HIMYM Creator Says Barney’s Neediness Is Actually ‘Poignant and Moving’: ‘He’s Such a Broken Man’

How I Met Your Mother co-creator Craig Thomas and star Josh Radnor are experiencing all the feels rewatching Barney Stinson’s early days.

On the latest episode of their How We Made Your Mother podcast, the hosts took a look back at the third episode of the beloved sitcom’s very first season in 2005, which found Neil Patrick Harris’ Barney dragging Radnor’s Ted to the airport to try to pick up women.

Thomas recalled writers, Phil Lord and Chris Miller — co-creators of MTV’s Clone High, who would go on to direct The Lego Movie and the animated Spider-Verse films — describing the episode as “a Barney cartoon” that pushed the character to ever more outlandish antics.

“They really they ran with that,” Thomas, 49, said. “They just ran with ‘make it a cartoon.’ ”

But upon rewatching the episode, Thomas admitted that he was actually quite moved by Harris’ character.

“The emotion I liked behind it is just how pathetic it kind of is,” he said of Barney’s airport scheme. “My favorite thing about Barney and rewatching it is just, he’s such a broken man.”

“I find it, like, so, like, poignant and moving in a way to watch how needy Barney is in these early episodes. Like, more so than I remember,” Thomas explained. “He just wants Ted to think his idea is cool and go along with it. That’s it. He just wants Ted’s approval.”

Radnor, 50, had a similar reaction to the episode.

“I had the experience watching it where I felt like, ‘I wish Ted was a little more game, and I wish Barney would be a little less excited,’ ” the actor said.

Thomas explained that Lord and Miller’s idea for the episode was that Ted would be “the voice of reason.”

“He’s sort of the human being interacting with an animated character,” Thomas said.

But watching his own character, Radnor said, “I was like, ‘You should go along with this. This could be fun.’ ”

Thomas noted that as the show went on, the characters evolved to a place where Ted was more willing to go all in on Barney’s shenanigans.

“We got there more later,” Radnor agreed. “Ted softens. He realizes some of the best nights of his life are created by this madman, and it’s better to just go along with them.”