MAD ABOUT YOU: THE FINAL FRONTIER

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:

1Andrew GoldFinal Frontier (TV Theme)1:09
2Faith HillWho I Am4:19
3“No Pressure”0:36
4The Young RascalsI’ve Been Lonely Too Long2:05
5Etta JamesAt Last!2:58
6“That’s Marriage?”0:40
7Sarah McLachlanIce Cream2:43
8Eric Martin (2)I Love The Way You Love Me3:38
9Lyle LovettNobody Knows Me3:04
10Elvis CostelloSneaky Feelings2:09
11“A Talk In The Park”0:30
12Julia FordhamLove & Forgiveness4:17
13“A Magic Moment”0:30
14Marc CohnThe Things We’ve Handed Down4:40
15BeBe WinansLullabye For You4:03
16Hootie & The BlowfishShe Crawls Away4:06
17Nil LaraMy First Child5:40
18John LennonBeautiful Boy (Darling Boy)4:04
19The Tony Rich ProjectBaby Girl2:24
20“Unconditional Love”0:22
21Anita BakerMad About You – The Final Frontier3:44

28 thoughts on “MAD ABOUT YOU: THE FINAL FRONTIER

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    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.

    Reply
  2. Michael Padgett

    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.

    Reply
  3. Jerry House

    I enjoyed the series but the final episode left a bad taste in my mouth that I m still trying to spit out

    Reply
  4. Deb

    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.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      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.

      Reply
      1. Todd Mason

        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…

  5. Patti Abbott

    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.

    Reply
    1. Todd Mason

      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.

      Reply
  6. Dan

    Without a doubt and beyond all dispute the finest work of art in mass media of the 20th century.

    Reply
  7. Jeff Meyerson

    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.

    Reply
  8. Patti Abbott

    George-I never remember seeing that before but terrific. They must have filmed that scene in Megan’s laundry room. So creepy.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      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!

      Reply
  9. Beth Fedyn

    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.

    Reply
  10. Wolf

    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!

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Wolf, most American sit-coms had “story-arcs” that required viewers to follow or be completely confused. It was a marketing gimmick.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *