Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005)

I also loved Robert Culp and Katherine Helmond as Debra's out-of-touch, wealthy, and phony New England parents

I liked it, too. And I also liked Men of a Certain Age.

Favorite episodes? Moments? How does this show hold up today?

I love it. It's more of favorite moments tan favorite episodes. The best moments, or a couple of them, Debra dropping the turkey, Marie looking at her statue "OH MY GOD I'M A LESBIAN", Marie going to talk to the FBI about Robert, Robert dating the lady who eats flies. In the FBI episode Marie went from hysterical comedy to heartbreak in a nano second.

I'M A LESBIAN!

Debra dropping the turkey is hilarious; it was an accident apparently.

Ray hiding in the garage while Warren and Lois have a nasty fight

The suitcase left on the stairway landing was hilarious and the passive aggressive behavior by both Ray and Deborah in this episode is so damned true for relationships, gay, straight, whatever.

And just so you know......

The show was different from the other contemporary sitcoms, especially the family ones.

It almost always had one plot per episode. Compare this with Friends which sometimes had 3 plots running simultaneously in a 22 minute episode. It just shows how bad the writing is that the writers on that show could rarely come up with stories that could tie all the characters together.

The kid were nonentities on this show and therefore it was never mawkish or cutesy like a lot of other similar shows. I think Ray and Debra had 3 but the show largely ignored them.

I remember an episode with a girl who ate flies and had frogs as pets. I laughed my ass off.

Cousin Gerard, The Angry Family, Ray setting the kitchen on fire…..

The Toaster

I know a lot of people think Debra was too harsh but you would be that way too after dealing with Ray and his family that long. If you watch the episodes when she was dating Ray she was sweet.

The Thanksgiving episode where Marie demands to cook a tofurkey and awful health food and manipulates the family into pretending they enjoy it.

Then, in the dark of that night, she’s caught in Ray’s kitchen with a drumstick in her mouth from the Thanksgiving meal Ray secretly ordered. 🍗

Marie is just like my Italian grandmother. They know how to work a situation when they want to.

Horrible show...

[quote]It almost always had one plot per episode. Compare this with Friends which sometimes had 3 plots running simultaneously in a 22 minute episode. It just shows how bad the writing is that the writers on that show could rarely come up with stories that could tie all the characters together.

Different situation, r10. Ray and Patricia were the leads. Friends had six leads, so of course there were various plot lines for their characters.

Holy Crap

I like when Amy's mother blamed the smoking on Robert.

Brad Garrett was fucking hilarious as Robert

I get Patricias Heaton and Clarkson mixed up. Was Clarkson on a tv show too?

What helped make ELR really good was the obvious care that went into casting the guest stars. So many shows the guest stars were just as important as the regular cast. The nuns in the I'm a lesbian story is a great example. Plus the lady that beat up Ray. A lot of other too.

Favorite episode: Ray records Debra during her period to prove to her how horrible she can be.

“Face it Frank, you know I’m always right.”

When Ray told Debra he would leave without her if she was late getting ready for the awards show. She was and he left. She had gotten the curling iron stuck in her hair and she just left it in. That episode was funny as hell.

Just because some upthread mentioned it, I think Men of a Certain Age was really underrated.

I was traveling and poking around for something to watch on Netflix and tried some recent comedy special of Romano’s. I thought it would be interesting to see how his comedy and perspective had developed. Unfortunately, he still was doing the same old, “women, who can understand them?,” “wives and their shopping” stuff. I turned it off. His stand up (absent a sitcom script and co-actors) was better on Dr. Katz.

My favorite sequence from any episode: the story one of the twins writes and reads out loud at his parents' night at school.

Fred Willard and Georgia Engel as Amy's super Christian parents were funny. They were so naive and oblivious to the real world.

[quote]Was Clarkson on a tv show too?

She was on a Law & Order...

No need to worry about this show ever being rebooted.

Ray/Robert's parents, Deborah's parents, Amy's parents and one of the twin boys are all dead.

Way to end a thread, R31.

R31 I don't want a reboot though!

So many great episodes mentioned in this thread.

I’ll add the episode where Debra is arrested for drunk driving.

When Marie and Frank were evicted from the old age village. Loved Marie. Doris Roberts was class.

Marie was a narcissistic sociopath. One of the most manipulative characters in television history.

The cast of the show arrived in NYC for some tv interviews the day before 9/11 to be done the next day which of course were canceled. On the night of that dreadful day they were out walking around and ran into a man who had no way home to Brooklyn since there was no transportation so they put him up in a hotel. Nice people.

The funniest episode was when Ray gave Debra a surprise party for her birthday. She found out and everyone found out that she found out. Her I'm surprised act was hysterical.

Patricia Heaton played a bitchy, nagging, negative harpy wife so convincingly .. and years later I realized she was just playing herself.

[quote]Marie was a narcissistic sociopath. One of the most manipulative characters in television history.

I was better!

Ray made a joke out of everything, did not help around the house and ignored his children. Debra being overwhelmed and complaining about him was part of the schtick. Patricia Heaton is a great actress.

As much as I loathe Heaton's politics, she's been great in two of my favorite sitcoms, this one and The Middle

R41 - she is one note. What you’ve described is all she’s got.

