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1%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
2
3[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dvd_mad_about_you_home_3177.jpg]]
4->''Tell me why I love you like I do,\
5Tell me who can stop my heart as much as you,\
6Let's take each other's hand as we jump in to the Final Frontier!\
7I'm [[TitleDrop mad about you]] baby...''
8
9Quite simply, a DomCom airing on Creator/{{NBC}} from 1992–99, about a married couple with a ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''-esque interest in meaningless conversations and minor fiddling events over big important ones. Rather unusual in that the couple is composed of two intelligent, attractive, well-adjusted and financially well-off people, Paul (Creator/PaulReiser, who also co-created the series) and Jamie Buchman (Creator/HelenHunt) who are deeply in love and rarely argue. Except over [[SeinfeldianConversation whether the floor is slanted]].
10Their dog, Murray, became especially popular in his own right.
11
12The series received a 12-episode limited revival in 2019 as a Spectrum Original (Spectrum being the consumer name for Charter Communications' cable services, including the remnants of Time Warner Cable).
13----
14!!This show provides examples of:
15
16[[foldercontrol]]
17
18[[folder:A-M]]
19* AccidentalNightmareFuel: [[InUniverse The attempt at a children's video]] backfires because kids find Paul dressed as the Sandman too scary. Including Mabel![[invoked]]
20* ActorAllusion:
21** Ursula (played by Creator/LisaKudrow) compliments Lisa on her name.
22** Paul is once asked if he had ever seen the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' movies. He replies "Just the first one", [[CelebrityParadox as Paul Reiser works in]] ''Film/{{Aliens}}''.
23** Jamie is invited to play ''Film/{{Twister}}.''
24** Ursula has a twin sister, [[Series/{{Friends}} Phoebe]] (see CrossOver).
25* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Both Paul's parents, the Buchmans, and Jamie's, the Stemplers, are overbearing and have a tendency for ridiculous moments.
26* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: Zig-zagged; at times Murray was [[DogsAreDumb stupid]], but in others he was borderline human. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYU-0EtxWGk There was even a case of]] TimmyInAWell when Paul and Jamie were trapped in a bathroom.
27* ArtShift: The whole comic book portion during "My Boyfriend's Back". Jamie's ex-boyfriend Alan draws her as the evil Queen Talon in a comic book, causing her a world of trouble as everyone now recognizes her as such. The episode ends with a full comic version of everyone.
28* AsHimself:
29** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_McGwire Mark McGwire]], post-Home Run record.
30** One cold open had Jamie asking who sang the song that was playing, and a response of "it's Music/GarthBrooks" came from the man himself.
31** Regis Philbin, who once caused a rift between Paul and his father when Burt yelled "Hello, Regis!" from a theater balcony.
32** Jamie works for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Carville James Carville]].
33** Creator/BruceWillis, who was in the hospital escaping from ''Die Hard: Just Die Already!'' as Jamie was giving birth.
34** Creator/KevinBacon shows up to congratulate Jamie and Paul on their pregnancy. [[SixDegreesOfKevinBacon Because everyone knows Kevin Bacon!]]
35** Music/YokoOno, who Paul asked for advice in making a documentary.
36** Creator/JamesCameron appears when Paul is making a documentary about the-making-of documentary of ''[[Film/Titanic1997 Titanic]].''
37* BabysFirstWords: Ira's attempt to get Mabel to say truck results in her first word being schmuck.
38* BigBlackout: Caused by Jamie in "Pandora's Box" while attempting to bring cable into her bedroom. It extended to the other NBC sitcoms that night!
39* BirthdayHater: Paul always has terrible birthdays.
