After an announcement a few months ago that a revival was in the works, the NBC sitcom Mad About You may be returning to the small screen sooner than expected as stars Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt have signed contracts to reprise their roles, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Reiser and Hunt have signed with Sony Pictures Television to continue playing the lead roles of Paul and Jamie Buchman from the series, which ran from 1992-1999, and join series co-creator Danny Jacobson to bring the series back. Though the original series ran on NBC, the revival is currently being shopped around to various networks, including its original network.
While Reiser was originally against the idea of coming back, stating that the series finale was meant to leave no questions unanswered for the future of the characters, he did tell People last year that he has since had a change of heart and is open to returning.
“If we can find the story to tell, and anybody’s interested, I’d be open to it. For years, I would’ve said, ‘Absolutely no. We never would do it,’ because I was very proud of how we ended it really well. We even told the future a little bit, so our thinking at the time was, ‘Let’s make sure we never get tempted to come back. Let’s tell them what happens.’
“Now, because everybody’s talking about it, I started to think, ‘Maybe if there’s a story we could come up with. To me, it’s interesting when I see my kids are growing and leaving the house. It’s like, ‘Oh.’ It’s like that moment when you get married. It’s like we’re in a new world that we don’t know the rules of.”
Hunt also recently opened up about the possibility of a return to the series, saying it would be a dream to do it and that her and Reiser have remained close friends since the conclusion of the series, still grabbing lunch together 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.”
Mad About You will join the recent spat of other reboots, most of which have been very successful for fans, critics and the networks, including NBC’s Will and Grace, ABC’s Roseanne and Adult Swim’s Samurai Jack.
