Bryan Cranston's career has seen him star in some of the most critically acclaimed TV series in recent memory, and he even had a brief stint on How I Met Your Mother. No stranger to sitcoms, Cranston rose to prominence through his ongoing role on the series Malcolm in the Middle from 2000 to 2006, and he was known to many as a comedic actor when he landed his role on How I Met Your Mother. Though he would quickly gain a reputation as a dramatic performer as well, Cranston never lost his ability to make audiences laugh.
Though his time on HIMYM was incredibly short, the seasoned veteran managed to make a lasting impact on the series, and help steer the direction of Ted's career. While Cranston's was one of the least likable secondary characters in HIMYM, he was funny enough to make up for his obvious social deficiencies and was as verbose as many of the people the gang encountered. Ironically, Bryan Cranston's future Breaking Bad co-star Bob Odenkirk would play a very similar character after Cranston departed the series. Coming just a few years before his breakout role in Breaking Bad, Cranston's short run on HIMYM was his last hurrah as a sitcom star.
Bryan Cranston Played Hammond Druthers On How I Met Your Mother
First appearing in HIMYM, season 2, episode 6, "Aldrin Justice", Cranston played Hammond Druthers, Ted's boss at the architecture firm who used his standing as a superior to treat others poorly. In this episode "Aldrin Justice", Lily was temporarily hired as an assistant at the firm, and her theft of Hammond's thrice-signed Pete Rose baseball eventually got her fired. Other Breaking Bad actors appeared on HIMYM, but Cranston's Druthers was one of the few characters to return in a subsequent episode and actually see somewhat of an arc.
In his second appearance, HIMYM, season 2, episode 13, "Columns", Druthers' standing had fallen, and yet he couldn't resist still being a jerk to his co-workers to the point that Ted didn't take his actual heart attack seriously. Even so, Druthers was a character that showed off how good of a person Ted was, and the beleaguered architect was often kind to his former superior even after being treated poorly. Druthers' final appearance came in HIMYM, season 9, episode 9, "Platonish", when he offered Ted a job in Chicago that he eventually rejected.
Hammond Helped Push Ted's Career Forward
Even though he was a tyrant and a bully, Hammond Druthers actually helped Ted's career through his own incompetence. In one of the many examples of Lily's "Aldrin Justice", Ted was inspired by her practice to finally stand up for himself. In the "Aldrin Justice" episode, Hammond presented his clients with a design that was decidedly phallic, and that blunder allowed Ted to swoop in with his better plan. Even if he didn't do it out of the kindness of his own heart, Hammond Druthers was one of the most pivotal characters in Ted's How I Met Your Mother arc, and paved the way for his success.