Ray Romano and Phil Rosenthal on What Took So Long for an ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Reunion and Why There Will Never Be a Reboot
During the waning days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ray Romano was flipping through Peacock when he stumbled across his old show “Everybody Loves Raymond.” And whaddyuh know, it was pretty good!
“I hadn’t seen an episode in 10 years, 15 years,” he says. “And I went, ‘wow!’ I appreciated it more than before.”
So Romano did what any self-respecting fan would do: He binged the entire series, all 210 episodes — and he ranked each one, on a scale up to 100. “I never gave everything 100 because nothing is perfect, but I did appreciate everybody’s work more now,” he says. “Now that I can take a step back and it feels like a different time. I appreciated the show more, and all the actors and the writers even more.”
Talk about perfect timing to pull out that notebook. After years of trying, series creator Phil Rosenthal finally got the show’s living veterans together, on stage at Television City, to reminisce about the hit CBS sitcom, which aired from 1996 to 2005.
Romano and Rosenthal host “Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion,” a 90-minute special that airs Monday on CBS (and for some Paramount+ subscribers). The reunion, filmed last month, took place on a soundstage where the Barone family’s living room was recreated for the event. Besides Romano, who played sportswriter and family man Ray Barone on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” series stars also joining in on the special included Patricia Heaton (Debra), Brad Garrett (Robert), Monica Horan (Amy), Madylin Sweeten (Ally) and Sullivan Sweeten (Michael).
The special includes a tribute to Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle, who played Ray’s parents Marie and Frank Barone on the show. Fulwell Entertainment, which was behind the special “Friends: The Reunion,” celebrating another landmark 1990s sitcom, is also the producer on “Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion.”
So what took so long to get everyone back together? “Ten years ago, I thought, ‘Hey, it’s 20 years. We should do a reunion.’ CBS, not so excited. How about 25 years? ‘Nah, we have other things.’ And then this is a new regime there, and they’re into it,” Rosenthal says.
Did this inspire Rosenthal and Romano to consider revisiting the series with a revival or reboot? Hard pass from them both.
“We never wanted to do a reboot,” Rosenthal says. “First of all, we can’t because, sadly, we’re missing some people. So it would never be the same. Secondly, I think Ray and I agree that they’re not really ever as good.”
In a wide-ranging conversation, Rosenthal and Romano discuss how they can’t believe how much time has passed — Romano is now older than Boyle was on the show — and Romano also defends his lack of travel (until Rosenthal forced him to go to Italy as part of the show). They also talk about Rosenthal’s new restaurant and so much more. Here’s Variety‘s full chat with Romano and Rosenthal about “Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion.”
ROMANO: Yeah, that just happened in the last two weeks. We’re almost done. I’m jamming in my scenes here, and. I shot for a week and a half. It’s great. They’re fun over there.
ROSENTHAL: That’s very sweet. But Ray has become an incredible actor over the years. I think he was always great, I thought on our show, and then went to another level.
ROMANO: And the answer was “almost” — because I had just gotten fired year before, from another sitcom.
ROMANO: Right, so I understand the worry. And actually, when I look at the first season of “Raymond,” I see the evolution. I really do.
ROMANO: I didn’t do it for the special, but I did it around COVID, or maybe a little bit after COVID. I caught one show on Peacock, and I hadn’t seen an episode in 10 years, 15 years. And I went, “wow.” I appreciated it more than before. So I said, You know what? I get into these things, I’m a little OCD. So I started watching every episode in order and rating them. I gave each one a grade from 1 to 100 And I watched. It took me about a month or so, and I watched all 210 episodes again. I never gave everything a 100 because nothing is perfect, but I did appreciate everybody’s work more now. Now that I can take a step back and it feels like a different time. I appreciated the show more, and all the actors and the writers even more.
ROMANO: It’s just a list of 1 to 100 and I think I put them in groups. Like the ones that were in the 90s and the 80s and 70s.
ROMANO: In the 70s. Listen, you’re making 210 episodes. Without fail, any episode that I gave in the 70s is somebody’s favorite episode. That’s just the way I look at it. I’m critiquing myself. It’s that kind of thing.