40-->'''Paul:''' Ouch.\
41'''Jamie:''' What happened?\
42'''Paul:''' No, no, no, I'm just practicing.\
43'''Jamie:''' Fine. You're gonna fall in a well. Are you happy now?\
44'''Paul:''' You know, I fell in a well.\
45'''Jamie:''' You did not.\
46'''Paul:''' Birthday, 15. Amish country.\
47'''Jamie:''' You fell in a well?\
48'''Paul:''' While making a wish.\
49'''Jamie:''' Okay? My God.\
50'''Paul:''' No, no, no, this is the beauty--this is the beauty of the thing. See, I know it's gonna suck. I know there's some disaster coming and still I continue to have birthdays.\
51'''Jamie:''' Maybe this one will be better.\
52'''Paul:''' Oh, no, no, it will suck. It's just that I just don't know what form the disaster will take and therein lies the fascination.
53* BottleEpisode: Plenty of episodes never left Paul and Jamie's apartment, and since most of the series was about everyday married life it was wholly appropriate. ''One'' episode however ("The Conversation") [[TheOner never left a single camera angle.]]
54* BrutalHonesty: The Buchmans are prone to it. No wonder they have weird arguments at times.
55* TheBusCameBack: Mark, who leaves Fran and the show but eventually wins her back and his part as regular.
56* CatapultNightmare: Jamie has one of the hilarious kind during the DreamSequence episode.
57* CatchPhrase:
58** For Paul listing things - "Ok first number 1 (first item) and then B (second item)."
59** "Not so much."
60** "This is what I'm saying!"
61** "It's me, Burt! Burt Buchman--your father!"
62* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Not quite a romance, but "Natural History" has a flashback that reveals Paul and Jamie once met at the Natural History Museum (during a blackout) when they were little kids.
63* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Selby, Paul's best friend in the first season, disappears without explanation afterwards. Lampshaded in an episode in one of the later seasons when they pause to wonder whatever happened to him, then the episode goes back to whatever it had been about.
64* CloudCuckoolander: Lisa, who is constantly spewing nonsense or downright in her own world (once she couldn't even bother to listen to Paul and Jamie warning about how the apartment was rigged to record their daily life... while, among other things, [[ToplessnessFromTheBack changing her shirt in full view of the cameras]])
65* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere: They abstain from sex to wait for the perfect time for conception. During this period, basically everything they see or hear reminds them of the deed.
66* TheComicallySerious: Creator/StevenWright as Warren, Paul's first editor. Along with him being weird, his deadpan delivery makes him very funny.
67* ContraceptionDeception: In the last episode, Jamie convinces Paul to have a vasectomy, then to have the vasectomy reversed, then to have the vasectomy *again*. He doesn't go through with it the last time, and Jamie ends up pregnant ([[spoiler: though she loses the baby in a miscarriage]]).
68* CoolOldGuy:
69** Creator/MelBrooks guest-stars as Uncle Phil ([[Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir no relation]]) in a few episodes.
70** Sid, Paul's editor, too.
71* CountingToPotato: As mentioned under CatchPhrase, Paul has a habit of counting to 1 and then B.
72* CreditCardDestruction: Happened to Paul twice when he was mistakenly declared dead.
73* CrossesTheLineTwice: This became a [[invoked]] DiscussedTrope in "On the Road" when Paul tried to justify his joke of calling Marvin a sissy after Marvin shared a personal secret. Paul claimed it was this trope (not literally referencing this trope by name but giving a pretty close description), when everyone else seems to think it's just crossing the line once.
74* CrossOver:
75** With ''Series/{{Friends}}''. Early on, Lisa Kudrow played Ursula, a scatterbrained waitress at Riff's. After Kudrow landed the role of Phoebe on ''Friends'', Ursula was revealed to be Phoebe's twin sister. Jamie and Fran have a cameo in one episode of the latter show, where they go to the "Central Perk" coffee shop, see Phoebe and mistake her for Ursula. Phoebe, being a customer and not a waitress, doesn't take their order... which only further convinces them that she's Ursula. (Ursula herself appeared in eight episodes of ''Friends'' in addition to 23 episodes of ''Mad About You''.)
76** It also turns out that Paul used to live in the apartment now inhabited by ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'''s Cosmo Kramer, which creates a weird CelebrityParadox when a later season finds Kramer's friends George and Susan in bed watching a ''Mad About You'' episode!
