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Everybody Loves Raymond

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Everybody Loves Raymond
Created byPhilip Rosenthal
StarringRay Romano
Patricia Heaton
Brad Garrett
Monica Horan
Madylin Sweeten
Doris Roberts
Peter Boyle
Sullivan Sweeten
Sawyer Sweeten
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons9
No. of episodes210
Production
Running time30 minutes
Original release
NetworkCBS--now Fox currently runs reruns...
ReleaseSeptember 13, 1996 –
May 16, 2005

Everybody Loves Raymond is an American sitcom originally broadcast on CBS from 1996 to 2005. Alongside Seinfeld, Friends, Frasier and others, it is one of the most critically acclaimed American sitcoms of its time.

The show revolves around the life of Italian-American Ray Barone, a newspaper sportswriter from Lynbrook, Long Island, who lives with his wife, Debra Barone, their daughter, Ally, and their identical twin sons, Michael and Geoffrey. Ray's parents and jealous self-doubting brother Robert never gave Ray or his family a moment of peace. Ray often finds himself in the middle of someone else's problems and usually ends up being the one blamed, often by Debra and Robert.

Cast

Ray Barone (Ray Romano)

Ray Barone

Ray Romano plays the role of Raymond "Ray" Barone. Ray grew up in an unbalanced household where one parent nurtured, sometimes to an extreme, while the other tried to reverse his wife's work. This may have led to him having psychological weaknesses. Raymond hardly ever helps out his wife, Debra, around the house or with the kids, partially due to the fact that he is a sportswriter and is on the road a lot with professional sports teams covering the games. When he is at home on his own, he usually sits on the couch watching television. Ray and Debra are constantly being bothered by Ray's parents, Frank and Marie, who continuously barge into their house uninvited. This leaves him to wonder why he even moved in across the street from them in the first place. But Ray welcomes his father and brother in sometimes to watch the game with him. Ray has a fear of confronting his mother when she does things that annoy him. The psychological hold that his mother has on him annoys Debra. Ray has even sided with his mother against his wife on occasion and is extremely wimpy and weak when it comes to confronting his mother. Ray has little concern for important material. For example, one episode shows Ray taped over their wedding video with Super Bowl XXV.

Debra Barone (Patricia Heaton)

The wife of Ray Barone, who is usually nagging and picking on him, Debra grew up in Connecticut. [1] She was brought up by loving, caring, and rich parents, Warren and Lois Whelan. Warren and Lois have traveled all around the world since Debra grew up and left them. Debra also has one older sister, Jennifer, who went off to Zaire, to become a nun.

After learning she was pregnant with twins, Debra brought up the issue that she and Ray would need to move in a bigger home, as they would now have three children. Once Ray's parents learned of this, Frank showed the married couple a nice home across the street from two lovely neighbors, who just happened to be Marie and Frank themselves. Ray was terrified at the idea of moving across the street from his parents. Debra was able to convince him to do so, but she soon regretted it.

Debra often complains to Ray about his family, because of all their annoying quirks. She mostly complains to Ray, about Marie who gives her the hardest time. Marie often barges into Debra's home insinuating how bad a housewife and homemaker she is. Most of Marie's nasty insinuations are aimed at Debra's cooking, since Marie has always been a world class cook and Debra is notorious for making lousy food. Other than Lemon Chicken (the first dish Debra ever made for Ray), her only other decent dish is braciole, which Ray likes. Though she made one good meal once, it was soon revealed that braciole was the same meal Marie made when Frank proposed, and out of respect for Marie, Debra stopped making braciole. In another episode Marie gave Debra all her recipes, but this does not seem to affect the quality of the meals. Other things Marie criticizes are Debra's parental skills and housekeeping. Marie often rewashes the dishes and spends her days cleaning Debra's house all over again.

Instead of sex, Debra enjoys reading before going to bed. She is also active in the school PTA. In spite of her constant nagging at and picking on Ray and gossipy way of complaining about his family usually while in bed with Ray, Debra really does love her family, even Frank and Marie. Debra defended Ray once when he was "being beat up by the Cookie Lady", Peggy (Amy Aquino), letting her know that she's the only one who gets to mess with Ray. Debra and Marie are known to take each other's sides on many issues as well. Debra is a very caring mother but an emotional housewife. Debra's maiden name is Whelan.

