It Is Mad About You Coming Back in 2017

Paul and Jamie Buchman's daughter, Mabel, was born in 1997 on a two-part episode of "Mad About You" featuring a Michael Moore cameo, Bruce Willis as a loopy hospital patient, and Jamie's losing fight for "the good room" — aka the luxury birthing room for expectant mothers.

The baby's arrival was madcap and yet moving. As the new parents held their newborn daughter and wept, Paul told Jamie, "You know what? It turns out this is the good room."

No wonder Mabel's arrival touched actress Abby Quinn, who watched much of the 1992-1999 NBC comedy as preparation for playing the college-age Mabel in the Spectrum TV revival of "Mad About You."

"I felt this immediate connection with Paul and Jamie," says Quinn, 23, who grew up in metro Detroit. "They feel like real people I know."

Nearly 30 years ago, Paul Reiser (who co-created the show) and Helen Hunt (who went on to win an Oscar for "As Good As It Gets") made their debut as the Buchmans on a series that dwelled on the small, relatable moments of a Gen X couple learning how to navigate long-term commitment.

Now, 20 years after the series finale, Reiser and Hunt have returned for Spectrum's 12-episode reboot, as have several of their co-stars and guest actors, including Carol Burnett, who played Jamie's mom. The first six episodes went online Wednesday. The other six are set to arrive Dec. 18.

Quinn, who won the role of 17-year-old Mabel, says she would have been glad to binge all of the original "Mad About You," even if she hadn't been cast in the revival.

"I really loved the show and it still feels like the same show," she says of Spectrum's update. "The writing is still the same ... very heartfelt and truthful."

Quinn, who hails from the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, got her first brush with acting as a Munchkin in a school production of "The Wizard of Oz."

"I said it was kindergarten, my mom said it was first grade. It was one of those. That was my first play ever," says the Detroit Country Day School alumnus, who spent her elementary, middle and high school years at the private college preparatory academy in Oakland County.

Quinn says her parents supported her interest in theater and describes her mother's "passion for the arts" as a big influence on her and her two older brothers and younger sister.

"I did a play every chance I could get in school," she says, recalling appearing in eighth grade in the musical "Sweeney Todd," a production that the Country Day students took to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

"During the summers, I'd go to New York and I'd do different Broadway-type camps, all very musical theater-based."

After spending one year studying acting at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Quinn took a year off and moved to Los Angeles. "I felt I'd never given myself a chance to audition and really be in the city where it happens," she says. "If I didn't have a job by April or May, I'd go back to school."

That April, Quinn won a substantial role in the 2017 comedy about an affluent New York family, "Landline," starring Jenny Slate and made by the same team that did Slate's 2014 indie hit "Obvious Child."

Since then, Quinn has worked with director Jodie Foster in the "Black Mirror" episode "Arkangel," guested on AMC's "Better Call Saul," and co-starred with Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams in 2019's "After the Wedding."

In December, she'll be seen in Greta Gerwig's buzzworthy adaptation of "Little Women." She has a small part as Meg March's wealthy friend Annie Moffat.

How does a newcomer find herself n so many quality projects? Says Quinn, "I try to just take it step by step. I never know what is going to happen next. And I try not to really think too much about that, because the minute you start planning for something, it can go in the opposite direction, especially with acting."

She considers herself lucky to have worked with so many influential women in the industry, starting with Slate and director Gillian Robespierre in "Landline."

"I think that kind of set the precedent for me," she says. "I didn't feel like I had to prove myself in any way that was uncomfortable. I felt I could just be myself and that was enough, and that I was very heard. I wasn't aware that that was a rare experience."

Being around so many women directors, producers and screen stars is empowering, according to Quinn. "A lot of them were my idols and I grew up loving their work and studying them. It's pretty incredible to see that they're really amazing people who are really strong and really in charge of their own careers, which I think has been the most inspiring thing to me."

Quinn met with Hunt and Reiser several times during the audition process for "Mad About You" and each time, she left feeling "more and more invested" in wanting to be part of the fictional Buchman family.

Both stars have taken Quinn under their wing, which makes it difficult to choose when she's asked which one is more parental toward her in real life.

"Paul, it seems like he's a father figure for everyone on the set," she says. "And with Helen, the second week I went over to her house and we all ate dinner."

More:Helen Hunt says she's grateful to return to 'Mad About You' revival after 'scary' crash

Quinn thinks that the "Mad About You" reboot will appeal to every generation, but that millennials who are new to the show could connect particularly with Mabel. "The fact that she is 17 and leaving her parents to go to college, I think that's something a lot of people my age still feel."

Next up for Quinn is "I'm Thinking of Ending Things," the latest film from writer-director Charlie Kaufman, who won an Oscar for his "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" screenplay and helmed the best animated feature nominee "Anomalisa."

The psychological thriller is scheduled for release early next year. "I think the way that it's directed, it's going to be stunning," says Quinn. "The whole movie is pretty haunting, the way that a lot of Charlie's work is. ... I was just crying reading the script, so I can only imagine my reaction to seeing it."

In real life, it seems that Quinn is following Mabel's lead. Career-wise, she's getting the good room, too.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.

'Mad About You'

Spectrum TV

First six episodes now available online, with six more arriving Dec. 18

It Is Mad About You Coming Back in 2017

Source: https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/television/2019/11/21/paul-jamie-daughter-mad-you-reboot-detroit-actress/4251050002/

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