Paul Reiser

Sweet but dramatically inert, "The Thing About My Folks" is writer-star Paul Reiser's seriocomic valentine to his parents. While stocked with simple, earnest observations on love, relationships and family, the film's haphazard plotting and often discordant tone keep it from being anything more than an episodic collection of sentimental aphorisms.

The West Valley Educational Assn. honored actor Paul Reiser, star of the NBC series "Mad About You," and his wife, Paula, as Couple of the Year at its 11th annual Builder's Banquet on Monday night. The two were honored during a dedication of the newly named Max D. Raiskin West Valley Academy. The educational association is an umbrella organization of the Beit Hamidrash of Woodland Hills temple and the academy.

With steam building in Congress for a law to rein in the conduct of paparazzi, actors Paul Reiser and Michael J. Fox came to Capitol Hill on Thursday with first-hand accounts of how far modern tabloid photographers will go to get a picture.

The stars of "Mad About You" have picked up mad money and then some, agreeing to another year of the hit NBC comedy that reportedly will pay them each in the neighborhood of $1 million an episode. The deal announced Monday provides further evidence of the television networks' desperation to hang onto popular programs, while securing another key component of NBC's prime-time lineup for next season, albeit at a steep price.

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.

Paul Reiser isn't an abusive kind of comic. But right now he \o7 is\f7 inflicting some serious taunting on his dog, Frankie, who is whimpering inconsolably as her cruel master deliberately chews his egg sandwich inches away from her lustful snout. "It's for \o7 meeee\f7 , not so much for \o7 youuuuu\f7 ," Reiser tells Frankie in mocking Labrador-ese. "You want the eggs, and yet you didn't order."