Robert Barone (Brad Garrett)

Most of the jokes are aimed at how Robert is never able to find success and how his love life never picks up. Robert was conceived out of wedlock; one episode features Robert's discovery of that. Standing at 6' 8 1/2", he is the tallest Barone. It may be noted that he has several quirks, the biggest being a nervous habit of touching food to his chin before eating it (commonly known as the "Crazy Chin" habit), and this habit is often the center of many jokes. Robert is a caring uncle and still deeply cares for little brother Raymond, no matter how much jealousy he has.

After divorcing his first wife Joanne, Robert moved back in with his parents, became a workaholic and was acknowledged by the NYPD for never being absent one day of his career. Robert was an exceptional cop, once stopping an armed robbery at Nemo's Pizza while Ray hid under a table; in another episode he is gored in the "upper thigh" by a bull, forcing him to move back into his parents' house for several episodes. Robert's work partner is an African-American woman named Judy; she memorably introduced him to the dance club scene in one episode. Robert's diverse skills as a police officer even got him an interview with the FBI; However, his mother interfered in the interview process, and he was passed over for the position (though the FBI interviewer admitted that she had little to do with the actual denial). He at one point considered leaving the police force, when he froze during a confrontation with a teenager (and became a telemarketer for a short time), and then some time later to be an alarm salesman, but thanks to Ray's help, he returned to the NYPD both times.

Robert dated Debra's best friend Amy MacDougall for several years, despite a number of breakups. When Robert went with the Barones to a family trip in Italy, he had an affair with an Italian girl named Stefania, who later immigrated to America, leading to one of his break-ups with Amy. That particular breakup wasn't helped by the fact that Amy discovered Robert had been considering getting back together with his ex-wife at the same time. After a bad date with yet another woman, Robert ran into Amy in a bar and they soon got back together and married in 2003. In 2004, they purchased Frank and Marie's home, but they had to welcome Marie and Frank back in when they were kicked out of a retirement community in New Jersey.

Robert is also very jealous of his brother Raymond, who was favored by their mother, and also earned great success in life, becoming a sportswriter and winning many awards. As he said in the opening episode, "Ray goes to work and people do the wave; I go to work and people shoot at me." Though they have this sibling rivalry and Robert's jealousy can confound matters, Ray and Robert are easily each other's closest friend. There are times when Frank, Raymond and Robert's father, and Robert enjoy each other's company, especially when they join together to make fun of Raymond.

Marie Barone (Doris Roberts)

The very intrusive and over-nurturing mother of Raymond and Robert, and wife to Frank, Marie is an Italian-American housewife and series antagonist who excels in cooking, cleaning, and other things dealing with keeping a good home and bringing up a nurturing and caring family.

Except for Frank, everyone in the family has a hard time standing up to Marie because of her guilt-tripping, although Debra sometimes does take a stand much to the chagrin of her husband Raymond. In addition to being a profound worrier, one of Marie's trademark acts is to be outwardly helpful and sweet, but in the most passive-aggressive, insulting way, especially with her daughter-in-law. Marie often barges into Debra's house and gives her cooking and cleaning tips, despite having never been asked. Whenever something smells strange, she'll immediately ask if Debra is cooking anything. Marie also criticizes Debra's housekeeping and often rewashes all of the clothes and vacuums the house even though Debra has already done it, which has been noted when Debra says "it's not my fault if someone breaks in and cleans" in a mid-series episode. Being overly sensitive, Marie at one point refused to speak to Debra for months, which resulted in several episodes interlocking with each other because of it.

Beyond this, Marie smothers Raymond and is generally neglectful to Robert. She does outrageous and often insane things to Ray and defends this by claiming she does it "out of love". Several of her actions have had a traumatizing effect on Ray's psyche, such as reading his childhood journal and complaining to Ray about Frank's behavior on a weekly basis when he was young. Although these actions are met with extreme outrage from Ray, these also hurt Robert who wonders why she didn't do any of them to him (even if she did something wrong).

