Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Mad about the show

While channel surfing tonight, dh stumbled onto a rerun of "Mad About You," starring Paul Reiser & Helen Hunt. Talk about a bittersweet blast from the past.

"Mad About You" ran on NBC from 1992 to 1999. It was one of our very favourite TV shows -- in part because it so eerily reflected our own lives at the time in so many ways. The characters, Paul & Jamie, appeared to be about the same ages as we were (& in doing some Googling on the show to refresh my memory, I found a Wikipedia entry that actually gives their birthdates as 1962 & 1963 -- dh & I were born in 1957 & 1961). Their New York brownstone apartment reminded us of the midtown Toronto apartment building where we lived for the first five years of our marriage (although their apartment was a lot bigger & nicer than ours). There was so much about their relationship that reminded me of my own marriage. The characters reminded me a lot of my dh & myself (although I look like Helen Hunt only in my dreams...!).

According to this Wikipedia episode guide, Paul & Jamie began talking about having a baby in 1994, at the end of season 2 -- right around the same time dh & I were beginning to seriously think it was time to start a family. Their struggles to conceive (& the strain it placed on their marriage) formed the plotlines of several episodes during season 4 (1995-96), as dh & I were in the early stages of ttc -- with Jamie looking at a pregnancy test & smiling at the very end of the season finale. Baby daughter Mabel was born at the end of season 5 (1996-97), and was still an adorable baby for season 6, which ended in the spring of 1998 -- when I was finally pregnant myself.

For the longest time, the similarities and parallels between me & dh and our marriage, and our TV dopplegangers, seemed to just keep coming and coming. But in August 1998, during summer reruns, our Katie was stillborn. And when season 7 resumed that fall, I found it almost unbearably painful to watch.

Maybe it was for the best that this turned out to be the last season of the series. (Maybe even strangely appropriate.) Still, I did tune in for the series finale in May 1999, in which a grownup Mabel talks about what happened to her family. I didn't like it that Paul & Jamie split up (although they wound up sitting together at the premiere of Mabel's first film).

But there was another moment in the finale, another eerie echo of our own lives, that made me gasp and then sob. As I remember it, Jamie hadn't wanted another child, yet found herself pregnant again. In one scene, she is complaining to Paul that she didn't want to be pregnant again. Then we see Paul coming home (with a stroller, I think? -- some baby-related item) to an empty apartment, finding a note, & dashing out the door. Cut to a hospital bed, where he holds a gown-clad Jamie as she sobs, "I guess I really wanted this one after all."

The episode we were watching tonight was still an early one. I found myself once again laughing at the witty script, & marvelling at how familiar it all seemed. And feeling a little wistful. It seemed strangely removed from the present, the echo of a different place & time.

I'm glad it's back on TV again. It deserves to be found by a new audience that maybe didn't see it the first time around.

But I don't think I have the heart to watch Jamie go through ttc, infertility, & pregnancy & babyhood with Mabel again.

12 comments:

  1. This post gave me chills. I never watched the show. ((hugs))

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  2. That is a painful blast from the past

    ((hugs))

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  3. I must have completely blocked out the IF/loss storylines. When I think of that show, I think of the time she shut her hair in the door. I remember liking the show, but remember very few episodes. I'd love to rewatch it.

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  4. I didn't know that they went through infertility - I thought I had seen all the episodes. I do remember the miscarriage episode. XXX

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  5. Hub and I used to watch this. I hadn't realised we missed so many series, it seemed to always be on but they must have kept showing repeats, I thought it finished with them knowing they were going to have a baby. I shall have to try to watch the rest.

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  6. Re: Jamie & IF: I vividly remember an episode where she was going to have a "procedure" to find out why she wasn't getting pregnant (a laparoscopy?). The dr was gorgeous, & Jamie insisted she wasn't going to wear the hospital gown in front of him -- went shopping with her girlfriend & bought a slinky black slip thing to wear on the operating table. Even though I was still just plain old ttc myself, I thought that was ridiculous.

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  7. Isn't it funny, I ADORED this show, but I was just a touch younger, not yet married, and I think I thought it jumped the shark once the baby was brought home (nothing funny about live babies when I'm in my 20s, I guess) so I quit watching. I don't remember anything about the end of the show. You've made me want to go and see if I can find some plot synopses or video somewhere.

    Paul Reiser has a new program now which made me think a lot about MAY these past few weeks. I think it might seriously depress me. Except for Hank Azaria -- loves me the dogwalker.

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  8. I absolutely adored "Mad About You" and I too was younger (born in 1967) and still single at the time, but so badly wanted to have a marriage like theirs. I adored Paul Reiser and thought he was so handsome (I recently saw him on the TVLand Awards the other night and I couldn't get over the fact he was completely gray-haired now, but still looked good). I do remember those various episodes you described, but at that time didn't think much of them because I had yet to be bitten by infertility...boy, those were the good old (naive)days.

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  9. I remember the show, but don't remember the infertility...maybe I was too young to understand.

    I have ironically been watching "Parenthood" and have enjoyed it. But the last few episodes have got me thinking I might have to turn it off. The one couple can't have a second child and last night announced they are turning to adoption. I turned to my husband and said...how long do you think it will take them...2 episodes or 4...
    We tried for four years with no success...BLAH!

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  10. I *loved* that show! And amazing how I forgot about the whole infertility plot and miscarriage as well. Haven't seen the show in years, but like you ... I'm glad it's back for a new generation.

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  11. You know, I used to watch that show all the time and I adtually remember that episode. Did you ever watch King of Queens - Carrie and Doug had an episode where she discovered she was pregnant and were getting excited about the idea and then she lost the baby. I remember thinking for such a funny show, it was a really heartbreaking ending.

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  12. You know, I used to watch that show all the time and I adtually remember that episode. Did you ever watch King of Queens - Carrie and Doug had an episode where she discovered she was pregnant and were getting excited about the idea and then she lost the baby. I remember thinking for such a funny show, it was a really heartbreaking ending.

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