The Buchmans are back! Or, well…they’ve been back as of November, but this month they’re back again with six new episodes! I’m talking, of course, about the reboot of Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt’s hugely successful sitcom, Mad About You, which ran on NBC from 1992 to 1999. This time around, however, you’ll have to look beyond NBC to catch new episodes because the series is finding new life on Spectrum Originals, streaming service under the umbrella of Spectrum and Charter Communications, Inc.
The show’s original premise focused on young newlyweds Paul and Jamie Buchman and their quirky dog Murray, all living snuggly in their tiny Manhattan apartment, with episodes focusing on trivial concerns much in the same way that another successful NBC sitcom from the 90’s, Seinfeld also had a way of being about “nothing.”
Fans may recall the series finale jumping quite far into time, giving audiences a look at what was in store for the Buchmans decades into their future. The finale showed Paul and Jamie suffering tremendous marital problems and even separating only to be reunited well into their golden years. But much in the same fashion as other sitcom reboots of recent day such as Rosanne or Will & Grace, it seems to be perfectly acceptable to abandon any and all storylines from past finales in order to forge ahead and Mad About You is not only following suit, its taking it a step further. Whereas Will & Grace and Rosanne made light-hearted winking jokes at their creative license to rewrite the past, Mad About You simply acts as though none of the events from the ’99 finale ever happened at all.
So, then just where does the series find our Manhattan star-crossed lovers today? Still very much in the same Manhattan apartment and still very much in love. They still have their daughter Mabel, (played by Abby Quinn), but this time she’s all grown up and ready to strike out on her own as an NYU freshman, leaving Paul and Jamie Buchman as empty nesters and much in the same position fans remember them being in at the beginning of the series: two people living through the never ending complexities of a relationship. John Pankow and Richard Kind also return to reprise their roles; Pankow played Paul’s Cousin Ira and Kind played the Buchman’s close friend Mark.
The first six episodes were released by Spectrum Originals on November 20 and the next six are set to be released on December 18, however, Spectrum offers the first two episodes as a free preview. Spectrum subscribers can also venture back in time to the original series and stream all 164 original episodes for free, as well.