In addition to Marie's typically insulting way of being nice, she also has a history of making matters worse, usually by blowing small matters out of proportion. One of the worst mistakes she ever made was accidentally backing the car into Ray and Debra's home. Another was standing up to object at Robert's wedding, to ensure he was marrying Amy for love, and not because he felt pressured to do so.

Marie and Frank live at 319 Fowler in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York. There actually is a Fowler Avenue in the town, but the addresses do not go that high. The houses used for the exterior shots of the two Barone households are really across the street from each other but actually are located in North Merrick.

Frank Barone (Peter Boyle)

Frank Barone has lived in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York for most of his life and is of Italian heritage. His father (originally named Albert but was later renamed Joe) came to the United States and changed his name to Barone, causing much confusion when Raymond and Ally attempted to contact Frank's aunt Serena, still in Italy. The actual family name is unknown.

Frank is the one member of the Barone family who will unleash anything that is on his mind. Crude and derisive, Frank does things like keep his zipper open, walk out every morning to retrieve the daily paper wearing his underwear or less and use names like Nancy and Shirley to describe men (mostly Ray and Robert) who are not macho enough. He also makes several jokes at Marie's expense. For example, when Marie said that she kept all of the things from her past relationships, he replied, "She had to. It's hard to throw out a cave painting." He often hangs out at the Lodge, where lodge policy (or tradition; as it is explained) is to swim naked in the pool. Refusing to pay for any kind of repair, Frank also considers himself a general handyman and attempts to make repairs around Ray's household (often with disastrous results).

Frank's pastimes are eating and watching TV. He proclaims Marie is his cook and she often gives in, cooking him things from grilled cheese to ham, but once Ray comes over, Frank has to wait until after Ray gets his hands on the food. Frank will usually eat anything, even if Debra cooked it. (In one memorable episode, Frank got sick from eating an unidentifiable substance found by Marie in Debra's refrigerator: "It has a crunch, but I don't think that's on purpose.") Frank often watches television with his pants unzipped and that has become a running gag. When Marie temporarily moved in with Ray and Debra, Frank rented the Arnold Schwarzenegger collection ("Except the one where he gets pregnant.") and discovered salsa. On another occasion where Marie went on a cruise and left an injured Frank in Robert's care, he ordered Robert around mercilessly, making him fearful for what he and Ray would deal with without Marie ("If Mom's the first to go...God help us all").

Frank's behavior often results in many people disliking him. Some of Frank's behavior include keeping score at his granddaughter's t-ball game, holding a record breaking football for ransom, and getting insider information on sporting events from Ray and betting on them. Despite his transgressions, Frank also deeply cares for Marie as he admitted when she said they had a "loveless marriage." Some of Frank's more tender moments involve taking the fall for Debra when Marie loses a sentimental item or returning money Ray lost to him in a poker game. When a video tribute reveals to him that the majority of his "friends" at the lodge hate him, he admits to Marie he should try to be a better person. During a moment of father-son bonding, Raymond and Robert discover that their grandfather was a physically abusive disciplinarian towards Frank, and that Frank had vowed never to be like him with his own children. This cast their father's abrasive and derisive behavior toward them in a new light and drew the trio imperceptibly closer. Another moment early on is in a flashback episode, a childhood-era Raymond breaks his arm while Frank and Marie were separated. Frank proceeds to visit Raymond daily to check up on him.

The cast often makes jokes about Frank's being fat and bald as well as of the way he smells. He brushes these jokes off with complete acceptance of his slovenly behavior and his trademarks, "Holy crap!"' and "Geezalou!"

In one episode where Frank gives brightly-wrapped condoms to trick-or-treaters, he is dressed as Frankenstein's monster. Peter Boyle previously starred in Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein (1974), playing the monster.

