Cynthia Harris Movies

After 25 years of marriage, our heroine Rose (Christine Lathi), the book editor for the "LA Chronicle", is in for a shock. Her husband Nathan (Brian Kerwin), who is also her boss at the "Chronicle", has fallen in love with his much-younger assistant Mindy (Abby Brammell). Humiliating as it is when Nathan files for divorce, it is absolutely unbearable for Rose when she is fired and Mindy is given her job! As she struggles overcome these personal devastations, Rose is reacquainted with Hal (Bryan Brown), a freewheeling novelist with whom she had been in love before she met Nathan--and whom she had rejected because of his "unreliability." All of the main characters are played by different actors in the film's many flashback sequences. Adapted from the book by Elizabeth Buchan, the made-for-TV Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman was first broadcast by CBS on September 26, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) vow to assure their respective families that, with all their faults, they still love them. Things don't go quite as planned when Paul accidentally runs over his mother-in-law, Theresa (Carol Burnett), with his car. On the other hand, Theresa's hospital stay does bring her estranged hubby, Gus (Carroll O'Connor), back into the family fold. ~ Rovi

Though they're still working overtime to bring the magic back into their marriage, Paul and Jamie Buchman (Paul Reiser, Helen Hunt) discover that it is more beneficial to sleep apart. Meanwhile, Ira (John Pankow) tries to turn his timorous employee Marvin (Jeff Garlin) into a pro wrestler. And yes, that's "Macho Man" Randy Savage, in the flesh and then some. ~ Rovi

After nearly two months of pre-emptions, Mad About You returned on April 26, 1999. with a brace of first-run episodes. In "Murray at the Dog Show," the Buchmans' pet pooch remains traumatized by the "Puma in the Kitchen" incident earlier in the seventh season. On a potentially happier note, therapist Sheila Kleinman (Mo Gaffney) declares that Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) are cured -- but Jamie doesn't buy this diagnosis. And how does Billy Joel figure into all this? ~ Rovi

This final episode of Mad About You is set approximately 22 years in the future. Mabel Buchman (Janeane Garafolo), grown-up daughter of Paul and Jamie Buchman (Paul Reiser, Helen Hunt), follows in her dad's footsteps by producing a documentary film about her family. Several former series regulars and guest stars make cameo appearances as Mabel tries to trace the progress of her parents' marriage after a startling discovery made by Paul's sister Debbie (Robin Bartlett). Series star Helen Hunt directed this one-hour closer, which since its original network telecast has been divided into two half-hour episodes for syndication. ~ Rovi

Robert Allan Ackerman's Passion's Way stars Sela Ward and Timothy Dalton as former lovers who are reunited under less than ideal circumstances. When they find each other again, he is deeply involved with one of her employees. The two women engage in a series of psychological battles in order to defeat each other in this battle of the heart. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Mel Brooks is back as Paul's redoubtable Uncle Phil. As Paul (Paul Reiser) stands on the sidelines with mouth agape, Uncle Phil elects to go for his high school diploma -- some 63 years after dropping out. This plot development is almost as fascinating as the breast-transplant treatment undergone by Jamie's (Helen Hunt) mercurial sister, Lisa (Anne Elizabeth Ramsay). ~ Rovi

Rhea Perlman and Richard Benjamin guest star as a suburban couple from whom Jamie (Helen Hunt) purchases a house. Jamie has done this as a Valentine gift for husband, Paul (Paul Reiser) -- but Paul is not entirely grateful. The whole megilla ends in a court trial and an enforced stay in the Land of Crabgrass. ~ Rovi

To save the Buchmans' family store, Ira (John Pankow) offers to give away a new car to the customer who can keep his or her hands on the vehicle the longest. But Ira is reluctant to pony up, so he rigs the contest in the store's favor. Things get more complicated when Ira's temporarily sightless cousin, Paul (Paul Reiser), and Dr. Mark Devanow (welcome back, Richard Kind) are brought in as "ringers." ~ Rovi

Hoping that a Hollywood "superagent" will agree to represent him, Paul (Paul Reiser) heads to L.A. with wife Jamie (Helen Hunt). Upon arrival, the Buchmans immediately adjust to the laid-back ambience of La-La Land. In fact, Jamie is so enchanted by her new, luxurious lifestyle (and the marked absence of maternal duties) that she is reluctant to return to New York. ~ Rovi

Anne Elizabeth Ramsay makes one of her sporadic returns to Mad About You as Lisa, the still-unattached sister of Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt). Envious of Jamie's motherhood, Lisa adopts a surly kitten -- who turns out to be somewhat more than a kitten, and somewhat less than the ideal house pet. Elswhere, Jamie (Helen Hunt) is reinvigorated and Paul (Paul Reiser) is worn out by a noontime sex session. ~ Rovi

Paul and Jamie Buchman (Paul Reiser, Helen Hunt) will renew their wedding vows before the episode is over, but first Paul must be rushed to the hospital for an emergency tonsillectomy. Jean Louisa Kelly makes her first series appearance as Diane, an attractive nurse whose tender ministrations to Paul arouse Jamie's jealous ire. And by the way, baby Mabel utters her first word. ~ Rovi

The sixth season of Mad About You was marked by flagging ratings and ever-increasing audience dissatisfaction over the self-indulgences perpetrated by the series' creators and stars, which reached a summit (or nadir) with the single-take, "real-time" episode, "The Conversation." Nonetheless, NBC wanted to hold on to the Emmy-winning sitcom, especially since the demise of Seinfeld had passed the cudgel of offbeat comedy to Mad About You. So eager was the network to keep the series on its schedule that it offered both Paul Reiser (Paul Buchman) and Helen Hunt (Jamie Buchman) a daunting 1,000,000 dollars per episode -- a salary increase that, astonishingly enough, neither actor had requested. Once Reiser and Hunt had acquiesced, Mad About You was a firm go for a seventh season, remaining in its familiar Tuesday-night berth (albeit one hour later). While John Pankow, Louis Zorich, and Cynthia Harris were back as, respectively, Paul Buchman's cousin Ira and Paul's parents, Burt and Sylvia, several other longtime regulars were conspicuous by their absence, notably Leila Kenzle (Fran Devanow), who had joined the cast of the new UPN sitcom DiResta. Anne Ramsay -- now billed as Anne Elizabeth Ramsey -- made only guest appearances as Jamie Buchman's sister, Lisa; ditto Robin Bartlett as Paul's gay sibling Debbie. The emphasis of the series was weaned away from the Buchmans' baby daughter, Mabel, refocusing on the relationship between Paul and Jamie -- a relationship that proved to be far more fragile than in previous seasons. Despite the efforts to return to its roots by concentrating on Paul and Jamie's romantic travails, Mad About You continued its precipitous ratings plunge, prompting NBC to move the series from Tuesday to Monday evenings. Thanks to constant pre-emptions, the series was barely seen at all during March and April of 1999, and when it finally returned with new episodes, it was greeted with almost universal indifference. The program briefly rallied with its one-hour finale, a futuristic episode wherein the grown-up Mabel Buchman (Janeane Garofalo) looked back upon the lives of her parents (and their friends) during the first two decades of the 21st century. Perhaps because everyone knew that the series was on its last legs, Mad About You received no Emmy awards for its 1998-1999 output, though guest star Mel Brooks was honored at the American Comedy Awards ceremony. ~ Rovi