alt.tv.mad-about-you FAQ, Part 1/9
Ramaswamy
Archive-name: tv/mad-about-you/faq/part1
Posting-frequency: quarterly
Last-modified: 97-01-30
Version: 5.1
URL: http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~witelski/may-faq1.html
Copyright: (c) 1994-1997 by Ramaswamy [ra...@ultranet.com]
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Frequently Asked Questions list (1/9) for
"Mad About You" and the
Usenet newsgroup alt.tv.mad-about-you
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Archive-name: tv/mad-about-you/faq/part1
Posting-frequency: quarterly
Last-modified: 97-01-30
Version: 5.1
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This Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list for the TV Comedy show
"Mad About You" is, as a collection of information,
Copyright (c) 1994-1997 by Ramaswamy [ra...@ultranet.com].
All Rights Reserved.
This document may be freely distributed in electronic form for
personal use only, provided it is distributed in its entirety
and with all original author and copyright information intact.
Distribution by any other means must be by permission of the
copyright holder. This material is for non-commercial use only
and any sale for profit is expressly forbidden. It may not be
included in any commercial documents, archives or CD-ROMs, nor
uploaded to any BBS or online service without the permission
of the copyright holder. The removal of this copyright notice
is prohibited.
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Sections with updates will be flagged with asterisks (*) in the
Main Table Of Contents below. Almost all sections have
updates in this re-organized document, hence none is flagged.
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Please send in corrections/comments to: [ra...@ultranet.com]