Amy MacDougall-Barone (Monica Horan)

Monica Horan plays the role of Amy MacDougall-Barone, a devout Protestant who is married to Robert Barone. She is also the best friend of Debra Barone, Ray's wife, who introduced Amy to Robert. Although Amy married Robert in the seventh season of the show, she had been making appearances since the first season. Many issues have caused them to break up in the first six seasons, with one being caused by Raymond. After Amy broke up with Robert from finding out he was with two other women, Amy only returned three times- once when she and Stefania thought of a way to make him a better mate; again when she dated one of Raymond's friends because of a plan by Debra and Marie to make Robert envious; and once more when she planned to take Ray and Debra to the airport for their vacation (the three of them ended up staying at Marie and Frank's house because the power went out). She wouldn't make another appearance until Thanksgiving, when Marie had to get glasses. Quite often, she apoloigizes to someone even if she didn't do anything wrong. In an episode from season nine, for example, Amy apologized to Ray for yelling at him, even though she had the right to yell because Ray insulted her.

Amy is a soft-spoken girl who was raised in a family of devout Protestants (the Barones are Catholic) who consider their Bible the "guide to life". She once described her parents as "people who wouldn't yell if they were on fire". Amy's parents and brother live in Pennsylvania.

Amy's Parents

Amy's parents, Hank (Fred Willard) and Pat MacDougall (Georgia Engel), are very devout Christian conservatives who oppose the marriage of their daughter to Robert because of divorce and other transgressions in his past. The matters are not helped as they soon learn that the MacDougalls and the Barones are not the most compatible of families. The two sides still do not like each other after many tries at truce, although the Barones have always loved Amy and the MacDougalls have somewhat come to accept Robert.

Peter MacDougall

Peter (Chris Elliott) is Amy's older brother who has a strange personality and a sneaky, clever mind. He is also opposed to the marriage of his little sister and insists that he will keep trying to break it up. But come wedding day, it turns out that Marie is the one to interrupt the wedding after the priest says "speak now or forever hold your peace". Peter is single but lives with his pet house cat, Miss Puss. At first, Peter and Robert do not get along very well, but in "Peter on the Couch," the two find common ground in the fact that they suffered the same problems growing up (being the overshadowed older sibling and living with their parents for a long time) and gain acceptance of each other. Eventually, Robert even gives Peter his old apartment.

Supporting cast

  • Alexandra (Ally) Barone (Madylin Sweeten): Ray and Debra's only daughter who is five years old at the beginning of the series. She was named for Romano's real-life daughter.
  • Geoffrey and Michael Barone (Sullivan and Sawyer Sweeten): Ray and Debra's identical twin sons who are two years old at the beginning of the series. In the pilot episode, one of the sons is referred to as "Matthew" and the other as "Gregory", the names of Romano's real-life twin sons. A running joke is Frank's insistence that Geoffrey may be latently homosexual.

Recurring characters

Some of the returning characters, as well as many walk-on roles, have been played by various cast members' families.

  • Bill Parker, played by Patricia Heaton's actual husband, David Hunt. Parker is often seen showing Ray up as a father, and Ray often makes jokes that Debra wishes she had married him instead.
  • Albert, played by Ray Romano's actual father, Albert Romano. Albert is a lodge friend of Frank and has been seen in various lodge-related episodes.
  • Molly, played by Ray Romano's actual daughter, Alexandra Romano. Alexandra plays Ally's best friend Molly in the contemporary era, but was first seen as a flower girl in a flashback of Ray and Debra's wedding.
  • Amy, played by show creator Phil Rosenthal's actual wife, Monica Horan. Amy was first introduced as Debra's friend from her old P.R. days, and later married Robert after many breakups and reconciliations.

Intros

There were 6 different intros to the series. One for a specific episode, and 5 for the 5 different seasons. Seasons 4, 5, 8, and 9 didn't have introduction sequences. The episodes in those seasons would start without one.

Season 1

Season 1 (Pilot): Ray puts together a playground while describing about the family and his job, then after finishing both things, yells for Debra's help as Ray gets stuck in the playground.

Season 1 (Rest Of Season): Ray is raking and describes the family and his job again, while they are seen floating past in the background. Ray then says, "Now, not every family would go by on a conveyor belt for you, but mine would because--" at the same time, Robert goes by and ends Ray's line by saying, "Everybody Loves Raymond!" Ray finally goes back to raking while saying, "yeah, yeah, yeah." to himself.

