Mad About You - General Discussion

[Rinaldo]

With the current showing of this series, multiple times a day, on FXX, I've been enjoying making this show's reacquaintance. There's an appeal about its cast and writing that I had forgotten, though I was a fan when it was on.

I'm now trying to come up with a list of favorite and un-favorite episodes, though that may have to wait till they've cycled through the whole series while I'm watching.

[David T. Cole]

I'll leave it to you guys to create other threads. Enjoy!

[car54]

Oh, I'm rewatching too.   I loved this show when it was on and I still do, altho I find I have different feelings about the characters this time around.

[Rinaldo]

Here's a first try. So as to end on a positive note, my least favorite choices first.

S1E17 "The Billionaire." Because Jerry Lewis guest stars. And acts like Jerry Lewis. Enough said.
S5E17 "On the Road." Paul calls Marvin (Jeff Garlin) a big sissy. Because they ran out of script ideas.
S5E19 "The Touching Game." Paul and Ira help a pregnant woman, who is not pregnant. Or a woman. Same reason.

Most favorite:

S3E8 "Giblets for Murray." One of the classic sitcom Thanksgiving episodes.
S3E11 "Our Fifteen Minutes." Chiefly because of Lisa's hilariously uncensored walkthrough during what is supposed to be 15 unedited minutes of real life. Honorable mention: Jamie's effort at having a "dark side," smoking and sitting existentially in a window.
S3E16: "The Alan Brady Show." Not just because of Carl Reiner as Alan Brady, but because Helen Hunt does the Laura Petrie "Oh Pauuuuuuulll" sob so unexpectedly well.
With honorable mention for
S4E12 "Dream Weaver." The story framework is negligible for me, but I confess to loving the "Laugh-In" dream sequence, with JoAnne Worley, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, and Maggie from across the hall to say "sock it to me." (Especially funny to me because Judy Geeson was in fact just that kind of wacky go-go girl in British movies in the '60s.)
 

Edited March 29, 2014 by Rinaldo

[Crucial]

I had to catch up on re-watching this show and I can't believe how much I've missed it.  I watched my favorite show yesterday, the Thanksgiving episode.  From trying to please everyone, Murray eating the turkey, and then having to buy so many turkeys.  Loved the comedic value and the truth that you sometimes have to do on holidays. Favorite for sure.

[wonderwoman]

The three I've saved on my DVR:

The aformentioned "Our Fifteen Minutes": love when Jamie smacks Paul as he's trying not to watch Lisa's striptease.

"The Last Scampi": Murray acts out as Jamie and Paul argue about their mothers, then meets his mother

"Her Houseboy, Coco": while a pregnant Jamie is confined to bedrest and quiet, the heat is off, Ira needs Paul to sign a contract, and the entire cast stops by.

[Hazy girl]

Pursonality - Where Lisa and Jamie accidentally take each other's purses. Jamie's life falls apart; and Lisa gets a boost of confidence and a job.

[Iseut]

Our 15 Minutes was on this morning and it is still hilarious. Anne Ramsay deserved an Emmy for that monologue. That one's gotta be in my top 5, along with the one where they go on the island vacation and pretend to be other people, and the "Giblets for Murray" Thanksgiving ep.

Least favorite? Pretty much everything after they started trying to get pregnant and Jamie became a raging beeyotch. And Helen Hunt must have too, since it seemed like Paul Reiser was trying harder and harder to avoid being in scenes with her. Why else would he have spent the vast majority of their pregnancy season away from her in scenes with Ira, Marvin and the rest of his annoying family "filming 'Buchman?'"

[Rhondinella]

A thread to discuss the show.  Generally.  Anything that could fit under a character thread, or something more specific, please take to that thread.  If it doesn't exist, create it.  Thanks.

I'll start by saying this show premiered I believe the same year my husband and I got married.  We used to watch it (back before my hubby went off TV) and laugh every week because it seemed every argument they had was exactly like one we had had just that same week.  So for us as a newly married couple, even though we were far, far from NYC, the relationship struggles often seemed very realistic.  

[Rhondinella]

Giblets for Murray.  Always and Forever.  I watch it every Thanksgiving at least once.  #1 on the list of Thanksgiving episodes of any sitcom, in my opinion (even above some of the excellent Friends eps).

