Back in the 1990s, TV shows started issuing soundtracks just like movies did. One of those TV shows was Mad About You.
Mad About You was an American sitcom television series starring Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a married couple in New York City. The series proved successful with a total of 164 half-hour episodes for seven seasons.
Mad About You aired on NBC from September 23, 1992, to May 24, 1999, winning numerous awards including four Golden Globe Awards and twelve Primetime Emmy Awards. The show’s theme song, “Final Frontier”, was composed by Paul Reiser and Don Was. “Final Frontier” was originally performed by Andrew Gold, but a version performed by Anita Baker made its debut in Season 5, Were you a fan of Mad About You? Do you remember this music? GRADE: B
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | Andrew Gold– | Final Frontier (TV Theme) | 1:09 |
| 2 | Faith Hill– | Who I Am | 4:19 |
| 3 | “No Pressure” | 0:36 | |
| 4 | The Young Rascals– | I’ve Been Lonely Too Long | 2:05 |
| 5 | Etta James– | At Last! | 2:58 |
| 6 | “That’s Marriage?” | 0:40 | |
| 7 | Sarah McLachlan– | Ice Cream | 2:43 |
| 8 | Eric Martin (2)– | I Love The Way You Love Me | 3:38 |
| 9 | Lyle Lovett– | Nobody Knows Me | 3:04 |
| 10 | Elvis Costello– | Sneaky Feelings | 2:09 |
| 11 | “A Talk In The Park” | 0:30 | |
| 12 | Julia Fordham– | Love & Forgiveness | 4:17 |
| 13 | “A Magic Moment” | 0:30 | |
| 14 | Marc Cohn– | The Things We’ve Handed Down | 4:40 |
| 15 | BeBe Winans– | Lullabye For You | 4:03 |
| 16 | Hootie & The Blowfish– | She Crawls Away | 4:06 |
| 17 | Nil Lara– | My First Child | 5:40 |
| 18 | John Lennon– | Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) | 4:04 |
| 19 | The Tony Rich Project– | Baby Girl | 2:24 |
| 20 | “Unconditional Love” | 0:22 | |
| 21 | Anita Baker– | Mad About You – The Final Frontier | 3:44 |
I remember the episode of Seinfeld where George’s girlfriend made him watch Mad About You. I sympathized. I hated Mad About You. Especially Paul Reiser on it.
The soundtrack is pretty lame. A few artists I like-Elvis Costello, Rascals, Nil Lara, John Lennon, Lyle Lovett, but the bulk of this cd is pretty lame.
Steve, the audience for MAD ABOUT YOU seemed to be mostly women.
I was aware of the series and may have seen bits of it but never watched it in any consistent way. Despite liking a few of the artists on the soundtrack, I don’t really remember any of the songs. Helen Hunt was OK though, and I did like her in some other things.
Michael, I’m a big Helen Hunt fan.
I enjoyed the series but the final episode left a bad taste in my mouth that I m still trying to spit out
Jerry, I agree. That final episode sucked.
This was not one of my NBC “regulars” like Seinfeld, Frasier, or Friends, but I’d occasionally catch an episode. Nothing about the show stays with me; however using songs by artists as varied as Etta James, Elvis Costello, and Lyle Lovett seems fairly creative for a show from the 1990s.
Deb, I think CHINA BEACH started the trend of using contemporary music as a soundtrack for TV shows. MAD ABOUT YOU got adventurous with their music choices.
You mean, CHINA BEACH using mostly ’60s music? Though some latter-day music i the latter-day sequences.
The series that most employed contemporary music (to it’s detriment when issued on DVD or even in some syndicated repeats) and set the trend thus would be WKRP IN CINCINNATI…
I did watch it mostly. They were both kind of annoying and narcissistic, but the writing was pretty good. And their family and friends were even more annoying, which was a feat in itself.
Patti, the funniest scene of MAD ABOUT YOU was the one with Helen Hunt and the washing machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwR3Eo3KDZQ
I’d say your assessment, Patti, is spot on. Hunt’s character would occasionally make weirdly blithe pronouncements about their relation, etc., that Reiser’s character would supposedly be the rational responder to, which is less fine when you consider Reiser was closer to the writing staff, production, etc., at least initially, which made it Way too self-congratulatory. That said, it was a better-written and more consistent series than most of NBC’s other very popular sitcoms of the era. Not as good as NEWSRADIO or others which were less popular, but such is life on tv.
I’m not sure its audience was primarily female, at all, George. The music was reasonably good for a sitcom soundtrack.
I don’t recall the last episode at all. Hm. Wonder what inspires such strong reaction.
Without a doubt and beyond all dispute the finest work of art in mass media of the 20th century.
No. No memory of the soundtrack whatever.
We did like the show at first. I like Paul Reiser. Helen Hunt, not so much, depending on the role. Lisa Kudrow was fingernails on the blackboard. Jackie liked cousin Ira and Cyndi Lauper. Jamie’s sister was unbearable. The minute they started the “we’re trying to get pregnant” storyline, they lost us. We did not watch any of the pregnancy, birth, baby episodes. But the first two years, yeah, not bad.
George-I never remember seeing that before but terrific. They must have filmed that scene in Megan’s laundry room. So creepy.
Patti, that Helen Hunt episode on the washing machine was comedy genius. One of the “requirements” Diane and I convinced Katie of when she was looking to buy a condo in Boston was having laundry machines in the condo, not in the basement. That, and A/C would be requirements for Diane and me. Too many creepy things happen in city basements!
I don’t remember the soundtrack either. I stopped watching once the baby plotline started.
But I do remember that, thru DAPA, I pictured Jeff and Jackie as Paul and Jamie.
I haven’t watched that most recent season. Helen Hunt’s plastic surgery is too disturbing.
Beth, I totally agree with Helen Hunt’s plastic surgery. Very odd.
All those awards, and I never even heard of it. Huh.
Rick, I’m guessing you were not in the TV demographic MAD ABOUT YOU was designed to appeal to.
Hadn’t even heard about this so I had to look it up on wiki. It was shown late at night on German private TV – and on a children’s channel???
Not my kind of show …
But actually I never like the concept of a “tv series” – if you missed one part you had tolook it up or you just didn’t understand what was going on, no way!
Wolf, most American sit-coms had “story-arcs” that required viewers to follow or be completely confused. It was a marketing gimmick.
At least many did in the ’80s and later, George. Less so beforehand.
I saw a few eps9iodes and it was okay but I wasn’t a regular viewer!
Bob, I was regular viewer because Diane was a regular viewer.
When Linda watches HER shows I leave the room.
Bob, I opt out when Diane starts watching her HALLMARK movies.