I hope they find a guest spot for Lisa Kudrow as Ursula. She had a recurring role on the original show when she got hired for the role of Phoebe on Friends. She liked the character and didn't want to leave the show permanently (and she was unsure whether or not Friends would make it) so they turned Ursula into Phoebe's twin sister. Ursula then got more play on Friends than she ever did on Mad About You.
I was thinking the same thing, was hoping Ursula would show up at some point.
I HATE Friends. I mean really loathe it that people try to compare it to Seinfeld. Mad About You is the show no one ever really talked about and 20 years later no one really remembers any episodes. I feel Friends is the show no one ever shuts up about, but also no one remembers any episodes of, just like a scene. Smelly cat...
It's understandable for you to not like friends. Loathe it? Ehhh, seems a bit extreme, but whatever. I think the reason why people remember it and Seinfeld more than MAY is probably just the kind of humor, characters and just the overall stories they did. Friends was about a bunch of snarky/quirky 20-somethings living in the city, Seinfeld a bunch of self-centered asshole sociopaths trying to be human beings. Mad About You? A married couple being married which is pretty much every sit-com ever made.
Yeah, it was entertaining and funny but there wasn't a whole lot about it that made the premise or the characters stand out above the fold and probably the only reason why it did so well and is remembered at all (as opposed to The Single Guy, Caroline in the City or whatever other fourth show they went through on NBC Thursdays) is because of the cast.
I'm not sure why it hasn't caught a Second Wind like Seinfeld, and more so Friends, have with present-day audiences. Is it even available to watch anywhere? (I think I saw it's on Spectrum's streaming service, but that's hardly much.) I think largely it's just the premise just doesn't appeal to young audiences and didn't much back then.
Thinking of an episode of Mad About You that for some reason always sticks in my mind:
5x19 (April 15, 1997): "The Touching Game" In this episode a pregnant Jamie is struggling with handling her pregnancy weight and doesn't think Paul is sympathetic towards it, so he goes out and to try and find that in him befriends a woman on a bus who he thinks is pregnant and it turned out to just be a fat man who sort of dresses fairly femininely. (It was like a floral-y shirt, and just his overall look and behavior was pretty much "Pat" from the SNL skits of the time.)
That same night:
(Okay, looking into this appears to be a period where MAY is no longer in the Thursday night line up with Seinfeld and Friends, this week on Thursdays it was Friends, The Single Guy/Suddenly Susan, Seinfeld and Caroline in the City.) So that same week when it comes to NBC's "Must See" sit coms:
Friends: 3x21 "The One With the Chick and the Duck." (April 17, 1997) Joey and Chandler adopt a chick and duck, Ross is set to appear on a Discovery Channel program that night but ends up helping an injured Rachel out (the two had recently had their major break-up and were starting to more or less operate as friends again), Monica is still trying to find her vibes for man (a rich computer company entrepreneur played by John Faverau) As Friends episodes go, it's an okay one. Probably the most memorable element of it is the introduction of the Chick and the Duck who'll make regular appearances and Joey as Chandler's "pets" over the next couple seasons and even spawn an interesting "shake up" in the dynamic of the show when it causes J/C and M/R to switch apartments, and it deals with an element of the Ross/Rachel thing.
Seineld apparently wasn't new this week but we'll look at the week before, I guess.
Seinfeld 8x18 "The Nap" (April 11, 1997): George, needing a way to get over the mid-day hump at work, has a napping chamber built under his desk, Jerry's getting remodeling work done in his kitchen which unsettles everyone, Kramer has taken up swimming in the East River, and Elaine is dating a man concerned about back issues and buys Elaine a new mattress. She thinks its because he intends to sleep with her on it. As Seinfeld episodes go it's probably on of the more memorable ones. Not quite on the level of The Soup Nazi or something but there's plenty of memory and funny moments in it.
I mean those are very different sets of stories. You have a bunch of friends just dealing with or in awkward or quirky situations that no normal person would find themselves in and then you've got a guy trying to find a way to relate to his pregnant wife.
Mad About You is funny and that was a funny episode, but it's also just a very "ordinary" episode in terms of the story it wants to tell.
