Skip to main content

I’m Mad About Mad About You


Multiple outlets are reporting Sony is in talks to revive the 1990s NBC sitcom MAD ABOUT YOU.  Created by Paul Reiser and Danny Jacobson, the show starred Reiser and Helen Hunt as married couple Paul and Jamie Buchman. The series, which ran from 1992-1999 and won multiple Emmy’s, is the latest 90s comedy to potentially get a revival and frankly I'm not mad about it, I'm disappointed.  

Nobody is asking for more of this tripe.  The show was neither a ratings hit nor a critical darling.  It’s highest rated season was the 1994-1995 season when it was #11 in the Nielsen Ratings, averaging a 15.2 share with an average audience size of 14.5 million people.  The show didn’t crack the top 20 in any other season during its run and finished a dismal 85th in its final season, with just 9.1 million viewers. If Mad About You could somehow pull in 9.1 million viewers today it would be a hit; in fact, it still runs in syndication, both domestically and internationally, so there’s some reason to think there may be an audience out there for the show’s blend of tired one-liners and hackneyed observations about marriage.  However, in an era in which everything gets a second life on streaming platforms, Mad About You is conspicuously absent from Netflix or Hulu.  And, to me, there’s the rub. 

My guess is nobody is actually talking about remaking Mad About You.  After the utter failure that was 2010’s The Paul Reiser Show, which was cancelled after just two episodes, Paul Reiser’s profile has been upped a bit by roles on Stranger Things and in a couple of films but that hardly seems to warrant bringing a D List 90s sitcom back from the dead. More likely, Sony is in talks to renew the syndication rights to the series and possibly considering selling distribution rights to Hulu.  They leak a story about a possible revival to gauge audience interest and potentially drive up their price by creating the illusion of demand for something nobody truly believes would be a commercial or artistic success. 

Here is a brief list of NBC sitcoms I’d rather see revived than Mad About You:

NewsRadio:  Obviously the show was never the same show after Phil Hartman was murdered but the core cast of Dave Foley, Maura Tierney, Stephen Root and Joe Rogan are all still working regularly and the creator, Paul Simms, was an EP on ATLANTA, so he might have some contemporary insight to bring to the revival. 

Wings: Before LA to Vegas took flight, Wings was your hilarious look at the misadventures of an airline.  Starring Tim Daly, Steven Weber, Thomas Haden Church and Tony Shalhoub, the cast has some legitimate acting chops and it could be fun to see them all back together again. 

The Single Guy: Is Jonathan Silverman still alive? 

Veronica’s Closet:  Same question but about Kirstie Alley. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A special guest star and strong scene writing take LA to Vegas’s third episode to new comedic heights.

On this week’s star-studded episode of LA to Vegas, “Two and a Half Pilots” Captain Dave, Ronnie and Bernard deal with a flashy new pilot while Colin and Artem comb the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas for a place to hold his son’s third birthday party.   BEGIN SPOILAGE The episode opens with Ronnie and Bernard speculating about why Captain Dave is running late.   Captain Dave arrives, reluctantly admitting he injured himself moving an armoire.   He shows off a wrist in a cast, which means he can’t fly the plane.   Bernard goes to alert the airline to bring in a replacement pilot and we’re wheels up for episode three.   Colin and Artem discuss Colin’s elaborate plans for his son’s third birthday and a storyline which will take us off the plane is set in motion before Captain Dave’s replacement, Captain Steve makes a slow-mo entrance to “Rock you Like a Hurricane.”   Captain Steve is played by Dermot Mulroney, who viewers may remember fro...

A dead passenger breathes life into a fun second episode of LA to Vegas.

On this week’s episode of LA to Vegas, “The Yips and the Dead” Ronnie must keep the crew together as Captain Dave gets nervous about appearing in a magazine, Colin wonders why she bailed on their date and a passenger dies in midair.      CONTAINS SPOILERS “The Yips and the Dead” did a much better job of splitting time on plane and off than the pilot episode. We open in the terminal, where an ominous abandoned bag sets a darker tone, easing us into a potentially macabre episode. The crew members speculate on the bag’s owner and whether or not to call airport security, demonstrating good cast chemistry with the whole ensemble on screen at once.   Soon Captain Dave fesses up to owning the pink sequin tote and our episode takes off. (Last airplane pun, I swear).     Colin is hesitant in showing his interest in Ronnie to Artem, but it’s obvious he wants to talk to her.   Meanwhile, mystery surrounds a date Ronnie cancelled.   Ar...

It's Lazy to Hate Remakes and Revivals

Lately a wave of anger and prejudice has swept through television fandom.   Like all forms of hatred, this animosity is ugly and rooted in lazy, ignorant thinking. Much of the vitriol which has been spewed demonstrates limited understanding of the allegedly abhorrent subject.   I’m talking of course about people hating on television remakes and revivals.   In recent years, remakes and revivals have been prevalent on network, cable and streaming channels.   A remake is a re-launching of an old series with new cast, potentially a tweaked premise and often new writers. A revival brings the original cast of a series together to tell new stories about the same characters years after the show’s original run.   LETHAL WEAPON and HAWAII 5-0 are reboots which have made the network airwaves while CHARMED, MAGNUM PI, CAGNEY AND LACEY and many others are currently in development. THE X FILES and WILL AND GRACE are revivals which have recently aired...