Season 2

Yet again, Ray describes the family and his job sitting outside while he uses tools on each family member who are flying to get rid of them except Debra, in which they both blow kisses to each other. he uses almost the exact same words as in season 2, except that he says, "Now not every family would defy gravity for you but mine would because--" Robert comes in again just walking by finishing Rays' line with the typical, "Everybody Loves Raymond! This time, Ray mentions the fact that Robert wasn't flying like the others and says, "Hey, you didn't uh..." then flaps his arms.

Season 3

Ray, Debra, and their kids are carrying on their lives when Ray looks out the window to see Robert and his parents coming. Ray screams, "They're coming!" Beethoven's 9th Symphony plays while Ray, who suddenly ended up all the way across the house, makes his way to the door when Debra throws a stuffed animal at the radio to shut the music up. Ray makes it a second before they open the door, but Marie puts her hand into the mail slot on the door and feels Raymonds' hair when the music suddenly begins again.

Season 6

A narrator says in a booming voice, "It's another season of Everybody Loves Raymond!" while music goes on in the background, the entire family, excluding Rays' kids, are playing American Football. The intro ends with everyone walking away with an injury, such as Marie losing a tooth, and Robert walking away with a limp.

Season 7

A montage of highlights from past seasons are seen as "Jungle Love" by The Steve Miller Band plays.

NOTE: on part one of Robert and Amy's wedding, the intro begins with a "timeline" of all break-ups and make-ups. The intro then goes normally with the music montage.

Other Seasons

During season 3 the opening introduction was sometimes cut for time (producer Phil Rosenthal stating in the commentary for the season 3 episode "The Letter" that this was done to gain time for the story as they could gain 30 to 45 seconds by doing this; subsequently in later seasons the opening credits were dropped more frequently for this reason). Seasons 4 and 5 alternated between no opening introduction and using season three's opening.

There was no introduction for seasons 8 and 9.

Music

The show's score, including the opening and closing themes, was composed by longtime session drummer Rick Marotta, who has toured and recorded with artists such as James Taylor, Jackson Brown, Steely Dan, Carly Simon, Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Aretha Franklin, Larry Carlton, Bette Midler, the Brecker Brothers, and David Sanborn. In June 2006, Marotta was honored by ASCAP with a pair of awards for his scoring of the Everybody Loves Raymond.

Music was used frequently in the show. Two different theme songs were played prior to the actual episode, (the piano tune and the song used for a season premiere with the cast playing football), while 15 or more were played in the episodes of the series. There were many different genres heard, including rock, disco, and others. Normally, the songs would play as highlights from past seasons were seen or the cast would dance with the song playing at the same time.

Crew

Writers

Show background

Based on the real-life experiences of Ray Romano, Everybody Loves Raymond premiered on September 13, 1996, on CBS. The show was produced by HBO, Worldwide Pants (owned by David Letterman) in association with Where's Lunch?. It originally held the Friday-at-8 time slot, which is traditionally known for its poor ratings. Everybody Loves Raymond was no different. Bill Cosby, Ray's idol, however, saw a promising series and suggested they move the show to a better slot on Monday nights, where it outshone its competition. It continued to hold that time slot until the end of its run. For several years, the series also competed against Ally McBeal, which dominated the ratings. The series finale was broadcast on May 16, 2005, which was its most watched episode at the time, behind M*A*S*H, Cheers, Married... with Children, Seinfeld, Home Improvement, Mad About You, Sex and the City, Frasier and Friends. It was also the next highly-rated series finale before Will & Grace and The King of Queens. Currently, old episodes are still rerun on both cable network TBS and in daily syndication. Raymond is popular among many viewer demographics.

In the UK, the final series was broadcast on Channel 4 in 2005, when it was broadcast it was dubbed "Everybody Loves Channel 4" as it is repeated heavily on the channel. Both Channel 4 and Paramount Comedy 1 finished repeating it in March 2007 (Paramount's first airing of the series). Older episodes are repeated week-daily on the two channels during daytime slots.

