SmallScreen
52 AMERICANWAY
JANUARY 1 2009
ELEPHANTSMAKEHER CRY.
“My favorite book is
Modoc, TheTrueStory of theGreatest Elephant That
Ever Lived
,” Hannigan admits. “It’s this story of this elephant, his trainer, and their journey that is just
so touching and so unbelievable. You have to have someKleenex to read it.”
SHE’SWATCHING YOU.
“I used to love to people-watch at the airport,” she says. “It’s harder now be-
cause I’m the one people are looking at, but I love the interaction and seeingpeople get off planes and
the peoplewho greet them. I completely dissect everyone inmymind.”
SHE’S CRAFTY.
“I’m obsessed with crafts— like, Martha Stewart crafts,” says Hannigan. “I have my
own craft room inmy house. I think I keepMichaels in business. Right now, I’m on a big card-making
kick, likepop-up cards. I havemy friends over andwe’ll have card-makingparties forValentine’sDayorwhat-
ever holidaywe can think of. I’m a nerd!”
SHE HAS A BACKUP PLAN.
“I went to college because, obviously, knowingwhat the business is like, I
knew that I needed something to fall back on,” she says. “I choseCal State, Northridge because itwas
close and I could still audition. I studied psychology andwent for two years, and then I got a job that was
shooting out of town for threeweeks, so I figured, ‘Okay, I’ll take this semester off, and then I’ll go back next
year.’ But that never happenedbecause I continued towork.”
SHE’SA TEAM PLAYER.
“We have amazingwriters [on
How IMet YourMother
],” she says. “If you had
sat me down at the beginning of
Buffy
, there’s noway I would have come upwith anything nearly as
good aswhat [
Buffy
creator] JossWhedon came upwith. That’swhy he’s Joss and I’mme.”
SHE REALLY DOES LIKE HER
HOW I MET YOURMOTHER
COSTARS.
“People can have great chemistry
on camera and hate each other off of it,” Hannigan says. “[Butwith our cast,] the chemistry happened
right away, and itwas just one of those special things. In fact, I thought itwas probably a curse on the show
becausewe got along sowell and thereweren’t any attitude cases. It’s just really, really good luck.”
STANDINGONTHE EDGEOFACLIFF,
gun
inhand, JackBauer (playedbyKiefer Suther-
land) ponderedhis futureas thefinal seconds
of
24
’s sixth season ticked away more than
a year and a half ago. Fresh from helping his
country avert yet another catastrophe and
having just been forced to walk away from
the woman he loved, our unflappable hero
suddenly seemed, well, flappable. Had Jack
finally been beaten?Of course not! Butwhen
24
’s long-awaited andmuch-delayed (due to
theHollywoodwriters’ strike) seventh season
finally arrives onFox thismonth, viewerswill
see Jack as they’ve never seen himbefore.
“Jack has taken on a much more existen-
tial existence,” contends executive producer
Howard Gordon. “He is at a place that’s dark
even by
24
standards.” That probablymeans
seasonseven (dayseven in
24
time)won’tfind
Jack leisurely tossing one back at the corner
pub. As the day begins, he is inWashington,
D.C., testifyingbeforeaSenate subcommittee
on charges of illegal detention and torture.
“He is subjected to this grand inquisition and
is forced to defend himself,” Gordon explains.
“Theway Jack acquits himself is fairly heroic,
if somewhat dark. He has a posture this year
that is really intriguing.”
It won’t surprise longtime viewers to
learn that Jack’s season-opening appearance
YOU KNOW ALYSON HANNIGAN’S ON-SCREEN ROUTINE:
floating like a butterfly and
stinging like a bee with a sweet demeanor and a plethora of naughty punch lines. She
gained attentionfirst byplayingWillowRosenberg on the cult-hit series
Buffy theVampire
Slayer
,which ran from 1997 to 2003, and thenbymaking beautifulmusicwith JasonBiggs
as band-camp girl and flute aficionadoMichelle Flaherty in the
American Pie
trilogy.
But ever since the debut of her hit CBS series
How I Met YourMother
, now in its fourth
season,we’ve been less concernedwith themysteriousmaternal title character andmore
interested in learning about this 34-year-old auburn-haired beauty. Here are six things you
probably didn’t know about her.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
And not an hour too soon,
as
24
(finally) starts the clock
again. ByTravis Kinsey
Jack’s
Back!
The cast of
How IMet YourMother
, with
AlysonHannigan second from the left
