On December 21, 2012, the show was renewed for a ninth and final season after the cast members signed new deals with the network.[3][4]
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Production
How I Met Your Mother was inspired by Carter Bays' and Craig Thomas' idea to "write about our friends and the stupid stuff we did in New York."[5] The two drew from their friendship in creating the characters. Ted is based loosely on Bays, and Marshall and Lily are based loosely on Thomas and his wife.[6][7] Thomas' wife Rebecca was initially reluctant to have a character based on her, but agreed if they could get Alyson Hannigan to play her. Hannigan was looking to do more comedy work, and was available.[6]MacLaren's, a bar in the middle of New York, in which some of the show is set, is based on a bar named McGee's.[8] It has a mural that Bays and Thomas both liked and wanted to incorporate into the show.[9] The name for the bar is from Carter Bays' assistant, Carl MacLaren; the bartender in the show is also named Carl.[10]
Each episode is usually shot over three days in the Los Angeles-based Soundstage Studio 22[11] and features upwards of 50 scenes with quick transitions and flashbacks. However, the "Pilot" episode was filmed at CBS Radford.[12] The laugh track is later created by recording an audience being shown the final edited episode. Thomas claims that shooting before a live audience would be impossible because of the structure of the show and the numerous flashforwards in each episode and because doing so "would blur the line between 'audience' and 'hostage situation'."[13] Later seasons started filming in front of an audience on occasion when smaller sets are used.
The theme song is a portion of "Hey Beautiful" by The Solids, of which Bays and Thomas are members. Episodes from Season 1 generally started with the opening credits. A cold opening has been used since Season 2. Viewers then occasionally see Ted's children on a couch and hear him talking to them, telling the story of how he met their mother. Alternatively, scenes from previous episodes or shots of New York City with Ted narrating over the top are shown. Thomas has explicitly said Future Ted is an unreliable narrator since he is trying to tell a story that happened over 20 years earlier;[14] this has been a plot point in several episodes such as "The Goat", "Oh Honey", "How I Met Everyone Else" and "The Mermaid Theory". Nevertheless, Thomas has also emphasized maintaining a coherent and consistent universe, and trying to avoid continuity errors, based on his experiences of being a fan of other shows.[15]
A scene directly relating to the identity of the mother, involving Ted's future children, was filmed near the beginning of Season 2 for the show's eventual series finale.[16] This was primarily done because the teenage actors portraying them will be adults by the time the final season is shot.[17]
During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, How I Met Your Mother shut down production; but, when the strike ended, the show returned on March 17, 2008, with nine new episodes.[18] A change in timeslot was also announced, to 8:30 pm ET/7:30 pm CT, flip-flopping from the summer schedule with The Big Bang Theory.[19] CBS renewed the show for a fourth season on May 14, 2008,[20] which premiered on September 22, 2008.[21]
In September 2008, it was announced that Lifetime Television had purchased the right to rerun How I Met Your Mother at a rate of about $725,000 per episode.[22] The four-year syndication contract stipulated that the studio deliver at least 110 half-hour episodes by the year 2010, and allowed for up to eight seasons of the show. At the end of the fourth season only 88 episodes had been produced, and a further 22 episodes were required, ensuring that there would be a fifth season.[23] On May 19, 2009, the fifth-season renewal was announced.[24] On May 20, 2009, CBS announced that How I Met Your Mother would again be aired at 8 pm, leading into the new comedy Accidentally on Purpose. On January 12, 2010, the show hit the milestone of its 100th episode. It was also announced that the series would return for a sixth season on CBS.[25] In response to being syndicated, Thomas said, "We're thrilled that it will live on in other forms," and they were proud of the show and it was great to see the strong demand.[26]
On September 13, 2010, reruns of the series began airing on local U.S. broadcast television stations and on Chicago-based cable superstation WGN America. Featured in these airings are vanity cards previously unseen in the CBS and Lifetime airings due to marginalized credit sequences used by the two networks. Shown in between the closing credits and the production company credits, these vanity cards show portions of "The Bro Code", a list of rules frequently referenced by Harris' character, Barney Stinson, on how men should interact with each other, with an emphasis on activities involving pursuing members of the opposite sex. The opening theme song for the syndicated reruns is also slightly edited, running shorter and not using all the pictures seen in the opening montage that runs on DVD and the original CBS broadcasts. The episodes are also slightly edited, leaving out a few details.