Johnny Pankow's face when he sees Jamie throw the turkey out the window always cracks me up.  Plus this bit of dialogue between Jamie's mom and dad:

Mom: "What I never had a mother-in-law?"

Dad: "She loved you."

Mom: (with withering scorn) "Please."

Hee!  Cynthia Harris' delivery of that line is one of my favorite things ever in the history of TV.

[Rinaldo]

I've never been married, but it did start out seeming unusually real about a new marriage, just the dailyness of it. The very first episodes seemed to go day by day (not necessarily the same week in real time): Friday evening, having people over for dinner (while trying to catch up on missed intimacy). Saturday, planning a shopping expedition for a new couch. Sunday, trying to get out in the afternoon and do something with the day. And then we get to Monday, and from there on we get a look at their work lives and colleagues.

It was real in little details too, like the clutter of the apartment, or how casually they dressed when it was just them at home (rarely bothering with shoes, for instance, which is true of lots of people in real life but almost never on TV). Or how much of their regular married life was (as he said in the pilot) "We put up with each other's stuff."

Edited April 3, 2014 by Rinaldo

[Splash]

Of the top of my head, my favorites have always been the Thanksgiving episode and the one where they were locked in the bathroom.

[Rinaldo]

I just saw "Giblets for Murray" (the Thanksgiving episode) for the first time in decades. And good grief, it's even funnier than I remembered. The moment when Jamie tosses the turkey out the window -- even though I knew it was coming, I could hardly breathe I was laughing so hard. And yes, John Pankow's reaction is icing on the cake. Great, great stuff.

[Splash]

I haven't thought about this show in years, but ended up pulling out my dvd's of the first couple of seasons and I think it has held up pretty well.

I was a preteen when the show started and had no intention of getting married, but I also thought that if I was going to get married, I wanted Paul and Jamie's relationship and life.  I think theirs was the first "tv couple" that I thought was at all realistic, so I decided that was what the relationship of a young, professional couple should look like.  

I'm now closing in on 7 years of marriage and it's amused me over the years how tiny tidbits of this show has somewhat crept into my life.  I don't know if that's because those things are common arguments/discussions in a marriage or if I've somehow filed parts of this show away forever in my brain, but it makes me laugh to watch this show because I can see my husband and me in Paul and Jamie.  Right now, I'm watching the one where Jamie feels they are boring and they can't manage to get out the door on a Sunday.  

I still love their apartment.  Our place has never looked that put together, but still lived in.  And I still want their floor to ceiling bookcases.

[arc]

As a big fan early on and then less of a devoted fan later (I actually never watched enough of the later episodes to hate Jamie, or maybe I just had a huge crush on Helen Hunt due mostly to the early seasons), I gotta say the finale episode still sticks with me as a really satisfying sitcom finale. And I've been thinking about it a bunch this week esp because of the HIMYM finale, which also featured a lot of future time jumps and an unexpected death and a surprise divorce and an undone marriage and a final reconciliation of the main couple of the show.  But for me, MAY's finale worked.  It was funnier than the HIMYM finale, and the sad parts were more deeply felt for being truly earned.

But what really strikes me as a major difference is how much the writers trusted Janeane Garofolo - a complete newcomer to the show - to carry a big part of the finale.  And she does!  When she addresses Jamie directly (via the camera), it's sweet and funny and sentimental in the best way.

That said, this is the internet and I'm a born complainer, so... after future Jamie and future Paul get back together, it always struck me as slightly overkill/anvilly that present-day Jamie said something like "if you ever left me, I would make you come back, because you'd be wrong." (wow, I am really wrecking the sentiment of that with my awkward paraphrase.)

Hey, here's an interview with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt that I'd never seen before:

-- this is part 7, which is just about them discussing the finale.

[Rinaldo]

That's lovely. Thank you, arc. 

I remember not liking that finale on first airing, I'm not sure why now. Maybe I hadn't lived enough at the time. I saw it (on FXX) last month for the first time since, and it felt just fine to me. The only element that I disliked was Jamie repeatedly changing her mind about whether Paul should have a vasectomy... while he was having the procedure/reversal. All because of mindless chatter from Lisa of all people while they were waiting. That seemed like writers being false to the characters for a cheap bit that wasn't even funny. Otherwise, I can buy these ups and downs over the years, and the final home-movie montage was unexpectedly touching in just the way they describe in the interview.

