The long-in-the-works Mad About You revival with original stars Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt has found a home. Charter Communications’ premium content platform, Spectrum Originals, has picked up the new Mad About You to air as a limited series. The half-hour comedy, from showrunner Peter Tolan and Sony Pictures Television, is slated for a late 2019 launch. Hunt will direct the first episode of the revival, with Danny Jacobson, who co-created the original series with Reiser, serving as an executive consultant.
The pickup by Spectrum Originals comes almost a year after the revival of the hit 1990 sitcom came together at Sony TV, with Reiser and Hunt closing deals to reprise their roles as Paul and Jamie Buchman and Tolan coming on board to steer the project. The Mad About You followup was taken out to buyers last spring. There was interest and production commitment offers but I hear the talent and producers were seeking a series order.
While the Mad About You revival was mostly dormant for months, Sony TV kept pursuing a deal, recently zeroing in on Spectrum Originals, which made its first big original series bet with Sony TV’s L.A.’s Finest, establishing a relationship with the studio. Lengthy negotiations led to a deal for a limited series order. Meanwhile, Reiser and Hunt remained optimistic throughout the entire process, with Hunt telling Deadline last month that she was confident the revival would happen.
“We are so excited to finally be doing this and thrilled to have Peter Tolan as our fearless captain,” Reiser and Hunt said in a joint statement today. “We promise you the same funny and heartwarming show – as soon as we can remember what’s funny about being older. It’s going to be great!”
The new installment is expected to be set twenty years after the original series’ seven-season run ended on NBC in 1999. It will center on Paul (Reiser) and Jamie (Hunt) Buchman — now new empty-nesters — as they navigate their marriage, the trials of middle age, and their unpredictable, hard-to-control daughter Mabel.
