Jason Segel by Monty Brinton/CBS

by Matt Webb Mitovich

The ensemble cast of CBS' How I Met Your Mother (Mondays at 8:30 pm/ET) boasts beauties, cuties, and some freaks and geeks. OK, to be specific it features Freaks and Geeks alum Jason Segel, playing the happily (and horny-ly) married buddy who gets Ted thinking about finding his own perfect woman. TVGuide.com spoke to Segel about his Mother role, wooing Sydney Bristow and doing, um, R-rated things to watermelons.

TVGuide.com: Going into this, did you ever predict Mother would be as big a success as it is?
Jason Segel: You know, the thing that got me thinking that we had something good was that it was very easy right from the start, easier than anything I had ever experienced. The cast got along really, really well, and the casting process was just a dream, really. They had seen the Freaks and Geeks DVDs when they came out, so I was really lucky that they made me a test offer before I had even auditioned, which has never happened for me before. And then I went in and got the role.

TVGuide.com: Tell me about the party you had when the show got picked up for a full season.
Segel: Oh, yeah, it was fantastic. We were on the set doing a scene in the bar, and as the cameras start rolling, a voice comes over the loudspeaker — it was Carter Bays, one of our producers and creators — saying, "I just want to let everybody know we've been picked up for the back nine." It was just pandemonium, everyone started cheering — and they've got it all on tape, which is the best part. Later on that day they wheeled out a big cart filled with hundreds of glasses of champagne and we all toasted each other. It was a real treat.

TVGuide.com: So the cast is gelling well? No backstage catfighting amongst the boys? "Damn that Neil Patrick Harris for getting all the zingers!"
Segel: [Laughs] No, no... everybody is really happy, I must say. They're really doing a good job of servicing all of us, and playing off of what we're good at. Neil's character (Barney) is just unbelievably funny, and Josh [Radnor, as Ted] is great as the sort of staple and anchor of the show, and I think Hannigan and I are doing a really good job....

TVGuide.com: How is it having Alyson Hannigan for a TV wife? I imagine she's a pretty damn cool one.
Segel: She is, I must say. It's a real treat to show up and do scenes with her because she always comes in prepared and hilarious, so you know you've got to bring your "A" game. It's nice to be challenged that way.

TVGuide.com: I recall an interview where she said that even though Miss American Pie could probably headline her own series, she's thrilled to be part of an ensemble.
Segel: Yeah. I don't want to speak for everybody, but we kind of sit in awe of each other a little bit. We watch each other do our scenes and laugh — genuinely laugh — at each other.

TVGuide.com: When I spoke to Josh, he said you'd done some "songwriting" for the show, for an episode in which Marshall hums some goofy lyrics?
Segel: Oh, right... they wrote me a really challenging and great story line where everybody leaves to go do something fun, and Marshall is left alone to study law and all it said on the [script] page was "[he sings] some nonsensical lyrics"....

TVGuide.com: I have news for you: Marshall never seems to study law.
Segel: Yeah, I know, it's hilarious. But the script just said "[he sings] some nonsensical lyrics," so I was left to figure out how to make that a coherent episode. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: You must have been like, "Thank god I'm a musician in real life."
Segel: Yeah, it worked out OK, it worked out OK.

TVGuide.com: Are you as much of a "guy's guy" as Marshall is?
Segel: I think I'm not, actually. There are some parts of me that are like that, but I like to play the piano, listen to my record player.... I'm on a basketball team, I play my sports and drink beer and all that good stuff, but I like a nice jazz album, too.

TVGuide.com: For something that only ran 18 episodes, Freaks and Geeks earned a nice little cult following, eh?
Segel: It did, it really did, and that was the coolest. When the DVDs came out, there was this little resurgence and a lot of people who said they had seen the show finally actually saw the show [Laughs], which was nice. People have been kind about it and, as I said, that's how I ended up getting this show, so it was pretty perfect.

TVGuide.com: You once guested on Alias; that has to be a young actor's dream.
Segel: It was pretty cool, I must say! I got shot....

TVGuide.com: Even better! If I went on Alias, I would totally want to get shot.
Segel: Oh, man, I got shot by the evil guest star, got to have a little love story with Jennifer Garner, which was a treat, and I got chased by a robotic helicopter. A robotic killer helicopter.

TVGuide.com: I remember your episode now; the helicopter chase was in a warehouse, right? And you were a guy Sydney met in a bar and flirted with to sneak out? I think she had on a wig.
Segel: I think she did! In fact, TV Guide gave me a "Cheers" for that, if I recall. They recognized me from Freaks and Geeks.

TVGuide.com: What do you do with your free time?
Segel: I do some writing on the side. I'm starting to send some scripts out that hopefully I can get made during a hiatus. We'll see how that goes. One's a drama, one's a comedy.... I write a little bit of everything.

TVGuide.com: Lastly, dare I ask about your role as "Matt, Watermelon Guy" in Can't Hardly Wait?
Segel: Funny enough, that was my very, very first movie; I was 17 years old. I actually think it got cut out of the movie because they decided to go from R to PG-13.

