Series Description

The Everybody Loves Raymond TV show is a 30 minute comedy series on CBS about a typical guy named Ray Barone who didn't do well with personal conflict despite all of the practice he got when dealing with his wife who always expected him to be more than he was, his mother who wanted to rule his every move in life, his father who was no help to him at all, and his brother who was jealous of everything about Ray.

Everybody Loves Raymond Cast

Ray Romano .... Raymond "Ray" Barone
Patricia Heaton .... Debra Barone
Peter Boyle .... Frank Barone
Doris Roberts .... Marie Barone
Brad Garrett .... Robert Barone
Sawyer Sweeten .... Geoffrey Barone
Sullivan Sweeten .... Michael Barone
Madylin Sweeten .... Alexandra "Ally" Barone

Everybody Loves Raymond Trivia:

In the pilot episode Ray Barone's kids were named after Ray Romano's real-life kids, Gregory, Matthew and Ally! Ray felt it was a little weird having all of his onscreen kids sharing the same names with his real-life ones so starting with the second episode, the boy's names were changed to Geoffrey and Michael. Apparently, he was ok with leaving his onscreen daughter named Ally.

Ray Romano played a pretty docile and quiet character on Everybody Loves Raymond. That makes some sense if you know that before becoming a comedian, Ray was pursuing a career as an Accountant.

If you think that's weird, Peter Boyle had an even stranger career before acting and it was as far off of the role he played as Ray's dad on Everbody Loves Raymond. He was a Monk of the Christian Brothers Order!

Brad Garrett had a more traditional job for struggling actors. He worked as a waiter at TGI Fridays! Brad's comedy talent was discovered on the TV show, "Star Search" where he was the first comedy contestant to win the one-hundred thousand dollar grand prize! He soon got more national exposure on "The Tonight Show" but he told a joke that Johnny Carson had suggested he drop from his act and was never invited back again. It didn't hurt Brad much, however, as he soon found himself as a headliner in clubs in Las Vegas! A few years later he landed his role on Everbody Loves Raymond and never took another order at TGI Fridays!

When asked why Patricia Heaton got the role as his wife on Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray said that she was the only actress who was willing to kiss him. Presumably, Ray was joking!

When they saw her for the first time on Everybody Loves Raymond, many fans knew they had seen Doris Roberts before but couldn't place where. Doris had already starred on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman", "Angie", and "Remington Steele".

Peter Boyle played the role of Frankenstein in the 1974 film, "Young Frankenstein". Twenty-four years later, on the Everybody Loves Raymond TV show in episode #53, his character Frank Barone wore a Frankenstein costume for Halloween!

Even more interesting ... when Peter got married, his best man was John Lennon of the Beatles! In fact, John Lennon's wife, "Yoko Ono" introduced Peter to his wife-to-be! Peter's wife was named Loraine and when they met she was working as a reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine!

On Everbody Loves Raymond, actress Katherine Helmond played Debra Barone's mother who occasionally visited from her home in Connecticut. Katherine also played characters from Connecticut on the series, "Soap" and "Who's The Boss?".

Typically, actors who get major roles on TV series start out at a relatively low salary for the first season or two. If the series is a hit, they renegotiate a much higher salary when their contract comes up for renewal. By the fall of 2001, Ray Romano's Everbody Loves Raymond salary was raised to nineteen million dollars for the sixth season!

When the Everybody Loves Raymond TV show premiered, it had some considerable competition in its time slot at 8:30PM on Friday evenings. ABC was airing "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", NBC ran the last half of "Unsolved Mysteries", and FOX was broadcasting the last half of their hit sci-fi series "Sliders"! Everybody Loves Raymond only stayed there for its first six episodes though and then moved to the same time on Monday evenings where there was considerably less competition.

Ray Romano's brother on the Everybody Loves Raymond TV show was a Sergeant on the New York Police Department and so was his real-life brother!

Opening Narrative

[Ray Romano's Voice]
"Hi!, I'm Ray and I live here in Long Island with my wife Deborah. She's great with the kids, the house, everything. Oh, I don't know how she does it. We've got a daughter, Ally and twin two-year-old boys. It's not really about the kids. My parents live across the street. Thaaat's right. And my brother lives with them. Now, not every family would go by on a conveyor belt for you (as the family goes by on a conveyer belt) but mine would because" ...

[Brad Garrett's Voice]
"E-e-e-verybody Loves Raymond."

[Ray Romano's Voice]
"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah."