Since CBS’ Everybody Loves Raymond concluded in May 2005, it has been hawked around for a revival or reboot. Given the enormous popularity of the sitcom, it’s seemingly an easy call to greenlight at least a reunion special for the series often ranked among the best sitcoms of all time. But most of the key players have been skeptical about bringing the Barones back to the screen. This includes the show’s leading man Ray Romano, who asserted on Bill Maher’s talk show that there’s no possibility for a reboot. The show created by Philip Rosenthal premiered on September 13, 1996, and ran for nine seasons with a total of 210 episodes.
Since its original run, Everybody Loves Raymond has aired in syndication on various channels globally, preserving the astounding legacy of the sitcom. The series was nominated for at least 69 Primetime Emmy Awards, out of which it won 15. It follows the amusing, everyday family life of Ray Romano’s Ray Barone, an easy-going sports columnist with overbearing parents. The series also stars Patricia Heaton, Brad Garrett, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, and Madylin Sweeten. Here’s why the lead actor thinks rebooting the sitcom would be a futile quest.
Why Ray Romano Is Against Rebooting Everybody Loves Raymond
As a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher in December 2023, the Ray Barone actor dismissed the possibility of rebooting the sitcom, citing the deaths of key cast members and the failures of other popular shows that were rebooted. He expressed that rebooting the show would ruin its legacy. Reboots are “never as good,” he said, “and we want to leave our legacy with what it is,” added the actor.
Ray Romano also wondered how reviving the show would work without the actors who portrayed his parents. “As far as a reboot, well, it’s now out of the question because, unfortunately, the parents are gone—Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts,” he stated. Brad Garrett shared a similar sentiment in a 2016 interview with Fox News. The American actor played Robert Barone, the older brother of Romano’s character on the show.
Garrett brushed off the idea of making a reunion show when he was asked. “Once Peter passed, Ray said that there would never be a reunion and I totally agree with that,” he said. Likewise, Patricia Heaton thinks rebooting isn’t worth considering. She told US Weekly in 2018 that Everybody Loves Raymond wouldn’t be the same without Boyle and Roberts. “I don’t think it’s possible now with Peter and Doris gone,” she said. Instead of reviving the show, Heaton suggested a special retrospective. The American actress played Raymond’s wife Debra Barone.
Philip Rosenthal Wants A Reunion Special For Everybody Loves Raymond
Like Patricia Heaton, the show’s creator believes Everybody Loves Raymond is too great to not get any commemoration. He wants a reunion special for the series and has pitched the idea to Hollywood executives, but couldn’t get anyone to jump on it. He expressed his frustrations about that in a 2021 appearance on SiriusXM’s Pop Culture Spotlight With Jessica Shaw. “We can do a reunion special,” he said, “I think people like the show… they would like to see the cast together again.”
Rosenthal added he couldn’t believe nobody was interested in the reunion special. “I’ve pitched to now a couple of different places…(but) no takers… There are plenty entities who have been involved with the show that could do a reunion show and a reunion special,” he continued. The creator hopes someone would realize it’s appropriate for the sitcom to get a reunion special and finance it. He noted that the financial implication wouldn’t come close to what it takes to produce a real episode of a show. “It’s people sitting in chairs, and then you have clips,” he said.
Why CBS Is Not Interested In A Reunion Special
Ideally, CBS and any other network would eagerly greenlight a reunion special for a groundbreaking show like Everybody Loves Raymond. The network’s disinterest is rooted in the fact that several cast members of the sitcom have passed on. Apart from Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts who were important cast members, Fred Willard and Georgia Engel are also deceased. Respectively, they played Hank MacDougall and Pat MacDougall, the in-laws of Brad Garrett’s Robert Barone. Sawyer Sweeten who played Geoffrey Barone, one of Raymond and Debra’s twin sons, is also late—he committed suicide in April 2015. As such, getting an Everybody Loves Raymond reboots remains unlikely.
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