How I Met Your Mother features a high-profile guest appearance tonight -- Vancouver's Sarah Chalke!
Oh, and somebody called Britney Spears.
Spears plays a receptionist, Abby, who becomes smitten with Ted (Josh Radnor), in the ratings-challenged but critically favoured sitcom.
Chalke, for her part, plays Stella, Ted's "beautiful dermatologist," according to CBS's press notes. Think of it as a sitcom version of Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice: Ted wants to land a date with Stella, but she's not interested; Abby -- who's developed a huge, spazzy crush on Ted -- wants to land a date with the big galoot, but he's not interested. Mirth ensues.
Spears's appearance came about during her recent tabloid travails, when her agent approached How I Met Your Mother's producers out-of-the-blue about a possible guest appearance. The writers' strike had just been settled; How I Met Your Mother was slated to return with new episodes starting last week; and the rest, as they say, is history. Or herstory, if you prefer.
There's a brief scene between Abby (Spears) and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), which comes on the heels of last week's St. Patrick's Day episode, in which Barney and Ted paved the streets green on a Paddy's Day-inspired bender.
How I Met Your Mother is admired by reviewers -- if not always appealing to a mass audience -- for the way its story flashes back and forth in time, like Lost, and for the way it's unafraid to tackle meaningful life issues.
That it's clever should come as no surprise. The show's writer-producers, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, used to write for Late Show with David Letterman. That it's at times funny, even with a studio audience and the attendant canned laughter, is a surprise. A pleasant surprise, at that.
8:30 p.m., E!, CBS
Three to see
Anne Murray: Friends & Legends might make you forget American Idol, but it probably won't. Murray's friends and legendary guests include Nelly Furtado, Olivia Newton-John, Jann Arden, Emmylou Harris, k.d. lang and Idol killer Celine Dion. 8 p.m. CBC
Damages heats up in an episode in which disgraced corporate tycoon Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) is enraged after a former shareholder spits on him at a basketball game. To hear litigator Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) tell it, he probably shouldn't have stolen their money then.
10 p.m., Showcase
Counting Crows perform on Late Show with David Letterman. Meanwhile, on Stupid Pet Tricks, Dave counts crows. Demi Moore is the night's scheduled guest.