Infamous Events From The Series

Robert and Amy's wedding

The episode that may be the biggest moment on the show, while not necessarily the highest rated, was the May 19, 2003 episode in which Robert married his long-time on-again, off-again love, Amy MacDougall. With the marriage came several new recurring characters, including Amy's parents and brother. A rumored spin-off featuring Robert and Amy never materialized.

Mother's Day Fight

One event in the series that could be the most dramatic was the month-long feud between Debra and Marie. The argument lasted four consecutive episodes, between the 6th and 7th seasons.

Part 1

Debra has her hands full with the children, when Marie enters with two of her friends. After Marie repeatedly insists that the twins tell a knock-knock joke, Debra loses it and shouts at her. The next day, Marie refuses to speak to Debra who, in turn, refuses to speak to her. By Mother's Day, the family is beginning to crumble. Ray and Frank begin to argue until Robert intervenes. He manages to reunite Ray and Frank, but his attempt at reuniting the women is futile. That night, Debra tells Ray that she loves how things are going and intends to keep them that way.

Part 2

Debra and Marie are still not speaking. Ray discovers that by showing affection towards his mother, Debra will go to any lengths to keep Ray on her side. Frank joins in with him. Robert, sickened by the men's exploitation of the situation, informs Debra and Marie (in that order) of what their husbands are up to. After receiving major punishment from their wives, Ray and Frank argue with Robert for squealing. Marie bursts in and praises Robert for the information -- until he accidentally lets it slip that he told Debra first. Marie is enraged and kicks Robert out.

Part 3

The feud continues. Marie forces Frank to return the anniversary gift she gave them, which maddens Debra further. Following this, Ray and Debra reminisce about the first time they made love. In the flashback, Marie attempts to stop Ray and Debra from having sex, which involves her inviting a priest over. The flashback forces Debra to realize just how silly this fight is, and decides to apologize to Marie. Debra asks Marie if she remembers the time she tried to stop her from making love and how they had talked about their problems. She pleads for forgiveness. However, Marie, picking up on the word tried, realizes that Debra had had premarital relations with Ray. The fight is exacerbated further; and, yet again, Debra and Marie are refusing to speak to each other.

Part 4

Ray and Debra are in their kitchen when Robert enters. He announces that has he joined a support group, then tells his parents the same. The family thinks that Robert's group is a cult, and Ray reluctantly agrees to attend to one of Robert's group meetings. After the meeting ends, Robert tells Ray that Debra and Marie's dispute has depressed him. Finally, Ray hatches a plan to end the fight once and for all. Robert announces that he is leaving the family to be with his group. When the men in the family cannot convince him to stay, it is up to the women to do so. When he reminds them that they cannot even speak to each other, Marie bursts out: "YES WE CAN!" Both women stare at each other in silence for a few seconds, then break down in each other's arms. Through tears, they agree never to fight like that again. Even after they discover that this was all a ruse to get them talking, Marie is still delighted that she has her daughter in-law back. The two then leave the house for Marie's house to discuss recipes, as if nothing had happened.

DVD releases

HBO Home Video has released the Complete Series of Everybody Loves Raymond on DVD in Region 1 and seasons 1-8 on regions 2 & 4 so far.

DVD Name Ep # Release dates
Region 1 Region 2 Region 4
The Complete 1st Season 22 September 14 2004 January 17 2005 December 16 2004
The Complete 2nd Season 25 December 14, 2004 July 4, 2005 April 27, 2005
The Complete 3rd Season 26 May 3, 2005 January 16, 2006 July 12, 2005
The Complete 4th Season 24 September 13, 2005 May 1, 2006 April 5, 2006
The Complete 5th Season 25 December 6, 2005 July 3, 2006 July 5, 2006
The Complete 6th Season 24 May 9, 2006 October 2, 2006 October 4, 2006
The Complete 7th Season 25 September 19, 2006 January 15, 2007 April 4, 2007
The Complete 8th Season 23 May 8, 2007 July 16, 2007 October 3, 2007
The Complete 9th Season 16 September 18, 2007 November 12, 2007 October 3, 2007
The Complete Series 210 October 30, 2007 ????, ???? ????, ????

