‘Rise’ Fans Keep Seeing ‘HIMYM’s Ted in Josh Radnor’s Performance

Rise fans are having trouble looking past Josh Radnor’s past performances.

The actor, who plays English teacher and head of drama department Lou Mazzuchelli, rose to prominence for playing the role of Ted Mosby on the critically acclaimed series How I Met Your Mother for over 200 episodes. And fans of the new NBC high school drama can’t seem to forget it.

“I kind of like this new show [Rise] but I can’t get over that the drama teacher is Ted Mosby,” one Twitter user wrote. “I expect him to start whining about not finding ‘the one’ and a stupid yellow umbrella.”

During Tuesday’s all new episode, Lou and Tracy (Rosie Perez) fought to get more money for the theater department, as Lou dealt with his eldest son Gordy’s (Casey Johnson) drinking problem.

Fans were also shocked by the announcement Simon’s (Ted Sutherland) were planning to enroll him in a Catholic private school to keep him from playing a gay character in Stanton High’s production of Spring Awakening.

Aside from comparing Lou with HIMYM‘s Ted, fans were also quick to criticize the high school drama teacher for being rude and narcissistic at times.

While others praised the teacher for inspiring his students to perform their best and move past their insecurities.

The character of Lou Mazzuchelli was the cause of controversy even before the NBC drama series premiered on March 13. The person the character is based on, Lou Volpe, from the book Drama High, was gay in the book, and creator Jason Katims was criticized of straight-washing the story for the series.

However, Katims said he only used the book as an inspiration to make his wn story, as he did with Friday Night Lights and Parenthood.

Rise airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.