"The Conversation" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of the American sitcom Mad About You, written by executive producer Victor Levin and directed by Gordon Hunt.
It received a mixed reaction following its broadcast, with critics praising Reiser and Hunt's performances, and the honest and funny script.
Paul is unhappy with the method, as he wants to go in and hold Mabel, but Jamie insists that it will be good for her and stops him from going into the room early.
The sitcom's executive producer Victor Levin wrote the script, believing that an episode focusing on Ferberization, a technique that allows a child to cry itself to sleep, would have "strong emotional ground".
[2] Levin spoke with the writing staff and the actors about his idea of Paul and Jamie being unable to leave the doorway to their bedroom as they listen to their daughter's cries.
He explained to Nancy McAlister of The Florida Times Union: "What would be the surprises that would be unearthed if two people sat down just to talk since they've had a kid?
[8] It was the seventh most-watched show on NBC that week, behind episodes of ER, Seinfeld, Veronica's Closet, Friends, Union Square and Frasier.
[8] Writing for The Akron Beacon Journal, James Endrst thought "The Conversation" was "in its own quiet way, a greater success" compared to the live ER episode.
[5] Endrst praised Reiser and Hunt for their "touching and, under the TV circumstances, nearly flawless performances", and the script for creating distinctive and honest moments.
[5] Walt Belcher of The Tampa Tribune said Mad About You succeeded with the one-take format, because it did not "overpower" the plot or performances, unlike experimental episodes of ER and Chicago Hope.
[9] David Bianculli of the New York Daily News was impressed that the episode was filmed in one take and that Gordon Hunt directed it "without a false note".
[11] In contrast, The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik found that 22 minutes of a crying baby was "way too much", and he believed that "The Conversation" was a good example of how "baby-obsessed" the sitcom had become.
[12] Zurawik also reported that USA Today gave the episode a thumbs-down saying that Mabel was the "most ill-conceived television baby since Murphy Brown's controversial Avery.
[13] Diane Shipley from the British newspaper The Guardian thought the plot was "ill-conceived", but the filming format "was an impressive acting achievement, but one that replicated the noise and tedium of early parenthood far too effectively".
[14] In 2013, Jennifer Wood of Mental Floss included "The Conversation" in her feature on the "10 Best Bottle Episodes of Your Favorite TV Shows".
Wood wrote "director Gordon Hunt channeled his inner Ingmar Bergman to do the unthinkable: drop a camera on the floor of the Buchmans' apartment and leave it there.
"[7] Kurland acknowledged that it was an unpopular episode with some viewers, but wrote "it might not be a perfect experiment, but it's a sort of brilliant, evolving idea".