ROSENTHAL: I think I’m very happy with that rating system. I think we always said there was a level that we shouldn’t go below.
ROMANO: Yes, so even our worst episode is a good episode.
ROSENTHAL: You can live with it.
ROMANO: I think Paul Reiser said it once, he goes, “when you’re making 26 episodes a season, and you got to crank them out, six or seven of them you’re going to love. Six or seven you’re not going to love. And the rest are going to be really good episodes.” But we did have our share of episodes that were stellar, you know?
ROSENTHAL: Old!
ROMANO: Yeah, old. It’s it’s odd, how fast it goes.
ROMANO: I really think of time. I gauge it on sometimes the show, and I think, “wow, this birthday coming up for me, I am going to be as old as Peter Boyle, who played my father, was in the seventh season of ‘Raymond.'” That’s where I am now.
ROSENTHAL: People looked older back then. How old were Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton doing “All in the Family”?
ROMANO: I remember a while back, I stumbled on “Marty” and I watched the movie. Ernest Borgnine’s mother, who’s trying to get him married, is like, “I want to see him get married. I mean, how much longer? Look at me. I’m a 57 years old!”‘ What?
ROMANO: In defense of myself, part of my reluctance is, I’m a very neurotic person. I don’t like to fly, I worry about what if I need medicine and all that kind of stuff. But what the beauty of that was, yes, there was truth to me being content. I don’t think I ever needed to fly overseas. Not that I don’t enjoy other people’s cultures and and meeting other people — because I will be honest, I really get satisfaction and joy now knowing that this show resonates with people from totally different backgrounds and cultures. It’s a great feeling of thinking that underneath everything, we’re all the same, you know? And when that happened, I hadn’t experienced that.
Right after we filmed that episode, my wife, who’s from Sicily, and I visited her parents’ hometown, a little village on a hill — and it was life imitating art. It was exactly like the episode we had just filmed. I was eating this pizza. There were goats. There was a farm. There was these people and all this love and affection and everything. I do like meeting people from different parts and having this bond with them, It reassures my faith in humanity. So I’m not this curmudgeon, who’s, you know, misanthropic, to use a big word.
ROSENTHAL: Oh, that’s a good word. You even said it right.
ROMANO: One of the biggest things is the mother. Everybody seems to have a mother like that.
ROSENTHAL: They say that the biggest compliment, even when we were on originally, that ‘you were listening outside our house last night.’ Because it felt real to them, they related to it. But we didn’t have to listen outside their house, because we were listening inside our house. And it just proves that if you if you’re truthful, and you write the truth of a situation and get very specific about it, it’ll resonate. Even if that person’s experience isn’t exactly yours, the specifics of it are relatable in and of themselves.
ROSENTHAL: Ten years ago, I thought, “Hey, it’s 20 years. We should do a reunion.” CBS, not so excited. How about 25 years? “Nah, we have other things.” And then this is a new regime there, and they’re into it. By the way, that’s no small thing. I always say you have to get lucky, right? Here we had to get lucky for the right people to be in the right spot at the right time. Otherwise there is no show. You’re dependent on their taste and their needs and the thing. So, we just got lucky with with the new president over there is a fan of the show, Amy. I’m very grateful that they gave us this opportunity because we had a wonderful time filming it, getting to see everybody again. Including the crew and our guest cast. We had a little party after, it was delightful. Couldn’t have been better.
ROMANO: You’ll probably see that in the special, because they filmed that. They filmed before we opened it up to the audience. Before they opened the curtain, they took me and Phil out there to show us the set. And was emotional. I think we both got emotional, and they filmed us.
ROMANO: We talked to the audience a little and I learned that some woman in the Philippines learned to speak English listening to me.
ROSENTHAL: Hilarious. Madylin Sweeten, the little girl on the show, said that I gave her a note. I gave lots of notes I don’t remember, but she said it had this profound effect on her. You never know. That’s the thing about going through life, you you have to be careful. You have to know what you say, everything lands on somebody in a way that could affect them, you never know.
