Alyson Hannigan

Have you met Ted? TV Guide’s New York City staffers did just that a few days ago when How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor paid a visit to our offices. What does the affable actor have going on this summer? And what lies ahead for Season 2 of his hit CBS sitcom? We asked Radnor those questions and more.

TV Guide: Are you only visiting us because TV Guide has an office in Radnor, Pennsylvania?

Josh Radnor: You do? You do....

TV Guide: Maybe your family founded it?

Radnor: I wonder.... You guys have been so nice to our show. Thank you, on behalf of everyone. Really.

TV Guide: Are you OK with the fact that you didn’t make our "TV’s Sexiest Men" issue?

Radnor: I just said that outside! [Pretending to flip through TV Guide] "This must be where my profile is...."

TV Guide: What’s your favorite thing to do in New York City?

Radnor: Well, I’m living in the West Village, which is my favorite area, like, in the world, so I’m just "exploring."

TV Guide: How do you like life in New York versus L.A.?

Radnor: I actually love L.A. - I proudly say that after getting over my embarrassment in saying that. [Laughs] I haven’t been back here in a while, and I forgot that a great part of New York is, like, turning a corner and seeing someone you haven’t seen in years and saying, "Let’s get a drink, right now." In L.A. you have to, like, plan it out. "I can see you at the end of the month for an hour."

TV Guide: Back in L.A., are you still mooching off your friend’s cable?

Radnor: Oh, you mean going across the street? I kind of stopped watching TV entirely - sorry, everyone! [Laughs] I’ve been so busy.... I like watching The Office. My friend Mindy [Kaling] writes for it, and she is the funniest.

TV Guide: What’s happening on How I Met Your Mother next season?

Radnor: Is that what this is about, getting plot points? [Laughs] I have no idea. I had dinner with [series creator] Carter [Bays] and I was trying to get info from him, but... they don’t know.

TV Guide: Is there any buzz about how much time will have elapsed? Will the summer have passed?

Radnor: Yeah, I think it will be like three months later - unless they show [Ted and Marshall] coming in from the rain for like a moment, after getting drenched. But I don’t know how long Ms. Scherbatsky and I are going to go. That might not last as long as Ted would hope. I feel like he was more in love with the chase of it all.

TV Guide: Besides, for all he and Robin know, the sex could be really bad.

Radnor: No, that, I hear, is going to be fantastic. Seriously. They might keep us kind of "enjoying each other" without totally being together. [Laughs]

TV Guide: Has your own dating life perked up, as hoped?

Radnor: It’s not bad.... [Smiles]

TV Guide: Do you like how the show gets some things right about NYC, and some things not so right? The New Year’s Eve episode had some glitches....

Radnor: Yeah, that was like, "Don’t pull the thread, don’t pull the thread." There were so many logic problems with the limo episode. Like, how did we get to all these parties? Where did Marshall appear from? That was the hardest episode we filmed. We were in a broken-apart limo for three days, and we were all getting sick. It ruined limos for us, which is such a sad story. [Laughs]

TV Guide: What are you doing on your hiatus?

Radnor: Jason Segel got a house in Hawaii on the North Shore for a month, so I went and visited him for a week. Alyson [Hannigan] and [husband] Alexis [Denisof, aka Sandy Rivers] went to visit him, and then Cobie [Smulders] came when I was there.... I went to Coachella [Music Festival in Indio, Calif.], which was amazing.... I went to my 10-year college reunion, in Kenyon, Ohio. I was scared, but it wasn’t that weird. People were really happy for me.

TV Guide: And didn’t Neil Patrick Harris book a play?

Radnor: Yeah, he did All My Sons at the Geffen [Playhouse in L.A.], and it was great. He and I did a play together, like, two months before we got cast [on Mother]. When I heard he got cast, I called him - "Are you kidding me? We’re in the same pilot?!"

TV Guide: What has been your favorite episode, moment, saying or "thing"?

Radnor: We just recorded [Season 1] DVD commentary, and I was shocked at how well the pilot held up. It was really good. I think the club episode is really funny - from top to bottom, it just works. People really like "The Slutty Pumpkin," and I know it’s this whole Charlie Brown thing, but I was really confused by it. For three years, he goes to the roof, wearing the same costume, waiting for this one girl? But it turned out great. And in "Mary the Paralegal," there was some stuff I couldn’t believe they let us do. That line where she says, "Talk about anal!" - I was like, "Are they going to let us do this?" They said, "That’s why we’re shooting it in one tracking shot, so they can’t cut it." And I liked the last two episodes, including the one where [Lily] runs away and I have to go pick her up.

TV Guide: Lily and Marshall have to get back together... right?

Radnor: I don’t know. I think they’re going to have some fun with the fact that Marshall hasn’t been on a date since he was, like, 17!

TV Guide: So have they completely dropped Ted’s grown kids from each episode’s opening?

Radnor: I think the boy was aging very aggressively. [Laughs]

TV Guide: Admit it - you started dating Lyndsy Fonseca, your "daughter," and it got kind of "icky."

Radnor: Lyndsy got a pilot, actually. She’s very sweet.

TV Guide: Have you met... Bob Saget?

Radnor: Yes, and he is so funny. And filthy. A filthy man. At the network run-through, one of the stand-ins reads all the voice-over stuff, and one time we were in the middle of a scene and we heard Saget’s voice. He was visiting the set, and suddenly his voice was there. We were like, "Ahhhh!"