Everyone rightfully hated this show because Doris Roberts denied DL fave Kim Cattrall the Emmy three times!

Kim should have upped her game.

I always wondered howe they got the rights to the Cinema Paradiso score for the episodes it Italy.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The show was about real people with real issues- finances, kids, overbearing parents

Debra and Robert doing swing dance classes together. Ray getting so jealous. Robert and debra were good.

R49, when Robert plops Debra atop the refrigerator… that never gets old! Just like when Marie catches Robert and Amy having sex and Amy appears wearing Robert’s pants.

I wouldn't want to be married to Ray, but I'd give him head at a rest area. I bet it's a mouthful.

I loved Debra working at Frank's men's club. The old geezers hired her just because she was pretty. Frank getting so upset when he found out

[QUOTE] Everyone rightfully hated this show because Doris Roberts denied DL fave Kim Cattrall the Emmy three times!

Oh that’s just grand.. I hated Sex and the City. Knowing Doris Roberts cuntblocked Kim from getting an Emmy just makes me love Marie and ELR even more!

She earned them and she deserved them. Watching her slowly but surely develop the character of Marie Barone over the first few seasons was a thing of beauty. She worked hard at perfecting that role, and she created one of the greatest sitcom characters of all time. It’s almost scary how good she nailed it down. God rest her soul.

I remember the suitcase on the stair landing—a great episode. I’ll have to rewatch that one.

I remember am episode where Marie gives Debra a family recipe but leaves out one ingredient so it's never as good as Mama's. So typically mother-in-law passive aggressive.

LOL I just came to post about the spices.

I love "The Canister," where Marie keeps accusing Debra of not returning her favorite canister, which Debra denies... and then Debra discovers that their daughter has it in her bedroom, so she has to sneak it back into Marie's house. It's like a really great sitcom episode from "I Love Lucy" or "The Dick Van Dyke Show" because it's so simple.

When Ray didn't like other men looking at Debra. So he told her women were making comments about her dress. Thinking it would make Debra dress more conservatively. Opposite effect.

Doris denied Jessica Walter an Emmy for Arrested Development.

It's outrageous that Walter only got one Emmy nomination for AD. Doris was good but not that good.

[quote] I have been watching Everybody Loves Raymond on Amazon Prime. I forgot how funny it was.

One of the most embarrassing things I've ever read on DL.

[QUOTE] It's outrageous that Walter only got one Emmy nomination for AD. Doris was good but not that good.

You’re right. She was beyond good. She was great.

Don't forget the episode when Robert joins a cult

When Robert kept touching the food to his chin while eating dinner with Amy’s family

The one where Ray hired his buddy Gianni to replace the kitchen stove.

Deborah: Ray, you gotta get Gianni to finish up with the stove. I can't cook without it.

Ray: Well, it's not like Rembrandt lost his paint brush.

I'm glad to see that so many people appreciated this show. I thought it was hilarious.

Although, not married, no kids, there was something about it that just seemed to resonate with me. Doris Roberts was so fantastic (she really made me hate her character).

I have never watched one episode of this show, can't stand his whiny voice or Patricia Heaton.

[QUOTE] Doris Roberts was so fantastic (she really made me hate her character).

How could you hate Marie? She was so sweet.

Marie was passive aggressive and controlling

Sometimes I felt sorry for Robert because of Marie favoring Raymond but Robbie could be obnoxious too.

I couldn’t stand Raymond or his parents. My favorite stories were about Robert. I liked the episode where he caught his mother-in-law smoking.

[quote] I liked the episode where he caught his mother-in-law smoking.

Having that character be a smoker is a great example of why this show was so good. It was so unpredictable yet it was believable. Great character writing

At first I hated Amy but then gave her and the writers credit for developing her character and came to love her. She was like the sane one in the room. Plus her family was just as fucking nuts. Wish they had been in more episodes. Funny, it was ELR but the three strongest characters were the three female leads. Another outstanding episode was when Frank and Marie got kicked out of the assisted living home. "that is now a one woman show"

We haven't even started discussing Charles Durning as the Baron's priest

The best Robert episode was when all his exes, marie, debra, and his partner got together to tell him everything that was wrong with him. sounds cruel but it was hysterical.

Oh my God, I'm a lesbian

Marie: "I'd prefer NOT to be known as The Whore of Lynbrook."

Debra's brasciole: "that's Italian for roadkill."

Marie: "I have my own opinions. I'm not just some trophy wife!"

Frank: "Trophy wife? What contest in Hell did I win?"

I love how Marie has plastic on all the furniture

OP is posting from a nursing home.

They could do drama really well too. Frank explaining why he didn't hit his kids. Frank wiping the cold cream off of Marie's face. Robert when he gives up on romance. Marie reading Ray's teenage diary. Debra giving up her sister to the convent. Ray at the father/daughter dance. Debra and Ray deciding not to throw away the nursery furniture. A lot more too.

“What am I supposed to do with ALL THIS FRUIT?”

Why is it called “Everybody Loves Raymond”?

HI ROBERT!

[quote] Patricia Heaton is a great actress.

A legendary cunt, perhaps.

R82 The opening montage should explain it!

Love the episode where Warren and Lois take everyone out to an upscale restaurant and Frank and Marie are embarrassing.

Warren, having enough, finally says, "Well, not everyone can understand everything, Frank."