15 years ago, How I Met Your Mother reset Britney Spears
A month after being placed into a conservatorship, the singer inked a deal to appear on the CBS show. A decade and a half later, the stunt is still complicated.
TV Features Britney Spears
At the beginning of 2008, Britney Spears was at rock bottom. Years of invasive, non-stop tabloid coverage had culminated with an extremely public mental health crisis, and on February 1 of that year, she was placed involuntarily into a conservatorship. In the midst of all of this, Spears apparently really, really wanted to appear on How I Met Your Mother. Her casting was announced on March 10, and by the 24th, she was playing Abby the receptionist on the CBS sitcom.
As it turns out, HIMYM also really could have used someone like Britney Spears to appear on their show. The series wasn’t down quite as bad as the pop star was at the time, but the show was coming out of three-month hiatus thanks to the writers’ strike. The consequences of the strike have been wide-ranging and well-documented—Jesse Pinkman got to live, for example, while Pushing Daisies, well, pushed daisies—but HIMYM faced continued threats from reality TV, a format that thrived during the strike. “I remember being really stressed out in the first couple of years of How I Met Your Mother because we were losing to a reality show all of a sudden,” series co-creator Craig Thomas told NG Radio in 2018. When a real-life reality star fell into their laps, it doesn’t seem like anyone had to think too hard.
But there were reservations, and not just stemming from Spears’ public personal life. Spears has never been much of an actress. Her 2002 film Crossroads is an infamous flop, and since the Mickey Mouse Club, she has only had a handful of roles where she wasn’t playing a version of herself. Her first appearance in HIMYM, in the episode “Ten Sessions,” is when Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) first meets Stella Zinman (Sarah Chalke), the woman who will eventually leave him at the altar.
“I immediately imagined Britney playing Stella and had a minor panic attack, because it’s such a big role and needed a proven, experienced actress like Sarah Chalke,” series co-creator Carter Bays told E! News in 2014, recalling Spears’ desire to appear in that episode. “But to her credit, Britney liked the character of Abby and wanted to play that part. So we said sure!”
In the episode, Abby is a bit of an afterthought. The character is Stella’s receptionist who crushes on Ted as he attempts to woo Stella, and she’s introduced with little fanfare. There is no live studio audience on How I Met Your Mother to stop the action and applaud for a Very Special Guest Star, and if you somehow didn’t know that Abby was Britney Spears, there may not be anything to clue you in that she is a special character. Spears plays the part with a strange affect, delivering her lines as if she’s trying to keep her teeth from falling out of her mouth at the same time. She doesn’t exactly seem like a real person, but she does fit into the well-worn trope of bizarre-one-off-character-in-a-New-York-City-set-sitcom.
If the appearance had flopped, it’s hard to believe that it would have mattered much to the show. Sitcoms bring in special celebrity guests all the time, rarely because they’re talented actors. But Britney Spears the brand really needed the appearance to work. At a time when, fairly or not, Spears’ reputation was the lowest it ever had been, she had to prove that she could show up, hit her marks, and be professional. And Spears acquitted herself well enough to appear in a second episode in the series.
The five episodes that run between Spears’ two appearances—on March 24 and May 12, 2008—contain some of the series’ most beloved work: the beginning of Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin Scherbatsky’s (Cobie Smulders) romance, and the introduction of Will Forte’s Randy, the goat. There is also “The Bracket,” an episode in which Abby is a dynamic, off-screen force, and which indulges in the series’ worst impulse.
There are few characters in contemporary TV who have aged worse faster than Barney Stinson. As plenty of articles have pointed out since the series ended, at best, Barney’s actions are often incredibly misogynistic. At worst, they’re rape by deception. In “The Bracket,” one of the women who Barney has wronged (later revealed to be Abby) is on a revenge mission, sabotaging several of his attempts to bed more. At one point in the episode, Barney shows the gang a scrapbook full of photos he’s taken mid-coitus, photos at least most of the women don’t know exist. Later, Barney says he’s pretty sure he once “sold a woman.” As per usual, the gang laughs him off as “disgusting,” and the episode was received generally warmly—a contemporary review from The A.V. Club gave the episode a B and mainly complained that there “wasn’t enough Ted.”
