Spoiler Alert: This article includes spoilers for the 7th March episode of “How I Met Your Father”.
The popular sitcom, How I Met Your Father, recently surprised fans with a cameo from the beloved character, Lizzie McGuire.
The Lizzie McGuire cameo in How I Met Your Father was a delightful surprise for fans of both shows. It was a touching tribute to a beloved character and a testament to the enduring appeal of Hilary Duff’s on-screen persona. Duff herself shared a clip of the scene on her Instagram, hinting the fans not to miss this week’s episode.
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In this Tuesday’s episode of How I Met Your Father, “A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Valentine’s Day,” a short flashback scene aired featuring Sophie (played by Hilary Duff) recounting her worst Valentine’s Day experience. The show utilized footage from Lizzie McGuire, Duff’s former Disney Channel show, where a young Duff flirts with her first boyfriend Ronnie (played by Joe Rokicki) on the phone. While Sophie’s friends interrupted her story, it’s likely that she was going to reveal that Ronnie broke her heart by dumping her for another girl. The scene from Lizzie McGuire shown in the episode is from its second season premiere in February 2002.
It seems like Sophie and Lizzie could be the same person, but executive producer Elizabeth Berger doesn’t confirm it. She shared that they thought it would be a fun idea to bring Lizzie into their world for a moment, and that Duff approved of the concept. While talking about the hunt for the perfect scene to fit in, Berger shared that: “It was just us combing through and finding the clip that made sense for the episode. But as soon as we heard the idea, everyone got on board immediately. It was a very easy creative process.”
The idea to include old footage from Lizzie McGuire into Duff’s new comedy, according to showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, originated with Amy-Jo Perry, the episode’s writer. “We all loved it, but the first thing we had to do was immediately fire off a text to Hilary and be like, ‘How do you feel about this?'” Berger said. “And she’s the best — if she thinks it’s funny, she totally is on board. It took her all of 10 seconds to be like, ‘Yes, obviously, we have to do that.'”
Hilary Duff shared that she distinctly remembered the conversation with Berger and executive producer Isaac Aptaker, when they asked whether she would be open to participating in the flashback. She stated: “I was like, ‘Of course I’d be okay with it!’ Lizzie makes people happy. The fact that we could tie it into this show, I was obsessed with it. I loved it,” she said. “Someone asked if Sophie would have been a ‘Lizzie McGuire’ fan, I was like, ‘Heck yes, Sophie watched Lizzie McGuire. She came home from school and watched.’” She also admitted that: “it’s hard not to see the similarities” between Lizzie and Sophie, adding, “They’d definitely be friends.”
They didn’t need to obtain any further special clearances to utilize the material, according to a report. Berger shared that, “It’s so easy because Lizzie was a Disney Channel show and we work for Walt Disney Television, so it’s all the same big corporate umbrella. That makes it all very, very seamless.” The two showrunners explained that after the Disney+ revival was canceled in 2020, using Lizzie McGuire footage was their way of doing justice to the fans. Berger said, “Yeah, we can give people a tiny taste of what they didn’t get with that reboot. We just try and give everybody every experience they can ever dream of. That was really fun to do.”
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From 2001 through 2004, “Lizzie McGuire” aired on the Disney Channel for two seasons. 2003 saw the release of “The Lizzie McGuire Movie”. Although a Disney+ revival show of the Emmy-nominated series was in development in 2019, it was put on hold the following year. Duff and the program’s original creator Terri Minsky wanted to direct the show for an 18+ audience, but Disney+ preferred that it stay family-friendly. Eventually, the project was shelved.
Fortunately, Lizzie, as well as another past Duff endeavor could be honored on “How I Met Your Father”. In Season 2, John Corbett, who played the actor’s teacher in the 2004 film “Lift Your Voice,” appeared as Sophie’s new love interest. While talking about John, Duff shared that, “At first it took me by surprise and then I was like, ‘Yes of course, why not?’ He’s great and such a good looking guy — an older gentleman. It took a second for me to wrap my head around it and I was like, great we’re all actors. Just doing our job. We have great chemistry, who would have known? He’s a big guy with big ideas and I loved it. He did not want to leave. He had never done multi-cam and was sad to go.”
Every Tuesday, new episodes of How I Met Your Father are aired on Hulu.
