NBCSeinfeld, Mad About You and Friends are three very beloved NBC sitcoms set in New York. But, wait a minute: Were they actually set in the same universe?! Could it be?
Yes.
And no.
We are seriously stumped after taking a closer look at all the crossovers over the years. (What? It's our dayjob! And we burn easily in summertime!)
We'll walk you through what we know...
All three shows were on at the same time during their runs: Mad About You ran from 1992-1999, Friends from 1994-2004 and Seinfeld from 1989-1998.
Mad About You was definitely set in the "universe" as Friends. Ursula, Phoebe's twin sister who was also played by Lisa Kudrow, was a waitress on Mad About You, working at Riff's, a popular dinner spot.
Helen Hunt, Jamie on Mad About You, showed up on Friends in character. She even talks to Phoebe at Central Perk, thinking it's Ursula.
But here's where it gets tricky. Mad About You featured a guest appearance by Kramer (Michael Richards). Kramer took over Paul's (Paul Reiser) old apartment. Paul also references the comedian across the hall—Jerry.
Theoretically, that would mean all three shows share the same "universe." But there are some hiccups, of course. Courteney Cox played one of Jerry Seinfeld's girlfriends on Seinfeld. They pretended to be married to get a discount at the dry cleaner. That doesn't necessarily negate anything, just look at the world of Law & Order where victims and perps return as lawyers and cops across shows, even on the same series.
But in an episode of Seinfeld, George (Jason Alexander) and Susan (Heidi Swedberg) watch an episode of Mad About You in bed.
So, is it all the same New York? Yes. No. Maybe? What does it all mean?!
We went so far as to ask Jerry Seinfeld himself to help us sort this all out, once and for all, but guess what? He has more important things to do than mull over our silly little TV theories...Shocking, we know.
So, help us out! Share your Must-See TV thoughts in the comments below!