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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. 
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