77** Likewise, in one episode, Paul runs into real-life Jerry Seinfeld, and tells him that Jamie "loves your show."
78** NBC also liked to do cross over stunt nights when all the sitcoms in that night's line up would be self contained stories related to a larger arc (Generally to boost ratings during sweep periods). In one such instance ''Mad About You'''s Jamie tries to steal cable TV reception and manages to black out New York City. The characters of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' and ''Series/MadmanOfThePeople'' then dealt with the blackout in their own shows. Somewhat typically, ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' didn't participate in the gimmick, and just ran a regular episode.
79** Also with ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'', when Carl Reiner guest stars as his DVDS character Alan Brady.
80* DescriptionCut: While not immediate, when Paul brings Jamie to Yoko Ono's apartment, he reminds her to not ask anything about the Beatles. When Yoko enters the room, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is playing full blast.
81* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Paul walks past an ''ACappella'' group singing the theme song, which he'd co-written. To [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall further mess with the wall, he mentions its familiarity]]. At the end of the episode, Paul and Jamie listen to the same group singing the theme again as the end-credits play. This time, Paul recognizes the tune and grins with satisfaction, but does not identify the tune out loud.
82* DisabilityAsAnExcuseForJerkassery: Paul and Jamie were once harassed by a man in a wheelchair who used this. After punching Paul in the gut and subsequently receiving a black eye, [[WoundedGazelleGambit he exaggerated the amount of pain he was in while others chastised Paul.]]
83** ''Series/{{Friends}}'' retroactively does this to Ursula, demonstrating that she's actually a selfish, amoral, pathological liar and possibly an outright sociopath, meaning a lot of her ditzy and clueless behaviour might be an act and she's really just callous at best and malicious at worst.
84* DisruptingTheTheater: While on a double date at a theater, Jamie and Paul are irritated by a young man talking loudly to his girlfriend and shush him. He responds by throwing popcorn at Paul's head, and Jamie tells him to stand up to the guy. Paul does... only to back down when he sees the guy's in a wheelchair. Offended, the guy proceeds to punch him out.
85* DitzyGenius: Murray is indeed a little weird and appears to be a bit thick sometimes, but it's also suggested several times that he is ''far'' more intelligent than anyone gives him credit for, sometimes even outsmarting his owners.
86* DoorStopper: One episode had Jamie purchasing a huge dictionary from a street vendor. While carrying it to give as a gift later, there are frequent complaints about its weight.
87* {{Doppelganger}}: In one episode, Lisa accidentally comes home with a well-trained twin of Murray.
88--> '''Jamie''': Lisa, this is not Murray! It looks like Murray, but it isn't Murray. Murray has a white spot and vacant eyes. This dog KNOWS THINGS!
89* DreamSequence: A whole episode of it [[AcidRefluxNightmare after they eat Ostrich.]] Before it's over, they're semi-lucidly dreaming that their living room has been taken over by a party sketch from ''Series/LaughIn''.
90* DumbBlonde: Ursula, the waitress who even struggles to take the Buchmans' orders. Once she tried to put out a fire by ''fanning it''!
91* ElevatorGoingDown: Done on the Empire State Building lift, taking advantage of Paul with [[RagingStiffie Viagra]] and Jamie with only a towel.
92* EmbarrassingFirstName: Uncle Phil's real name is Deuteronomy. Naturally, he waits to mention this until after guilt-tripping Paul into naming the baby after him.
93* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Lisa (a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} with an unstable love and professional life) and Jamie (a HappilyMarried, employed, and relatively normal woman), respectively.
94* {{Foreshadowing}}: Paul and Jamie both dream about him getting it on with his gorgeous boss Allison. By the season's end, he nearly sleeps with another woman (ironically, ''not'' Allison).
95* ForgottenFirstMeeting: In "Natural History," a flashback shows Paul and Jamie once met at the Natural History Museum (during a blackout) when they were little kids. They aren't quite sure they had both been at the same museum at the same time until the very end of the episode.
96* FullyAutomaticClipShow: The clip show episodes employ this, specially stringing together moments such as Paul stammering.
