The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict: Mad About You

In the 90's there were many girls a boy like me could crush on. We had Alicia Silverstone, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Alyssa Milano, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Amy Jo Johnson (already mentioned her), Christina Applegate, Danika McKellar, Britney Spears, and Danielle Fishel to name a few.

But one name that is forgotten among those names is someone who was a tad older, but to me was attractive in my youth and that lovely lady was Helen Hunt.

I first fell in mad crush with Helen watching her on Mad About You. The comedy featured Hunt and Paul Reiser sharing their lives and showing how to grow and mature into a long relationship and marriage. The show lasted from 1992-1999 and was how Hunt rose to fame with winning three Golden Globe awards and four Prime Time Emmy Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series.

From there she went on to be in many movies including one of my favorite ones from the 90's, Twister which came out in 1996. I was always fascinated by weather systems, especially tornadoes. Where I live the odds of a tornado being seen was probably the same odds as winning the Powerball jackpot or back in the 90's it was Megabucks for my parents. So it's not a thing.

Watching those storm chasers in that movie and how tornadoes just rip everything apart in their path had me on the edge of my seat. I can't remember how many times my mother and I watched that movie over and over again when we rented the VHS from the local video store. It never got tiring. It was also one of the very few movies my mother watched that wasn't horror. I will get to the other ones another time on here.

We had seen that movie so much that we would always say when we left someone's house or the grocery store, "I gotta go, we got cows!"

 

I still watch the flick occasionally on VHS, need to get a DVD version, but it comes on TV so often that it's not needed right now. Luckily my wife enjoys the film as much as I do.

My Mad About you crush on Helen lasted for many years til I got into my 20's. Another thing I have noticed as you age, your preferences on women change as well. I always wondered if it was that way for women for guys as well.

But, it wasn't just girls you could be Mad About. There were sport card products you could as well and my very first cardboard Mad About You moment was on Topps Chrome. That still lasts to this day.

Recently I was able to take a trip back to 1996, the birth year of Topps Chrome, and give a pack a rip thanks to a Christmas eBay gift card I finally used. I can't remember where I picked up my first pack, but this one came from eBay.

Each pack of 1996 Topps Chrome football contained 4 cards. I believe packs at the time ran for $2.99 retail which is what I would have found locally. I don't think the product lasted very long around here as my father and I only got to open a couple packs total before it disappeared. Sort of like those Topps Chrome Update boxes in today's collecting world at Target.

Some of the targets at the time in these packs were the refractor cards that fell 1:12 packs, which meant only two per box. Imagine that! Chromium 40th Anniversary cards and Chromium Tide Turners.

The base set in just like today's chrome world, took the base card design and chromed it. Except in 1996 this one added like a wavy background not found on the base.

Back then I never pulled anything but a couple of rookies. I know this because I still have those 8 cards.

Here is what I found in this pack I just busted,

Jessie Tuggle who was middle linebacker for the Falcons. He played his entire career in Atlanta from 1987-2002 and was a five time Pro Bowler.

Falcons WR Terance Mathis. Guess it's an Atlanta pack. He is a Pro Bowl WR who spent most of his career in Atlanta. Remember a time when players played with their teams and not changed them every few seasons?

At the time, in the 90's and well now as well, I really wanted an Eddie George rookie card. I didn't get one back then and didn't now either. My buddy Rickey Dudley who I pulled a lot of in the 90's still haunts me today. He played nine seasons in the NFL under three teams and even got a ring when the Bucs won the Super Bowl during his two years there.

 

So far disappointment had settled until this popped up! Boom! 1:8 pack pull of a Chromium 40th Anniversary card of the great Marcus Allen. Hall Of Famer who ran for over 12,000 yards and had over 5,000 receiving yards in his career.

For a pack under $5 I was pretty happy with the results. So happy that I want more.

Speaking of wanting more, this base set is on my want list and I will be adding it with what I need soon. There is a ton of wants here that I would be Mad About owning.

 

There was a lot to be Mad About in love with in 1996. Topps Chrome, Twister and this scene of Helen avoiding the tornado to run Madly to me. Sorry, just had to think that she was at the time.

After all of these years later and the changes that have taken place to the product including the addition of autographs and parallels up the yin-yang, Topps Chrome, I am still Mad About You. Sorry Helen, we didn't survive the test of time.