ROMANO: And she showed a clip of that example that she was giving. She had this outburst of “I hate you” to me. And I think she was doing it a certain way, and you gave her a certain tip.
ROSENTHAL: Maybe she said it in a sad way. And I told her, “really give it to him like you really hate him. ‘I hate you!’ like this.” And then she did it, and she realized the power of just changing it up a tiny bit.
ROMANO: I saw that clip and forgot about it!
ROSENTHAL: I forgot it too. But it’s funny. Thousands and thousands of moments in a nine-year series, and this one little moment meant something to her. That’s profound to me, to hear this.
ROSENTHAL: And it’s so much better than a reboot. We never wanted to do a reboot. First of all, we can’t because, sadly, we’re missing some people. So it would never be the same. Secondly, I think Ray and I agree that they’re not really ever as good.
ROSENTHAL: You have two big gears in the machine missing.
ROSENTHAL: It’s never as good. And you can’t help but compare it to the original. Tell me when it’s worked great.
ROMANO: New Coke. The New Coke.
ROMANO: It was really emotional and exciting.
ROSENTHAL: The best. The lucky streak continues.
ROMANO: I mean, if you allow me to never give anything 100, I’m giving it a 99.
ROSENTHAL: Wow, Raymond!
ROMANO: I’m going on the food. I’m telling you, get there early, because there’s going to be a line, a long line.
ROSENTHAL: It’s Nancy Silverton and my son-in-law, Mason Royal. You know, my son-in-law’s the chef de cuisine at the restaurant. He and my daughter got married a week before the “Raymond” reunion.
ROSENTHAL: I mean, something bad is gonna happen, knock wood.
ROMANO: There’s a few. that are tied, and my memory is blanking, but one of them is the episode “Good Girls” [Season 2, Episode 19]. And then “Not So Fast,” the second episode in the ninth season. When Frank and Marie have to come back home? That’s tied. Maybe “She’s the One” [Season 7, Episode 9] where the woman eats the fly.
“Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion” airs Monday, Nov. 24 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and some Paramount+ subscriptions.
“I hadn’t seen an episode in 10 years, 15 years,” he says. “And I went, ‘wow!’ I appreciated it more than before.”
So Romano did what any self-respecting fan would do: He binged the entire series, all 210 episodes — and he ranked each one, on a scale up to 100. “I never gave everything 100 because nothing is perfect, but I did appreciate everybody’s work more now,” he says. “Now that I can take a step back and it feels like a different time. I appreciated the show more, and all the actors and the writers even more.”
Talk about perfect timing to pull out that notebook. After years of trying, series creator Phil Rosenthal finally got the show’s living veterans together, on stage at Television City, to reminisce about the hit CBS sitcom, which aired from 1996 to 2005.
Romano and Rosenthal host “Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion,” a 90-minute special that airs Monday on CBS (and for some Paramount+ subscribers). The reunion, filmed last month, took place on a soundstage where the Barone family’s living room was recreated for the event. Besides Romano, who played sportswriter and family man Ray Barone on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” series stars also joining in on the special included Patricia Heaton (Debra), Brad Garrett (Robert), Monica Horan (Amy), Madylin Sweeten (Ally) and Sullivan Sweeten (Michael).
The special includes a tribute to Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle, who played Ray’s parents Marie and Frank Barone on the show. Fulwell Entertainment, which was behind the special “Friends: The Reunion,” celebrating another landmark 1990s sitcom, is also the producer on “Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion.”
So what took so long to get everyone back together? “Ten years ago, I thought, ‘Hey, it’s 20 years. We should do a reunion.’ CBS, not so excited. How about 25 years? ‘Nah, we have other things.’ And then this is a new regime there, and they’re into it,” Rosenthal says.
Did this inspire Rosenthal and Romano to consider revisiting the series with a revival or reboot? Hard pass from them both.