[Maharincess]

Giblets for Murray is my favorite episode, followed closely by the one where Jaime and Lisa switch purses.

I get so mad at my cable company. They bring this show back for a few weeks, I get into watching again and they take it back off.

I wish it was on Netflix.

[AriAu]

My favorite is the one where Paul's father has a heart attack and every time his mother walks into the hospital room his heart rate jumps up and then falls when she leaves. I can only take Sylvia/Sylvania in small doses and that episode has the perfect dose! I think it is called Bedfellows or something like that.

I also love the episode where it flashes back to when they first met at the newsstand.

[Rinaldo]

My favorite is the one where Paul's father has a heart attack

And wasn't that also the only time we saw Paul's other sister Sharon? And the first time we saw his mother (amazing that they waited till Season 2, as Cynthia Harris came to seem so iconic as Sylvia). I liked the episode for the way it showed how Sylvia could casually "unintentionally" zing each of the three "kids" in successive sentences. And I love that Sharon was played by the great Randy Graff, whom I've enjoyed onstage so often. After that the only sister we saw was Debbie, played once by Talia Balsam and thereafter by Robin Bartlett; Sharon would sometimes be mentioned but never came to family gatherings.

Edited April 7, 2014 by Rinaldo

[TheGongOfDoom]

The Alan Brady Show. "I said PUMPERNICKEL!!!"

Pursonality Paul tasering himself at the airport. "Why do I smell toast?" Lisa finding everything she needs in the nick of time in Jamie's purse.

[yeswedo]

Giblets for Murray is my favorite episode, followed closely by the one where Jaime and Lisa switch purses.

I get so mad at my cable company. They bring this show back for a few weeks, I get into watching again and they take it back off.

I wish it was on Netflix.

Maharincess, I have run into this with WGN. It's on at 3am(ish) for a few weeks and gets picked up by my DVR then disappears. It is on FXX weekdays from 11am - 1pm Eastern. FXX is a spinoff channel from FX that not everyone knows about. 

Both the episodes you mentioned are among my favorites as well!

[MaryHedwig]

Favorites: I haven't seen these for years for feel free to help me out with episode names and inconsistencies

The one where Paul is away for work and comes home maybe once a week.  At first their encounters are romantic.  On the last one Paul arrives and Jamie shushes him so she can finish the paragraph she is reading.

The one where his mother calls during foreplay.  Jamie tries to continue afterwards and Paul says something like: "No amount of therapy in the world could get me to continue now."  I think this is the same episode that has my favorite line of the series: Paul's mother hears some explicit romantic suggestions of Jamie to Paul and Paul's mother says, "She will put her eye out."

The one where they care for a child during Halloween.  Jamie goes trick or treating with him and knocks on the door of their English neighbors.  Off camera the English husband says, "Whose there?'  English wife says, "It is 4B begging for food."

Absolute least favorite:

Paul walks around New York with a perpetual erection.

In my opinion, this show jumped the shark when Jamie got pregnant.  The premise was a young couple adjusting to married life.  The pregnancy just killed that premise and Jamie has no fun to watch.

[Splash]

I've been recording the episodes on FXX, because I stopped watching regularly near the end of the pregnancy season and pretty much stopped halfway through the next season.  I don't know if it was having the baby that caused such a drop in quality, but the over the top camp factor was in high gear during these seasons.  It feels like every episode was either centered around the baby or an overly quirky relative.

 

I was watching the episode where Mabel won't stop crying, so they demand to see the doctor in the middle of the night and the entire episode just bugs me.  I hate that they insisted on seeing the doctor, then took off and left him just waiting around when she stopped crying.  I have such a hard time believing that filmmaker Paul wouldn't have thought of riding the elevator or driving around to get her to sleep, considering that trick has been done in tons of movies.  The only thing that made me laugh in that episode was Paul turning the elevator to express and not changing it back.  