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Main Table of Contents
Credits
Introduction
1.0 What is MAY?
1.1 How many seasons of MAY are there?
1.2 How do I find the title of a MAY episode?
1.3 Where can I find all the episode titles and numbers?
1.4 Where can I find the plot summary of a MAY episode?
2.0 Who are all those characters on MAY?
2.1 Who are the principal characters?
Paul Buchman
Jamie Stemple Buchman
Lisa Stemple
Fran Devanow
Mark Devanow
Jay Selby
Ira Buchman
Murray
2.2 Who are the other family members?
2.3 Who are the other supporting characters?
2.4 What other TV shows and movies have some cast members been in?
3.0 What do we not know about Paul and Jamie Buchman?
3.1 When and how did Paul and Jamie meet?
3.2 When and how did Paul and Jamie really meet?
3.3 When and where did Jamie and Paul get married?
3.4 Where did they go on their honeymoon?
3.5 Where do Paul and Jamie live now?
3.6 Where did Paul and Jamie live before they met?
3.7 Is Paul Jewish and are the Buchmans an inter-faith couple?
3.8 Why did Jamie quit her first job?
3.9 What does Jamie do after quitting her job?
3.10 What college is Jamie attending?
3.11 Do Jamie and Paul smoke?
3.12 Do Jamie and Paul lie often?
3.13 Do Jamie and Paul admit mistakes?
3.14 What was Jamie's big secret?
3.15 What happened at the Buchman Wedding?
3.16 What's with the Buchmans and the NYC Subway system?
3.17 What were the Buchmans' winnings at Belmont?
3.18 Why were the Buchmans a day early to Yoko Ono's party?
3.19 Did time really stop for Paul and Jamie at New Year's Eve?
3.20 What's with the fire-escape at the Buchmans' apartment?
3.21 Did Jamie really pull off the bra-trick?
3.22 What's with Jamie being called James and Paul Paulie?
3.23 How do you spell Jamie?
3.24 Are the Buchmans having kids?
3.25 Will their baby be a boy or a girl?
3.26 Is the depiction of Jamie's pregnancy realistic?
4.0 Surely there are a few questions about the other characters?
4.1 What is Murray's real name?
4.2 What breed is Murray?
4.3 Who is Selby and where is he now?
4.4 Who played Ira before John Pankow?
4.5 Who is the new actor playing Burt now?
4.6 When did Mark Devanow first hear of Paul?
4.7 Where is Mark Devanow now?
4.8 Who is Lou and where is he now?
4.9 Where has Bill Wicker gone?
4.10 Just how many sets of parents does Jamie have?
4.11 Did Helen Hunt ever play a Bond Girl?
4.12 What Movie-of-the-Week did Helen Hunt star in?
4.13 Is Lisa's shrink a man or a woman?
4.14 Does everybody come to Riff's?
4.15 What New York City locations are used on MAY?
4.16 What is the time-line of the series?
4.17 What is so-and-so's birthday?
4.18 Are there crossovers to other TV shows?
4.19 What is your favorite episode of MAY?
4.20 What is your favourite character/scene/quote from MAY?
4.21 How come there have been two clip-shows already?
5.0 What about MAYlanguage and MAYsongs?
5.1 What is MAYlanguage?
5.2 What is the Theme Song and who sings it?
5.3 What are the lyrics to the theme song?
5.4 What are the lyrics to the Sisters' Duet?
5.5 What was the Buchman Wedding Song?
5.6 What are the lyrics to Susannah's Song?
5.7 What were Paul, Mark and Ira singing at the Karaoke bar?
5.8 What was the poem Henry Gibson recited at the Laugh In party?
6.0 Can we pursue some MAY trivia?
7.0 What are some of the oddities and inconsistencies in MAY?
8.0 Where can I find some MAY production related information?
8.1 Where is MAY produced and by whom?
8.2 When does the production season begin and end?
8.3 How can I get tickets to a filming session?
8.4 What is the word from the Set?
8.5 Where can I watch MAY outside North America?
8.6 When did MAY enter Syndication in North America?
8.7 Where can I get information about MAY Syndication telecasts
in my area?
8.8 Where can I get information about MAY satellite feeds?
8.9 Where can I purchase tapes of MAY episodes?
8.10 What major awards has MAY garnered?
8.11 Where can I purchase scripts to MAY episodes?
8.12 Where can I send in my idea/script for a MAY episode?
8.13 Are there books about MAY or by cast members?
8.14 Where can I buy the Buchman bed, Buchman chair etc.?
8.15 Where can I purchase MAY T-shirts and other merchandise?
9.0 Where can I find some Newsgroup related information?
9.1 What is this Newsgroup all about?
9.2 Does the cast and/or crew of MAY read this newsgroup?
9.3 Is there a mailing list for MAY?
9.4 Where can I find the episode guides for MAY?
9.5 Is there a Mail Server Site?
9.6 Are there any Anonymous FTP Sites?
9.7 What are some of the World Wide Web (WWW) Sites for MAY?
9.8 Are there any non-English WWW sites for MAY?
9.9 Is there an Inter-Relay Chat (IRC) channel for MAY?
9.10 Are there any other chat-rooms for MAY?
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Credits
To quote William Safire from the opening section of "Quoth the Maven"
(published by Random House, ISBN 0-679-42324-9): "Acknowledgements
is a word that, to me, connotes grudging admission of the need to say
thanks, or a sneaky way to avert charges of plagiarism..."
(Oops! My 25 words are up!)
Which may explain why this section has been renamed and relocated.