U.S. television ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Everybody Loves Raymond on CBS.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps. All times mentioned in this section were Eastern & Pacific

With the exception of the 2004-2005 season, the ratings data seen in this table is from Nielsen Media Research which was published in a May 15, 2005 USA Today article.[1]

The series-finale scored a 20.2 household rating, 32.94 million viewers and an 11.2 rating among adults 18-49. At 8pm, Everybody Loves Raymond: The Last Laugh averaged a 15.3 household rating, 24.52 million viewers and a 7.5 among adults 18-49. Template:Nielsen Media Research

Season Timeslot Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Rank Viewers
(in millions)
1 Friday 8:30 p.m.
(September 13, 1996 to
February 28, 1997)

Monday 8:30 p.m.
(March 3, 1997 to
April 7, 1997) 		September 13, 1996 April 7, 1997 1996-1997 #82 10.6
2 Monday 8:30 p.m. September 22, 1997 May 18, 1998 1997-1998 #30 13.3
3 Monday 9:00 p.m. September 21, 1998 May 24, 1999 1998-1999 #11 15.5
4 September 20, 1999 May 22, 2000 1999-2000 #12 17.1
5 October 2, 2000 May 21, 2001 2000-2001 #5 19.1
6 September 24, 2001 May 13, 2002 2001-2002 #4 20.0
7 September 23, 2002 May 19, 2003 2002-2003 #7 18.6
8 September 22, 2003 May 24, 2004 2003-2004 #10 17.4
9 September 20, 2004 May 16, 2005 2004-2005 #10Cite error: The <ref> tag name cannot be a simple integer (see the help page). 17.4Cite error: The <ref> tag name cannot be a simple integer (see the help page).

