The H Virus: How to survive the Hiatus Apocalypse

It’s that hazy time of year: the gap between the end of fall-airing seasons and the start of summer one-hit-wonders, trials and errors and all in between. The desolate darkness reserved only for repeats you don’t like.
It’s…hiatus season.

Don’t worry—as we’ve survived the other three sitcom seasons, we’ll survive this one. TV’s winter. But how? Well, to hibernate in your living rooms and man-caves properly, you need supplies and an itinerary (and maybe an artillery, depending on how gung ho you get).

Based on experienced accounts from other, well-worn shows, I can offer you this lasting advice:

1. Watch like shows.

Repeats will make you stir-crazy; never forget the looming series premiere. You’ll go nuts. Watch shows with similar humors for the fresh entertainment.
Based on Netflix recommendations:
Like How I Met Your Mother? Watch Rules of Engagement.
Like New Girl? Watch 2 Broke Girls.

Like The Big Bang Theory? Watch It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

And get a Netflix account. It’s the price of a movie ticket.

2. Collect show swag.

Being surrounded the comforts of sets can assuage the pain left where your heart used to beat. To remind you The Mother is just one summer away, look into purchasing The Yellow Umbrella for your foyer. Or The Ducky Tie for on the job. Or The Bazinga Poster.

To remind you you’ll get your sense of feeling and sentimental attachment back again.
Bazinga.

3. Read.

Arm yourselves with the world’s greatest weapons: books. Sci-fi (maybe educate yourself on some of TBBT’s never-ending references!), romcom, or thought-provoking, soul-searching titles, all exist on the page as well as the LED screen.
Or, by reading, you could just pull up those individual Wikia pages one more time. Yeah.

4. Go out with friends.

Remind your friends you exist by tagging along with them the next time they go to your favorite local coffee shop. Maybe downstairs to your regular Irish bar for a drink. Then to the comic book store with your latest paycheck.
…Just try not to start sobbing in public this time.

The Old Song And Dance

How I Met Your Mother, with its triple-threat solid cast, can hold its own in the acting and comedy arena as much as the old song and dance. Though they don’t so much reimagine classic Hollywood as produce their own twist on parodies and original material, calling out current events and themes.

TV Line, at the beginning of the show’s seventh season, put together a small list of the show’s top ten best song-and-dance moments. Glee moments, if you will. While I sat counting backwards, thinking, they had more than ten?, I think it’s appropriate on the crest of Harmonize’s rising popularity to take a look back at the numbers slotted into show-time history.

Their list includes:

10. Cast rendition of the How I Met Your Mother Theme Song

9. Dirty Dancing with Barney

8. Super Date

7. Barney’s Naughty Holiday Songs

6. “Stand By Me” feat. Barney and James Stinson

5. Best Night Ever

4. “Sandcastles In The Sand” and “Two Beavers are Better Than One”

3. You Just Got Slapped
2. Nothing Suits Me Like A Suit

1. Let’s Go To The Mall

Personally, your blogger might have shifted parts of the list. Perhaps I’m a bit nostalgic for Dirty Dancing, but time aside, the Barney rendition could have jumped a few spots higher. And maybe a little spread for the Robin Sparkles videos? I love Robin Sparkles, and you love Robin Sparkles, but three songs in the top four seems excessive. How about swapping Sandcastles in the Sand with Stand By Me, the touching duo making canon hall of fame in the whole series?

But then, these are just my own two cents—what are your opinions? Does Barney’s presence on the list seem overdone, or just right? Were some songs gipped? And where would the Robin Daggers song find its place on the top ten?

She Could Have Said "Antler"

I try and stay mindful of the other holidays people acknowledge this season, even though I myself celebrate Christmas, by looking for all-inclusivity in our three favorite TV shows and episodes. By a happy accident, this morning someone asked if I remembered Phoebe Buffay’s Central Perk holiday song?

I had. Then I felt possessed to write an article about it.

I actually wouldn’t put it past Phoebe to go up to the nearest mall Santa and ask for Christmas wishes for her friends, as she describes in this little number: Went to the store / Sat on Santa’s lap / asked him to bring my friends / all kinds of crap. Nevertheless, she ends up portraying different customs and holidays in a manner to suit the gang, if not stretching her creativity a bit thin in a few spots.

For those of you missing out on the genius, the song plays as follows. And-a one, two, three!:

[cont.] He said all you need is to write them a song,

They haven’t heard it yet, so don’t try to sing along.

 Don’t try to sing along…

Monica, Monica,

Have a happy Hanukkah!

Saw Santa Claus

He said hello to Ross.

And please tell Joey

Christmas will be snowy!

And Rachel and Chandler

Havea—[mumbled jibberish]—andler!

The song may not make your car-ride holiday playlist this season, but I consider it a seasonal sitcom classic nonetheless. There aren’t too many of those! Though as I’ve mentioned before, F.R.I.E.N.D.S and other shows aren’t shy in the Christmas-and-others-special department; and I’m always down for one of Phoebe’s guitar renditions.

Big Bang Theory

Don’t make Santa Clause weary…

Give a stocking stuffer

To How I Met Your Mother…

Oh well. I’m no Phoebe when it comes to writing lyrics. I…tried.