One of the series' ongoing traditions involves giving guest roles to actors from various Joss Whedon productions, many of whom co-starred with Hannigan on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Bays attributes this to their being "huge fans" and to those casts representing "a big talent pool".[27]
Another tradition involves the use of euphemisms for culturally sensitive issues. These include "eating a sandwich" for smoking marijuana, "thumbs up" for giving the middle finger, as well as "playing the bagpipes" for loud, raucous sex acts. These euphemisms, among others, have been used extensively throughout the show and have even been used as central plot themes, such as the episode "Benefits" in Season 4.
On March 4, 2011, CBS announced that the show had been renewed for two more seasons,[28] with the seventh season premiering with back-to-back episodes on September 19, 2011.[2]
On July 27, 2011, it was announced that the FX channel had picked up the show for syndication. FX began airing the show on September 5, 2011.[29]
Although cast members have stated that the show will not run longer than eight seasons,[30] a ninth season was secured in December 2012 amidst tense negotiations with the studios and the actors - especially Jason Segel, who had wanted to move on to other ventures after the eighth season.[3][4]
[edit] Cast
Main article: List of How I Met Your Mother characters
- Josh Radnor as Ted Mosby, an architecture teacher and the central character of the series. Ted moved to New York City with his friends Marshall and Lily after graduating from Wesleyan University. In New York he met Barney and Robin, who became part of the group. Ted is on a quest for happiness and "The One", the woman he will marry. Ted is the more mature of the group, preferring more elegant and high class interests than the ones his friends possess. He goes to great lengths to profess his love to the women in his life, but they all falter after awhile. Despite these qualities, Ted often acts immature, such as partaking in wild activities with Barney. He is a big Star Wars fan and is often heard quoting the films. Ted is from Shaker Heights, Ohio, but considers himself a true New-Yorker, showing a massive hatred for the neighbouring New Jersey.
- Jason Segel as Marshall Eriksen, an environmental lawyer and Ted's best (often disputed by Barney) friend. Marshall is married to Lily, whom he has been in love with since his freshman year of college, and they serve as an inspiration for Ted to find his true love. Marshall, like Ted, was born outside of New York (St. Cloud, Minnesota), but considers the city his home.
- Cobie Smulders as Robin Scherbatsky, a news anchor and Ted's ex-girlfriend. Robin emigrated from Canada to take a job in a news station and met Ted at MacLaren's, setting him on his journey to find "The One". Though they harboured genuine feelings for one another, their interests were completely different. Ted wanted children, but Robin despises them and refuses to have any. She smokes cigars and drinks scotch, causing Barney to fall for her. They later embark on a relationship that eventually sees them marry.
- Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson, an employee at Goliath National Bank and Ted's "bro". Due to his father leaving him as a young child, Barney has abandonment issues and clings to his friends. He is a serial playboy, using his wealth to seduce females for sexual intercourse, with no intentions on engaging in a relationship. He falls in love with Robin and becomes engaged to her, their wedding being the day upon which Ted meets the mother of his children. Barney is one of two of the group who was actually from New York (Lily being the second).
- Alyson Hannigan as Lily Aldrin, a kindergarten teacher and Marshall's wife. Lily is the group's moderator, always there to resolve a conflict and a shoulder to cry on. Barney goes to her as a confidant, though she is terrible at keeping secrets. She met Marshall in college and they have been together ever since, only breaking up once. Though coming off as sweet and cute, Lily is quite fierce and sexually ravenous, similar to Barney's desires. During Season 7, she becomes pregnant and has Marshall's and her first child, Marvin Waitforit Eriksen. Like Barney, she is the only other true New Yorker.
- Bob Saget (voice only) as Future Ted Mosby (uncredited), Ted's future self telling his children the story in the year 2030 of how he met their mother.
[edit] Season synopsis
Main article: List of How I Met Your Mother episodes
[edit] Season One
Main article: How I Met Your Mother (season 1)
In the year 2030, Ted Mosby (voiced by Bob Saget) sits his daughter and son down to tell them the story of how he met their mother.The series begins in 2005 with Ted (Josh Radnor) as a single, 27-year-old architect living with his two best friends from his college years; Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), a law student, and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), a kindergarten teacher and aspiring artist. Lily and Marshall have been dating for almost nine years when Marshall finally proposes. Their engagement causes Ted to think about marriage and finding his soul mate, much to the disgust of his self-appointed best friend Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), whom he met in the restroom at a bar four years earlier. Barney is a serial womanizer who concocts elaborate con games, usually involving costumes and fake identities, designed to bed women, whom he discards immediately afterward.
Ted begins his search for his perfect soul mate and meets an ambitious young reporter from Canada, Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), with whom he quickly falls in love. Robin, however, doesn't want to rush into a relationship and the two decide to be friends. Future Ted reveals that Robin is not the mother after referring to her as "Aunt Robin".
