Fans of the American sitcom Mad About You will be thrilled to catch a glimpse of Paul and Jamie Buchman’s apartment building while on the NYC TV & Movie Tour.
Mad About You ran on NBC from September 1992 to May 1999. Although the show is about a newlywed couple living in New York City, in the tradition of most sitcoms, it filmed on a set in Los Angeles, California in front of a studio audience. However, the show did feature several establishing shots of real-life exterior New York locations, including the iconic brick apartment building in Greenwich Village, the home of the show’s two main characters.
The show focused on Paul (Paul Reiser), a documentary filmmaker, and Jamie (Helen Hunt), a public relations specialist, and the ups and downs they experienced in married life. Their dog, Murray (whose real name was actually Maui), was a favorite character of many of the show’s fans. Murray’s dog walker, Nat, was played by Hank Azaria, Helen Hunt’s then real-life husband.
Fans of the show will remember the seminal episode, “Cold Feet,” a flashback episode were Paul and Jamie recall their engagement while skating at Rockefeller Plaza on Valentine’s Day. During the winter months, the skating rink at Rockefeller Center makes an appearance, and has become a quintessential New York City winter experience for generations.
Regular guests of Mad About You included Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, and Lisa Kudrow. Lisa Kudrow actually played Ursula, a flaky waitress at the restaurant Riff’s. Fans of the TV show Friends know Lisa as Phoebe Buffay, Ursula’s twin sister. Therefore, in what is referred to as a “crossover,” Lisa Kudrow played the same character on two simultaneously running television shows. Mad About Youalso featured another television crossover, when Seinfeld’s Cosmo Kramer, played by Michael Richards, made an appearance on the show.
Mad About You was created by the show’s star, Paul Reiser. Originally the show was to be called The Final Frontier, which is the name of the show’s theme song. Helen Hunt actually directed several episodes of the show, including the series finale.
The ninth episode of season six, entitled “The Conversation,” was a rare “single-take” episode, which was done all in one take, with no cuts, the way a stage play is performed. In this episode, Paul and Jamie are trying to get their baby, Mabel, to stop crying and fall asleep. The episode was directed by Gordon Hunt, Helen Hunt’s father.
Mad About You was critically acclaimed and won several awards, including a Golden Globe, a Peabody Award, a Genesis Award, and received five Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series. Helen Hunt won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress—Comedy Series four years in a row. Helen Hunt was also the second person in history (after Cloris Leachman) to win an Oscar while still doing a weekly television show. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in the film As Good As It Gets.
* In an effort to stay current, we are constantly updating our tours with new locations and cannot guarantee the presence of locations mentioned on our site. If you have a particular interest in locations from a specific TV show or movie, please let your tour guide know and we will do our best to accommodate your request.