Mad About You


Mad About You is an American sitcom television series starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a married couple in New York City.
It initially aired on NBC from September 23, 1992 to May 24, 1999, winning numerous awards including four Golden Globe Awards and twelve Primetime Emmy Awards. On March 6, 2019, a limited series revival was picked up by Spectrum Originals for 12 episodes.

Plot

The series focuses mainly on newlyweds Paul Buchman, a documentary filmmaker, and Jamie Stemple Buchman, a public relations specialist, as they deal with everything from humorous daily minutiae to major struggles. Near the end of the show's run, they have a baby daughter, whom they name Mabel.

Production

Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser were paid $1 million per episode for the last season. However, ratings fell sharply that year as the series was shuffled away from its Tuesday slot to prop up a fledgling Monday night line-up of comedies on NBC.
The show's theme song, "Final Frontier", was composed by Reiser and Don Was. It was originally performed by Andrew Gold, but a version performed by Anita Baker made its debut at the beginning of the sixth season. Baker's rendering, in addition to Gold's, was used on several episodes of the last two seasons, and appears on the show's soundtrack album. Gold's version is available on the collection Thank You for Being a Friend: The Best of Andrew Gold.
Exterior views of buildings were filmed in Manhattan. Paul and Jamie's New York City Apartment was located at 5th Avenue and 12th Street. The Old Town Bar and Restaurant on 45 E. 18th Street was used for the fictional Riff's Restaurant in the series.

Revival

In April 2018, it was announced that Sony Pictures Television would revive the show with the two lead actors reprising their roles, though Reiser expressed doubt about it in July 2018. In September 2018, Reiser stated that the revival was still on the table, but that "the studio needs to figure out if they know how to do it."
On March 6, 2019, the series was revived for an eighth season by Spectrum Originals, described as a 12-episode limited series, with Reiser and Hunt confirmed to reprise their roles. On September 5, 2019, it was announced that the first six episodes of the revival would premiere on November 20, 2019, and another six episodes would be released on December 18, 2019. The series is available in a traditional manner in Canada, with its episodes airing on the CTV Comedy Channel.
Many of the main and recurring cast members reprised their roles for the revival. The most notable former main cast member not to reprise her role was Leila Kenzle, who played Jamie's best friend, Fran Devanow. Kenzle retired from acting in 2003 and became a psychotherapist. Fran's husband, Mark, does return in the revival, but the character is now remarried.

Cast and characters

Original run (1992–1999)

Main
Recurring
Notable guest stars
Main
Returning
Recurring
Other

Crossovers

Mad About You has had numerous connections to other NBC sitcoms set in New York City, as well as various other programs.
Friends : Lisa Kudrow played the recurring role of Ursula, a flaky waitress at Riff's Bar, a local restaurant that Paul and Jamie frequented. Kudrow went on to star in the NBC sitcom Friends, playing the also somewhat flaky character of Phoebe Buffay, and for a time both series shared the same Thursday night line-up. While not originally intended, the characters of Ursula and Phoebe were later found to be identical twin sisters. In a Friends episode, as part of a night of NBC sitcom crossovers, Jamie and Fran walk into Central Perk and mistake Phoebe for Ursula. Hunt and Kenzle were not identified on screen as Jamie and Fran. In the season three episode "Pandora's Box", Jamie causes a citywide power blackout in New York City, and the effects of the blackout are seen in the Friends episode, "The One with the Blackout", and there was also a blackout in the episode "Birthday in the Big House" of the short-lived NBC sitcom Madman of the People. All three episodes originally aired during the evening of November 3, 1994, alongside a Seinfeld episode which did not incorporate the blackout premise.
Seinfeld: In one episode, Paul, pressured by Jamie, decides to sign over the lease of his old "bachelor pad" to the current tenant who is subleasing. When the tenant is revealed to be Cosmo Kramer of Seinfeld, Paul asks Kramer "What ever happened to that Jerry guy who used to live there?" Seinfeld, however, twice contradicted this connection, once even featuring a running joke about George's distaste for his fiancée Susan's fondness for watching Mad About You. In the Mad About You season seven episode "Season Opener", Paul, under the effects of Viagra, ran into Jerry Seinfeld in the street, who tells Paul to go away. At this point in Seinfelds chronology, Jerry Seinfeld was supposed to be in prison.
The Dick Van Dyke Show: Carl Reiner reprised the role of Alan Brady from the 1960s sitcom. The episode made several references to the older show, such as Jamie at one point crying and whining "Oh, Paul!" – a take on Mary Tyler Moore's character Laura Petrie's frequent refrain "Oh, Rob!" – Ten episodes earlier, Paul almost trips over a box and says, "Get me, I'm Dick Van Dyke."
Style & Substance: In the 2019 revival, Jean Smart appeared as Chelsea Stevens-Kobolakis, a controlling, abrasive, short-tempered character that she had previously portrayed in showrunner Peter Tolan's short-lived 1998 series. Paul and Jamie attend a weekend team-building workshop that Chelsea hosts, mistakenly thinking that it's the marriage counseling seminar which is being held in a nearby room.