What follows would have been credits to the people who have
helped edit this document or have contributed new information and
corrections to this FAQ and the accompanying Episode Guides, whether
knowingly or unknowingly; unfortunately I can only list their names,
in alphabetical order:
Brandon Acker, R. G. Arens, Stacey Armstrong, David Banks,
Gareth Beale, Charles Blair, Jonathan Bnayahu, Jennifer Bowers,
Jackie Brady, Paige A. Brand, Stan Brown, J. A. Burdett,
Barry Burriesci, Dottie Bybee, Catherine Chan, Dave Chapman,
Philip Chien, Wendy J. Cholbi, Mikhail Choo W. M., Kim Clark,
Jeffrey Connelly, Jon Alan Conrad, Sharon Crichton,
Luiz Fernando da Silva, David DeAngelo, Brian Dearie, Nicole Devin,
Mike Dickison, Renee Drellishak, Kelly Flores, Elisa Ghisalberti,
Blake Girardot, Byron C. Go, Shachar Golansky, Emma Grant,
Pam Greene, Paul Grosso, Dolf Grunbauer, Rick Haan, Adam Hennings,
Frank van der Heijde, Jeff Heilner, Ping Huang, Philip Johnson,
Wei-Te Kao, William Kelley, Kimmo Ketolainen, John M. Klassa,
Torsten Kracke, Daphne Kremen, Janel le Belle, Dave LeCompte,
Felix Lee, Beh Hong Leong, Stephan Lerchegger, Ali Lemer,
Liron Lightwood, Lars Lindstrom, Jeffrey Mann, Jane Mellett,
Alphonse Merino, Matt Messina, Chris Mulvihill, Lisa Murphy,
Waltz Ng, Johan van Noordwyk, Bob O'shaughnessy, Margie O'shaughnessy,
Andrew Palidwor, Alex Paschkes, George Pechtol, Henk Penning,
Fernando Rodriguez Pereira, Brian Peterson, Michael W. Phelps,
David Gregory Platt, Mark Plumb, Alexander Poropatich, Gregg Primm,
Mick Quinn, Jean Reese, Scott Richardson, Douglas B. Robertson,
Warren Rudman, Tina Santos, Jose Saumell, Gretchen E. Schmidt,
Vikas Sinha, Judi Sohn, Sondra Rachel Solovay, Chris Sonnack,
Petra Souisa, Michael Straszniczky, Carly Taylor, David Tharp,
Justin Ting, Steven Treger, Tom Tullio, Jukka Vainio, Cindy Yan,
Daryl Sng Tek Yean, Bryce Utting, Chaffee Vo-Vu, Andy Wild,
Ann Winner, Tom Witelski, Rickey Wright, Kenneth Yeast, Ken Yi,
Carol Zaleta, R. David Zobel and Lisa Eyler Zorrilla.
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Introduction
This document includes information from episodes of all five seasons
of "Mad About You" that have aired or are currently airing in
North America. The reader is therefore warned that considerable
"spoiler" information, not identified as such, may exist in these
pages.
The information is presented in 9 parts, containing:
- Introduction, episode list, and credits
- Character profiles and cast filmographies
- About the two principal characters
- About the rest of the cast and other matters
- About expressions, songs and music
- A few trivia questions, oddities and inconsistencies
- Answers to the trivia questions
- About the production, tickets, syndication and such, and
- About alt.tv.mad-about-you and other online resources.
Guarantees cannot be made about the accuracy of any information in
this document. If you wish to correct a point, or contribute
information on new topics, please contact me by e-mail at
[ra...@ultranet.com].
Abbreviations used in this document:
- FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions list
- MAY: Mad About You
- TOC: Table Of Contents
Included throughout the text are references to episodes where facts
mentioned in this document were revealed; these episode numbers are
from the Mad About You Episode Guides (section 9.4).
The numbers are listed in square brackets [ ] after a reference.
Consult these guides for titles, synopses and guest characters. A list
of all episode titles is included below (section 1.3) as a quick
reference.
Please do not send individual requests to me for copies of this FAQ.
This document, as well as the associated Episode Guides, can be
retrieved with a request to a Mail Server site (section 9.5).
A reminder notice on how to access this FAQ via anonymous FTP or
on the Web is posted periodically to the alt.tv.mad-about-you
newsgroup.
Newcomers to the alt.tv.mad-about-you newsgroup may
wish to read section 9 of this document first for more information
about the newsgroup and associated online resources.
Newcomers to Usenet in general are advised to visit the
news.announce.newusers newsgroup first and read references
posted every few days by Mark Moraes in his "Welcome to Usenet!"
post. If nothing else, the exercise will familiarize one with the
workings of the mail server.
The date of the last update and the current version number is shown at
the top of this document. Updated sections are flagged by an asterisk
(*) in the Main Table Of Contents (to be found in part1, with
references from all other parts) and the Local TOC, as relevant;
updates are not marked by change-bars ( | ) at the left margin.