[oceanblue]

I like the comparison of this finale, which I liked, to the How I Met your Mother finale, which was an abomination.  MAY started the episode with a time jump - middle aged Jamie and Paul were separated - and spent the rest of the episode explaining how they got there and then resolved it.  The characters stayed true to who we knew them to be even while changing and evolving.  HIMYM spent 9 years building up the great love story to be between Ted and the mother and explaining why Ted and Robin didn't work.  The spent the last season introducing the mother and to my great surprise she was everything he'd built her up to be and yet very human.  At about 5 minutes before the end he drops the bomb that she died six years before, then immediately goes back to the kids, who have had 6 years longer than the audience to adjust, telling him to go get his true love, Robin.  My jaw was still hanging open when they rolled credits.  If HIMYM had seen the MAY finale, they might have opened with the mother's death and spent the next 2 hours telling us how Ted and the kids regrouped and how Robin helped, so that after 6 years it made sense for them to end up together.  

[arc]

Shoot, even with Burt being far less central to the show than The Mother to HIMYM, MAY spent precious minutes of the finale acknowledging that his death was real and meant something.  I remember that shot in the elevator, post-funeral -- with three couples each together and Sylvia standing alone -- was genuinely moving.

[oceanblue]

I agree.  And they showed Paul and Jamie trying to tell Mabel, they showed them in the car to the cemetery, at the mausoleum, etc.  Death of a parent = big deal.  So does death of a spouse, especially one you spent 9 years talking about.

[Ouisch]

Giblets for Murray and Purseona (as described above) are two of my favorites as well. Also Disorientation, where Paul forgets to mail in Jamie's college registration and he, Ira, Lisa and Fran have to run around the campus and get Jamie's class cards signed. And Neighbors from Hell, where we're introduced to the Brits across the hall and Jamie is determined to get them to like her and Paul.

[AriAu]

Was up at an odd hour the other day and "Met Someone" was on FXX. It's the one that flashes back to their first meeting at the newsstand and later in her office when Paul picks up her dry cleaning. While there are some genuinely funny lines and they are cute together, Jamie is so over top neurotic that I screamed "Run Paul, Run" several times with the hopes that he would somehow get away.

[StatMom]

S3E8 "Giblets for Murray." One of the classic sitcom Thanksgiving episodes.

 

This episode has one of my favorite quotes, and it's from the market owner: Ice is my biggest profit margin. Just water, cold and time.

[yeswedo]

This episode has one of my favorite quotes, and it's from the market owner: Ice is my biggest profit margin. Just water, cold and time.

 

I just used that quote the other day when I was asked to bring ice to a party!

[AriAu]

I recently saw the Finale again on FXX and was really upset with how they assassinated Jamie

characters stayed true to who we knew them to be even while changing and evolving.

 

They truly made her, in Paul's very correct words, "unkind". She had always had many "moods" and came off as a bitch in many episodes, but she always seemed to love and care about Paul. In the Finale, and frankly many of the episodes leading up to it, she was just outright selfish and mean and she took all of her issues out on him. I saw very little respect or caring, and by the end, very little humor,other than assorted crazy like needing to get married on the same date.

 

maybe I just had a huge crush on Helen Hunt due mostly to the early seasons

 

H U G E crush on her and still have one.

[imjagain]

I'm so annoyed that I just recently realized Mad about you was airing. I used to love this show. Sadly, I'm at the point where I started to lose interest.

I just watched the episode where Paul wins the sprocket award, has a flirtatious moment with another woman. Jamie shares a kiss with her coworker. Coming up episodes are the pregnancy ugh. I still watched till Jamie had the baby but I must have missed a lot because I don't remember the episodes as much.

Edited November 16, 2015 by imjagain

[AriAu]

Just saw a show on PBS called "I'll have what Phil's Having" and Phil Rosenthal from Everybody Loves Raymond goes to all kinds of restaurants with his friends.

The episode I saw was in LA and he had lunch with Paul Reiser, who I had not seen in awhile. It is amazing how much Paul Reiser looks like Paul Buchman in The Final Frontier-they really did a great job projecting ahead with him......Jamie/Helen Hunt,o quote Paul..."not so much".

[Queena]

Season 1 of Mad About You is now on Crackle. I'm not sure if it still comes on cable, but this is great for those of us who have cut the cord.