Nielsen ratings

Mad About You won a Golden Globe Award, a Peabody Award, a Genesis Award, received five Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, and was chosen Best Quality Comedy by the Viewers for Quality Television. Helen Hunt won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Comedy Series four years in a row.

Media

Soundtrack

In 1997, Atlantic Records released a Mad About You soundtrack. The soundtrack from and inspired by the sitcom, is composed of fun and sentimental songs and clips from the show. The tracks are organized chronologically marking the milestones of the couple's relationship. The album is bookended by the two versions of Paul Reiser's song "Final Frontier"—the first track is the classic version used in the show's opening, and the last track is Anita Baker's jazzy, full-length rendition, with Reiser on keyboard. The 21 tracks are as follows:
  1. "Final Frontier " – Andrew Gold
  2. "Who I Am" – Faith Hill
  3. "No Pressure" – Paul Reiser & Helen Hunt
  4. "I've Been Lonely Too Long" – The Young Rascals
  5. "At Last" – Etta James
  6. "That's Marriage?" – Paul Reiser & Helen Hunt
  7. "Ice Cream" – Sarah McLachlan
  8. "I Love the Way You Love Me" – Eric Martin
  9. "Nobody Knows Me" – Lyle Lovett
  10. "Sneaky Feelings" – Elvis Costello
  11. "A Talk in the Park" – Paul Reiser & Helen Hunt
  12. "Love and Forgiveness" – Julia Fordham
  13. "A Magic Moment" – Paul Reiser & Helen Hunt
  14. "The Things We've Handed Down" – Marc Cohn
  15. "Lullaby for You" – BeBe Winans
  16. "She Crawls Away" – Hootie & the Blowfish
  17. "My First Child" – Nil Lara
  18. "Beautiful Boy " – John Lennon
  19. "Baby Girl" – The Tony Rich Project
  20. "Unconditional Love" – Paul Reiser & Helen Hunt
  21. "Mad About You – The Final Frontier" – Anita Baker

    Home media

has released the first three seasons of Mad About You on DVD in Region 1 and 4. The first two seasons were also released in Region 2. Due to poor sales, no subsequent seasons were released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
In February 2010, Shout! Factory acquired the rights to release the remaining seasons of Mad About You on DVD. They subsequently released seasons 4 and 5 on DVD.
On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including Mad About You. They subsequently re-released the first and second seasons on DVD on August 5, 2014.
Mill Creek released the complete series on a 14-DVD set on May 3, 2016.
As of August 1, 2019, the entire series has been available to Spectrum subscribers as part of the run-up to the premiere of the revival series.

Season releases

Best-of releases

Adaptations

A Chinese adaptation aired on Dragon TV on January 4, 2016. An Argentine remake titled Loco por vos aired on Telefe in August, 2016.