Ted begins dating a baker, Victoria (Ashley Williams), whom he meets at a friend's wedding, causing Robin to become jealous and realize she does have feelings for Ted. Victoria, having been offered a fellowship in pastry-making, moves to Germany; and she and Ted try a long-distance relationship. Once Ted learns Robin has feelings for him, he tells her he broke up with Victoria, even though he hasn't. They almost have sex when Victoria calls and Robin answers, mistaking Ted's phone for her own. Ted and Victoria then break up and an angry Robin distances herself from Ted, but they eventually make up and decide to date.
Meanwhile, Lily begins to wonder if she's missed any opportunities because of her relationship with Marshall, and decides to pursue an art fellowship in San Francisco, breaking up with Marshall in the process. The season ends with Ted coming back to the apartment, the morning after spending the night with Robin for the first time, to find Marshall sitting in the rain with Lily's engagement ring, devastated by their sudden break up.
[edit] Season Two
Main article: How I Met Your Mother (season 2)
Ted and Robin are now a couple; meanwhile, a heartbroken Marshall tries to continue his life without Lily. After enduring numerous emotional breakdowns, Marshall's friends step in, and Barney, using sly catch phrases and pick up lines, tries to get Marshall back in the dating game. Later, Lily, after finally realizing she is not meant to be an artist, returns to New York. She is reunited with Marshall, and their engagement is reinstated. When Robin refuses to go to the mall or explain why, Marshall suspects she is married, and Barney suspects she has performed in adult films. They both bet on it, issuing Lily as "Slap Bet Commissioner." Lily oversees the search for the truth, as they discover that Robin was a teenage pop star named "Robin Sparkles", and Marshall eventually earns the right to slap Barney 5 times whenever he wants to. It is revealed that Barney has a gay half-brother named James (Wayne Brady) and, unaware that his mother lied to him, he believes that Bob Barker is his father, as a result of which he takes a trip to California to be a contestant on The Price is Right to meet his "father". While on the show, Barney wins all of the prizes and gives them to Lily and Marshall as a 'happy early wedding' present.In the season finale, Ted reveals to Barney that he and Robin have been broken up for some time due to their conflicting views on marriage and children. They didn't tell anyone in order to avoid taking attention away from Lily and Marshall's wedding. The season ends with Barney excited at the prospect of Ted and him being single guys on the town again, and ends the season with Barney saying "this is going to be legen- wait for it...".
[edit] Season Three
Main article: How I Met Your Mother (season 3)
Barney begins the season with the word, "-dary!" Robin returns from a trip to Argentina with her new boyfriend, Gael (Enrique Iglesias), and Ted must adjust to life as just her friend, while watching Robin and Gael fawning over each other. Marshall and Lily decide to move out on their own, falling in love with a place they can't afford. Robin learns of Lily's bad credit rating due to her compulsive shopping for designer brands, and forces Lily to tell Marshall. Despite this, they are able to finally secure their dream apartment, only to discover it's in a bad location and more poorly constructed than they thought (the floor is tilted). Barney is slapped for the third time on Thanksgiving, which Marshall dubs "Slapsgiving."Ted tells his children he met their mother through a story concerning her yellow umbrella. He finds the umbrella at a club and takes it home after attending a St. Patrick's Day party where his future wife was, although they did not meet. Ted attempts to woo Stella (Sarah Chalke), a dermatologist he sees to remove an embarrassing butterfly tattoo. This culminates in a memorable "two-minute date," which incorporates small talk, dinner, a movie, coffee, two cab rides, and a goodnight kiss, all within two minutes. Robin sleeps with Barney after he comforts her following a break-up with a past Canadian love; Ted is infuriated, and decides to stop being friends with Barney. Meanwhile, an unknown woman begins to sabotage Barney's attempts to hook up. His saboteur is revealed to be Abby (Britney Spears), Stella's receptionist, with a vendetta against him for not calling her after they had sex.
In the season finale, Ted gets into a car accident and ends up in hospital, Subsequently Barney gets hit by a bus on the way to visit him and ends up receiving treatment in the same hospital. Ted realizes Barney really cares about him and they renew their friendship. It is revealed Barney has true feelings for Robin, while Ted proposes to Stella in an arcade.
