Ray Barone (Ray Romano) is a successful sportswriter for New York Newsday (his column is called “More Than a Game”) and the father of a young daughter and two young twin sons.
Raymond lives at 320 Fowler Street in Lynbrook on Long Island (although the number 135 can be seen on the front door!), loves his wife, Debra (Patricia Heaton) and his kids, Ally (Madylin Sweeten), Michael (Sullivan Sweeten) and Geoffrey (Sawyer Sweeten).
In fact, his life would be perfect except that his house is across the street from the home of his parents, Marie (Doris Roberts) and Frank (Peter Boyle), who are always dropping in on Ray and his family, trying to impose their way of doing things on him.
Raymond’s big (and big-hearted) doofus of a brother, Robert (Brad Garrett) – a hulking, divorced policeman – lives with his parents, and Raymond is constantly asked to reassure his insecure brother that he is not the loser his parents seem to think he is.
Everybody Loves Raymond was loosely based on comedian Ray Romano’s real-life experiences, which had been the basis for his stand-up comedy act.
Entire laugh-out-loud episodes were built around the simplest marital or family disagreements or relatable human quirks and anxieties, such as Marie putting the wrong ingredients in her special meatball recipe, Robert dating a black colleague and deciding that he needed to get funky and learn how to dance like a black person, or Ray and Debra’s daft passive-aggressive duel over who would be the one to finally lug a vacation suitcase upstairs and unpack it.
The CBS show was not initially successful in its Friday night timeslot, but after a move from Friday to Monday in 1997, it became a huge success and ended its nine-year run on 16 May 2005 as the No. 1 comedy on American television with 16.8 million people tuning in every week.
Raymond Albert Barone Ray Romano
Debra Louise Barone
Patricia Heaton
Allison (Ally) Barone
Madylin Sweeten
Michael Barone
Sullivan Sweeten
Geoffrey Barone
Sawyer Sweeten
Marie Barone
Doris Roberts
Francis Oscar (Frank) Barone
Peter Boyle
Robert Charles Barone
Brad Garrett
Raymond’s big (and big-hearted) doofus of a brother, Robert (Brad Garrett) – a hulking, divorced policeman – lives with his parents, and Raymond is constantly asked to reassure his insecure brother that he is not the loser his parents seem to think he is.
