As another pointless reboot surfaces, we examine the marriage sitcom in its tiresome entirety
In another pointless reboot, marriage sitcom Mad About You will return to screens later this year after a 20-year hiatus. Pitched by creators Danny Jacobson and Paul Reiser as a “shorter, funnier” Thirtysomething, it originally ran from 1992 to 1999 alongside
Friends and Seinfeld as part of NBC’s ratings-dominant “Must See TV” lineup. More grounded than the former but less cynical than the latter, it starred Reiser and Helen Hunt as Paul and Jamie Buchman, a documentary film-maker and publicist, respectively, portraying their relationship from first date to baby gates.
It was as low-concept and low-stakes as it sounds: episodes were primarily based in the couple’s inexplicably huge Manhattan apartment and focused on tiny dramas such as buying a sofa or hiring a dog walker. The humour was more facetious than uproarious (“Is my head getting smaller?” Jamie worries in the pilot. “I didn’t want to say anything but: yes, and for some time now,” her husband responds). But the fast-paced dialogue, chemistry between the leads and the best-connected production company in town (guest stars included Mel Brooks, Cyndi Lauper and Carol Burnett) made it both supremely watchable and a critical darling – at least in its early years, when it won 12
Emmys, four of them for Hunt.