Comedian’s Fatherhood To Help Shape ‘Mad About You’

Many parents collect tales of their newborns in baby books. Comedian Paul Reiser converts his young son’s doings into fodder for a book, as well as his NBC sitcom “Mad About You.”

The book is titled “Babyhood,” a follow-up to his 1994 “Couplehood,” a best seller with a reported 2 million copies sold. Reiser reportedly received $5 million to write the sequel.

Conveniently or by design, co-star Helen Hunt gave birth to a baby on “Mad About You” last season.

“Writing the book took longer than I thought,” says the author-funnyman. “There was so much to write about; every day there is something different, new and amusing with a baby.

“The bad news is you’re too tired to remember exactly what.”

Paul and Paula Reiser had been married several years before deciding to have a baby. The decision came after a woman on an airplane told them, “It’s the greatest thing in the world.”

“How your relationship changes was interesting to me,” Reiser says. “You spend years as a couple, fine-tuning that relationship. Then you take the next step and add a baby, which is a natural outgrowth of that couple, and the relationship is changed entirely.”

“You now have a new priority. It’s not about you guys. It’s not about either single one of you. It’s about this guy. Whatever you can salvage for yourself, good for you.”

While he doesn’t plan to plagiarize his own book, Reiser expects some of the same topics to pop up in “Mad About You.”

“The show has always been about ‘The Couple,”’ he reasons. “Some people have voiced concern: ‘Oh, is it going to change now with the baby? Is it going to become a fuzzy show?”’

“The truth is, it’s going to be exactly what it has been: a very smart, grown-up look at a couple. But that couple itself changes. There’s a lot of wear and tear on the relationship. That’s the stuff that’s fun to explore.”