I had to look it up, but yes. The third show was the long forgotten Dabny Coleman vehicle, Madman of the People.
I watched it on the first run and loved it, but it’s aged terribly.
1990s Helen Hunt isn’t hot enough to make me watch it again. I’ll ammend, 1990s Halle Berry would not be hot enough to make me watch it again.
I liked that show when I was 11. But I also loved Saved By The Bell then, too. I haven’t seen Mad About You in probably 20 years, so I’m not sure what I’d think of it today. I might have to find an episode to watch soon just for nostalgia’s sake.
Like many of you I enjoyed the show in the first few years and then fell away from viewing. I did catch the last episode which I thought was best final episode of any show I have ever seen. I wonder if I would still feel that way if I saw it now.
Jerry Seinfeld played a character who happened to have the same name and job as Jerry Seinfeld the actor who played him. He had different friends, relatives, etc.
Most tellingly, the sitcom Jerry was killed after the airing of the pilot, unlike the growing success of Seinfeld which significantly altered the real Jerry Seinfeld’s life.
Also, the sitcom character never dated an initially 17-year-old girl for 4 years during the middle run of the show.
An actor playing a character with the same name but who is not really playing him/herself is quite common. Cf. George Burns and Gracie Allen on Burns and Allen. The character Gracie was quite unlike the real Gracie. Ditto Jack Benny and several of his co-stars on his show.
Interestingly, I remember really liking that episode.
I also remember really liking an episode which to my recollection had a surreal element to it, but I’m wondering if I’m remembering it wrong.
The main idea of the episode was that we were watching what life would have been like had the two protagonists never gotten together. It was predictably sad and unfulfilling.
The surreal element came at the end–they happened to sit down next to each other on a park bench, instantly recognized each other, kissed and embraced, and it was understood their life would now continue as though they had known each other all along (i.e. as though the “they never met” timeline had simply not taken place.)
Am I remembering this correctly?
Taye Diggs is also…compelling.
I do remember enjoying Mad About You but sadly, two outrages are what stick in my mind.
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They’re discussing having a baby. “So, should we do it? Should we tell people we’re trying?” Telling people you’re trying shouldn’t be a thing. I don’t need to know your birth control choices. Just let me know when you’re pregnant/have had a baby.
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Oh, we’re going to have a baby? We can make the UNUSED SECOND BEDROOM into the baby’s room. Um, your apartment is already ridiculously huge by NYC standards* (like the bathroom the size of a living room) and you’re telling me you have a second whole bedroom you’re not even using for anything but storage??!!
- I know we’re always asked to suspend reality in this regard, but seriously.
I agree with you. I was a big fan of this show, and it did take a steep nosedive in the last season, but I think the baby counts as a “jumping the shark” stunt-- an attempt to bring in viewers with a gimmick, rather than a serious attempt to improve the show. I didn’t watch much of the last two seasons either, but I am the kind of TV viewer who tends to read the topic of an episode, and decide to watch or not, depending on whether or not that episode sounds interesting. Very few of the last two seasons sounded interesting.
There was one really hilarious season five ep related to the pregnancy, though the “pregnant man” episode.
TV tropes calls this being sent to “Camp Not-in-this-episode.”
Actually, Friends was one of the better ones about avoiding this, in that Rachel lugged a baby seat around during most of the season that Emma was an infant, and you’d see it on the table in front of her at Central Perk. Now, it made Emma the most unrealistically docile baby ever, but at least it wasn’t as though Rachel didn’t have a baby, except for three or four episodes a season.
Note: Not Important to This Episode Camp
X-files did this with Scully’s kid. Then they got rid of him…or something.
I liked it too. Season 6, Episode 9 “The Conversation”. It was done in one shot, possibly live, no commercials, with just Jamie and Paul working through Ferberizing Mabel (Band Name!)
It was a pretty good episode, and they also wanted to show their acting chops. Not many other shows have done episodes like that. ER did a live episode that was pretty good too.
Off-topic rant here…
OK, so Scully’s kid is somehow very important to the entire Alien Conspiracy Apparatus - I don’t recall if William (yes, I still know his name :smack: ) was a hybrid or something, but Very Bad People and Things were out to get him and his life was Constantly In Danger.
Scully, apparently suffering from a bizarre form of Post-Partum Depression that drops IQ by 20 points and critical reasoning to an age-equivalent of 13yo, decides upon a solution which involves her giving the kid to some hick farmers in some American Gothic setting, farmers who have absolutely no idea of the Vast Array of Forces that are out there, searching for this baby.
The idiocy of her solution was such that it caused my wife and I to lose a lot of respect for Scully the character, Chris Carter the show creator*, Gillian Anderson the actress (because she didn’t fight to have the script changed or something), and God the designer of a Universe so gob-smackingly stupid that it was capable of creating that particular episode of The X-Files.
*Considering the last 3 or so seasons of the show, this wasn’t a very high bar for Mr. Carter to fall off of. But fall he did.
Well played !!
Every so often, I see a copy of Paul Reiser’s book in a flea market or used bookstore, and I think about MAY. And I’m like the OP, in that I totally loved the first couple of seasons, can’t remember anything about them, and never watched afterwards.
I remember this episode also, but not the details of it. I remember there was something special that happened during the story that was critical, and when I went to try and find a clip that showed the event, I couldn’t find it anywhere. It was like I recalled a line or section differently than what was available for replay.
Something about meeting at a newspaper and magazine stand …
I also seem to remember that the episode showed how they either didn’t meet as was originally discussed, or the story diverged down an alternate timeline, but as things progressed, it was obvious that – no matter what – they were destined to meet. A missed chance at one point, and then another crossing of paths later on to make up for it.
That was part of the charm of the series – that these two people were truly meant to meet and be together, and nothing could stop that from ultimately happening.
I’ll still watch it in the background if it’s on.
The first few seasons are still pretty good. The fashions are laughable, but until the season with the baby, it holds up pretty well. After the baby, it’s much more hit and miss - but that tends to be true of most sitcoms that last that long (6 & 7 seasons). The finale was horrible.
Not an amazing, genre-redefining sitcom, but an overall pretty good one. Though they did have great guest stars and recurring characters.
The episode with the alternate lives was called Up in Smoke. The catalyst was them seeing the Newsstand where they met had burned down. The show actually had several structurally interesting episodes. This one was a favorite.
Except, of course
When Paul left Jamie in the final episode, although it’s suggested they eventually reconciled.
Paul was not worthy to kiss Jamie’s naked feet. Uh…excuse me.
They reconciled. They got back together after watching their daughter’s movie in the finale.