All the deletions are indicated by, well, deletions.
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1.0 What is MAY?
MAY is a half-hour television comedy show currently airing in its
fifth season in North America on the NBC Television network at 8:00pm
(7:00pm in some time-zones) on Tuesdays. The telecast is rated PG.
It premiered on Wednesday September 23, 1992 at 9:30pm, and was
telecast first on Wednesdays and then Saturdays in its first season,
before settling into the Thursday 8:00pm time-slot during reruns in
late summer of 1993. Episodes of seasons #2 and #3 were telecast on
Thursdays at 8:00pm. For season #4 MAY was moved to Sundays at 8:00pm
and now in season #5 it is airing on Tuesdays. Individual episodes are
half-hour long with 3 commercial interruptions, and about 22 and a
half minutes otherwise (double that for 2-parters airing together).
MAY is the story of a newly-wed couple, Paul and Jamie Buchman,
adjusting to their daily life together in Lower Manhattan, in
New York City. Other characters in their lives are Jamie's sister
Lisa and best friend Fran (and Fran's ex-husband Mark), Paul's
cousin Ira and college buddy Selby (season #1), and both sets of
parents. Paul's dog Murray is also featured prominently.
MAY was created by Paul Reiser and Danny Jacobson and is produced
jointly by their production companies (Nuance Productions and InFront
Productions) and distributed by TriStar Television (section 8.1),
a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
As Executive Producer, Danny Jacobson was in-charge of the day-to-day
running and production of the show during the first 4 seasons. Among
his earlier TV credits are "My Sister Sam," "Davis Rules" and
the first two seasons of "Roseanne." As of season #5, Larry Charles
and Paul Reiser share the Executive Producer duties, though Danny
Jacobson continues to be listed as such in the opening credits.
MAY was originally pitched to NBC by Paul Reiser as "Thirtysomething,
only shorter and funnier." After co-starring with Greg Evigan in
"My Two Dads" for three years, he decided to do an intelligent
comedy for adults by considering what it should NOT be. He did not
want the show to be an odd-couple mixing, with interplay between
wacky characters, or one of those "are they going to get together
or not?" gimmicks. By stripping away all the things it could not be,
he got it down to its bare essence, a very low concept show about a
marriage. Thus MAY is "scenes from a marriage" that has nothing
to do with Ingmar Bergman.
The early episodes of MAY were put together by the group of people
responsible for the Off-Broadway production (in New York City) of
"Grease." Danny Jacobson switched then from acting to writing
and teamed up with Paul Reiser, Jeffrey Lane (first 3 seasons),
Steve Paymer (first 2 seasons), Billy Grundfest (first 4 seasons)
and a host of other writers on MAY. The writing is always a
collaborative effort, and the 'written by' credit for an episode
goes to the person(s) doing the first draft; the rest of the team
hides behind exotic titles such as Co-Executive Producer, Supervising
Producer, Producer, Story Editor and such. As of season #5, Helen
Hunt is credited as Producer, although her off-camera contribution
has been known to be significant all along.
Richard Hissong in seasons #1 and #2, Mikel Neiers in season #3
and Bobby Byrne since season #4 have supervised the filming, while
Craig Knizek (Associate Producer, then Co-Producer) and Sheila Amos
(Editor) have been responsible for post-production. Peter Damski
and his team has handled sound processing all along with impressive
results, including 2 Emmy awards.
1.1 How many seasons of MAY are there?
MAY is currently in its fifth season of production. The production
season typically runs from August to April. In the US, first-run
telecasts on the NBC Television Network run from September to May.
The five seasons, as telecast in North America, are:
1. 1992-93 (22 episodes)
2. 1993-94 (24 episodes, including a 2-part Finale)
3. 1994-95 (23 episodes, including a 2-part Wedding,
a 2-part Finale, and a Montage
shown early in season #4)
4. 1995-96 (22 episodes, including a 2-part Finale)
5. 1996-97 (23 episodes are planned, including a 2-part Finale)
The original contract for the show was for 5 seasons, extended to a
sixth season during season #4. Some confusion arose at the end of that
season because the last 3 episodes were entitled "Finale Parts I, II
and III," but MAY is continuing with season #5 now.
