Paul Reiser's New Show Yanked by NBC After Only Two Episodes

By Christine Fenno Posted Apr 23rd 2011 12:09PM

Did you blink and miss Paul Reiser's big TV comeback on his old 'Mad About You' network? After airing just two episodes, as reported by EW.com, NBC has pulled 'The Paul Reiser Show' off the air.

Reiser played himself on the primetime series, which premiered April 14 to less than 3.5 million viewers. It was added to the Thursday night lineup, following 'Community,' as a replacement for the recently canceled 'Perfect Couples.'

The premise was a reality-sitcom hybrid on which the chatty star conversed casually with people in his life (some real celebs, and some actors portraying his friends -- a formula that spelled success for 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'), but the final product was not well-received by critics.

Larry David and reality megaproducer Mark Burnett ('Survivor') were two of the guests who played themselves.

Reiser, 54, co-created 'Mad About You,' the NBC hit series co-starring Helen Hunt (who won four consecutive Emmys for her performance as Jamie Buchman). The sitcom ran 1992-1999 and made both of its stars household names.

The new show attempted to capture Reiser, now a very rich dad with too much time on his hands, interacting with friends and family. The former standup comic documented one of his parenting moments for Huffington Post last year, defending Jay Leno in a piece about how he explained the NBC vs. Conan fiasco to his befuddled son.

Tags: nbc, paul reiser

Comments

(83)

Saturday 23 April

By Tena

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I didn't even know it was on. Networks don't even give a show a chance; just like with CHAOS.

By j

I thought CHAOS was hillarious. I saw it 2 times, what can they be thinking. Of course, they took off S*** my dad says and it was funnier than I don't know what.
I am tired of the "reality" shows which, in my opinion, are nowhere near reality. Music shows, talent shows, who cares.
Now tonight there are 3 CSI's (New York, Miami) on TV.. Put some of these "cancelled" shows on at a time people would watch them, not next to a "more popular" show.

By BTDT

Mad About You wasn't all that interesting or funny, but I didn't even know he had another show. Maybe NBC should try promoting their new projects, then someone might watch.

Sunday 24 April

By angerISFORlosers

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dude was never funny, mad about you was lame and just used generic jokes and laugh tracks, plus i think most people think he's the dude from the police academy movies, which were not as lame, even though that dude was lame as well

By cqdeed

Didn't even know he had a new show. I only watched Mad About You because Helen Hunt was in it. Not a Paul Reiser fan.

By Crabby Abbey

We saw the first two shows. Honestly, it was boring and too scripted. Sorry Paul! The network was right on this. But bring back Mad About You! That was a truly good show. :)

By lita

Unfortunately, I agree. I like Paul Reiser very much, but this didn't work. Worse, though, is that in order to get Larry David to appear, David's appearance had to be improvisation--no script. That proved to be the least funny part of the show. Good luck to Mr. Reiser on his next endeavour.

By Barbara

...was gonna check it out...just hadn't gotten around to it yet...guess now I won't...

By Don M

Always thought Mad About You was awful and just an incredibly overrated show. Twenty years too late, but it seems most have finally figured out that Reiser just isn't particularly funny.

By the_fool

They are way too quick to pull things off the air. If a show does not get ratings the first or second time. I didn't know of this show at all. Until reading this.

By Julio

It's money plain and simple. If not enough viewers tune in then the network loses money and NBC is in last place so they can't afford to play the waiting game.

By Frank

Julio Nbc sucks

By LOL

Woops, guess I blinked!

By Claud Pipkin

Watched 2-3 minutes of the first show........That was enough...
Just can't get past that cynical, everybody is dumber that me, irritating whiny voice he seems to think is humorous...

By Teri

One of my all-time favorites shows is "Mad About You." I adored Paul in that show. I watched both episodes of his new show, and it was a disaster. It was too disorganized and random. Love ya, Paul, but this show was a mess.

By Carol

I agree -- I liked Mad About You and Paul Reiser, and was actually looking forward to this show. I watched the first episode, and it was one of the most unfunny shows I'd seen in a long time. It was just bad. The idea was that his friends were just the dads of his son's friends, but that felt really forced. And the jokes were corny. Like the one dad was gluing together a school project on the hood of another dad's car. The car owner says, "Don't get glue on my car!" Oops, he glues himself to the car! Haha. No.

Paul Reiser is great but he needs to get rid of this idea and try another one.

By art

Waiting for the The Voice show. Should last about the same period/

By kathy

watched for a few minutes, found it stupid and boring, turned to tv land and watched everybody loves raymond. now that was a good show, the networks need to find shpws that are similar to the old cosby show, cheers, night court, family ties etc.

By tri

I recorded both episodes on my dvr to watch later and some how they disappeared. Go figure, sorry Paul.

By Bill

He's pretty obnoxious and not very funny--why would anyone want to watch a show featuring him?

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