That was James Van Der Beek, formerly of Dawson's Creek.

Oh he was that guy? Sorry, he's not listed on the cast on IMDB for that ep and I couldn't remember the character's name. Kagan is listed as the character Joel Adams in that ep. (Who was he, or is IMDB completely messed up w/r/t this ep?)

Hmm, I don't remember a Joel Adams in this episode.

me neither, but i'm not all that surprised that something on imdb is screwy.

And here I always thought IMDB was more reliable than other sources. Live and learn.

I am sad that I have missed the new Office episodes.

Back to HIMYM:

These amused me at the time but the allusions went by me until now:

Barney: Tell me more. Tell me more. Like did he have a car?

This is a reference to the lines of a song from the musical Grease called "Summer Nights". With the song, Sandy and Danny, the lead characters in the play, describe to their friends how their brief summer love affair went.

Barney: Finish Him!!

This is an allusion to the video game "Mortal Kombat". When you KOed (knocked out) your opponent, he stood once again to receive the coup de grace while those words were showed on the screen.

eta: the pilot script [link]

I thought that JJ's Canadian accent was good (it reminded me a bit of Michael Hogan as Col. Tigh) but people at TWOP (or some people at TWOP) thought he sounded more Irish - what did you guys think? Because I didn't think he sounded at all Irish.

It sounded vaguely Scottish to me, though he did tone it down to a more typically Canadian/Minnesotan dialect by the end.

But I think that there are Canadian accents that do sound vaguely Scottish.

It sounded vaguely Scottish to me,

me too.

Me three. But, since my housemate told me Dawson is Canadian, I figured I just didn't know any better.

Ugly Betty is back tonight! I've really missed this show.