Mad About You: Season 03 (1994)

Already a bona fide hit, though not a huge hit, Mad About You received a major shot in the arm ratings-wise when, upon entering its third season, the series was moved to Thursday evenings, just before Friends, as part of NBC's "Must See TV" lineup. By the end of the season, the series was posting its best numbers ever, and was a shoo-in for fall renewal. Though there were no cast changes amongst the series' regulars, there were several new faces in the recurring-character department. Jim Piddock replaced Paxton Whitehead as Hal Conway, the insufferable upper-crust British neighbor of Paul and Jamie Buchman (Paul Reiser, Helen Hunt), while the roles of Jamie's parents, Gus and Teresa Stemple, filled by Paul Dooley and Nancy Dussault during season one, were now essayed by John Karlen and Penny Fuller. New to the cast were George O. Petrie as Paul's editor, Sid, Eric Stoltz as Jamie's ex-beau Alan, Anne Bobby as Jamie's former classmate Susannah Gould, and Meg Wyllie as the ubiquitous Aunt Lolly (though exactly whose aunt she was really remained a bit of a mystery). Season highlights included "My Boyfriend's Back!," wherein the series' characters were redefined in animated-cartoon form; "The Alan Brady Show," for which Carl Reiner, recreating the obnoxious TV comedian he'd originally played on The Dick Van Dyke Show, which won an Emmy award; and "Money Changes Everything," which likewise earned an Emmy for its guest star, Cyndi Lauper. A third Emmy was claimed by the Mad About You sound-mixing staff, headed by Peter Damski. The series closed out its third season with arguably its most bizarre episode, the hour-long "Up in Smoke," which emulated It's a Wonderful Life by showing Paul and Jamie what might have happened had they never met. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi