I just watched an episode of *Mad About You *for the first time in many years.
It was from late in the final season (7th) and I think they were running on fumes by then. At least, this particular episode was really, really not good. Paul has a dream that he meets Albert Einstein, who gives him the solution to the Y2K bug, and the rest of the episode is spent trying to recreate the formula. A ridiculous plot on so many levels, but also notable for the lackluster performances from Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt.
Also curious was that, according to Wikipedia, Paul and Jamie’s daughter was born in season 6 (part of the reason I stopped watching the original run), but in this episode there was no baby, there was no mention of the baby, and no explanation as to why there is no baby. Did they care that little about continuity by this time?
Anyway, no big point or question here. But I remember enjoying the early seasons, and now I don’t know if it just wasn’t as good as I remembered, or if the drop-off in quality toward the end was really that steep.
I used to really enjoy this show, until the baby story line. Remember that godawful live (commercial free?) episode where we got to watch them - what; try to get her to sleep I think?- in real time? Who the hell thought anyone would want to watch that?
IIRC, the show was so popular at one point Helen Hunt was on the “hottie” list for a while. I mean, I think Helen Hunt is swell and all, but hot? People must have really dug that show.
That’s partly why, I think, it’s never really done well in syndication. They never cared about continuity. There was a guy named Selby in season one, Steven Wright was in season two, different people played their parents from time to time, Jamie never had the same job week to week, and the writing was very uneven. Sometimes it was really a show about young married urban people in New York, and sometimes a boy genius invented a time machine or some garbage.
The show should have ended with the birth of their child (or possibly the announcement of her pregnancy), signaling the modification of the premise from “Mad About You” to “Mad about the Both of You”.
I liked the show but it did run on too long. One thing I liked was seeing Judy Geeson again, she was their next door neighbor but also she was the hot chick from To Sir with Love. The auxiliary cast was very good, her sister, his cousin Ira, Steven Wright played a video editor or something like that, a lot of good character actors contributed.
Absolutely loved the show, one of my favorites of all time. It didn’t age well, and didn’t really stand up to multiple watchings even when it was new. But up until Mabel (Mothers Always Bring Extra Love) was born I was completely addicted.
Before FXX got the Simpsons, it showed a lot of MAY so I had rewatched much of it I think last summer. As you say, the show falls off a cliff. The later seasons are pretty bad with a few highlights but the early seasons are still pretty good. Reiser and Hunt have chemistry to spare and a lot of the Jokes still work.
I watched all the shows early on, but for some reason I can’t recall, I stopped sometime before the baby came along.
The show was fine and all, but a good portion of the reason I watched it was Helen Hunt. She seemed to me to be a fine enough actress, but I found her to be extremely attractive. While she was quite nicely proportioned, I thought her main physical asset was her legs.
Several times there would be a scene where Paul was sitting on the couch, and she would be sitting sideways against one end, wearing shorts, her legs across his lap. Damn.
And sometimes Paul would have a hand on those legs, stroking and caressing. Hot damn.
I’m disturbed by the misogyny in this thread. I came in expecting to read thoughtful critiques of a flawed comedy, and found many posts were judgement of the lead female actor’s body.
This is an ongoing issue here, and I’d urge posters to curb such comments. They’re offensive and uninteresting.
Calling Helen Hunt beautiful is not misogynistic. It might be OBJECTIFYING, if the person making the statement opines that she had no value beyond her appearance, but it’s not expressing hatred or disdain for her im particular or eomen in general. You’re twisting the word to the point where it has no meaning.
As the OP, I suppose I should chime in to say that I’m perfectly fine with Helen Hunt’s relative attractiveness being a point of conversation in this thread. I don’t think anybody’s comments have strayed near the line of offensiveness.
Anybody care to discuss whether Paul Reiser was hot?
I used to watch the show faithfully for many reasons, not the least of which is that I found Helen Hunt (or, more precisely, Jamie) attractive beyond words.
I haven’t seen (or probably even thought of) the series since it was current. But the second I opened up this thread, the theme song erupted in my brain like a long-dormant volcano. If someone had asked me yesterday to recall it I probably could not have done so.
mmm