The casually misogynistic culture that laughed off the behavior of Barneys in the ’00s is the same that laughed at Spears as her life fell apart. In “Everything Must Go,” Spears’ second and final on-camera appearance on the show, Abby and Barney briefly date (well, he pretends to) in a mutual effort to upset Ted. They sleep together, Barney feigns proposing, Abby thinks it’s real, and Barney gives her Ted’s address to get rid of her. Ultimately, Abby just becomes another disposable woman to Barney, and we never see her again.
In real life, these episodes are a crucial turning point in Spears’ comeback tour. Six months later, she landed her first number-one song in almost a decade with “Womanizer,” and it’s hard to imagine she’d have landed her Glee guest role or her judging gig on The X Factor had she not proven herself game on a show like HIMYM. The show benefitted too; Bays said in 2014: “By golly, she put our show on the map. It can’t be overstated. Britney Spears rescued us from ever being on the bubble again.” But watching these episodes back, it can’t help but feel like Spears ultimately lost more than she won.
As we learned during Spears’ more recent conservatorship battle, these years of her life sure sounded like a living hell. Even when her role was first announced in 2008, it was reported that Britney’s father and conservator Jamie Spears gave his 26-year-old daughter “permission” to appear on the show. It’s undeniable that Britney’s “breakdown” was some kind of mental health crisis, but, consciously or not, it was a moment when the icon rebelled against the expectations of her and a moment where she, destructively, exercised some control of her life. Maybe Spears was actually a fan of the show and maybe she really did want to do a guest role, but it certainly wasn’t her decision alone. “Ten Sessions,” an otherwise standard episode of television, may well have been the first in a long line of instances where Spears’ control was stripped from her.
Maybe Abby wasn’t the role Spears was born to play, but it might have been the perfect part for her at the moment. No, the manipulation of Abby is not some meta-commentary on the real-life manipulation of Spears. It’s barely even a coincidence. It was just a moment where the only role anyone could imagine Britney Spears playing was a woman who ultimately gets punished when she acts out of turn. And to hear the men involved tell it, it’s a role she really, really wanted to play.
33 Comments
Didn’t do a very good job of it.
the series’ most beloved work: the beginning of Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin Scherbatsky’s (Cobie Smulders) romance whaaaaaaaaatWas a fan of HIMYM when it aired, even commenting with a different burner on the Ye Olde AV Club reviews. Had 1000% forgotten she was ever on the show – but that compilation wasn’t bad!
Was the Barney/Robin thing actually a beloved part? Everyone I’ve known to watch it generally thought it was bad pairing that felt forced based on some story board instead of a good choice. I compared it to Ron & Hermoine in HP getting together because the books required it, but they were an awful couple on screen.
I remember it going down well because it seemed to naturally develop out of the characters and the actors” chemistry. It was where the ending really fucked the show – you had this thing that had organically developed as the show evolved which then had to be immediately jettisoned and ignored once it came time to do the ending they settled on years before.If people remember it badly it’s mostly because it became the biggest example of the writers jerking the viewers around for a few years on story tangents that meant nothing just to stretch out the run.
The only thing I can think of is that maybe in its second life on the streamer services that newer audiences really like that relationship? Because yeah I’m pretty sure we all hated (or distrusted might be more correct) it at the time.
THIS^^^
Barney and Robin getting together was the second-worst decision the writers made on that show. The first, of course, being the ending.
And the worst was they recognized that criticism, then properly put all sorts of work into making it a better outcome – probably peaking with the Robin floating away on the beach episode – and then completely run it over with a bus with that finale lol.
Yep. It was Dexter-bad. Worse, even.
I think Ted was the worst part. Ted sucked
Fleischmann In Trouble weaponizes this perfectly by casting him as future sad dad Ted.
Agreed. I thought she was pretty damn good
Just here to say that linking to Donna Bowman’s writing while glibly (and falsely) summarizing it and calling it misogynistic is completely unnecessary.
It is like people don’t understand that the whole point of Barney’s character is that he is an extreme satire of Dude Bros and that whole genre of male characters that shows why they’re bad.
I often click and leave gifs on things I don’t care about. It’s so convincing.
Barney was recently on How I Met Your Dad and it was immediately the funniest that show has ever been. They had a pretty funny gag where he gets shocked every time he says something disgusting. Which seems like a tired joke, but like most jokes on these shows, it’s not the writing so much as the delivery.
I really don’t understand how HIMYF is so bland and bad. The three main things I’ve kind of settled on are that the initial concept was bad (choosing to make the majority of characters not be friends before the show), there are too many main characters (either Ellen or Charlie could be dropped – the show didn’t need two zany newcomers), and the writers aren’t as willing to tell jokes that may offend.