[edit] Season Four
Main article: How I Met Your Mother (season 4)
Stella says yes to Ted's proposal. Robin takes a new job in Japan, but quickly resigns and returns to New York to attend Ted's wedding, after realizing how much she misses her friends. Stella leaves Ted at the altar to get back together with Tony (Jason Jones), the father of her daughter. Barney struggles with his feelings for Robin as his company shifts him to the management team of a new acquisition, Goliath National Bank (GNB), where Marshall has accepted a position.Marshall and Lily move to their new apartment and debate over whether or not they're ready to have children. Robin becomes roommates with Ted and gets a job as an anchor for a 4 AM news show after Barney sends out her video resume. Ted and Robin decide to sleep together constantly so they won't fight over each other's bad co-living habits. Barney attempts to make them stop fighting to prevent this, revealing to Ted his love for Robin.
Ted finds out Lily has sabotaged all of his relationships with anyone she doesn't approve of and indirectly may have inspired his breakup with Robin. Robin and Ted end up talking about it, causing their friendship to begin moving toward a positive note. After Barney finally sleeps with his 200th woman (and rubs it in the face of the childhood bully who taunted him into pursuing it), he begins to question the purpose of the remainder of his life, leaving him more certain of his feelings for Robin.
Ted, while carrying the yellow umbrella, bumps into Stella and Tony. Tony later decides to visit him, sympathizing with Ted over his loss of Stella. Tony offers him a job as a professor of architecture, which Ted initially turns down.
In the season finale Robin finds out that Barney loves her, and initially refuses to commit to anything but a sex-only relationship; they seemingly end up together anyway. Ted decides that being an architect is leading nowhere, and finally decides instead to become a college professor. The finale ends with Ted preparing to teach his first class and Future Ted revealing to his children that one of the women in the class is their mother.
[edit] Season Five
Main article: How I Met Your Mother (season 5)
Ted begins his job as a professor of architecture, standing in the middle of a classroom – although the mother was present, it turns out to be an economics class as he's in the wrong lecture hall. Barney and Robin have had a sexual relationship throughout the summer and Lily locks them in a room, forcing them to come to terms with their relationship. After a rough patch they decide to break up. Robin describes it instead as "two friends getting back together." Barney immediately goes back to his old ways, using the playbook to score with women. Throughout the season Barney and Robin show feelings of regret over their break-up.Ted dates a graduate student named Cindy (Rachel Bilson) and it is revealed her roommate is his future wife. Robin meets Don Frank, her new co-anchor on her 4 AM TV show. Though she initially dislikes him, the two start dating and eventually she moves in with him. At the end of the season they break up when Don takes a job in Chicago — a job which Robin had previously turned down to stay in New York with Don. Marshall uses his fourth slap on Barney, once again at Thanksgiving. Ted buys a house, which needs to be fixed up badly, but is later revealed to be the future home for Ted and his children.
Lily and Marshall are still unsure about having children. After watching four doppelgangers of their group (Lesbian Robin, Moustache Marshall, Stripper Lily and Mexican Wrestler Ted) they decide to leave the big decision to the universe's "infinite wisdom" and start trying when they have seen Barney's Doppelganger. In the season finale, Barney disguises himself to have sex with a girl from every country in the world, and Lily and Marshall mistake him for the final doppelganger. When Marshall finds out, he decides not to tell Lily, fearing she will want to wait even longer to have children. Lily eventually finds out and decides to wait. In the season finale, Lily thinks she sees Barney's doppelganger as a hot dog vendor, which causes the group to realize she is seeing what she wants to see, and play along. Eventually Barney agrees having babies is not a stupid idea and Lily and Marshall should go forth. The season ends with Lily asking Marshall to "put a baby in my belly".
[edit] Season Six
Main article: How I Met Your Mother (season 6)
In the season opening, Ted sees Cindy again with a girl who he thinks to be her roommate, but she turns out to be Cindy's girlfriend whom she later marries. After prodding by Barney, Ted is eventually hired by GNB once more as the architect of the bank's new headquarters, which was originally scrapped in Season 4. However, he encounters opposition when he meets Zoey Pierson (Jennifer Morrison), a woman who is protesting against GNB for selecting a decrepit hotel, the Arcadian, to be torn down for the headquarters. Over the season, Ted's encounters with Zoey eventually blossom into a relationship after she divorces her rich husband, but they break up as he puts his career over love, leading to the Arcadian's demolition. Ted also resolves not to get back with Zoey.Having agreed to conceive a baby at the end of the previous season, Lily and Marshall keep having sex, hoping she will get pregnant. Around Christmas, they have a false alarm and later seek fertility testing. The fertility specialist, Dr. Stangel, turns out to be Barney's doppelgänger, fulfilling their promise with the universe in regard to their decision to have a child. However, tragedy strikes when Marshall's father passes away, leaving him devastated and the gang comforting him. Marshall tries to get over his father's death and live again. Despite a pledge to Lily to work harder for their future, Marshall resigns from GNB and follows his dream of being an environmental lawyer. Zoey also hires him as her lawyer in what became a futile battle to save the Arcadian. At the end of the season, Lily reveals that she is pregnant.