97* FunWithAcronyms:
98** After a full episode of back-and-forth debate over the baby's name, Paul and Jamie are hit with inspiration when they hear this adage: '''M'''others '''A'''lways '''B'''ring '''E'''xtra '''L'''ove. Bingo.
99** In the finale, a rebelling Mabel tells her parents she's changing her name to Sonya: Some Other Name You Ass-- (Paul and Jamie cover the last last bit with their gasps).
100* GenderBlenderName: Sometimes they call Jamie "James", and it's unclear whether it is her given name.
101%%* GodwinsLaw: Paul uses this in "The Glue People" as a reason to vote for a different mayor than Jamie. '''Administrivia/ZeroContextExample -- who does Paul compare to Hitler, and how?'''
102* HappilyMarried: No matter if they have some weird and at times heated arguments, Paul and Jamie are mad about each other.
103* HomePornMovie: One episode revolves around Jamie and Paul's old sex tape getting misplaced and their misadventures to get it back.
104* HypocriticalHumor: Ira attempts to bribe a college professor into letting Jamie into his class. When Ira asks what he teaches, the professor coolly replies, ''"Ethics."'' In their very next scene, the professor is taking Ira's money and approving Jamie's entry into his class.
105* KavorkaMan: Ira. Lampshaded when he accidentally catches sight of himself in a mirror while having intercourse, scarring him so deeply that he loses interest in sex (for about a week).
106* LampshadeHanging: Usually in TheTag, which either [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaks]] or [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall leans on]] the fourth wall.
107* LargeHam: Creator/JerryLewis as a one-episode EccentricMillionaire, and Mel Brooks as Uncle Phil.
108* LastMinuteBabyNaming: Paul and Jamie name the baby Mabel, after a remark by Jamie's mom: "[[FunWithAcronyms Mothers always bring extra love.]]"
109* LastResortTakeout: In one ThanksgivingEpisode, Jamie tries to make a turkey but the dog eats it, so she buys a precooked turkey from the local deli. She then has to buy several more because they keep getting destroyed, including one that gets thrown out of the window when her in-laws almost catch her bringing it in.
110* LawOfInverseFertility: Paul and Jamie struggle to conceive for an entire season despite nothing being wrong with either of them. They conceive when making love to reconcile after their estrangement. The finale has them conceiving again after deciding not to have any more children and Paul's subsequent vasectomy (which it turns out he didn't get). Although initially not pleased, they're devastated when she miscarries.
111--> "It turns out. . .I wanted it."
112--> "Me too."
113* LocalHangout: The Riff's restaurant. No matter if the waitress, Ursula, is fairly incompetent.
114* LogoJoke: In the closing credits of the episode "It's A Wrap," Paul is arguing with his producer about what to show at the end of the credits. He tells him to "show the guy on the phone" (as we see Paul talking on the phone), "then you have the sound of the race track" (as the In Front Productions logo plays), "the thing with the hand" (the Nuance Productions logo), "and then the stupid horse with the wings" (the [=TriStar=] Television logo), concluding with "That'll work." Sadly, because reruns plaster the [=TriStar=] Television logo with the Sony Pictures Television logo, the last part of the joke is cut off, though the "That'll work" is kept in.
115* MakeUpOrBreakUp: The series finale shows Paul and Jamie separating for a while. They reconcile at the screening of Mabel's Dada-esque indie film.
116* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: The very first episode has Paul and Jamie's impromptu sex in the kitchen, while everyone else is in the living room for a dinner party. [[BookEnds That season's finale has it happening again]], though this time the guests notice and highlight it.
117* MeaningfulEcho:
118** In a flashback to Paul and Jamie's introduction to each other, Jamie's ForcefulKiss is followed by this non sequitur:
119--->'''Paul''': Did you just kiss me?
120--->'''Jamie:''' ''(beat)'' No.
121--->'''Paul:''' I didn't think so.
