NBC Might Not Get ‘Mad’ Next Year

Jerry Seinfeld dropped a Christmas Eve bomb on NBC by deciding the time had come to end his long-running series. Now the network can only sweat it out as the stars of “Mad About You” debate whether to light their own fuse.

Series leads Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt say that they’ve yet to determine whether to return next year and that peripheral considerations--including NBC’s dire need and Hunt’s burgeoning film career--won’t sway that decision. Though there’s no specific deadline, the two must choose relatively soon if a series finale is to be shaped for May.

At stake are NBC’s chances of remaining the top-rated network next season. Most observers agree that NBC still has significant pieces to play with even minus “Seinfeld,” using “Frasier,” “Friends,” “Mad About You” and “3rd Rock From the Sun” as what are known as “tent poles” at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday--that is, hit comedies that prop up the programs around them.

In fact, as negotiations with the “Seinfeld” supporting cast went down to the wire last spring, NBC was said to have assembled a contingency plan that had “Frasier” taking its place at 9 p.m. Thursdays, with the hope that “Mad About You” would hold down the fort Tuesdays.

The problem with that plan now is that “Mad” stars Reiser and Hunt are contemplating joining Seinfeld in the “you deserve a break today” club, in the process eliminating a key NBC anchor and potentially deflating one of those “Must-See TV” nights.

In an interview at the show’s production office, Hunt said she is “split right down the middle” in regard to doing another year. According to the actress, the decision ultimately will have little to do with money--which NBC will throw at them in abundance--but rather with a desire to “down-shift a little bit,” weighed against whether the show is still attractive to the pair creatively.

“If we sit down and go, ‘Let’s be honest, we did it,’ I think we’ll go home,” Hunt said. “If we sit down and say, ‘Yeah, but next year there’s this to work on,’ then I’ll want to be back.”

Reiser added that NBC’s current predicament won’t be a factor in those conversations, echoing Seinfeld by saying that it’s important to him to go out on top.

“It probably makes a difference to NBC, but to us, it’s a very human machine here,” Reiser said. “It comes down to Helen and I going in a room and saying, ‘What do you think?’ ”

In its sixth season, “Mad About You” has become one of television’s most durable series, averaging nearly 16 million viewers per week--fourth among all programs scheduled at 8 p.m. (when viewing levels are slightly lower) behind “Friends,” “Touched by an Angel” and “The Simpsons.”

With “Roseanne” gone, “Mad About You” has regularly won its Tuesday time slot against various competitors and helped NBC unseat ABC as the Tuesday front-runner. Because of the scarcity of programs capable of leading off a night in that fashion, one senior television executive said losing “Mad About You” would be especially devastating to NBC coming on the heels of the “Seinfeld” announcement.

Meanwhile, Hunt--having previously starred in the box-office hit “Twister”--has turned in what many feel is an Oscar-worthy performance playing opposite Jack Nicholson in the romantic comedy “As Good as It Gets,” prompting speculation that she will opt to pursue movies full time.

Hunt, also an Emmy winner for “Mad About You,” rejected that notion, saying she doesn’t feel a need to choose between television and movies.

“I’ve gotten to do both,” she said. “The fact that I’m on a TV show every week makes me more sell-able for movies. We are a commercial for ourselves every week, so I think it only makes us more viable in that market. . . . I think it only helps that to keep doing the show.

“I’ve gotten to do every work thing I’ve wanted to do. . . . Outside work interests haven’t been a problem, but at some point you feel kind of a hunger to get back to your real life, and the one thing a television series doesn’t permit--unlike a movie, which swallows you up for three months and then spits you back--is any real time to be not working.”

Reiser, who co-created the show and serves as its executive producer, said the series still has “plenty of stories to do and plenty of room to grow” but cited similar tensions balancing the grind of churning out 22 episodes each year against personal interests.

“It’s very ironic,” he said. “Sometimes I call my wife at 9 o’clock and say, ‘I need a line about a guy who’s staying late at work. What would he say?’ And she says, ‘Well, come home and I’ll tell you.’ ”

The pair admit they have worked precisely to reach this threshold. Hunt, for example, will make her television directing debut on the episode filming this week, allowing her to expand into that area. She also acknowledged that a hit series affords a performer opportunities films don’t readily offer, such as the episode that aired without commercial interruptions in December.

“Both of us have read a lot of movie scripts. We could never do what we’re doing [here] on a movie,” Hunt said. “Most movies are about boy meets girl, and arguably that’s the least interesting part of the story: They met. We’re getting to do work and explore issues in a way you never could in a movie.”

The other interested parties can only watch and wait. NBC has made clear the show’s importance, though the network has been busy attending to other matters, including “Seinfeld” and the “ER” renewal negotiations.

“Obviously, everybody wants the show back and feels like this has been a great year creatively,” said Eric Tannenbaum, president of Columbia TriStar Television, which produces the series.

Executive producer Victor Levin added that the writing staff can focus only on the work, with seven episodes left to produce this season.

“The important thing is not to let [the uncertainty] be a distraction, to keep our eye on the ball and remember the most important thing is to do a good show this Friday,” Levin said.

Like Seinfeld, Reiser, as co-creator, shares in the syndication revenue from the series. Sources say Hunt could vault to the level of television’s top-paid performers--almost certainly exceeding the $600,000 per episode paid to the “Seinfeld” supporting cast--should she decide to do another year.

Yet Reiser--who, like most television stars, never anticipated that the series would run this long--kept trying to move the discussion from economics to lifestyle and artistic considerations.

“We come in here to our little creative sandbox, and the decision will come out of us,” he said. “If we’re indeed ending the series this season, we want to end it on the right note.”