Who's aged better: NPH or Fred Savage?

The braintrust here at "Happiness ..." has made its admiration of Neil Patrick Harris no secret. In a quality ensemble cast, he has carried "How I Met Your Mother" to unprecedented heights this season. He also thrilled the Joss Whedon fanboys and girls with his title role last year in the online musical, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog".

So NPH's appearance Saturday Night Live this weekend was a welcome escape from an otherwise mediocre run of hosts this season.

Harris described in his tongue-in-cheek opening monologue how, at the height of his "Doogie Howser, M.D." fame, he was beaten out by fellow child actor Fred Savage of "The Wonder Years" for an SNL hosting gig. Describing how he watched that cursed episode again and again, he recalls breaking down Savage's flawed comedic timing until Harris' girlfriend demanded to know why he wouldn't kiss her.

"That was a long time ago," Harris said to knowing laughter from an audience who remembered his coming-out party several years ago. Then Fred Armisen and a couple other male cast members jump out of the audience to goof on Harris and make a couple "You know how I met your mother?" jokes. Apparently it's all just a set-up to let Andy Samberg trot out his goofy "Say hello to your mother" impersonation of Mark Wahlberg.

Harris gets a lot of skit time with SNL star Kristen Wiig. He's Ian Price, the pelvic thrusting fitness guru shilling his new dance workout, to Wiig's loopy and half-aroused Kathy Lee Gifford in a biting take on the painfully bad fourth hour of NBC's Today Show. (I'm sure the suits at NBC loved that.)

Then he's therapist Dr. Hamill to her stock character Penelope, who disrupts NPH's group therapy session by trying to one-up everybody with her own ridiculous tales. A nice cameo by Liza Minelli to show that Penelope's best friends really are Liza Minelli and a tomato.

But SNL could have done better by NPH. (Must ... stop ... writing ... in ... acronyms!) A skit with Harris portraying Mark, the scarf-wearing, hipster doofus from "Rent", in a brainstorming session with a bunch of other well-known musical characters trying to salvage Broadway in the economic downturn, was worth the set-up.

But a skit about a talk show devoted entirely to celebrities with two first names? And after watching Dr. Horrible several times, a digital short that settles for Harris playing the theme song to "Doogie Howser, M.D." on a keyboard doesn't measure up.