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1.2 How do I find the title of a MAY episode?
Unfortunately the MAY telecasts themselves do not show the episode
title anywhere (with 2 exceptions so far), nor the 3-digit production
number in the closing credits. On occasion TV Guide will list the
title, as will the weekly TV schedule inserts of local Sunday papers.
Satellite feeds for episodes always feature an opening slate that
includes the episode production number and its title. The SONY and
NBC WWW sites also list titles and synopses of upcoming episodes.
If the print or online sources fail you, your best bet is to post an
inquiry to the alt.tv.mad-about-you newsgroup. To identify older
episodes, you may want to check the synopses and keys sections of
entries in the MAY Episode Guides.
The episode numbering scheme used in this FAQ and the guides is mine,
and assigns the number in the order of telecast in North America,
season by season. It also assigns a single number to 2-part shows
that have 2 production numbers.
1.3 Where can I find all the episode titles and numbers?
The following is a list of all MAY episodes that have aired so far
(and those about to air, flagged by an asterisk), along with the
production numbers in parentheses and the first-telecast dates in
North America. This list is provided primarily to help identify the
episodes referred to in the rest of this FAQ, but production numbers
sometimes also determine the order of telecast in some countries
(Austria, Finland and Malaysia, for example):
1.1 (101) 92-09-23 Romantic Improvisations [Premiere]
1.2 (104) 92-09-30 Sofa's Choice
1.3 (103) 92-10-07 Sunday Times
1.4 (102) 92-10-14 Out of the Past
1.5 (106) 92-10-21 Paul in the Family
1.6 (105) 92-10-28 I'm Just So Happy For You
1.7 (107) 92-11-04 Token Friend
1.8 (109) 92-11-11 The Apartment
1.9 (111) 92-11-18 Riding Backwards
1.10 (110) 92-11-25 Neighbors from Hell
1.11 (113) 92-12-16 Met Someone
1.12 (108) 93-01-06 Maid About You
1.13 (112) 93-01-13 Togetherness
1.14 (116) 93-01-27 Weekend Getaway
1.15 (115) 93-02-06 The Wedding Affair
1.16 (114) 93-02-13 Love Among the Tiles
1.17 (118) 93-02-20 The Billionaire
1.18 (119) 93-02-27 The Man Who Said Hello
1.19 (117) 93-04-30 Swept Away
1.20 (120) 93-05-08 The Spy Who Loved Me
1.21 (122) 93-05-15 The Painter
1.22 (121) 93-05-22 Happy Anniversary [Season Finale]
2.1 (202) 93-09-16 Murray's Tale [Season Opener]
2.2 (201) 93-09-23 Bing Bang Boom
2.3 (203) 93-09-30 Bedfellows
2.4 (205) 93-10-07 Married to the Job
2.5 (204) 93-10-14 So I Married a Hair Murderer
2.6 (207) 93-10-28 The Unplanned Child
2.7 (206) 93-11-04 Natural History
2.8 (209) 93-11-11 Surprise
2.9 (210) 93-11-18 A Pair Of Hearts
2.10 (208) 93-12-02 It's a Wrap
2.11 (211) 93-12-09 Edna Returns
2.12 (212) 94-01-06 Paul is Dead
2.13 (213) 94-01-13 Same Time Next Week
2.14 (214) 94-01-27 The Late Show
2.15 (216) 94-02-03 Virtual Reality
2.16 (218) 94-02-10 Cold Feet
2.17 (215) 94-02-14 Instant Karma
2.18 (217) 94-02-24 The Tape
2.19 (219) 94-03-10 Love Letters
