Image Source: TV Insider, Marvelous Geeks Media

How I Met Your Father is a lovely series to come after How I Met Your Mother, and the series' actors are really happy with it. In the world of the show, the characters do not have to worry about the pandemic. All they have to care about is mundane things like their dating profile, and it is almost nostalgic to think that life was so simple back then. 

"I’m in New York right now, and to live in a world where I can be walking around the New York streets without an N95 mask on, where the biggest stress of my life is what my Tinder profile looks like, is a wonderful world to live in," Chris Lowell told Collider about his onscreen persona. "It’s a wonderful way to experience New York that I frankly miss dearly and hope will come back soon."

But apart from that, the actors also get to be with a loving community of equally talented people, which is always a plus. "Being able to spend time with people that I genuinely love and being able to be put in scenarios where I have to try not to laugh all day long is a great way to go to and come home from work."

Yet, the cast members do have to worry about COVID in the real world, unlike their onscreen character portrayals. The actors only get to meet each other with their masks on. "We all got to know each other with masks on, and there’s genuine respect for one another and an interest in each other’s lives because we’re all new to each other’s lives. And then, the writers wrote this amazing script for us, to go and expose this goofy, sometimes raw, emotional side," shared Hillary Duff.

Regardless, the cast members were all ready to brave the circumstances, how much ever difficult, and create a good show for people to enjoy. "I think we walked in knowing we were all really going to show up for our jobs. We had a really good script with a great force of people behind us, and we were like, “We think this is gonna work.” Just getting to show up there every day and have fun, it was awesome. We’re all really grateful to be sitting where we’re sitting," said Duff. 

On the other hand, working in a series for a long time with the same people can become tiresome and terrifying if the cast members develop some bad blood between them. Think of The Rock and Vin Diesel in the Fast and Furious series. Fortunately for the cast members of How I Met Your Father, developing a bond was not a monumental task. 

Chris Lowell said, "It really does feel like, in order for a sitcom to work, the most important thing is cast chemistry. Really all you’re watching as an audience member is five, six, or however many people in the cast, just having fun together. You can’t fake that." The simple fact that the cast members went well along with each other also took some of the tension away from the producers. "What was a huge relief, probably more for the producers and the writers than anyone else, is that when we all met each other immediately, there was such a profound respect and excitement about working with each other."

If you work with a colleague whom you like the best, you can relate with Lowell saying, "It’s a blast to work with your friends." 

However, there can be a shortcoming if everyone on the series is such good friends with each other. Series like How I Met Your Father rely on a certain degree of suspense as seen on How I Met Your Mother, too. The viewers will have to wait for a while before they get to know who the father actually is. 

And because the actors are all great friends, even the series lead and producer Hillary Duff does not know the identity of the father just yet. The writers are saving this particular bit for later so that the news does not travel within the group of friends and that there are no spoilers. 

When asked if Hillary knew who the father is, she admitted, "No, they don’t trust me like that. The storyline didn’t end up happening, but they told me some big news, and I was like, “I have big news, but we all have to be together.” I feel like they’re testing us." Lowell also conceded, "If we learn any information, all of us together in a collection, we’re bum-rushing to tell each other what’s going on. It’s ridiculous." 

"It’s like a cat batting around a toy feather thing because they’re never gonna tell us. And I don’t even think they know," confessed Hillary Duff. 

The one thing that Hillary Duff really wanted to share was that the comparison of her lead character with Ted needs to stop. While How I Met Your Father is inspired by HIMYM, it actually is its very own show, has people with different lives and perspectives, and is not taking after the OG series. Admitting this, Hillary said, "I love that that takes the pressure off of our show, and sends us off into being our own show."

She continued, "I’m not the girl version of Ted. Tom’s not Barney. It’s not like that."

The show does take the element of flashback narration as first seen in How I Met Your Mother. "We’re borrowing the playing with the past and the present, in those quick pops, but I think that really just gives the show energy and is a quick way to tell a story and give information. It just adds that energy to the show," she said.

The cast of How I Met Your Father is all on great terms with each other; Credits: Forbes

The show has aired its first two episodes on Hulu.