McGee’s Pub – The Inspiration for MacLaren’s on “How I Met Your Mother”

I have never been a film location purist.  I am just as happy visiting spots that have appeared onscreen as I am touring those that have provided inspiration for sets – as evidenced here, here and here.  So while in New York in April 2016 I just had to pop by McGee’s Pub, aka the watering hole that MacLaren’s Pub from How I Met Your Mother was based upon.  I first learned about the place and its small screen cachet while penning this article for Los Angeles magazine in 2014 and promptly added it to my NYC To-Stalk List.  Though I later discovered that Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) and Barney Stinson’s (Neil Patrick Harris) favorite hangout was actually modeled after four different Manhattan bars, since McGee’s is the only one still in operation today (well, in its original state, at least) and the one most often associated with the show, I figured it was worthy of its own post.

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How I Met Your Mother was the brainchild of producing partners Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, who, like main characters Ted and Marshall, met while attending Wesleyan University.  After graduation, the duo moved to New York together and landed a gig writing for the Late Show with David Letterman in 1997.  During their five-year stint there, they would often grab drinks at McGee’s, located right around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater where Letterman was lensed.  In 2002, the two headed to Los Angeles with the hopes of helming a television series.  They pitched How I Met Your Mother to CBS in 2005 and the rest is history.

In a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bays explained that he and Thomas followed a common adage when penning the series – “Write what you know, not what you think you want to see.”  As such, they based the two main characters on themselves – Ted is modeled after Carter and Marshall after Craig – and styled their regular hangout like several places the duo patronized while living in NYC.  As chronicled in an April 2008 CBS Watch article, McHale’s (a Times Square favorite at 750 8th Avenue that closed in 2006 – you can see photos of it here and here) “lent its dark atmosphere,” Chumley’s (a beloved onetime speakeasy at 86 Bedford Street in the West Village that suffered severe structural damage in 2007, was gutted, redesigned, and finally reopened 9 years later looking much different than its original self) “inspired some of MacLaren’s more rustic touches,” Fez (an Upper West Side Moroccan eatery at 2330 Broadway that shuttered in 2006) “gave the writers the idea to put a few round booths at the back of their TV bar,” and McGee’s “features the model for MacLaren’s WPA-era mural on its back wall.”  (McGee’s mural and the one it inspired are both pictured below.  Surprisingly, they don’t really resemble each other at all.)  Bay and Thomas named their fictional watering hole after Bay’s production assistant, Carl MacLaren.

McGee’s Pub and Restaurant, christened in honor of Ed Sullivan Show cameraman Willie McGee, was originally founded in a small space on the bottom floor of the Ed Sullivan Theater at 1697 Broadway in 1983.  You can see what it looked like at the time here.  (That site is now home to Angelo’s Pizza.)  When Letterman moved into the venue, the theater was extensively renovated and, in conjunction, McGee’s was forced to vacate in July 1995 in order to make way for a more high end restaurant.  Owner Pete Fitzpatrick subsequently found a new, larger space right around the corner at 240 West 55th Street.

Though the more ritzy eatery brought in to replace McGee’s folded in a scant 22 months, McGee’s is still going strong today.  The 3-story restaurant boasts 22 TVs, 2 bars, an internet jukebox, and a private events suite known as the Symphony Room.

While the bar’s exterior looks nothing like the exterior of MacLaren’s Pub (which was just a façade on the 20th Century Fox Studios backlot in Century City) . . .

. . . the interior of McGee’s is very reminiscent of its onscreen counterpart.

While not exactly carbon copies, MacLaren’s and McGee’s have a decidedly similar atmosphere.

Thanks to its red booths, low lighting, and heavily adorned walls, I truly felt like I was hanging out at Ted and Marshall’s favorite place while at McGee’s.  Though I have to say that the original Chumley’s was a place I visited regularly when it was in operation and it, too, had an extremely similar ambiance to MacLaren’s.  So Carter and Thomas did a superb job of incorporating the aura of both sites into their set design.

For those location purists unlike me who think a visit to McGee’s is a waste of time being that How I Met Your Mother never actually filmed on the premises, there are countless photos displayed of the cast hanging out at the bar (like the one below which comes from the restaurant’s Facebook page), autographs and clippings galore, as well as a myriad of HIMYM-inspired menu items, such as The Accidental Curly Fry Basket, The Bro Code Combo, and the Suit Up Sandwich, to satisfy any true fan.

On a How I Met Your Mother side-note – Thanks to my friend Marie, I got to visit 20th Century Fox Studios back in November 2014.  The lot isn’t typically open to the public and being there was definitely one of the highlights of my stalking career thus far.  During the tour, we were even taken by the MacLaren’s exterior.  Though the series had ceased filming almost a year prior, I was thrilled to see that the façade still looked much the same as it did onscreen.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 

Stalk It: McGee’s Pub, which served as the inspiration for MacLaren’s Pub on How I Met Your Mother, is located at 240 West 55th Street in New York’s Midtown West neighborhood.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.