Just why does Everybody Love Raymond? (Everybody Loves Raymond)

Member Name: katykicker

Product:	Everybody Loves Raymond
Date:	17/05/09 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic show, great cast, lots of good acting & funny moments.

Disadvantages: Sometimes unfunny when it was clearly intentioned to be funny!

Everybody Loves Raymond is a US sitcom that was originally shown in the US from CBS from September 1996 to May 2005. It is, in part, based on the real life experience of actor Ray Romano.

Ray Romano plays Ray Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond. Ray lives with his wife Debra & their daughter Ally & identical twin sons Michael & Geoffrey. Across the road lives Ray's parents Marie & Frank as well as Ray's brother Robert who lives with his parents on & off throughout the years of filming.

Ray loves his parents but is constantly frustrated by how often they just turn up uninvited and how often they upset Debra by interfering and offering their opinion where it is really not wanted. He also loves his brother, Robert, but Robert is jealous of certain aspects of Ray's life and his relationship with their parents. This causes some tension at times and brings out the competitive side of both men who frequently have squabbles over memories from the past or things that their parents did for one & not the other. They seem to try and upstage each other quite a lot.

Ray works as a sports writer while Debra is a stay at home Mum for most of the years but does venture out to work here and there with sometimes disastrous results with one particular episode where Ray tries to handle the household finances with disastrous consequences such as them having no electricity or food.

Robert works as a police officer and there have been a fair few episodes centred around him and his eventual decision to leave the force and become a security officer. He does have a few love interests throughout the years with Amy being his main one and one that he seems to frequently return back to.

Marie & Frank are both retired which means that Marie has plenty of time to cook, clean & generally care for her family and leftover time to interfere in Debra's life and tell her what she's doing right and wrong around her own household as well as what to do for Ray & how to treat the children. Marie thinks that Debra does most things wrong & Debra can't stand Marie most of the time as she hates the constance interference. I think that they have your general mother-in-law & daughter-in-law relationship and this brings a great comedy element to the whole thing as well as some nice times when they work together to achieve something and really if they put their heads together they would be a far more recognisable force for both their husbands.

Ray & Debra can be an adorable couple at times but Debra usually is quite resentful & aggressive to him about his family because she has to put up with them constantly whereas Ray has usually been able to escape to work. Debra feels upset and put on most of the time because she has to manage a house as well as look after 3 boisterous children and sometimes go out to work. They seem to have their fair share of arguments and one of the outcomes is usually Debra denying Ray sex or other marital 'obligations' but quite frequently at the end of an episode they will have a few moments where they are laying in bed having a chat together and this is quite a nice end to the episode as it shows that they really do have love for each other.

Cast:

Ray Romano plays Raymond Barone
Patricia Heaton plays Debra Barone
Brad Garrett plays Robert Barone
Doris Roberts plays Marie Barone
Peter Boyle plays Frank Barone (unfortunately Peter passed away in 2006)
Monica Haron plays Amy Barone


I think that Everybody Loves Raymond is just fantastic and this is frequently shown on Channel 4 and E4 so it's worth keeping an eye out. At present I believe they show two episodes each weekday morning around 730-830am on Channel 4. It is a fantastic show which covers lot of different issues and gives a very comedic view of family life & married life. I think most people have in-laws that want to meddle in things to a certain extent! I am rating the show 4/5 as it's fantastic although there are some moments that are meant to be funny but just don't come close to funny.

Summary: A magnificent show with an amazing cast and a great comedy factor.