Barney finally admits to the gang that Bob Barker is not his real father, especially when his mother decides to sell the house he grew up in and his brother, James, meets his own father. Loretta offers the identity of Barney's father on a sheet of paper, but Barney tears this up after realizing her efforts as a single mother. At the funeral of Marshall's father, Barney tells Loretta that he wants to see his father at last. The man, Jerry Whittaker, is eventually revealed to be someone whom Barney thought was his guardian. Barney, who remembers Jerry as a fun-loving man, is disappointed after learning how Jerry has grown out of his free-wheeling ways. Although he tries to bring back Jerry's old behaviors, Barney admits that he wants to settle down someday. He is also introduced to Nora, a co-worker of Robin, for whom he develops feelings. After an initial falling out, the two reconcile at the end of the season after Barney asks her for coffee.
Robin continues to work at her talk show, Come On, Get Up, New York!, but the presence of a new hyperactive co-host forces her to leave. She is accepted as a researcher in another network, World Wide News. The gang also discovers more of her past as the Canadian pop star Robin Sparkles. Robin also encounters a man (Michael Trucco) she has had a secret crush on since first seeing him when she and Ted were dating, and Future Ted hints that they will see more of him later.
Short scenes during the season premiere and finale feature a wedding set sometime in the future, where Ted will meet his future wife. In the final scene of the season, the groom is revealed to be Barney.
[edit] Season Seven
Main article: How I Met Your Mother (season 7)
Season seven opens with another flash forward, in which Ted is helping Barney get ready for his wedding to a still unknown bride. In the present, Marshall gets a job in environmental law while Lily progresses with her pregnancy. Barney proves to Nora that he can be a good boyfriend to her, while Robin is revealed to still have feelings for Barney. Robin takes court-mandated therapy, until her therapist Kevin (Kal Penn) becomes attracted to her, breaking his ethical code. They start to date.While reminiscing about Hurricane Irene, it is revealed that Lily and Marshall had conceived their baby in Barney's apartment, and Barney and Robin end up sleeping together. Barney and Robin both realize what they've done and decide to break up with their partners. However, Robin reneges on the deal, returning to Kevin and leaving Barney alone and heartbroken. Marshall and Lily decide they want to move to Long Island, after Lily's paternal grandparents offer them their house there. They move back to New York City after realizing suburban life is not for them.
Robin gets a pregnancy scare at Thanksgiving and tells Barney the child is his, since she and Kevin hadn't slept with each other at that point. However, Robin's doctor informs her she cannot have children, which devastates her. Kevin proposes to Robin; while she loves him and is ready for the commitment, she reveals she can't have children and that she doesn't want children at all, so they break up. Soon after, Robin tells Ted everything that happened, only for him to profess his love for her, revealed to be the final time he declares his love for someone other than his future wife. Robin soon admits that she does not love Ted, and Marshall asks her to move out of Ted's apartment so Ted can finally move on with his love life. Ted gives his apartment to Lily and Marshall because he believes he cannot move on from Robin while living there.
Barney starts dating Quinn, a stripper who performs under the name "Karma". When the gang finds out through Ted, who broke a "broath" from Barney to not tell anyone about her profession, they begin to meddle in their relationship. This is revealed to be a set-up, with Quinn acting like a crazy girlfriend and Barney being spineless toward her. Quinn ends up moving in with Barney, and Ted buys Quinn's old apartment. Robin is eventually offered the news anchor job she wanted and subsequently achieves recognition after preventing a helicopter she is flying in from crashing. She reveals to Ted that with her raise she is moving into another apartment.
Lily, worried that Marshall is too stressed with the birth close at hand, arranges for Barney to "kidnap" Marshall to a casino, where Marshall proceeds to get very drunk. Meanwhile, Ted decides to patch up his differences with Robin. Lily goes into labor and frantically calls Barney and Marshall. Marshall is still in the casino, drunk and has turned off his phone. When Barney learns Lily is in labor, he promises to help Marshall get to the hospital provided that Barney can choose the baby's middle name. After many attempts to escape the casino, Marshall arrives in time for Lily's delivery. Because of his promise to Barney, Marshall and Lily name their son Marvin Waitforit Eriksen.
