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The Mad About You Finale
A Review by Techtite
This is hardly a new opinion; Mad About You
should have ended its run one season earlier. However,
NBC wasn't about to say goodbye to any sitcom on the same year
they lost Seinfeld, so Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt
were offered one million dollars per episode for at least one
more season. This means the last season (1998-99) cost NBC around 60 million dollars.
So why does it seem like the people most ripped off here are the fans?
Don't get me wrong;
I loved the show...up to the final season. For many enjoyable episodes
through the years, the series knew what
made the show click; a sitcom of a young man Mad About
his wife...and vice-versa. There were poignant moments,
like when the newspaper stand where they met caught fire ("what
if they never met?" they fear, in a what-if episode ). Other
eps included guest stars galore, including most of the original
cast of Laugh In. The repeats of such seasons are
classic fun, to be shown in syndication for years to come.
This
final season's episodes, however, were just bad. You
couldn't keep from wincing when Reiser, the series co-creator, was reduced to having an allegedly "killer"
cat stuck on his behind. The intended joke was that they mistook
a wild puma for a house cat. Yet why even attempt this joke with a cat
that is less harmless looking than Garfield? Here's poor Paul
Reiser, walking away from the camera as
if he's 80 years old, obviously afraid the harmless pussycat
will fall off. The scene was totally ridiculous. What a sad moment
in sitcoms...
One would think this would be merely
one rare case of a truly bad episode. Then other
goofs aired. Most episodes centered on their dull, whiney marriage
counseling. There are two things that will never, ever be funny in
sitcoms: Alcoholics Anonymous, and Marriage Counceling. By comparison,
"fender benders" can be made funny if nobody gets hurt, but when
Paul hit his mother in law's car by accident, it just isn't funny. Yet the
real problem here is how humorless this season was, even when the subject
matter would seemingly demand humor. In one episode, Jamie was locked out of her sport gym in
only a towel...yet nobody seems to care, or even notice. Where's the
funny...? She even goes up to the top of the Empire State Building with no problem. This is a comedy...?
 Then came the bitter
(and I mean bitter) end; the series finale aired May 25th,
1999. In it, Paul and Jamie's future is narrated by then-adult
daughter Mabel. From the first sight of their choice to play
adult Mabel --Janeane Garofalo-- it's obvious casting agents
quit the show early. Garofalo wings her way through her typically
cynical, I-hate-life standup routine, without anyone telling
her what a great, fun life Mabel would have
had. Seriously, would two people as fun to be with as Paul and
Jamie raise a caustic, frequently-bitter personality like Garofalo?
It doesn't make it any easier to envision this when even the
series finale shows baby Mabel has light blonde hair.
It's not uncommon for a baby's hair to get darker with age, although
it's hard to envision bright blonde hair becoming jet black
as an adult. Even if you're a diehard Garofalo fan, she just was not right
for the role.
A flashback plot
device must have also looked cute on paper; the minister who
married Paul and Jamie was not a real minister, and they were
never really married; a classic sitcom plotline. As frequent
as this plotline was done in the 60's, it always works...if you let it work. Here, an otherwise flawless sitcom plot is
barraged with tragedy galore, to the point of being grating.
After a miscarriage, two family deaths, and a temporary
split, this "sitcom" finale becomes a victim of morbid
overkill.
It's the temporary split that really bugged
me. True, marriage
difficulties have been the inane subject of MAY recently, on
a show whose original theme was that Paul and Jamie were "Mad
About" each other, no matter what. Then, without
explanation, the happiest marriage in '90s sitcoms sours in a
few episodes. Suddenly they were going to dull, humorless marriage
counseling. Little by little, the title itself seemed to be forgotten;
one might rename the show "I Kinda Sorta Like You!"
By the series finale, all this reaches its peak, when at some
point Paul and Jamie split up. It makes for an odd moment on
a show still titled Mad About You. On so many levels,
saying they eventually split in the finale --no matter how temporary--
was a bad plot choice, period.
In the end, memories of The Wonder Years' finale
comes to mind, which narrated that the father dies in mere months
and Kevin never marries Winnie. Finales like these seem to snub
their noses at the few avid fans still watching; "You forced
us to quit, so here's what you least want in the
final episode...So there!" By comparison, many sitcoms'
rewarded fans-still-watching with classic tv moments, like Newhart's
hilarious "dream" epilogue, and MASH's
end to the war. If anything, Mad About You's value
in syndication will only work if the abysmal final season's episodes
are never aired again. If only they never aired at all.
---Techtite
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