“How I Met Your Father,” the gender-swapped spinoff of the CBS original, has much in common with its predecessor with a core group of friends and a child at the center of a parentage mystery. However, star Hilary Duff’s take on how the Hulu series corrects some of its source material has been no slouch. criticism online throughout the years for some of its misleading or otherwise problematic content.
“Hilarious show. You guys, I stand it up to this day. Of course, it was a different time,” Duff told TheWrap during the winter Television Critics Association press tour. “A lot of the stuff on TV now doesn’t fly that used to fly then, and we can still hold him in a special place, going, ‘Wow, that was wild TV.'”
In particular, fans have pointed to Neil Patrick Harris’s Barney as the instigator of many offhand comments, with the brutish character often spewing derogatory or sexist jokes. In contrast, the spinoff’s central relationship is found in Duff’s Sophie and Francia Raisa’s Valentina, a strong female friendship that the former characterizes as a “love story” in its own right.
“We have this incredible writers’ room that’s incredibly thoughtful, different ages, different walks of life, and everyone’s mixed with: ‘This is right, this is wrong, this is farfetched, this is fun, It doesn’t, ‘and everyone checks in all the time,” Duff continued. “But the really cool part of me — I don’t even know if it’s fair to say this — I’m like, ‘Ah, are we just having fun with everything because we’re all so sensitive?’ No fun is missing; Constructive lines replacing things that could possibly hurt someone’s feelings or be wrong in this day and age is so powerful in the writers’ room. I’m always impressed.
“How I Met Your Mother” ran for nine seasons from 2005 to 2014, garnering 10 Emmy wins, in addition to a nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series and four nods for Harris in the Supporting Actor category.
“How I Met Your Father,” which will return for a second season starting January 24 on Hulu, has won two Emmys. It is executive produced by Emmy nominee Pamela Fryman, who directed and was heavily involved with the original show, as well as co-creators Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, the team behind “Love, Victor.”
