By Jessilyn Lancaster
Gather ’round, extended Barone family! CBS announced it will air EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND’s 30-Year-Anniversary Special this fall.
EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND was one of the most beloved sitcoms of the 1990s-2000s, following Ray Romano as Ray Barone, a sports writer and father who has some questionable boundaries with his mother, father and brother. Patricia Heaton played his wife, Debra, with Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle as the Barone family matriarch and patriarch, respectively. Brad Garrett filled out the cast as Ray’s brother.
Romano will host the special and will be joined by series creator Phil Rosenthal. Though Roberts and Boyle have since died, many of the original cast will return for “candid conversations” about the hit comedy. The special will Monday, Nov. 24, at 8 p.m. on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
“When I read the script for EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND for the first time, I thought this is superb writing,” Heaton said in a video about her time on the show. “I didn’t think my character of Debra was fully fleshed out, but I thought if they can write this well for the other characters, they just need to get to know the actor who’s going to play Deborah, and then they can write to her strengths.
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“That was the plus. The minus was Ray Romano,” she joked. “He doesn’t come across like a big TV star. I was wrong. Obviously EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND was life changing. I went into that show with two kids. I came out with four kids, two Emmys and a star on the Walk of Fame, plus some really great friends who are still my friends.”
Heaton continued, “God is good. I was so blessed. I’m so ever grateful that I got to be a part of that what is now an iconic show.”
The special comes after the cast previously told media that there would not be a reboot.
“There won’t be,” Garrett said. “And I’m just saying that because that’s something that Ray and Phil [Rosenthal, the show’s creator] have always said.”
Garrett attributed part of the decision to Roberts and Boyle’s deaths.
“There is no show without the parents,” Garrett said. “They were the catalyst, and to do anything that would resemble that wouldn’t be right to the audiences or to the loyal fan base. And it was about those two families, and you can’t get around that.”
Romano agreed: “Without them, I don’t know what the dynamic is. We love the show too much, we respect it too much to even try to do it.”
Romano said he only recently watched all 210 episodes.
“I got on a little kick there. I hadn’t seen the episodes,” Romano said. “They took on a new look to me. I was appreciating them more. I was very hard on them back then. … But you see when you’re removed from it a little, I felt like an audience member.
EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND is will begin streaming on MeTV on Oct. 13, with two back-to-back episodes weeknights from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET. The show will also air on Sunday nights from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecsbcjlFxRM&t=2s
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