I was initially lukewarm on Ellen and wondered why she was even there, but I now think she’s the best part of the show.It definitely is no HIMYM, even at HIMYM’s worst, but… it has its moments. There just aren’t enough of them.
I still find her to be the weakest member of the cast (tied with Jessie) and her character doesn’t seem that well-integrated into plots. They’re both just kind of boring characters. I thought Leighton Meester recurring as Jessie’s ex-girlfriend would make him better as she was great in Single Parents but she was a drag too.My favorite character is probably Charlie. The plot where he was scheming to bring Jessie and Sid back together as friends was probably the closest this show has felt to HIMYM to me. Outside of the cameos from Robin and Barney, of course.Thinking about it a bit more, I think you could drop both Jessie and Ellen, make Sid’s wife a main character and this would be a better show. Maybe even retcon her as a third friend of Sophie and Valentina so you don’t have to create some convaluted setup of a lost phone making everyone instant friends. Only thing really missing is a lead love interest for Sophie but I don’t think that is required and I actually think that ended up being a bit detrimental to HIMYM as they seemed to think getting Ted and Robin back together was the endgame they always had to return to.
The biggest detriment to HIMYM was its own success. If it had ended after four seasons, the Robin/Ted ending would’ve been fine. But they had to keep finding ways to keep them apart for 8 seasons. I doubt HIMYF will have any such issues…Not that I think about it, I think Sid is probably the best character, both as a character and the actor. I think they’re giving him more to do now with meeting another frustrated long-distance relationship-er. I think there’s a different show in there that could also be called How I Met Your Mother, where it’s Sid, and you know his current wife isn’t the mom.
It’s such a bland show, and it really feels like all the sets will fall over if someone bumps into them.
I tried putting HIMYF on just as background noise while I did other things and it’s so dreadfully boring that I quickly realized that silence is somehow more entertaining.
Oh the show is bad, for sure. The original had some pretty funny episodes, but whatever this current show is its like 90s TGIF bad. You can tell it’s bad when they bring legacy characters to be like, “Hey, remember when we were funny?!”
I’ll put myself out there as someone who likes HIMYF. It has been steadily improving and the way they are building the mythology of the show gives me HIMYM vibes. I do feel the show could use a Barney-esque character to give the jokes a little more edge.
remember the boring ass normies who thought this show was good? they’re all dead now
You’re trying too hard and it’s very very sad.
Britney’s appearance on HIMYM was textbook PR damage control. I have to imagine her representation would have strongly encouraged her to do it whether or not she was in a conservatorship. Too bad there aren’t really hit sitcoms anymore, because she could use another appearance. Maybe Ghosts?
Abbott Elementary
HIMYM certainly didn’t need Britney as much as she needed the gig, at least quality wise. The middle of S3 of that show is still basically the high-water mark for me as far as multicamera, laughtracked, network sitcoms go. You really can’t do much better with the format. Basically starting with “Dowisetrepla,” “Spoiler Alert” and “Slapsgiving” the show went on a real burner that still holds up, problematic Barney be damned.
They might not have needed her from a quality standpoint, but I remember the exposure being a big boost. Before that I recall that Two and a Half Men and then The Big Bang Theory were the Monday night shows that got ratings and were from the producer that CBS cared about. HIMYM didn’t get nearly their level of promotion or attention.
I assume the boost is why they kept trying to repeat it with the guest stars. And I will say, for a show that had an inordinate amount of pop stars on the show, all the eps they appeared in were, I’d say, above average. Britney, Mandy Moore, J-Lo, Carrie Underwood, Enrique Iglesias… I’d say the Katy Perry ep and performance were both the weakest of the lot, but in general they somehow pulled it off with the non-actor guest stars given fairly meaty roles.
Britney has been very clear that she did not voluntarily take this role. She was forced to do so by Jamie Spears. If she didn’t do everything her father, Lou Taylor, and the whole “team” said, she wasn’t allowed to see her children. Why are you perpetuating a false narrative that is essentially covering up a case of human trafficking? You are part of the problem. You want to be part of the solution? Ask where the hundreds of millions of dollars that Britney earned during the conservatorship went rather than repeating a tired, false, disgusting story that benefits criminals.
Listen to Britney’s statement yourself. It’s the least you can do given you are capitalizing on her.