E! Online Reveals 24 How I Met Your Mother Secrets, Revisiting 9-Season Sitcom

Q: What hidden on-set tensions made Josh Radnor feel completely sidelined by his breakout co-star during their nine-year sitcom run?

Josh Radnor has said the main source of feeling sidelined was not a hidden feud so much as a long-running on-set dynamic with Neil Patrick Harris, whose breakout performance as Barney Stinson often dominated scenes and, at times, bled into their real-life working relationship. Radnor and Harris later discussed that tension openly on Radnor’s rewatch podcast. Harris recalled sensing Radnor’s frustration during filming because Radnor wanted scenes to play as strong dramatic or story scenes, while Harris was often “doing spit takes” and bigger comic bits. Radnor said Barney’s dismissive treatment of Ted was played so well that he sometimes felt dismissed by Harris himself, even though, in hindsight, he believes he was reacting to the character dynamic as much as the actor. Radnor also said his own insecurity contributed to the strain. When the show began, he was less famous than some of his co-stars, while Harris became the series’ breakout star. Radnor has suggested that managing those emotions sometimes made his reactions come out “sideways.” So the tension appears to have come from a mix of factors: Harris’ scene-stealing comic style, the blurred line between Barney’s treatment of Ted and Harris’ off-camera presence, and Radnor’s insecurity as the nominal lead watching a co-star become the show’s standout. He has stressed there was no lasting bad blood and described their later conversation about it as “healing.”

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Aug 20

E! Online published 24 behind-the-scenes revelations about How I Met Your Mother, turning renewed attention from Josh Radnor’s cast comments to the show’s production history.
Several of the biggest disclosures revisit casting near-misses: Jason Biggs passed on Ted, Jennifer Love Hewitt nearly played Robin and Jim Parsons auditioned for Barney before Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders and Neil Patrick Harris landed the roles.
The feature also details how real-life experiences shaped the CBS comedy, from creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas mining their New York years to McLaren’s being modeled on McGee’s and Barney’s 'Have you met Ted?' coming from a Letterman-era habit.
Later entries return to the finale that aired after 9 seasons, saying the creators and cast still defend Ted ending up with Robin, while Alyson Hannigan and Radnor argued key deleted scenes might have softened the backlash.
The retrospective underscores the show’s lasting fan pull more than a decade after its 2014 finale, mixing nostalgia, alternate-ending lore and mementos the cast took home from the set.