[cmahorror]

On 4/3/2014 at 6:09 PM, Rinaldo said:

I just saw "Giblets for Murray" (the Thanksgiving episode) for the first time in decades. And good grief, it's even funnier than I remembered. The moment when Jamie tosses the turkey out the window -- even though I knew it was coming, I could hardly breathe I was laughing so hard. And yes, John Pankow's reaction is icing on the cake. Great, great stuff.

Just watched this episode, as I do every Thanksgiving. I loved Jamie's reaction: "I panicked!"

[Aethera]

There's a new Podcast going Episode by Episode through Mad About You, fittingly called Mad About Mad About You!

2 episodes so far. A friend of mine who is a big Mad About You fan let me know about it, since I love the West Wing Weekly. I never watched this show religiously, but I'm considering doing a re-watch along with the podcast if I enjoy a couple of episodes...my friend has some DVDs I can borrow.

[madaboutyoupod]

Hey, that's our podcast, haha! Hope you liked it if you ended up listening. Right now DVDs of the full series are on sale on Amazon for like $30. We took our inspiration from West Wing Weekly and the Seincast, so it's a mash-up of a full show re-cap mixed in with entertainment and new-york-centric news from the week in the 90s that each episode premiered.

Also, this forum's pretty cool.

[SparklesBitch]

I randomly happened upon the season 1 and 2 DVDs of this show on sale in a combo pack for $6, and since I've always really liked Helen Hunt, I decided to give it a shot.

I'm so glad I did, because I'm really loving it. I really like the day-to-day quality and their very real, very familiar arguments and how much they obviously love each other and genuinely enjoy each other's company. I'm a sucker for affectionate banter too, and they do it very well. 

I've just finished the one where they get stuck in their bathroom on Valentine's Day, and something about them trying to kick down the door together killed me. 

Lisa is great too. 

Watching this just leaves me with a goofy grin, and I feel like there's not a whole lot of TV that does that currently. 

[SnarkySheep]

Yep, this is totally one of those shows for me like Seinfeld (which ironically inhabits the same universe as MAY), where you can randomly pull a quote to suit any real life occasion! Glad you're enjoying...

[Rinaldo]

31 minutes ago, SparklesBitch said:

I really like the day-to-day quality

That was one of the things I loved about it from the start. Apparently it's accidental (because the planned order of episodes was changed), but i loved that the first four episodes showed us a typical (not necessarily consecutive in story time) Friday (having people over), Saturday (going out shopping for furniture), Sunday (figuring out what to do with the day), and only then did we get a weekday and see what they did for work.

[AriAu]

Quote

I really like the day-to-day quality and their very real, very familiar arguments and how much they obviously love each other and genuinely enjoy each other's company. I'm a sucker for affectionate banter too, and they do it very well. 

They are a better written version of my life....or how I wish my life was. I had the biggest crush on Jamie Buchman and sorta Helen Hunt, but more on Jamie Buchman. The affectionate banter was (and still is) great. Plus, yes, I  know that they are actors, but it seemed like they actually enjoyed making this show...no I am not going to say that they were really in love! It has been on Fxx again every morning. If you have the first 2 seasons, you have the best part, but YMMV.

Quote

Apparently it's accidental (because the planned order of episodes was changed), but i loved that the first four episodes showed us a typical (not necessarily consecutive in story time) Friday (having people over), Saturday (going out shopping for furniture), Sunday (figuring out what to do with the day), and only then did we get a weekday and see what they did for work.

I did not know that (maybe because I was too busy having a crush on Jamie) but that is a great fact and yet another great thing about them

Edited June 5, 2017 by AriAu

[SparklesBitch]

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

Apparently it's accidental (because the planned order of episodes was changed), but i loved that the first four episodes showed us a typical (not necessarily consecutive in story time) Friday (having people over), Saturday (going out shopping for furniture), Sunday (figuring out what to do with the day), and only then did we get a weekday and see what they did for work.

Yes! I enjoyed this part too. Accidental worked out in their favor, I think. It's amazing how much you can do with just a small handful of actors, in this case mostly just two, when the chemistry is obvious and the writing in on point.

1 hour ago, AriAu said:

I had the biggest crush on Jamie Buchman and sorta Helen Hunt, but more on Jamie Buchman. The affectionate banter was (and still is) great. Plus, yes, I  know that they are actors, but it seemed like they actually enjoyed making this show...no I am not going to say that they were really in love! 