“We never wanted to do a reboot,” Rosenthal says. “First of all, we can’t because, sadly, we’re missing some people. So it would never be the same. Secondly, I think Ray and I agree that they’re not really ever as good.”
In a wide-ranging conversation, Rosenthal and Romano discuss how they can’t believe how much time has passed — Romano is now older than Boyle was on the show — and Romano also defends his lack of travel (until Rosenthal forced him to go to Italy as part of the show). They also talk about Rosenthal’s new restaurant and so much more. Here’s Variety‘s full chat with Romano and Rosenthal about “Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion.”
ROMANO: Yeah, that just happened in the last two weeks. We’re almost done. I’m jamming in my scenes here, and. I shot for a week and a half. It’s great. They’re fun over there.
ROSENTHAL: That’s very sweet. But Ray has become an incredible actor over the years. I think he was always great, I thought on our show, and then went to another level.
ROMANO: And the answer was “almost” — because I had just gotten fired year before, from another sitcom.
ROMANO: Right, so I understand the worry. And actually, when I look at the first season of “Raymond,” I see the evolution. I really do.
ROMANO: I didn’t do it for the special, but I did it around COVID, or maybe a little bit after COVID. I caught one show on Peacock, and I hadn’t seen an episode in 10 years, 15 years. And I went, “wow.” I appreciated it more than before. So I said, You know what? I get into these things, I’m a little OCD. So I started watching every episode in order and rating them. I gave each one a grade from 1 to 100 And I watched. It took me about a month or so, and I watched all 210 episodes again. I never gave everything a 100 because nothing is perfect, but I did appreciate everybody’s work more now. Now that I can take a step back and it feels like a different time. I appreciated the show more, and all the actors and the writers even more.
ROMANO: It’s just a list of 1 to 100 and I think I put them in groups. Like the ones that were in the 90s and the 80s and 70s.
ROMANO: In the 70s. Listen, you’re making 210 episodes. Without fail, any episode that I gave in the 70s is somebody’s favorite episode. That’s just the way I look at it. I’m critiquing myself. It’s that kind of thing.
ROSENTHAL: I think I’m very happy with that rating system. I think we always said there was a level that we shouldn’t go below.
ROMANO: Yes, so even our worst episode is a good episode.
ROSENTHAL: You can live with it.
ROMANO: I think Paul Reiser said it once, he goes, “when you’re making 26 episodes a season, and you got to crank them out, six or seven of them you’re going to love. Six or seven you’re not going to love. And the rest are going to be really good episodes.” But we did have our share of episodes that were stellar, you know?
ROSENTHAL: Old!
ROMANO: Yeah, old. It’s it’s odd, how fast it goes.
ROMANO: I really think of time. I gauge it on sometimes the show, and I think, “wow, this birthday coming up for me, I am going to be as old as Peter Boyle, who played my father, was in the seventh season of ‘Raymond.'” That’s where I am now.
ROSENTHAL: People looked older back then. How old were Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton doing “All in the Family”?
ROMANO: I remember a while back, I stumbled on “Marty” and I watched the movie. Ernest Borgnine’s mother, who’s trying to get him married, is like, “I want to see him get married. I mean, how much longer? Look at me. I’m a 57 years old!”‘ What?
ROMANO: In defense of myself, part of my reluctance is, I’m a very neurotic person. I don’t like to fly, I worry about what if I need medicine and all that kind of stuff. But what the beauty of that was, yes, there was truth to me being content. I don’t think I ever needed to fly overseas. Not that I don’t enjoy other people’s cultures and and meeting other people — because I will be honest, I really get satisfaction and joy now knowing that this show resonates with people from totally different backgrounds and cultures. It’s a great feeling of thinking that underneath everything, we’re all the same, you know? And when that happened, I hadn’t experienced that.
Right after we filmed that episode, my wife, who’s from Sicily, and I visited her parents’ hometown, a little village on a hill — and it was life imitating art. It was exactly like the episode we had just filmed. I was eating this pizza. There were goats. There was a farm. There was these people and all this love and affection and everything. I do like meeting people from different parts and having this bond with them, It reassures my faith in humanity. So I’m not this curmudgeon, who’s, you know, misanthropic, to use a big word.