Trivia

  • Originally, the door from Marie's kitchen to the back yard is on the right-hand side of the set, and by the next episode, the kitchen has been re-arranged, so that the door is on the left-hand side.
  • The first time we see Ray & Debra's bedroom, the doors and woodwork are all painted off-white. For the rest of the series, they are shown as unpainted wood.
  • In later seasons, the audience had become so familiar with the characters that the editors actually had to remove laughter from certain episodes for timing purposes. This is an unusual twist because most sitcoms have to add extra laughs into episodes, something which ELR has never had to do.
  • In the pilot episode the twin boys Michael and Geoffrey are called Matthew and Gregory.
  • In an unusual turn for such a long-running show, almost every episode featured a single plotline followed throughout both acts. There were no subplots except in some exceptions such as the episode "Frank, the Writer".
  • Amy's brother was originally introduced as "Russell", the owner of a comic book shop who was played by comedian Paul Reubens in a one-time appearance. When the character reappeared, his name was Peter and was played by Chris Elliott. This was a rare lapse in the show's continuity. (After his cameo appearance, Reubens was arrested on child pornography charges; this prompted Ray Romano to object to his being part of the show's cast [2], and Elliott was re-cast as Amy's brother. Reubens later settled his court case, but did not re-appear on the show.)
  • In that episode, Russell says that he owns a snake. In the episodes with Peter, he owns a cat named Ms. Puss.
  • In early seasons, Kevin James frequently appeared as one of Raymond's friends, called Kevin. Kevin James later assumed the title role in his own sitcom, The King of Queens, and was from then on Ray's friend Doug. Ray, Robert, Debra, Marie and Frank also guest-starred as the Barones on The King of Queens in several episodes.
  • As well as appearing on The King of Queens, Ray and Frank appeared in an episode of Cosby, and Ray appeared in The Nanny and Becker.
  • Like Robert Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray Romano has a brother who works for the New York City Police Department.
  • Before becoming involved with comedy full-time, Ray Romano had a daytime job delivering futon mattresses. In the show, Raymond meets Debra while delivering a futon mattress to her apartment.
  • Chris Rock spoofed the show's title for his own show called Everybody Hates Chris.
  • In Judd Apatow's movie The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Dave gives title-character Andy a big box of porn with many different erotic films. While going through the list of films, they find Everybody Loves Raymond, pressuring Dave into saying that he tapes it sometimes because it is just a good show. In the next scene, Andy chooses to watch Raymond instead of the porn films.
  • In Knocked Up, another Judd Apatow movie, Pete tells Ben that "marriage is like an unfunny version of Everybody Loves Raymond, only it doesn't last 22 minutes. It lasts forever." Both Dave in The 40 Year-Old Virgin and Pete in Knocked Up are played by Paul Rudd.
  • A Law & Order episode has a parody title, "Everybody Loves Raimondo's".
  • According to show creator Philip Rosenthal, the show was taken off the air in Iraq because Debra and Marie had the appearance of being "strong women."
  • In the episode "Baggage", Marie tells Debra that Frank nailed a big wooden spoon to their kitchen wall to anger Marie, but in return, she nailed a big wooden fork to the wall next to it, but a little higher. The positions of the fork and spoon change from episode to episode.[2] Some early episodes show a much larger fork and spoon in a dark color.
  • In the episode "Moving Out" (Season 3), Robert moves in with the Stipes, and if you look on the wall in the kitchen (when Raymond arrives), you can see a fork and spoon nailed to it, just like in Frank and Marie's house.
  • In the episode "Why Are We Here" (Season 1), Ray and Debra have a flashback to three years earlier. When "Ally" is seen in this episode, it is really one of the young actors that plays Ray's twin boys dressed up like a girl.
  • In the episode "Fairies" (Season 5); just before the twins go on stage, Ray yells at another child dressed as a lion who roars. The child is played by Matthew Romano who is Ray's real life son.
  • Much like the references to Superman in Seinfeld episodes, there are often monkey and jungle references in the episodes (examples: Raymond calling himself a "stupid monkey" when Debra turns him down for sex, Raymond dancing to "Jungle Love" by The Steve Miller Band, and Robert saying that "Bungle in the Jungle" by Jethro Tull is the greatest song ever written).
  • Raymond is often seen drinking Canada Dry Ginger Ale.
  • In the episode "Debra Makes Something Good", Marie explains she doesn't make Frank's favorite meal for him all the time in case he got sick of it. Frank replies "I'm 64 years old Marie. What are you saving it for?" This episode is in the 4th season; however in the 2nd season's episode "The Gift", Frank has a 65th birthday.
  • Although he was nominated 6 times, Peter Boyle never won an Emmy for his performance on the show.
  • In the episode "Older Women" Frank states that he's "Not a Monk". In real life he once was a monk.
  • The episode "Halloween Candy" was originally written for season 1, but the network deemed it too sexual. It wasn't until season 3 when the network actually asked to make the show more sexual were they able to make it.

Syndication

Awards & nominations

Awards won

Emmy Awards:

  • Outstanding Comedy Series (2003, 2005) 2 wins
  • Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Ray Romano (2002)
  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Patricia Heaton (2000-01) 2 wins
  • Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Brad Garrett (2002-03, 2005) 3 wins
  • Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Doris Roberts (2001-03, 2005) 4 wins
  • Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for "Baggage" Tucker Cawley (2003) 1 win

Screen Actors Guild:

  • Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2003)

Writers Guild:

Award nominations

Emmy Awards:

Golden Globe Awards:

  • Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series-Comedy Ray Romano (2000-01) 2 nominations

Screen Actors Guild:

  • Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (1999-2000, 2002, 2004-06) 6 nominations
  • Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Ray Romano (2000, 2002, 2003-2005) 5 nominations
  • Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Brad Garrett (2004)
  • Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Peter Boyle (2002, 2004) 2 nominations
  • Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Patricia Heaton (2002-2006) 5 nominations
  • Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Doris Roberts (2004-05) 2 nominations
Preceded by Emmy Award Winner - Outstanding Comedy Series
2003 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Emmy Award Winner - Outstanding Comedy Series
2005 		Succeeded by

References

  1. ^ Keveney, Bill (May 15, 2005). [http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-05-15-raymond- finale_x.htm?csp=N009 "'Raymond': Sweet run, and now, sweet dreams"]. USA Today. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); line feed character in |url= at position 65 (help)
  2. ^ "The Mystery of the Big Fork and Spoon".

Life after Everybody Loves Raymond

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