September 23, 1992: “Mad About You” Premieres

September 23, 1992: Mad About You premieres on NBC. At first, it was billed at "Seinfeld for married people." That turned out to be a bad estimation, because, A, marriage brings a different kind of humor than single life; and, 2, Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt are both funnier than Jerry Seinfeld. That's what I'm thinkin'.

Reiser plays Paul Buchman, a documentary filmmaker in New York. Hunt plays Jamie Stemple, a public-relations executive, originally from New Haven, Connecticut. As the show would later show in flashbacks, they met on December 27, 1989, and married on April 20, 1992, about 5 months before the show's premiere. They live in Apartment 12D at 51 5th Avenue, a real building in Manhattan's East Village.

Also in the rotation of characters were Jamie's neurotic sister, Lisa (Anne Ramsay); Jamie's co-worker, Fran Devanow (Leila Kenzle); Fran's gynecologist husband, Mark (Richard Kind); Paul's parents, Burt (Louis Zorich), who loves Jamie, and Sylvia (Cynthia Harris), who doesn't like her; Jamie's parents, Gus (John Karlen) and Teresa (Penny Fuller, who, as a younger woman, bore a striking resemblance to Helen Hunt, which was worked into an episode); and the building's manager, Bill Wicker (Jerry Adler).

At first, Paul's best friend was Jay Selby, played by Tommy Hinkley. But he was written out of the show after 1 season, without explanation, and replaced by Paul's cousin, Ira Buchman (John Pankow), who basically played the same character.

Also in the supporting cast was Ursula Buffay, a waitress at Riff's Bar, played by Lisa Kudrow. It was later written that she was the twin sister of Phoebe Buffay of Friends, also played by Kudrow. And Mad About You was also established to be in the same "fictional universe" as Seinfeld, as Paul's former apartment on the Upper West Side was now rented by Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards).

The show ran for 7 years, although it lost a bit of steam after the birth of baby Mabel in the Season 5 finale. When the show stopped, Jay Leno brought Reiser on The Tonight Show, and asked him what he was most proud of on the show. Reiser said, "I'm more proud of what we didn't do. We never did 'The Buchmans Go to Hawaii,' with the grass skirts. Never did the evil twin thing."

There was a 12-episode revival in 2019, with Paul and Jamie dealing with being empty-nesters as Mabel went off to college.

Zorich died in 2018, Karlen in 2020, Harris in 2021. As of September 23, 2022, the remaining castmembers are still alive.

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September 23, 1992 was a Wednesday, although the show would later become part of NBC's Thursday night "Must See TV" lineup. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 10-8 at Yankee Stadium. Sterling Hitchcock didn't get out of the 5th inning. Charlie Hayes hit a home run. Don Mattingly went 1-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Dwight Gooden went the distance for the win.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Moisés Alou hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 14th inning. Barry Bonds went 1-for-6.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-3 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-1 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken of the O's and Dave Winfield of the Jays both went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 17-6 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Rickey Henderson went 2-for-3.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the California Angels, 3-0 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Cal Eldred pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 2-for-4. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-5.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-3 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 7-6 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Tim Pugh (4 hits over 8 innings) and Rob Dibble combined on a 5-hit shutout.

* And the Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Charlie Leibrandt pitched a 6-hit shutout.