ROSENTHAL: Oh, that’s a good word. You even said it right.
ROMANO: One of the biggest things is the mother. Everybody seems to have a mother like that.
ROSENTHAL: They say that the biggest compliment, even when we were on originally, that ‘you were listening outside our house last night.’ Because it felt real to them, they related to it. But we didn’t have to listen outside their house, because we were listening inside our house. And it just proves that if you if you’re truthful, and you write the truth of a situation and get very specific about it, it’ll resonate. Even if that person’s experience isn’t exactly yours, the specifics of it are relatable in and of themselves.
ROSENTHAL: Ten years ago, I thought, “Hey, it’s 20 years. We should do a reunion.” CBS, not so excited. How about 25 years? “Nah, we have other things.” And then this is a new regime there, and they’re into it. By the way, that’s no small thing. I always say you have to get lucky, right? Here we had to get lucky for the right people to be in the right spot at the right time. Otherwise there is no show. You’re dependent on their taste and their needs and the thing. So, we just got lucky with with the new president over there is a fan of the show, Amy. I’m very grateful that they gave us this opportunity because we had a wonderful time filming it, getting to see everybody again. Including the crew and our guest cast. We had a little party after, it was delightful. Couldn’t have been better.
ROMANO: You’ll probably see that in the special, because they filmed that. They filmed before we opened it up to the audience. Before they opened the curtain, they took me and Phil out there to show us the set. And was emotional. I think we both got emotional, and they filmed us.
ROMANO: We talked to the audience a little and I learned that some woman in the Philippines learned to speak English listening to me.
ROSENTHAL: Hilarious. Madylin Sweeten, the little girl on the show, said that I gave her a note. I gave lots of notes I don’t remember, but she said it had this profound effect on her. You never know. That’s the thing about going through life, you you have to be careful. You have to know what you say, everything lands on somebody in a way that could affect them, you never know.
ROMANO: And she showed a clip of that example that she was giving. She had this outburst of “I hate you” to me. And I think she was doing it a certain way, and you gave her a certain tip.
ROSENTHAL: Maybe she said it in a sad way. And I told her, “really give it to him like you really hate him. ‘I hate you!’ like this.” And then she did it, and she realized the power of just changing it up a tiny bit.
ROMANO: I saw that clip and forgot about it!
ROSENTHAL: I forgot it too. But it’s funny. Thousands and thousands of moments in a nine-year series, and this one little moment meant something to her. That’s profound to me, to hear this.
ROSENTHAL: And it’s so much better than a reboot. We never wanted to do a reboot. First of all, we can’t because, sadly, we’re missing some people. So it would never be the same. Secondly, I think Ray and I agree that they’re not really ever as good.
ROSENTHAL: You have two big gears in the machine missing.
ROSENTHAL: It’s never as good. And you can’t help but compare it to the original. Tell me when it’s worked great.
ROMANO: New Coke. The New Coke.
ROMANO: It was really emotional and exciting.
ROSENTHAL: The best. The lucky streak continues.
ROMANO: I mean, if you allow me to never give anything 100, I’m giving it a 99.
ROSENTHAL: Wow, Raymond!
ROMANO: I’m going on the food. I’m telling you, get there early, because there’s going to be a line, a long line.
ROSENTHAL: It’s Nancy Silverton and my son-in-law, Mason Royal. You know, my son-in-law’s the chef de cuisine at the restaurant. He and my daughter got married a week before the “Raymond” reunion.
ROSENTHAL: I mean, something bad is gonna happen, knock wood.
ROMANO: There’s a few. that are tied, and my memory is blanking, but one of them is the episode “Good Girls” [Season 2, Episode 19]. And then “Not So Fast,” the second episode in the ninth season. When Frank and Marie have to come back home? That’s tied. Maybe “She’s the One” [Season 7, Episode 9] where the woman eats the fly.
“Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion” airs Monday, Nov. 24 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and some Paramount+ subscriptions.