TVGuide.com: Jason, what on earth were you doing to that watermelon?!
Segel: I'm trying to remember — it's coming up on eight years — but he had scooped out the insides of a watermelon and infused it with vodka and was serving it at a high-school party.... I don't remember all the details, surprisingly! [Laughs]

7.21.05 - Zap2It.com: UPN's 'Love, Inc.' Gets Busy ... Phillips - At 5:20 on Thursday (July 21) afternoon, Busy Phillips received an important phone call. "I was getting a manicure and a pedicure and I said, 'Guys, I have to cut this short,'" Phillips laughs. It's less than three hours later and Phillips is chatting with reporters at a Television Critics Association press tour network party as the newest star of UPN's fall comedy "Love, Inc." She's replacing Shannen Doherty, who was recast almost immediately after the show was picked up this spring. More....

3.7.05 - John Francis Daley and Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) have been cast in a new FOX pilot called Kitchen Confidential, about a bad-boy chef, down on his luck, who takes over a top-ranked New York restaurant. The "bad-boy chef" role has yet to be cast.

12.29.04 - The MSN Entertainment staff wrote about the best and worst television of 2004, and called the Freaks and Geeks DVD one of the best TV on DVD releases. Paul Feig and Judd Apatow's 1999 series following the lives of misfits in a Michigan high school was a classic cult fave, overlooked and underestimated by network brass while fiercely embraced by critics and an audience that lobbied hard for its survival. Resuscitating the show for DVD release required the same fierce devotion, but the results are a triumphant rebuttal to its cancellation. Even more than "My So-Called Life," "Freaks" captures the purgatory of high school with loving, lacerating detail. The special features on the regular version set a new standard for TV packages.

8.29.04 - From TV Guide: Geek Chorus Samm Levine — one of the dorkier Freaks and Geeks geeks — has been cast in a four-episode arc on ABC's upcoming teen soap Life as We Know It (which is produced by Freaks alum Jeff Judah). He'll play a drama student who stages a Baz Luhrmann-style version of "Romeo and Juliet." A show rep hints that viewers can "expect other Freaks and Geeks alums to make appearances," but I assume she doesn't mean James Franco of "Spider-Man" or ER's Linda Cardellini. I mean, c'mon–they're in the cool crowd now.

4.19.04 - There's a great interview with Paul Feig on SuicideGirls.com.

3.16.04 - The full series is being released on DVD on April 6th. You can pre-order the 6-disc DVD set from Amazon.com (which costs around $50), or you can order the Limited Deluxe Edition (8 discs) from the official Freaks and Geeks site (about $120).

9.3.03 - This week's issue of TV Guide gives CHEERS to freakin' brilliant casting. ER has tapped endearingly droll Freaks and Geeks alum Linda Cardellini to play a free-spirited nurse, beginning with the coming season's fifth episode. There's talk of a romance with Goran Visnjic's Dr. Luka Kovac. He should be so lucky.

9.2.03 - TV Guide Online: Freaks and Geeks: The Next Generation - Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig is developing a new comedy series for HBO about four twentysomething friends — three guys and a girl (no pizza place) — dealing with sex and dating from a distinctly nerdy point of view. Think of it as his attempt to educate Hollywood about the complexities of the male species....

8.19.03 - Linda Cardellini has joined the cast of NBC's ER, debuting in the season's fifth episode as Nurse Samantha Taggert, a new regular character.

8.7.03 - From TV Guide Online: Former Freaks and Geeks producer Paul Feig has signed a deal with HBO to develop Nice Guys, a comedy series about a trio of nerdy male co-workers looking for love. "Just as Freaks and Geeks was a realistic version of the high school experience for many people, this will lay out what normal guys go through as young adults," Feig tells Variety. "I'm talking about the guys who aren't superficial jerks and would actually make good husbands if women would just stop and notice." He's not bitter though.

7.24.03 - Paul Feig posts on his web site for Freaks and Geeks that:
"We are VERY close to getting the DVDs out. A company that was started by the guys who sold Rhino want to put the show out and are with us that all the original music must remain intact. So, that's a great thing (I wouldn't release it otherwise). But that causes one small problem -- the DVD set is going to be a little more expensive than we wanted it to be. This is so we can include all the original music, and also so we can get the DVDs out sooner (instead of spending months and months doing legal work).
The price for the DVD set will probably be around $120, which is very steep, I know. However, because of discount sites on the web and the fact that most stores like Tower and Virgin always mark down new releases, you'll probably be able to get it for about 80 bucks. I will say that we're intending to include one full disc of extras, including deleted scenes, bloopers, and lots of other fun things (that we're in the process of pulling out of all our crates and boxes now).
So, that's what's up. I don't know any exact date for when it'll be coming out but I know we're all shooting for before the end of the year (probably in time for Christmas -- how embarrassingly convenient!).

5.13.03 - Samm Levine's new comedy, The Mayor, has been picked up as a mid-season show for next season by the WB.