Marshall and Lily begin their new family with their baby. Barney proposes to Quinn through an airport fiasco after she tells him that she quit her job, and she accepts. Ted, after his conversation with Robin about his love life, calls Victoria to see if he still has a chance with her, even though she is getting married. She leaves her fiancé for Ted and wants to go off into the sunset with him. After some thinking, Ted eventually decides to go with her.
The season concludes with a flash forward to Barney's wedding that the season opened with, where Robin is revealed as Barney's bride.
[edit] Season Eight
Main article: How I Met Your Mother (season 8)
The season opens once again in a flash forward to Barney and Robin's wedding day as Ted reminisces about how he and Victoria run away from her wedding in 2012 while Lily and Marshall struggle with their new-born son, Marvin. Robin struggles with Barney's engagement to Quinn, which soon falls apart when Barney draws up an unrealistic prenuptial agreement which causes the two to realize just how little they trust each other. Robin gets a new boyfriend, a celebrity chef, and Ted continues dating Victoria after she flees her wedding. Unfortunately, both relationships fail during what the group term "The Autumn Of Break-Ups".Once the autumn is over, we learn how Marshall decided he wanted to become a judge and Barney starts dating Robin's co-worker Patrice until he reveals how that was just a cover to prepare his marriage proposal to Robin, which she accepts. This leads to complications including Barney meeting Robin's father in order to get his approval and Ted having to come to terms with the fact he and Robin have no romantic future together. It is revealed that Ted first saw his future wife playing in the band at Barney and Robin's wedding.
[edit] Tie-ins
[edit] Books
- The Bro Code, cited by Barney many times throughout the series, is a set of written rules for bros to follow, and has been published as a tie-in novel, an audiobook,[31] and an iPhone Application. Barney alleges it was written by Barnibus Stinson, a contemporary of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Many of the rules listed in this book also appear in the show's closing vanity cards, similar to what Chuck Lorre uses to end episodes of his two shows, The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men.
- Bro on the Go, a companion to The Bro Code, released in 2009.[32]
- Bro Code for Parents: What to Expect When You're Awesome, released in 2012.[citation needed]
- The Playbook, based on the fifth season episode of the same name, by Barney Stinson and Matt Kuhn.[33]
- How I Met Your Mother and Philosophy, under contract with Open Court, to be released in 2013.[34]
[edit] Phone numbers
- 1-877-987-6401 — During the Super Bowl XLIV telecast, a clip of Neil Patrick Harris was shown holding up a sign, ostensibly in the stadium's stands, with the words "Call Barney Stinson (CBS)" and this phone number.[35][36][37] In the episode "Rabbit or Duck", which aired the week after the Super Bowl, the same clip from the Super Bowl with Harris was shown with the number on the sign changed to a 555 number.[38] This occurrence became a plot point within the episode.[38] When the number is dialed, a message recorded by Harris in character as Barney is played. This number is no longer in service.[39]
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Brett Butler
Brett Butler
She is back and now she's on anger management with Charlie Sheen.
You remember her from Grace under fire well that ended in 1998 but now she's back and hopefully she's gonna stick around for a lot longer.
She's one of my favorite comedians.It's sad that she has personal problems that got in the way before hopefully she fixed those problems.
Anger management should be good for Sheen and for Butler.
She is back and now she's on anger management with Charlie Sheen.
You remember her from Grace under fire well that ended in 1998 but now she's back and hopefully she's gonna stick around for a lot longer.
She's one of my favorite comedians.It's sad that she has personal problems that got in the way before hopefully she fixed those problems.
Anger management should be good for Sheen and for Butler.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Anger Management
Anger Management
Anger Management is an American comedy series that premiered on FX on June 28, 2012.[1] The series is based on the 2003 film of the same name and stars Charlie Sheen in a role very-loosely similar to the one originated by Jack Nicholson from the film.[2][3] Anger Management broke a ratings record with 5.74 million viewers on its series debut night and ranks as the most-watched sitcom premiere in cable history.[4][5] The show is distributed internationally by Warner Bros. Television Distribution.
Next to be cast was Noureen DeWulf, in the role of Lacey, a spoiled rich girl who is sentenced to join the therapy group after shooting her boyfriend in the testicles when he cheated on her.[13] Michael Arden and Daniela Bobadilla were cast as, respectively, Patrick, one of the members of the therapy group, and Sam, Charlie's 13-year-old daughter.[14] Derek Richardson was the last actor cast in the series, in the role of Nolan, a member of the therapy group whose anger issue is that he has no anger.[15]
Denise Richards, Kerri Kenney-Silver,[16] and Brian Austin Green are confirmed to make guest appearances.
