History Series / MadAboutYou

* {{Doppelganger}}: In one episode, Lisa accidently comes home with a well trained twin of Murray.

* DumbBlonde: Ursula, the waitress who even struggles to take the Buchman's orders.

** In the finale, a rebelling Mabel tells her parents she's changing her name to Sonya - Some Other Name You Ass-(Paul and Jamie cover the last last bit with their gasps).

* KavorkaMan: Ira. Lampshaded when he accidentally catches himself in a mirror while having intercourse, scarring him so deeply that he loses interest in sex (for about a week).

* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Jamie's sister Lisa is much less successful than Jamie is and is insecure over it - all the more so because Jamie is the ''younger'' sister.

* YourCheatingHeart: Very closely subverted. Jamie kisses her co-worker. When she confesses to Paul, he admits that he came very close to going home with a woman he met at an event. The mutual near infidelities force them to admit that they're having serious problems and they nearly break up. Paul is even goaded by his friends into performing the TropeNamer song at a karaoke bar in that episode.

-->Tell me why I love you like I do,\\

* BottleEpisode: Plenty of episodes never left Paul and Jaime's apartment, and since most of the series was about everyday married life it was wholly appropriate. ''One'' episode however ("The Conversation") never left a single camera angle.

** Likewise, in one episode, Paul runs into real-life Jerry Seinfeld, and tells him that Jaime "loves your show."

** Also with ''Series/theDickVanDykeShow'', when Carl Reiner guest stars as his DVDS character Alan Brady.

* DumbBlonde \ CloudCuckooLander: Ursula, the waitress who even struggles to take the Buchman's orders.

* Creator/MelBrooks: Played Paul's Uncle Phil. You can tell that most of his scenes are just him improvising most of his lines, the credit stingers actually have different takes with the cast cracking up.

* OneHourWorkWeek : Presumably Jamie works full time, but Paul seems to be home an awful lot between projects.

* YourCheatingHeart: Very closely subverted. Jamie kisses her co-worker. When she confesses to Paul, he admits that he came very close to going home with a woman he met at an event. The mutual near infidelities force them to admit that they're having serious problems and they nearly break up.
** Paul is even goaded by his friends into performing the TropeNamer song at a karaoke bar in that episode.

* DreamSequence: A whole episode of it after they eat Ostrich.

* ParanormalEpisode: The series had an incident like this where the place where the couple met had burned down. As the episode goes on, the pair start to forget about each other for an unexplained reason.

* SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond: Next door neighbors Maggie, Hal (and the other Hal) Conway.

** NBC also liked to do cross over stunt nights when all the sitcoms in that night's line up would be self contained stories related to a larger arc (Generally to boost ratings during sweep periods). In one such instance ''Mad About You'''s Jamie tries to steal cable TV reception and manages to black out New York City. The characters of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' and ''MadmanOfThePeople'' then dealt with the blackout in their own shows. Somewhat typically, ''{{Seinfeld}}'' didn't participate in the gimmick, and just ran a regular episode.

** It also turns out that Paul used to live in the apartment now inhabited by ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'''s Cosmo Kramer, which creates a weird CelebrityParadox when a later season finds that program's George and Susan in bed watching a ''MadAboutYou'' episode!

** NBC also liked to do cross over stunt nights when all the sitcoms in that night's line up would be self contained stories related to a larger arc (Generally to boost ratings during sweep periods). In one such instance ''MadAboutYou'''s Jamie tries to steal cable TV reception and manages to black out New York City. The characters of ''{{Friends}}'' and ''MadmanOfThePeople'' then dealt with the blackout in their own shows. Somewhat typically, ''{{Seinfeld}}'' didn't participate in the gimmick, and just ran a regular episode.

* YouLookFamiliar

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Ursula is now the Governor of New York.

* CrossOver [=/=] SharedUniverse:

** Also with the classic ''DickVanDykeShow'', when Carl Reiner guest stars as his DVDS character Alan Brady.

* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: Jamie's sister Lisa is much less successful than Jamie is and is insecure over it - all the more so because Jamie is the younger sister.

** Mel Brooks guest-stars as Uncle Phil ([[FreshprinceOfBelAir no relation]]) in a few episodes.

* BottleEpisode

* TheOtherDarrin:
** Their next door neighbor Maggie (Judy Geeson) was married to a man named Hal (Paxton Whitehead). Early on, they switched the actor playing Hal (to Jim Piddock) in an implicit "Other Darrin" situation. Much later, they switched ''back,'' and retconned that they were two ''different'' Hals (Paxton-Hal was her first ''and third'' husband), thus un-Othering the Darrin.
** Further, Jamie's parents were played by three different sets of actors, culminating in Carol Burnett and Carroll O'Connor.
** Even more Kent Brockman, Jamie's Boss was played by AlanRuck (of SpinCity and FerrisBuellersDayOff) but inexplicably changes between seasons 4 and 5.

* EditedForSyndication: Sometimes the tag to the third from last episode "Paved With Good Intentions", in which we see Ira stealing props from the apartment and telling a shocked Nat that "MadAboutYou [[BreakingTheFourthWall will be airing its last episode a week from next Monday]]", is replaced with a generic New York skyline shot credit crawl.

* TheDanza: Paul Reiser as Paul Buchman

* ActorAllusion:
** Ursula (played by Lisa Kudrow) compliments Lisa on her name.
** Paul is once asked if he had ever seen the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' movies. "Just [[Film/{{Alien}} the first one]]".
** Jamie is invited to play ''Film/{{Twister}}.''
** Ursula has a twin sister, [[Series/{{Friends}} Phoebe]] (see CrossOver).

** It also turns out that Paul used to live in the apartment now inhabited by ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'''s Cosmo Kramer, which creates a weird CelebrityParadox when a later season finds that program's George and Susan in bed watching an episode of ''MadAboutYou''!

** It also turns out that Paul used to live in the apartment now inhabited by ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'''s Cosmo Kramer, which becomes weird when a later season finds that program's George and Susan in bed watching an episode of ''MadAboutYou''!

** Sort of; early on, Lisa Kudrow played Ursula, a scatterbrained waitress at Riff's. After Kudrow landed the role of Phoebe on ''{{Friends}}'', Ursula was revealed to be Phoebe's twin sister. Jamie and Fran have a cameo in one episode of the latter show, where they go to the coffee shop where they see Phoebe and mistake her for Ursula. The fact that Phoebe, being a customer and not a waitress, doesn't take their order only further convinces them that she's Ursula.
** It also turns out that Paul used to live in the apartment now inhabited by ''{{Seinfeld}}'''s Cosmo Kramer, which becomes weird when a later season finds that program's George and Susan in bed watching an episode of ''MadAboutYou''!

* CrossOver [=/=] SharedUniverse

* CrossOver:

Quite simply, a DomCom airing on Creator/{{CBS}} from 1992-99, about a married couple with a ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''-esque interest in meaningless conversations and minor fiddling events over big important ones. Rather unusual in that the couple is composed of two intelligent, attractive, well-adjusted and financially well-off people who are deeply in love and rarely argue. Except over [[SeinfeldianConversation whether the floor is slanted]].