Haha I totally understand your Jamie crush, because I'm quickly developing one too! She's lovable and realistically neurotic and take charge and witty. 

I went into this with a partial crush on Helen Hunt though, so I'm probably biased. I first became aware of her when Twister came out when I was a young closeted teen and I fell head-over-heels in love with Jo Harding and her white tank tops. =)

Both actors DO really seem to be enjoying themselves in the moment, and that's pretty cool. 

Almost forgot to mention that I like this show for one of the same reasons I adore the show Roseanne. Paul and Jamie, like Dan and Roseanne, are shown genuinely being amused by the other one. It's not that all the jokes are strictly for the audience and the characters never laugh at/with each other. They both laugh/smile at each other when they think the other one is being funny/exasperating/cute. Also, on the same note, all the little physical touches. Like Dan and Roseanne, Paul and Jamie seem to touch each other a lot. Little kisses, hands on shoulders and elbows, joined fingers, back-of-the-shoulder kisses, all that stuff. It's very realistic and very cute and makes me smile. It makes it easier to believe they're actually married. Oh! And the imitations! I nearly lost it when Jamie imitated Paul ordering dinner in the pilot episode. It's clear it's out of exasperated affection, and it's adorable. It's just another way of showing how well they know each other. 

[AriAu]

Has anyone listened to "Mad About Mad About You" Podcast. Listened to the episode called "Met Someone"-when they met. They hosts do a very good job dissecting things, once you get past the opening jibberish. One of them, I think it was Jon, brings up the beauty of  Jamie saying "When will I see the real you" and Paul responds with "Not for along while yet" and then immediately says "I am uneasy starting a cheese"...thereby showing the real Paul-all that was missing was "That's what I am saying"...which he says a few sentences later. I remember laughing at the way they did that back in 1992 (yeah, I am that old) and I loved that they brought it up.

Not sure I will listen to all the episodes (may just stick with my favorites (The Man who said Hello, Bedfellows, etc..) but this one was good.

Quote

I went into this with a partial crush on Helen Hunt though, so I'm probably biased. I first became aware of her when Twister came out when I was a young closeted teen and I fell head-over-heels in love with Jo Harding and her white tank tops. =)

She was kinda hot in that , but I prefer As Good As It Gets and, if you are a little pervie, The Waterdance.

[FormerMod-a1]

1 hour ago, AriAu said:

Has anyone listened to "Mad About Mad About You" Podcast.

I haven't listened to it, but there is a thread here for the Podcast. (Or at least a MAY podcast :-) )

[SparklesBitch]

7 hours ago, AriAu said:

She was kinda hot in that , but I prefer As Good As It Gets and, if you are a little pervie, The Waterdance.

I actually 100% agree about As Good As It Gets! I've never seen The Waterdance, but have read good things about it. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be available on Netflix. 

7 hours ago, AriAu said:

One of them, I think it was Jon, brings up the beauty of  Jamie saying "When will I see the real you" and Paul responds with "Not for along while yet" and then immediately says "I am uneasy starting a cheese"...thereby showing the real Paul-all that was missing was "That's what I am saying"...which he says a few sentences later. 

I loved that part! This podcast sounds like it's definitely worth checking out. 

[AriAu]

Quote

Hey, that's our podcast, haha!

Enjoyed the Pod about "Met Someone" (one of my 3 or 4 favs) and appreciate the enthusiasm. I liked the breakdown of the episode more than the "other stuff".... hey, but that's just me. Did LOVE the fact that you caught the beautiful part of Paul saying she wouldn't see the real him for "quite some time yet" and then immediately saying "I'm uncomfortable starting a cheese", about the most Paul thing he could say.

[SparklesBitch]

I hope it's okay to post twice in a row since it's a few days later, but I just had to come say that it's not often that I actually, literally choke on a beverage while watching TV when something funny catches me off guard, but this did it. From the episode The Spy Girl Who Loved Me:

Paul: "Okay, well, without revealing too much, you look smashing in a Viking helmet."

Jamie: "How do I look in go-go boots and a bazooka?"

Paul: "Not as good as your sister."

