“This is not How I Met Your Mother, and I loved How I Met Your Mother; This is How I Met Your Father, and it is so spectacular in its own right,” revealed Pam Fryman during a TCA press conference for the new Hulu original series. Pam directed 196 episodes of How I Met Your Mother and served as executive producer of all 208. “The idea that I get to do this again in a different way but in an equally special and spectacular way is a remarkable gift, and I feel really lucky to be a part of this really, really wonderful show.”
(Patrick Wymore/Hulu)
Writing and producing duo Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger may not have been directly involved with the original series, but they’ve had their feet in the How I Met Your Mother world for a while. “We started working on this show before This Is Us even began,” Isaac explained, sharing that he and Elizabeth were asked to run that runaway hit and put the pause button on How I Met Your Father. With This Is Us now in its final season, the duo realized they had time to give the standalone sequel series the time it deserved. “We really did not want to do this one until we could really do it right and give it our all, and we knew we could not do that while co-running a giant show that would take all of our time and energy,” Elizabeth added. Their other credits include Love, Simon and the Hulu series Love, Victor.
As Isaac and Elizabeth were winding down their work on This Is Us, Hilary Duff became free following the end of the hit show Younger and the scrapped plans for a Lizzie McGuire reboot. “The studio was very clear and vocal with us that we want Hilary's next show,” Isaac Aptaker shared. “They set up a meeting for us and faster than anything has ever come together, this show came together.”
“I was so excited to get that call from Isaac and Elizabeth because this script was just everything you want it to be when you read a pilot,” Hilary Duff gushed about the opportunity to join the series as its central character Sophie. “I am so attracted to parts that are extremely relatable, and this one happens to touch on just trying to find love in this world that we live in with all the options that there are and how hard it is to meet someone face-to-face. And the fact that she has this lovely friend circle that comes together in a strange way, it was all just really attractive to me. The writing was funny. Even though I'm in a totally different place in my life, I just felt like I was drawn to Sophie and that we had a lot in common. She doesn't give up, she's struggling, odds are against her in her career, but she's leaning on this little pack of weirdos that she finds one night. And they run off, all, in the sunset together and have all of these experiences that young people have, just trying to find their footing.”
(Patrick Wymore/Hulu)
How I Met Your Father has a larger ensemble cast than How I Met Your Mother, which centered around Ted, his three friends, and ongoing love interests. “We started with Hilary, and then we, from there, built out this incredible cast,” Elizabeth Berger shared about this ensemble, which includes three additional core members of Sophie’s friend group. “We saw a lot of people and we kept seeing people until we had this magical group. But you never know until you get there on that first day what it's going to be like. And then we got there… It was just instant magic, and that is a testament to this gang and to Pam. We are just so excited by how it came together.”
The cast found themselves a little starstruck around Hilary Duff, whose career launched hit shows like Lizzie McGuire, popular movie franchises like A Cinderella Story, and a pop music career with bops that include “Come Clean” and “Wake Up.” “Me and Tien were hyped; Obviously, we grew up watching Hilary,” Francia Raisa revealed, who plays Valentina, adding that she kept her excitement to herself until after they had established their on-screen chemistry. “It wasn't until later on that I started fan-girling a little bit.” Hilary Duff was humbly embarrassed hearing her cast mates share their fandom of her star power, joking "Oh, I'm a little old lady."
“This is a new format for all of us, the entire cast, we've never done multicam before,” Hilary shared about an aspect of production that put all of the cast on the same level. “Having someone like Pam Fryman lead us into that journey was so helpful for all of us, and we clicked pretty fast.” Duff also shared that Pam Fryman carried a binder with her on set of photos from production of How I Met Your Mother, which showcased how the cast and crew grew over the nine season run. “I hope one day we get to see another binder [for How I Met Your Father].”
(Patrick Wymore/Hulu)
“I come to this having done so many shows, and with this one, we knew it immediately,” Pam Fryman shared about her pride in How I Met Your Father. “It is such a joy to watch all of these people discover this on their own, that this is where they are meant to be. This is the show they should be doing. These are the people they should be working with. It is a dream, and it's a really special time. So, I am wildly excited and also incredibly grateful that I get to do it.”
You can see Sophie (Hilary Duff) embark on a quest to find love with the support of her friends in How I Met Your Father, premiering Tuessday, January 17th, only on Hulu.