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.

March 5, 1982: “Diner” Premieres

March 5, 1982: Diner premieres, directed by Barry Levinson, set in his hometown of Baltimore, during Christmas-to-New-Year's Week, 1959. Levinson was 17 at the time, so these characters were a few years older.

Maryland was the only one of the "Original Thirteen Colonies" founded by the Roman Catholic Church, and Baltimore was the site of the 1st Catholic Archdiocese in America. It is known for its large Irish, Italian and German (including Babe Ruth and his family) Catholic populations.

Nevertheless, Levinson is Jewish, and so are several of the main characters of this film: Daniel Stern as Laurence Schreiber, a.k.a. Shrevie; Mickey Rourke as Robert Sheftell, a.k.a. Boogie; Paul Reiser, in his film debut, whose character is listed only as "Modell"; and Michael Tucker, who is known in the film only as "Bagel." Not Jewish are Steve Guttenberg as Eddie Simmons, Kevin Bacon as Timothy Fenwick Jr., and Tim Daly as Billy Howard.

The guys meet at the Fell's Point Diner, and talk about everything from girls to sports to music. This is the week in which the Baltimore Colts are playing in the NFL Championship Game, at home at Memorial Stadium, against the New York Giants, in a rematch of the previous season's game, which famously went to overtime at Yankee Stadium, and quarterback Johnny Unitas led the Colts to victory, making Baltimore a very proud city.

Eddie's obsession with the Colts reaches a ridiculous level. On New Year's Eve, he is marrying Elyse, played by Sharon Ziman, but whose face is never shown. But he'll only go through with it if she can pass a quiz on Colts facts. He also demands a color theme for the wedding: Blue and white, Colts colors. Beth, Shrevie's wife, played by Ellen Barkin, compares it to the yellow and white theme that they had for their wedding, and tells Shrevie this is Eddie being too stubborn. Shrevie says, "It could be worse: It could be black and gold, Steelers colors."

Elyse fails the quiz, but Eddie decides to go through with it, anyway. The color scheme is, indeed, blue and white, and the organist plays the Colts' fight song. Oh yes: After trailing 9-7 after 3 quarters, the Colts come from behind, and beat the Giants, 31-16, and repeat as World Champions.

A major goof: Eddie and Elyse discuss a honeymoon in Cuba. But it had been almost a year since Fidel Castro's Communist takeover, making such an idea impossible.

As Reiser himself might say, Here's what I'm thinkin': It's a great movie, because, A, it's got Paul Reiser before Mad About You; and, 2, it's got Ellen Barkin, who was too sexy for the Fifties.

The Fell's Point Diner was built just for the movie, but the City of Baltimore bought it cheap, as a tourist attraction. It is now a training center for restaurant jobs.

One of the great retroactive ironies: Diner is set in Baltimore, at the height of the Colts' success; and yet it contains a character named Modell, the same as the man who would move the Cleveland Browns to become the Baltimore Ravens, to take the place of the Colts.

It could have been weirder, though: There could have been a character named Irsay, after the man who moved the Colts out to Indianapolis, less than 2 years after the film premiered.

March 5, 1982 was a Friday. This was also the day that actor John Belushi died. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks beat the Boston Celtics, 105-98 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons, 122-108 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 98-91 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Houston Rockets, 126-103 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 126-120 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. Kiki Vandeweghe scored 36 points.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Utah Jazz, 127-121 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Joe Barry Carroll scored 52 points, and had 14 rebounds. Clearly, this was not a night when he earned the nickname "Joe Barely Cares."

And there were 2 games played in the NHL. The Washington Capitals beat the Calgary Flames, 8-6 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-0 at the Winnipeg Arena.