Mad About You Latest Show to Get a Reboot

Will & Grace, The Gilmore Girls, Dynasty, Roseanne, Murphy Brown, and Charmed are all being rebooted with all or mostly original cast members in their original roles (which makes them distinct from remakes like One Day at a Time and Sabrina the Teenage Witch), and now Mad About You is going to get the reboot treatment, too:

Mad About You just took a major step toward being revived with its original series stars.

Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt have just closed deals with Sony Pictures Television to reprise their Mad About You roles, EW has learned exclusively. Co-creator Danny Jacobson is also on board to return. The deals follow months of negotiations to try to bring back the 1990s series, which aired on NBC from 1992 to 1999.

...Last year, when asked about a reboot, Reiser worried the comedy two-part finale's time jump already answered the question of what the couple would be doing today. "One of the things we did deliberately in the finale was that we jumped ahead in the future. We saw where they went," Reiser told Variety. "Part of why we did that was to avoid the temptation of going back… When you watch a reunion (show), all you do is say 'Wow do they look older.'"

But Will & Grace and Roseanne opted to ignore their respective original series finales, and their fans didn't seem to mind (in the case of Roseanne, the series even pretended the death of John Goodman's character never happened).

Ever since rumors broke that Mad About You might be in the works for returning, the stars have been regularly asked about their participation and have merely said they're hopeful it might work out.

"The dream is to get to do it," Hunt told People in last week's issue. "I've been watching Will & Grace and laughing so hard out loud. They're just crushing it. I have remained very, very close friends with Paul. Reboot or no reboot, we have lunch once a month. We really enjoy and care for each other. It was a very loving piece of work. We loved it. It would be fun to work on something that's really about love."

My biggest question is whether Lisa Kudrow will return as Ursula Buffay!

I liked the show when it aired, even though I thought it wore out its welcome a bit, like most American sitcoms, which tend to go on far too long. I'm not sure if I'd feel the same about it now, if I rewatched the show or tuned into the new episodes.

Also: It's weird to me that we refer to these shows as "reboots," when it's really more like a revival, or even just a new season of the same show. It's not uncommon in Britain, for example, for a show that's been off the air for years to have a new season of episodes or a Christmas special. We're really just adopting an established practice from other parts of the world, not inventing a "reboot" phenomenon.

Anyway! Would you watch new episodes of Mad About You? Are you watching any of the other shows with new episodes? You know I'm not watching Roseanne, but feel free to share your thoughts about it if you are!