He’s come a long way since wearing those Doogie shoes

Neil Patrick Harris‘ latest role might be described as “dress for excess.”

As Barney, the slick, self-styled ladies’ man of CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” (Mondays at 8:30 p.m.), Harris wears sharp suits, spouts goofy catchphrases (“Suit up!”) and gives off an oiliness that would make OPEC proud.

“I rarely get the chance to play somebody so extreme. I’m often the sort of average, Everyman role,” says the boyish Harris, 32, whom most viewers first met half his life ago when he played teen doctor “Doogie Howser, M.D.”

“I love that (Barney) gets funny punch lines and ridiculous plotlines.”

The show’s producers became interested in Harris after seeing him take another image detour, playing himself – albeit a fictional, wild-and-crazy version – in the 2004 movie “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.”

“We had originally thought (Barney) was Belushi-esque, a fat, hard-drinking kind of character,” says Craig Thomas, who created the show with Carter Bays.

Then, he says, “We saw Neil in ‘Harold & Kumar’ … and thought he was so hysterically, scene-stealingly funny in this interesting, dark, sort of subversive way. He came in and auditioned, and it completely changed our perception of the character.”

In addition to “Mother,” the New Mexico native also will appear in the CBS movie “The Christmas Blessing” (next Sunday at 9 p.m.).

Harris was looking to get back into television. He had been working in theater in London, New York and Los Angeles, appearing in “Assassins” on Broadway and in an L.A. production of “Rent.”

Harris, who played a germophobe in the short-lived 1999 sitcom “Stark Raving Mad,” says he’s proud of all his earlier characters but hopes a long, successful run for “Mother” could let viewers remember him for more than “Doogie.”

The new role already is having an effect, he says: “People throw catchphrases at me: ‘Hey, suit up! Hey, Legendary!’ “

Harris also has brought a bit of himself to Barney. A connoisseur of magic tricks, the actor improvised in the show’s Halloween episode. While wearing a devil costume, he snapped his finger and sparked a flame.

“No one was expecting it,” he says.

Barney’s outrageousness can cause trouble for Ted (Josh Radnor), the narrator recounting for his children how he met their mother. In one episode, Barney’s sneaky, lowbrow effort to pick up women at the airport results in the pair being interrogated by security officers.

So why would cautious, levelheaded Ted stay friends with him?

“Ted pauses before he does anything, and Barney’s the kind of guy telling him not to pause and throwing him into the situation. He’s like Ted’s detachable id,” Radnor says.

So Barney may have redeeming qualities. Just don’t expect to see them all at once.

Says Harris: “They’re adding a dollop of humanity every six or seven episodes.”

The birthday bunch

Game-show host Bob Barker is 82. Singer Connie Francis is 67. Singer Dionne Warwick is 65. Singer-guitarist Dickey Betts (Allman Brothers) is 62. Actor Wings Hauser is 58. Actress Sheree J. Wilson (“Walker, Texas Ranger”) is 47. Singer-percussionist Sheila E. is 46. Actress Jennifer Connelly is 35. Actress Mayim Bialik (“Blossom”) is 30.