I don't know what I expected Paul to say, but it wasn't that, and I cracked up. I think there still might be coffee in my lungs. Lol!

Jamie's reaction, "oh, you're sick, I can't talk to you about anything!" is perfect and Paul's defensive "hey, you asked!" just made the whole thing funnier for me. 

I really like that she didn't get seriously offended and that it didn't turn into a huge thing for the rest of the episode the way I thought it might. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I've been watching.  It's really soothing.  Even moreso than Frasier.  I think that THIS is the 'real show about nothing'.  It's like not much happens, and it's kind of boring, and I say that affectionately.  Because I'm still addicted anyway.  Like it's really calming.

I find Lisa so cool and sexy.  Her quintessentially 90's wardrobe, style, and makeup are SO awesome.

Edited January 2, 2018 by Ms Blue Jay

[AriAu]

Aaaaaand, they're back!

http://ew.com/tv/2018/04/12/mad-about-you-paul-reiser-helen-hunt-revival/

Who else will be back with them. John Pankow will certainly bring back Cousin Ira and I'm sure that Anne Ramsey is available, so they have most of the family, although sadly not Burt since Louis Zorich just passed.  Cynthia Harris is still around, but she is really old, so unlikely we will have too many visits from Sylvania (that still cracks me up).

[AnnaRose]

On 6/5/2017 at 8:49 PM, SparklesBitch said:

Yes! I enjoyed this part too. Accidental worked out in their favor, I think. It's amazing how much you can do with just a small handful of actors, in this case mostly just two, when the chemistry is obvious and the writing in on point.

Haha I totally understand your Jamie crush, because I'm quickly developing one too! She's lovable and realistically neurotic and take charge and witty. 

I went into this with a partial crush on Helen Hunt though, so I'm probably biased. I first became aware of her when Twister came out when I was a young closeted teen and I fell head-over-heels in love with Jo Harding and her white tank tops. =)

Both actors DO really seem to be enjoying themselves in the moment, and that's pretty cool. 

Almost forgot to mention that I like this show for one of the same reasons I adore the show Roseanne. Paul and Jamie, like Dan and Roseanne, are shown genuinely being amused by the other one. It's not that all the jokes are strictly for the audience and the characters never laugh at/with each other. They both laugh/smile at each other when they think the other one is being funny/exasperating/cute. Also, on the same note, all the little physical touches. Like Dan and Roseanne, Paul and Jamie seem to touch each other a lot. Little kisses, hands on shoulders and elbows, joined fingers, back-of-the-shoulder kisses, all that stuff. It's very realistic and very cute and makes me smile. It makes it easier to believe they're actually married. Oh! And the imitations! I nearly lost it when Jamie imitated Paul ordering dinner in the pilot episode. It's clear it's out of exasperated affection, and it's adorable. It's just another way of showing how well they know each other. 

I really appreciate that too!  (Another show that does that well is American Housewife, the primary couple are very cute together and laugh at their jokes and goof around with each other in a natural way.)

10 hours ago, AriAu said:

Aaaaaand, they're back!

http://ew.com/tv/2018/04/12/mad-about-you-paul-reiser-helen-hunt-revival/

Who else will be back with them. John Pankow will certainly bring back Cousin Ira and I'm sure that Anne Ramsey is available, so they have most of the family, although sadly not Burt since Louis Zorich just passed.  Cynthia Harris is still around, but she is really old, so unlikely we will have too many visits from Sylvania (that still cracks me up).

I stopped by this forum because I had been reading mentions about a Mad About You revival.  (I think it was mentioned a couple times in discussions about Rosanne.)  I loved this show back in the nineties and have watched reruns (and my own recordings of a lot of the episodes) on occasion since then, and it is just so charming and funny.  Paul and Jamie have the best chemistry, and I loved the rest of the cast too.  I hope they all sign on and it is at least as successful (and funny) as the Roseanne reboot. 

I haven't seen Helen Hunt in anything recently, but Paul Reiser was amazing in Red Oaks. (Richard Kind was great in Red Oaks too, by the way.) Paul is so darn talented and has such a unique comedic voice.   I read his first two books back in the day - Couplehood and Babyhood - and they were hilarious as well.  I really hope this revival happens.