Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994 TAG: 9403140209
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Providing, of course, it's the right marriage. And the right sitcom.
"There is limitless confusion to work through in a marriage," Hunt says with unconfused pleasure. "I've never been married, but I know enough about relationships to know that five years wouldn't BEGIN to help someone figure out how to get it right.
"So even if the show runs that long, it will keep me on my toes."
She's talking about "Mad About You," which, in its second season, keeps its viewers on their toes, too. Not to mention laughing.
Granted, lots of sitcoms are about marriage, or its prelude, or its aftermath. But "Mad" (which airs at 8 p.m. EDT Thursdays on NBC) is wed to a fresh approach. There are no gimmicks or high concepts. No "he's a Republican, she's a Democrat." No "he's a reincarnated buffalo from Park Avenue, she's a robot from the poor side of town."
"It's just these two people in an apartment," says Hunt, echoing how the show was pitched to her. "That appealed to me."
An actress since childhood, Hunt has appeared in a number of TV films and lately in theatrical features that include "The Waterdance" and "Mr. Saturday Night." She was on Broadway in "Our Town" and in the Shakespeare in the Park production of "The Taming of the Shrew" with Morgan Freeman and Tracey Ullman.
But it is as Jamie Buchman that Hunt has come into her own, leaving viewers mad about her in the bargain.
Recently fired from her public relations job, Jamie shares a Greenwich Village apartment with Paul (Paul Reiser), her documentary filmmaker-husband of two years, and their out-to-lunch dog Murray.
These young marrieds kiss, quibble and rush around a lot. They do their income taxes, visit his father in the hospital, fix her sister up with guys, and fight over brownies. They push each other's buttons like a kid on an elevator.
Like "Seinfeld," with which it is sometimes compared, "Mad About You" is about little things. But unlike "Seinfeld," "Mad About You" doesn't make a big thing out of it.
Hunt says that while Reiser and series co-creator Danny Jacobson always wanted to stay small, "my fear was that we would get bigger and bigger, wackier and wackier."
"Instead, we've stayed true to our goal, which is to get smaller and smaller, where we can get into stickier territory with these two characters, just as you do in a relationship as it goes along.
"Sometimes, we get so small," she adds, smiling, "that it's almost not there at all."
by CNB