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Why Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt Didn’t Want to Do ‘Mad About You’ Revival at First (Exclusive)

It almost didn’t happen! Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt are now thrilled to bringing back their 90s sitcom Mad About You with a brand new revival – but that wasn’t always the case. In fact, neither of them wanted to do it at all at first.

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“Helen Hunt and I were very clear together: ‘Leave it. We did it, we ended it perfectly. Don’t touch it,'” Reiser, 63, recalled to Us Weekly exclusively on the Emmy Awards red carpet on Sunday, September 22. “And then people kept asking us, so we were talking about it and thought, ‘Well you know what? It will just be fun to play together.'”

Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt Didn't Want to Do 'Mad About You' Reboot
Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser in ‘Mad About You.’ Abc-Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock

However, the duo – who costarred as married couple Paul and Jamie Buchman on the series from 1992 to 1999 – only wanted to bring the show back if there was a story there.

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“We realized we were both going through this thing of our kids leaving and growing up and we thought, ‘That’s a really rich place to dig for comedy and emotional drama,'” the My Two Dads alum continued. “So, it’s kind of like the original pilot, 20, 30 years ago where everybody leaves and it’s just you two alone and you have to figure out how to navigate that. I was really skeptical and resistant and now really glad, because we’re having such a great time, and they’re coming out great!”

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For more from Reiser, as well as stars like Darius McCrary, D’Arcy Carden, Robin Thicke and more talking reboots, watch the video above.

Mad About You‘s 12-episode revival debuts on Spectrum TV Friday, November 22.

With reporting by Carita Rizzo

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