122** In the series finale, Paul and Jamie (now middle-aged and separated) have the exact same exchange. As Mabel's voiceover states, Paul then escorted Jamie back home, bought a pie, "and never left".
123* MillenniumBug: One episode had Paul dreaming of meeting Albert Einstein and being given a mathematical problem, which he is convinced that will solve the Y2K problem.
124* ModelCouple: Not quite models, but they're both good-looking enough to be an aversion of the UglyGuyHotWife trope that's so standard of many sitcoms.
125* ModestyTowel: Jamie once got trapped outside the gym in one.
126* MovieMakingMess: Paul at times gets in those. Most notably "The Making of The Making Of ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}''", which one of the crewmembers downright complains that could earn a making of itself.
127* MyOwnPrivateIDo: Though the series starts with them already married, it's revealed that Jamie and Paul did this - the Plan First, Elope Later type. It happens in the middle of the night, on the sidewalk, performed by a [=ConEd=] worker, while Jamie has toothpaste on her face. And [[ItMakesSenseInContext it's adorable.]]
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130[[folder:N-Z]]
131* NiceKitty: Done to what turns out not be a cat, in the indicatively named episode "There Is a Puma in the Kitchen".
132* NoMeansYes: Jamie's mother apparently has a problem with being direct, usually saying something that is the opposite of the utterance. Her husband downright says he's been trying to decode her for 37 years.
133* ObnoxiousInLaws: Paul's mother constantly takes subtle and not-so-subtle potshots at Jamie. Especially bad as Paul's father adores her, and Jamie's parents (despite their own [[MyBelovedSmother smothering and manipulative]] ways) like Paul. To make matters worse, the respective mothers in law don't get along very well either.
134* OneHourWorkWeek: Presumably Jamie works full time, but Paul seems to be home an awful lot between projects.
135* TheOner: "The Conversation" is twenty minutes in real time, in a single take. It gets a massive LampshadeHanging during the credits, where Paul praises a movie they just watched for a one-shot scene, only for Jamie to not be impressed.
136%%* OneWePreparedEarlier: The Thanksgiving Episode! '''Administrivia/ZeroContextExample'''
137* ParanormalEpisode: The series had an incident like this where the place where the couple met had burned down. Then they wind up [[ItsAWonderfulPlot in a world where they never met]], and the pair soon forget about each other for an unexplained reason.
138* ParentalSexualitySquick: Paul's parents rekindled sex life makes him and Jamie very uncomfortable. Even more when the Buchmans arrive from a trip crazy to have sex, and [[PrimalScene Burt and Sylvia are already in bed]].
139* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Paul's mother excels at this when dealing with Jamie. Case in point, she gushes to Jamie about how wonderful her sister Lisa is, then declares, "You two are so different!"
140* ThePerryMasonMethod: Uncle Phil is brought up on charges for illegally collecting old newspapers from the neighbors in his building, then amassing a fortune's worth of coupons. Phil calls the prosecutor to the stand, then proceeds to absolutely ''decimate'' his case by guilt-tripping the attorney about his parents, clipping coupons to pay for his law courses.
141-->'''Phil:''' Judge, lemmie hear those magic words!
142-->'''Judge:''' Case dismissed!
143* PutOnABus: Mark, but TheBusCameBack.
144* RagingStiffie: When Paul took Viagra. It caused many uncomfortable moments as he wandered the streets looking for Jamie, including being mistaken for a gun.
145* RetCon: A few in the revival, given it supersedes the finale in a way. Paul's dad still died, though.
146* RewatchBonus: If one watches ''Series/{{Friends}}'' after this and then comes back, a lot of Ursula's ditzy behaviour might look more sinister as from that show you are aware of how amoral and duplicitous the character really is.
147* RummageFail: Both subverted and exemplified in "Purseona," where Lisa and Jaime accidentally switch purses. The normally disorganized Lisa dips into Jaime's purse and finds exactly the right item at opportune times, while Jaime rummages through Lisa's purse only to find random strange things.