2.20 (220) 94-04-07 The Last Scampi
2.21 (222) 94-04-28 Disorientation
2.22 (221) 94-05-05 Storms We Cannot Weather
2.23 (225) 94-05-12 Up All Night
2.24 (223/4) 94-05-19 With This Ring [Season Finale]
3.1 (301) 94-09-22 Escape from New York [Season Opener]
3.2 (302) 94-09-29 Home
3.3 (303) 94-10-06 Till Death Do Us Part
3.4 (304) 94-10-13 When I'm Sixty-Four
3.5 (305) 94-10-20 Legacy
3.6 (306) 94-11-03 Pandora's Box
3.7 (307) 94-11-10 The Ride Home
3.8 (308) 94-11-17 Giblets For Murray
3.9 (309) 94-12-08 Once More With Feeling
3.10 (310) 94-12-15 The City
3.11 (311) 95-01-05 Our Fifteen Minutes
3.12 (313) 95-01-19 How To Fall In Love
3.13 (314/5) 95-02-02 Mad About You
3.14 (312) 95-02-09 Just My Dog
3.15 (316) 95-02-16 The Alan Brady Show
3.16 (317) 95-02-23 Mad Without You
3.17 (318) 95-03-09 Purseona
3.18 (319) 95-03-30 Two Tickets To Paradise
3.19 (323) 95-04-27 Money Changes Everything
3.20 (321) 95-05-04 Cake Fear
3.21 (320) 95-05-11 My Boyfriend's Back!
3.22 (322/4) 95-05-18 Up In Smoke [Season Finale]
3.23 (325) 95-10-08 The Test [A Montage]
4.1 (401) 95-09-24 New Sleep-walking PLUS [Season Opener]
4.2 (402) 95-10-01 The Parking Space
4.3 (403) 95-10-29 The Good, the Bad and the Not-So-Appealing
4.4 (404) 95-11-05 I Don't See It
4.5 (405) 95-11-12 Yoko Said
4.6 (406) 95-11-19 An Angel For Murray
4.7 (407) 95-11-26 The Couple
4.8 (408) 95-12-17 New Year's Eve
4.9 (409) 96-01-07 Ovulation Day
4.10 (410) 96-01-14 Get Back
4.11 (411) 96-02-04 Dream Weaver
4.12 (413) 96-02-18 Hot and Cold
4.13 (414) 96-02-25 Fertility
4.14 (412) 96-03-10 Everybody Hates Me
4.15 (415) 96-03-17 Do Me A Favor
4.16 (416) 96-03-24 The Glue People
4.17 (417) 96-03-31 The Sample
4.18 (418) 96-04-14 The Procedure
4.19 (419) 96-04-21 The Weed
4.20 (420) 96-04-28 The Award
4.21 (421) 96-05-05 The Finale (Part I)
4.22 (422/3) 96-05-19 The Finale (Parts II & III) [Season Finale]
5.1 (501) 96-09-17 Dr. Wonderful [Season Opener]
5.2 (502) 96-09-24 The Grant
5.3 (503) 96-10-15 Therapy
5.4 (506) 96-10-22 The Clip Show
5.5 (507) 96-10-29 Burt's Building
5.6 (504) 96-11-12 Jamie's Parents [100th episode]
5.7 (508) 96-11-19 Outbreak
5.8 (510) 96-11-26 Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
5.9 (505) 96-12-17 The Gym
5.10 (509) 97-01-07 Chicken Man
5.11 (511) 97-01-14 The Recital
5.12 (512) 97-01-21 The Handyman
5.13 (515) *97-02-04 Astrology
5.14 (514) *97-02-11 The Penis
5.15 (513) *97-02-18 Citizen Buchman
5.16 (516) *97-02-25 On The Road
(*) - Dates and order of telecasts subject to change without notice.
1.4 Where can I find the plot summary of a MAY episode?
Only a 3-4 line synopsis and a few keys are noted for each episode
in the MAY episode guides. No detailed summaries are available
online, as far as can be determined. If you come across an online
archive, please let me know the URL by e-mail at [ra...@ultranet.com].
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Please send in corrections/comments to: [ra...@ultranet.com]
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