You probably think I’m talking about How I Met Your Father. I’m not. Before Hilary Duff stepped into the lead role for Hulu, there was an entirely different attempt to keep the MacLaren’s Pub magic alive. It was 2014. How I Met Your Mother had just aired its polarizing finale. CBS wanted a spin-off immediately. They filmed a pilot. It featured a completely different How I Met Your Dad cast that almost nobody has actually seen.
It's one of those "lost media" relics of Hollywood.
The How I Met Your Dad Cast That Never Made It to Air
The lead was Greta Gerwig. Yeah, the Barbie director.
Before she became the Oscar-nominated powerhouse of modern cinema, she was an indie darling trying to make the jump to network sitcoms. In How I Met Your Dad, Gerwig played Sally. Sally was described as a "female Peter Pan" who was going through a divorce. It was a darker, slightly messier premise than the Ted Mosby search for love.
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Honestly, seeing Gerwig in a multi-cam sitcom would have been jarring. She has this specific, twitchy, naturalistic energy that doesn't always mesh with "laugh track" timing. Maybe that's why it failed. Or maybe it was just bad timing.
The rest of the How I Met Your Dad cast was equally interesting. Drew Tarver, who later became a cult favorite in The Other Two, played Todd, Sally’s best friend and brother-in-law. Nicholas D'Agosto was Frank, the IT guy who fell for Sally. You might recognize him from Gotham or Masters of Sex. Then there was Andrew Santino—now a massive stand-up comedian and podcaster—playing Sally’s uptight brother, Danny.
Rounding out the group was Tiya Sircar as Juliet. She’s fantastic. Most people know her as "Real Eleanor" from The Good Place.
Why the Pilot Was Scrapped
CBS hated it. Well, they didn't hate it, but they didn't love it enough to buy it.
The producers, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, were asked to reshoot the pilot. They refused. They felt the chemistry was there. CBS disagreed. Because of that stalemate, the show died in a desk drawer somewhere in Los Angeles.
It's fascinating because the How I Met Your Dad cast actually reflected a shift in TV. They were moving away from the "six white friends in a coffee shop" trope toward something slightly more varied, even if the core structure remained the same.
Meg Ryan was even cast as the narrator. She was supposed to be the "Future Sally," echoing Bob Saget’s role in the original series. Imagine that. Meg Ryan’s voice guiding us through twenty-something heartbreak in New York City. It sounds like a Nora Ephron movie that accidentally wandered onto a soundstage.
Comparing the Two Versions of the Spin-off
When How I Met Your Father finally launched years later, the vibe changed. Hilary Duff brought a Disney-channel-alum gloss to the lead role of Sophie. The How I Met Your Dad cast felt more like a Brooklyn indie movie; the How I Met Your Father cast felt like a modern streaming ensemble.
- Sally (Greta Gerwig) vs. Sophie (Hilary Duff): Sally was a divorcee. Sophie was a hopeful romantic.
- The Best Friend: Drew Tarver’s Todd was a brother-in-law. Francia Raisa’s Valentina was a stylized stylist.
- The Narrator: Meg Ryan (Dad) vs. Kim Cattrall (Father).
There is a gritty, unpolished version of this show that exists in the archives. If you look at the career trajectories of the people involved, it’s a powerhouse list. Drew Tarver is a comedy genius. Greta Gerwig is basically the queen of Hollywood right now. Andrew Santino sells out theaters.
Maybe the show wasn't the problem. Maybe the "How I Met Your..." brand was just exhausted in 2014.
The Mystery of the Script
The script for the pilot leaked years ago. It’s... fine. It’s very 2014. There are jokes about iPads and specific dating app cultures that feel prehistoric now.
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What’s interesting is how Sally’s character was written. She wasn't a "female Ted." Ted was obsessed with the "One." Sally was just trying to survive her life falling apart. It felt more like Girls but with a laugh track. That disconnect is probably what killed it. You can't really do a "messy millennial" show in the rigid format of a CBS sitcom without it feeling fake.
If you ever find the leaked clips—they're out there if you dig deep into Reddit or Vimeo—you can see Gerwig trying her best. She’s charming. She’s always charming. But you can tell she belongs on a film set, not in front of a live studio audience.
What Happened to the Actors?
Looking back at the How I Met Your Dad cast is like looking at a "Before They Were Famous" gallery.
- Greta Gerwig: Directed Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie. She’s moved entirely behind the camera for major projects.
- Andrew Santino: Became a staple of the "Comedy Store" scene. He stars in Dave on FX and runs the Whiskey Ginger podcast.
- Nicholas D'Agosto: Continued a very steady career in prestige TV and network dramas.
- Drew Tarver: Became a darling of the Alt-Comedy world.
It’s rare for a failed pilot to have such a high hit rate for its actors. Usually, failed pilots are where careers go to die. For this group, it was just a weird footnote.
The Legacy of a Show That Never Was
We live in an era of reboots. Everything gets a second chance.
How I Met Your Father lasted two seasons on Hulu before being canceled. It struggled to find its footing. It leaned heavily on cameos from the original cast (Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris). The original How I Met Your Dad cast was supposedly going to be more of a "clean break."
Sometimes, the best thing a show can do is not exist. If How I Met Your Dad had been a hit, Greta Gerwig might have been stuck in a seven-year contract. She might never have directed Barbie. The entire landscape of modern cinema could have changed because of a sitcom about a woman living in New York.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Creators
If you are a fan of the franchise or a student of television history, there are a few ways to actually "engage" with this lost pilot:
- Search for the "HIMYD" leaked script: It's available on various screenwriting databases. It provides a masterclass in how to attempt (and fail) to replicate a specific "voice" like Bays and Thomas'.
- Watch 'The Other Two' on Max: If you want to see what Drew Tarver would have brought to the table, this is his best work. It carries that same DNA of "searching for identity in the big city."
- Track Greta Gerwig’s early acting: Watch Frances Ha. That movie is essentially the spiritual successor to what she was trying to do in the How I Met Your Dad cast, just without the constraints of network television.
- Don't dismiss the Hulu version: Even though it was canceled, How I Met Your Father did eventually figure out how to bridge the gap between the two generations of fans.
The story of the How I Met Your Dad cast is a reminder that in Hollywood, talent isn't always enough. You need the right format, the right timing, and a network that isn't afraid of a little messiness. Sometimes a "no" from a network is the best thing that can happen to an artist's career.
To fully understand the evolution of this franchise, your next step is to watch the first three episodes of How I Met Your Father on Hulu and compare the character archetypes to the original 2005 series. Pay close attention to how the "narrator" device is handled—it's the key to the whole format. If you're more interested in the "lost" version, hunt down the 2014 pilot script online to see how different Sally's journey was meant to be compared to Sophie's.