Last night the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored How I Met Your Mother DVD, at an event that saw a packed audience enthusiastically greet the stars and creators of the show. Beforehand, I had the chance to speak to two of the show's stars, Josh Radnor ("Ted Mosby") and Neil Patrick Harris ("Barney Stinson"), about a series that has defied the odds by gradually growing in the ratings, even after four seasons.

Speaking about being honored at such an event, Radnor said, "It's really nice. It's been such a slow and steady built that it doesn't feel like it came out of nowhere. We've been around for awhile and we have this great fanbase that seems to be growing. Critics have always been so supportive of us, so it just feels great."

I asked Radnor if he'd felt the growing word of mouth on the series, and he referenced the fact that How I Met Your Mother DVD can be seen on certain airplane flights, saying, "I think so. People have flown American Airlines enough and their friends have turned them on to it. Also iTunes and all that stuff, all that really helps. I think you only have to watch the show two or three times and you go, 'Wait a minute… this is consistently funny and smart and poignant and I want to keep watching.'"

For the past two seasons, fans of the show have been teased by references and glimpses of Ted walking into his apartment and finding a goat there, which he constantly puts off explaining. I asked Radnor the secret of the goat had been revealed to him, and he replied, "In fact it has, and that's all I'll say!"

Both of the female stars of How I Met Your Mother, Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders, are pregnant right now, but their pregnancies will not be written into the show. Radnor explained, "We actually ended up shooting the season finale early because of various pregnancies going on. So there was some athleticism that was required in that, so yeah, I do know about the goat… but you, my friend, will have to wait!"

Neil Patrick Harris' character Barney is a serial womanizer on the show, but lately has found himself lovesick when it comes to Cobie Smulders' Robin. Harris and I talked about the storyline and he noted, "I think it's important for the audience to see that Barney isn't just this sort of tool on the show – that he has some sort of conscience, somewhere. And I think that's what makes him relatable, is that as much as you think that he's ridiculous, you can every once in awhile see that he's sort of suppressing other sincere feelings."

Harris said that personally, he loved doing the storyline, because, "I think that Cobie Smulders is just kick ass fantastic and that anyone who gets to act in scenes with her wants to do more scenes with her, myself included." As for what promoted the Barney loves Robin plotline, Harris remarked, "I think when chemistry is strong you notice it. And I like working with her a lot. She's great."

As to Mother's increased ratings of late, Harris said, "I think the syndication deal had a lot to do with that. It's not like we've had some major resurgence as much as once a show starts airing every day and you sort of notice it's more in the cultural vernacular that you think it's a bigger hit show, because of that fact. So I think we got a big bump because of that and frankly, Dancing with the Stars isn't on the air right now, so that helps our ratings!"

Harris said that Mother's current status "Is great. As long as we're maintaining ratings and we're skewing well with the demographic that they want, then we'll get to stick around, and by sticking around, we get to have a great time and we can play house with each other, and I love doing that."