‘Mad About You’ There Is 1 Reason It Took Paul and Jamie Buchman so Long to Have a Baby
Mad About You fans watched Paul and Jamie Buchman navigate married life for five seasons until they decided to add a baby to the mix. The arrival of Mabel Buchman didn’t exactly signal the end of the series, but Paul and Jamie navigated life together as a couple for much longer than they did as a family of three. There was a good reason for that. The team behind Mad About You feared the arrival of a baby would doom the series.
‘Mad About You’ co-creators Paul Reiser and Danny Jacobson thought a baby would end the series
Paul Reiser and Danny Jacobson created Mad About You together. They pitched the project as a series about how couples behave when it is just the two of them, far away from the prying eyes of friends, family, and the public. All along, the show was supposed to be about Paul and Jamie. It was a lighthearted exploration of how young married couples navigate their new normal. That’s why so many episodes focused on the couple in their apartment.
The project made sense for both Reiser and Jacobson. At the time, they were both newly married. Reiser married Paula Ravets in 1988, four years before Mad About You premiered. Jacobson married Amy Rosenbaum Jacobson in 1988, as well.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Reiser and Jacobson both agreed, early on, that the sound of a baby crying was the signal of the show’s end. They resisted pressure from NBC to add a baby to the mix for as long as possible. Reportedly, the network had hoped a baby would come along for Paul and Jamie Buchman earlier in the series. The creative team eventually acquiesced, but did it really doom the show, as Reiser and Jacobson feared?
Did the introduction of Mabel Buchman kill ‘Mad About You’?
Mabel Buchman arrived in the finale of season 5, and much of season 6 was spent with Paul and Jamie Buchman adjusting to the arrival of their new baby. Season 7 would be the original series’ last, and it felt like the end didn’t come a moment too soon. Even the show’s most ardent fans concede that season 7 wasn’t exactly great television. So, did Mabel Buchman end the series?
In a way, yes. Mabel’s arrival signaled the end of the series because she erased its original concept. The series was beloved because it was about the intricacies and sometimes monotony of coupledom, not necessarily about the nuances of being a family. Introducing a baby made Paul and Jamie Buchman parents instead of the couple that fans had grown to love watching.
To be fair, the show could only draw out the arrival of a baby for so long. Paul and Jamie both spoke of potentially having a child early on, which, for all intents and purposes, put an expiration date on the series. It had to happen despite knowing it would ruin the series. The Nanny suffered the same fate. Even though it would signal the show’s end, Max Sheffield and Nanny Fine hooking up needed to happen.