148* RunawayBride: Paul and Jamie discover (in Season 7 and post-illegitimate baby) that their wedding wasn't legally valid. Naturally, Jamie starts fretting that their marriage's success rests on them [[InsaneTrollLogic not being...uh, married.]]
149* RunningGag:
150** The kitchen floor bump.
151** "Murray, go get the mouse!"
152*** Secretly the mouse does exist!
153** Nat calling Murray by the names of famous people, such as "F. Murray Abraham" or "Murray Magdalene".
154* SeinfeldianConversation: Very, very common, particularly when Paul and Jamie start taking detours from the initial subject.
155* {{Sleepwalking}}: The season 4 opener had Jamie complimenting Paul on his best sexual performance ever... and Paul notes he can't remember what exactly he did given he was asleep already!
156** An aggressive variant: Paul is feeling some unexplained pain. After the couple goes to a sleep doctor, they discover Jamie was punching Paul while both slept!
157* SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond: Next door neighbors Maggie, Hal (and the other Hal, and then back to the first Hal) Conway.
158* SpecialEditionTitle: "Film/{{Speed}} Baby".
159* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Jamie's sister Lisa is much less successful than Jamie is and is insecure over it -- all the more so because Jamie is the ''younger'' sister.
160* ThanksgivingEpisode:
161** One memorable Thanksgiving, Paul and Jamie go through about five replacement turkeys (one of whom is [[DestinationDefenestration thrown out the window]]) after Murray eats the first one.
162** The first season showed Paul and Jamie (and Lisa and [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Selby]]) heading to Jamie's family home for Thanksgiving (with Fran and Mark on the same train to ''their'' family's home), and then on the way home after their respective Thanksgiving experiences.
163** A later T-Day episode dealt with how Paul and Jamie tried (with hilarious failure) to control the dissemination of their pregnancy to their relatives.
164** The last season had them trying out a charade game to spice up things before dinner. And given Jamie is a CompetitionFreak, the meal is ruined given the last one (''The Thieving Magpie'') goes unsolved.
165* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. They see one after marital problems and despite having ostensibly reconciled, they realize there are still unresolved issues. Lisa also mentions seeing one.
166* TimeSkip: The series finale jumps around a lot. These scenes range from funny (teenage Mabel and Jamie having a door-slamming competition), to...not so funny, such as the funeral for Paul's father, Paul and Jamie's miscarriage, and subsequent '''breakup'''. Creator/JaneaneGarofalo guest-stars as Adult Mabel.
167* TimmyInAWell: Murray's very good at this. After he communicates that the toilet is overflowing, Paul quotes the trope. Murray acts this out during the final credits of a Valentine's Day show as he gets Mark and Fran to rescue Paul and Jamie who have spent the entire episode [[BottleEpisode trapped in the locked bathroom]].
168%%* TruthTellingSession '''Administrivia/ZeroContextExample'''
169* UnCancelled: The 2019 revival, though it takes some BroadStrokes with the DistantFinale that was the series closer. (for instance, Paul's father is still dead given the actor did so)
170* VideoWills: Jamie's ex Alan leaves one for her, that even includes [[TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat a pre-recorded argument regarding how they broke up]].
171* VillainOfAnotherStory: Famously, Ursula was Phoebe's EvilTwin in ''Series/{{Friends}}''. Although ''Mad About You'' didn't touch on Ursula's evilness, but rather on her ditzyness.
172* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Creator/HankAzaria's Nat, the dog walker. His accent work is to die for!
173* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue:
174** Ursula is now the Governor of New York.
175** The Conways were discovered to be spies and deported back to England. No-one there likes them, either.
176* WholeEpisodeFlashback: A few, including the flashback to Paul and Jamie's wedding called... "Mad About You".
177* YouAreAlreadyCheckedIn: A comedy variant: Jamie was going back to school, but Paul had forgotten to send in her registration forms. So he, Ira and Jamie's friend Fran stealth sign her up for all the classes she wanted on the last day of registration, getting signatures from the teachers of the classes in question, and all had to get photo [=IDs=] taken, claiming they were Jamie Buckman.
178[[/folder]]

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