(Jan 4, 2013 Friday)
Anger Management is an American comedy series that premiered on FX on June 28, 2012.[1] The series is based on the 2003 film of the same name and stars Charlie Sheen in a role very-loosely similar to the one originated by Jack Nicholson from the film.[2][3] Anger Management broke a ratings record with 5.74 million viewers on its series debut night and ranks as the most-watched sitcom premiere in cable history.[4][5] The show is distributed internationally by Warner Bros. Television Distribution.
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Cast
[edit] Main
- Charlie Sheen as Dr. Charlie Goodson, a former minor-league baseball player who became an anger management therapist[6]
- Selma Blair as Dr. Kate Wales, Charlie's therapist/colleague and frequent sex partner
- Shawnee Smith as Jennifer Goodson, Charlie's ex-wife
- Daniela Bobadilla as Sam Goodson, Charlie's teenage daughter
- Noureen DeWulf as Lacey, Charlie's anger management patient
- Michael Arden as Patrick, Charlie's anger management patient
- Derek Richardson as Nolan, Charlie's anger management patient
- Barry Corbin as Ed, Charlie's anger management patient[7]
[edit] Recurring
- Brett Butler as Brett, the bartender at a bar Charlie frequents
- James Black as Cleo/Derek, a member of Charlie's prison anger therapy group
- Katlin Mastandrea as Olivia, Sam's best friend
- Aldo Gonzalez as Ernesto, a therapy patient in Charlie's prison group
- Michael Boatman as Michael, Charlie's neighbor and friend[8]
[edit] Production
On July 18, 2011, it was announced that the show based on the 2003 film of the same name was in development with Charlie Sheen starring in the role originally played by Jack Nicholson from the film. The series will be Sheen's first acting role since he was officially fired from the hit CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men.[2] On October 27, 2011, it was announced that FX had picked up the series with an initial ten episode order which, if successful, FX would then order an additional 90 episodes under a syndication model crafted by Debmar-Mercury. On August 29, 2012 it was announced that the show would be picked up for a further 90 episodes.[9][edit] Casting
Casting announcements began in January 2012, with Shawnee Smith and Selma Blair first cast as the two female leads. Smith was cast as Charlie's ex-wife and Blair was cast as Charlie's therapist and possible love interest.[10][11] Several actresses tested for the two female lead roles, including Julie Benz, Jenica Bergere, Elaine Hendrix, Kate Reinders and Nicole Hiltz.[12]Next to be cast was Noureen DeWulf, in the role of Lacey, a spoiled rich girl who is sentenced to join the therapy group after shooting her boyfriend in the testicles when he cheated on her.[13] Michael Arden and Daniela Bobadilla were cast as, respectively, Patrick, one of the members of the therapy group, and Sam, Charlie's 13-year-old daughter.[14] Derek Richardson was the last actor cast in the series, in the role of Nolan, a member of the therapy group whose anger issue is that he has no anger.[15]
Denise Richards, Kerri Kenney-Silver,[16] and Brian Austin Green are confirmed to make guest appearances.
[edit] Critical reception
Anger Management received mixed reviews on Metacritic with a score of 44 out of 100 based on 33 critics' reviews.[17] Linda Stasi of the New York Post called the series "not so bad", adding "Anger Management is pretty conventional up to and including an idiot laugh track—and a character named Charlie—again. But maybe the familiar is what will keep crazy Charlie [Sheen] from killing himself and others in a blind, drunken, psycho haze on set. Or maybe not."[18] The Wall Street Journal's Nancy DeWolf Smith thought the series was "usually funny, often clever" and added "The accomplishment here is that tight writing and editing, a solid cast with good timing and Mr. Sheen's chops as the ne plus ultra of sitcom performers, make the whole thing feel, if not entirely fresh—then crisp."[19] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix stated: "Anger Management is Charlie Sheen doing what Charlie Sheen does—on-screen. It's not artful, it's not elegant ... It will likely give his fans what they want. And if there are enough of them to trigger the order for the extra 90 episodes, then FX, Helford and everyone else will feel justified in taking another chance on the guy, despite what happened in the past."[20] The Huffington Post's Maureen Ryan stated: "Despite the careful attention to image enhancement possibilities, the core ugliness and toxic narcissism of Anger Management are impossible to ignore ... Whoever Anger Management benefits—and it certainly won't be viewers used to FX's usual scripted fare—whole enterprise is really just image management. Nice work if you can get it." Anger Management was renewed for 90 more episodes, with production starting on September 24.[21][edit] Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | DVD and Blu-ray release date | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | |||
| 1 | 10 | June 28, 2012 | August 23, 2012 | January 8, 2013[22] | January 14, 2013[23] | TBA | |
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Season 1 (2012)
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Production code | U.S. viewers (million) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Charlie Goes Back to Therapy" | Andy Cadiff | Teleplay and Television Story by: Bruce Helford | June 28, 2012 | 101 | 5.47[24] |
| When Charlie almost beats his ex-wife's boyfriend (Brian Austin Green) with a lamp after an anger relapse, he decides he needs to go back to therapy. Unfortunately, he is currently having sex with the only therapist he trusts: his best friend Kate. Since the number-one rule of therapy is not to have sexual relations with patients, Charlie must choose between his love of sex and his need for help. | |||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Charlie and the Slumpbuster" | Gerry Cohen | Kristy Grant | June 28, 2012 | 103 | 5.74[24] |
| Charlie is visited by a troubled woman (Kerri Kenney-Silver) he had a one-night stand with while playing in the minor leagues. Wracked with the guilt of using her as his "slumpbuster", he pretends to date her and realizes she acts like less of a girlfriend and more of an obsessed stalker. | |||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Charlie Tries Sleep Deprivation" | Bob Koherr | Dave Kaplan | July 5, 2012 | 106 | 3.37[25] |
| Charlie attempts a new way to help his patients, which involves putting them through 36 hours of sleep deprivation with the hope of releasing their inhibitions | |||||||
| 4 | 4 | "Charlie and Kate Battle Over a Patient" | Andy Cadiff | Bob Kushell | July 12, 2012 | 102 | 2.42[26] |
| A long-standing rivalry over who's a better therapist leads to war when Kate steals Patrick, one of Charlie's group patients. | |||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Charlie Tries to Prove Therapy is Legit" | Rob Schiller | Daley Haggar | July 19, 2012 | 107 | 2.65[27] |
| Charlie falls for Jen's hot new business partner, Lori (Denise Richards) only to find she thinks therapy is a scam. In the therapy group, Patrick asks Charlie to counsel the angry ghost of his mother, who he believes is haunting his apartment. | |||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Charlie Dates Kate's Patient" | Sam Simon | Shauna McGarry | July 26, 2012 | 109 | 2.41[28] |
| Inflamed by Kate's comment that he's only "nouveau smart", Charlie starts covertly dating a brilliant coffee-shop barista (Kristen Renton). The only problem is that the woman is turned on by sex where there's a chance of getting caught—and she's Kate's patient. | |||||||
| 7 | 7 | "Charlie's Patient Gets Out of Jail" | Gerry Cohen | Michael Loftus | August 2, 2012 | 104 | 1.58[29] |
| Charlie and his ex, Jennifer, are having an issue with how Charlie still tries to manage her life when Cleo—one of Charlie's patients from his prison anger therapy group—shows up on his doorstep, fresh out on parole. Jennifer decides to get back at Charlie by dating the ex-con. | |||||||
| 8 | 8 | "Charlie Outs a Patient" | Rob Schiller | Brian Posehn | August 9, 2012 | 108 | 2.10[30] |
| Charlie has to evaluate the depth of his involvement in his patient's lives when he accidentally helps his patient who vicariously enjoys other people's anger hook up with a crazy woman. | |||||||
| 9 | 9 | "Charlie's Dad Visits" | Bob Koherr | Story by: Daley Haggar Teleplay by: Brian Posehn & Kristy Grant | August 16, 2012 | 110 | 2.05[31] |
| Charlie gets an unexpected visit from his hyper-critical, bullying father (Martin Sheen), who tells him he is moving to town to be closer to him; in the therapy group, Charlie attempts to help Lacey with road rage. | |||||||
| 10 | 10 | "Charlie Gets Romantic" | Bob Koherr | Janae Bakken | August 23, 2012 | 105 | 1.98[32] |
| After Charlie and Kate have sex, he innocently asks her if she wants to go to a movie. Kate interprets this as a romantic gesture, rushes to fix him up on a date the next day with someone else and the two are forced to examine the nature of their odd relationship. At home, Sam kisses a girl at school and a picture of it ends up on Facebook. Charlie and Jennifer have worries that their daughter is a lesbian. | |||||||
[edit] Season 2 (2013)
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Production code | U.S. viewers (million) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1 | "Charlie Loses it at a Baby Shower"[33] | Steve Zuckerman | Michael Loftus | January 17, 2013 | ||
| 12 | 2 | "Charlie's Dad Starts to Lose It"[34] | Andy Cadiff | Clay Graham | January 17, 2013 | ||
| 13 | 3 | "Charlie and the Ex–Patient"[35] | Gerry Cohen | Daley Haggar | January 24, 2013 |
(Jan 4, 2013 Friday)
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