If you’re a fan of Doogie Howser, M.D. and How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris — and who isn’t, I ask? — you’re in luck because tonight he hosts the first new installment of Saturday Night Live in 2009. Also on the roster is wildly successful musical guest Taylor Swift.

Get a taste of what’s in store for Barney lovers everywhere by watching the following promo featuring Neil and SNL player Will Forte. Considering that the alter ego of Dr. Horrible is actually funny, this one just might be — wait for it — legendary, or at least consistently entertaining.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays on NBC at 11:30pm EST.

Listen up, HIMYM fans. Tonight at 7pm EST, the fresh and funny sitcom is making its syndication debut on the women-centric network Lifetime.

Even better, the present schedule seems to indicate the episodes will rotate in proper broadcast order, at least initially, which is always a much welcome and infrequent bonus. Hooray!

Lifetime will offer two back-to-back episodes of How I Met Your Mother each Monday from 7pm to 8pm EST. First out of the gate tonight is the series-opening “Pilot,” followed by installment Number Two, “Purple Giraffe,” both of which chronicle the earliest stages of Ted’s relationship with Robin after he first meets her.

And, don’t forget: Although tonight’s episode on the series’ home network CBS is a repeat of the current fourth season’s premiere “Do I Know You?,” the comedy resumes airing new episodes next Monday, January 12, starting with “Benefits.”

Since I’m a diehard Mother fan myself, I’m thrilled to have not one, not two, but three whole opportunities to watch the show on TV each week, not to mention the chance to go all the way back to the beginning, to when the magic first started happening. You done good, Lifetime!

How I Met Your Mother airs Mondays on CBS at 8:30pm EST and now Mondays at 7pm and 7:30pm on Lifetime.

Original Air Date: September 29, 2008

Still unable to find work as an environmental lawyer after many interviews, Marshall becomes obsessed with the best burger he’s ever eaten in New York when the gang tries out and approves of a lesser burger at the bar.

The legendary burger haunting Marshall from eight years ago also happened to be his very first burger in New York, back when he was a fresh-faced 22-year-old newly arrived from Minnesota. According to him, the burger was at a hole-in-the-wall he stumbled on when Ted, tired of him moping around the apartment and acting afraid to venture out, encouraged him to take a walk. Since he was new in town, though, Marhsall could never retrace his steps back to the restaurant.

That changes in this episode of How I Met Your Mother as Marshall drags everyone all around Manhattan in search of that burger, which even Regis Philbin, in a guest cameo, confirms is the best. In a twist, it turns out later that Reege’s best burger comes from an entirely different restaurant.

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How I Met Your Mother welcomes special guest star Regis Philbin tonight.

Is he not the coolest guy his age ever? The series has a pretty nice episode for him, too, where he’ll join Marshall on a hunt for the best burger in New York City. That won’t be an easy undertaking, I’m sure, but it should be fun.

Check out a couple of advance clips of Reege’s appearance in the videos after the jump.

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Original Air Date: September 22, 2008

So, what was the How I Met Your Mother gang up to over the summer?

Ted was happily engaged to Stella, who we learn said yes to his marriage proposal after he envisions her saying no in several of the worst possible ways (laughing, incredulous, admitting she preferred the high school rival who called him Turd instead of Ted all the time).

Marshall coped with being unemployed (by continually asking everyone what they’re doing).

Lily threw herself into her painting.

Barney recovered from the bus accident with physical therapy.

And poor Robin developed a deep hatred for her news-anchor job.

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Yep, it’s another video recap for those with short memories. Check out the footage below to brush up on all things Ted, Barney, Lily, Marshall, and Robin that happened during Season Three of How I Met Your Mother.

Among the many highlights, just off the top of my head and in random order, there was the dissolution of Ted and Barney’s bro-hood, the disappointment of Lily and Marshall’s first apartment, the discovery of dermatologist Stella and her ditzy receptionist played by a certain aging pop tart, and the bedding of Robin by Barney (saved the best for last).

For a more extensive overview, just go to the video.

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That’s right, How I Met Your Mother fans. When the CBS sitcom returns on Monday, September 22, at 8:30pm EST for its fourth season, Scrubs star Sarah Chalke will return, as well, to reprise her role as doctor and potential mother of Ted’s children Stella Zinman. If you’re a Reno 911! fan, also making a guest appearance as a paramedic is Cedric Yarbrough, better known as Deputy S. Jones on the Comedy Central improv series.

Other than that, the description of the season premiere “Do I Know You?” is pretty straightforward: Stella gives Ted a response to his marriage proposal, and Barney realizes he has a love thang for Robin. I’m actually most eager to learn how the second plot will work out since Barney and Robin are my two favorite Mother characters and have been from the beginning.

Here’s a look at the episode’s guest cast:

Guest Cast

• Stella Zinman: Sarah Chalke
• Mark Johnson: Kyles Archer
• Sexy Blonde: Nicole Taylor
• Paramedic #1: Cedric Yarbrough
• Angela: Dana De Celis
• Maxine: Annie Abrams
• Jessica: Camila Greenberg
• April: Heidi Lynne Herschbach
• Bartender: Alonza Maxwell
• Chili Dog Kid: Sidney Liss

Joss Whedon rocks, as if you didn’t already know. Now he’s teamed up with Hulu and several other video-sharing websites to offer Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the phenomenally popular, server-crashing comedy musical starring How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris and Firefly’s Nathan Fillion, online again for free. The run starts today and will reportedly last for the next four months. Commercials are included, however, which I don’t mind one teeny bit.

There’s even better news for those who are hearing impaired or require subtitles for whatever reason — Team Whedon has even added closed captions. What was that I said about “rocks”? Making your online video accessible is priceless for so many. Now on to Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer in the masterpiece that wowed Interneters far and wide upon its original release… [ just follow the jump ]

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TV Guide recently caught up with How I Met Your Mother’s Neil Patrick Harris at McGee’s Pub and Restaurant, the real New York counterpart of the McClaren’s hangout on the show.

Always obliging, everybody’s favorite ladies man seemed more than happy to talk about his most notable and controversial hookups on HIMYM this past season, meaning Cobie Smulders’ Robin and Britney Spears’ Abby, of course. Listen in on the conversation in the following video.

Original Air Date: May 12, 2008

This episode is all about Lily and Marshall selling some of their stuff to raise the funds they need to get the slanted floor in their new apartment fixed, as well as Barney and Abby (Guest Star Britney Spears) getting revenge on Ted for dumping them both.

When still-jobless Marshall learns it’s going to cost $1500, much more than the estimate, to repair the floor in his and Lily’s new apartment, he decides she needs to sell some of her expensive clothes online since his dowdy clothes aren’t the kind of things people would actually pay money for.

After setting up lilyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com (a real website that I’ve been unable to access — must be a lot of server traffic), Lily — reluctant to get rid of her nice clothes, no matter how eager Robin is to buy them — comes up with the alternative plan of selling three of her colorful, abstract paintings for $500 each within a week.

She has no success at first because, as Marshall is scared to admit to her, they’re not like “real” paintings by “real” artists. Thus, Lily is almost ready to give up when a G-CWOK (gay couple without kids) saves the day. They happen by and buy one of her paintings for the entire asking price.

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