I’ve watched a lot of sit-coms over the years, but few of them have been
in prime time. I always seem to wait for syndication, when I can count
on finding the same show in the same time slot every day instead of
trying to keep track of what time and channel it will be on once a week.
In particular, I tend to watch a lot of shows that come on just before
or after the news, particularly in the morning and early evening. So it
was that I never watched Everybody Loves Raymond until halfway
through the show’s run but that since then I have seen a majority of the
episodes in the series, many of them multiple times. For years, Everybody Loves Raymond has immediately followed World News Tonight here in Erie, and I’ve gotten to be very well acquainted with the Barones in those years.
Ray Romano plays Ray Barone, a sportswriter who, along with his wife
Debra (Patricia Heaton) and children - Ally (Madylin Sweeten) and twins
Geoffrey and Michael (Sawyer and Sullivan Sweeten) - lives across the
street from his parents, Frank (Peter Boyle) and Marie (Doris Roberts),
and older brother Robert (Brad Garrett). Most of the activity on the
show occurs in one of the two houses, and there are few significant
characters outside the family, which eventually expands to include
straight-laced Amy MacDougall (Monica Horan), her square parents Pat
(Georgia Engel) and Hank (Fred Willard) and her immature brother Peter
(Chris Elliot).
The Barones are a very close-knit but
dysfunctional family. As much as I love watching the show, it stresses
me out because someone is always yelling. Their personalities clash
spectacularly in each episode as each character’s quirks become
problematic. Ray is whiny and self-absorbed, while Debra is shrill and
shrewish. Each frequently feels unappreciated by the other, while
petulant Robert is convinced that Ray always gets the best of
everything. Frank is cantankerous and downright belligerent, while Marie
is a master manipulator who can send a shiver down the spine with the
sweetest of words.
While Ray is the central character in the
show, Marie is the one who usually garners the biggest laughs, along
with indignant outcries. Roberts seems to have tapped into something
universal with her imperious performance. She can wither one of her
children with a glance even as she coats her words with sugar, and she
lays on the guilt trips with all the force of a cement roller. Everybody
I’ve discussed the show with seems to know a woman scarily similar to
Marie, whether it’s a mother-in-law, an aunt or a sanctimonious church
member. Roberts’ comic timing is impeccable, and her deadly delivery in
scenes when Marie’s dander is up is deliciously unsettling. And speaking
of delicious, barely an episode passes without her offering some sort
of delicacy that makes my stomach grumble.
While I’d have to vote Roberts MVP in the cast of Raymond,
my personal favorite of the actors is Garrett, whose deep voice,
hangdog expression and constant sense of disenfranchisement make Robert
such an endearingly Eeyoreish character. Robert takes devilish delight
in his brother’s misfortunes, but even when he’s cackling maniacally
over some mess that Raymond has brought upon himself, I’m usually too
busy cracking up to be too perturbed with him. When it comes to physical
comedy, Garrett is hard to beat; he’s especially adept at freezing his
face into horrified expressions. While I find Marie hilarious, it’s
Robert who I most expect to give me the giggles.
In terms of
sheer likability, I have to acknowledge Robert’s eventual wife Amy and
applaud Horan for so often playing the straight man in the lunacy of the
combined Barone households. It couldn’t have been easy for her to keep
from bursting into laughter while pandemonium raged around her. While
she isn’t as funny as most of the characters, Amy is a breath of fresh
air amidst all the angst in that family, as is her mousy mother in her
few but notable appearances.
Frank is more openly appalling
than Marie, always saying exactly what comes into his mind, no matter
how uncouth it may be. In some ways, though, that makes him easier to
take, much like I find Ray more palatable than Debra even if she has
every reason to be annoyed with him. Heaton plays Debra as always one
mishap away from a nervous breakdown, with biting sarcasm one of her
only tools for maintaining her sanity. I ought to feel sorry for Debra
for being thrown into this crazy family, but most of the time I just
find her too abrasive to sympathize much. Meanwhile, I tend to forget
that the children even exist. Although there are certain episodes that
focus on one or two of the young Barones, most of the time they seem
more like props than characters. After years of watching the show, I
still don’t feel like I know anything about them. Ally is absent for
more than 60 episodes, the twins more than 80, and when they are
present, they are mostly forgettable.
Everybody Loves Raymond
is a show that I will usually stop to watch, even if I’ve seen the
episode before. However, I’ve also been known to change the channel or
leave the room because the tension onscreen is making me uncomfortable.
It’s obvious that these people care about one another, but they spend so
much of their time being mean to each other that the affection
sometimes seems buried very deep. While some of the scenarios,
especially those involving Marie, ring very familiar, others make me
profoundly grateful not to live in such a volatile home. Then again,
perhaps that is part of the point. Maybe everybody loves Raymond because
he makes them realize they could have a much more agitating situation.
It’s fun to laugh at the petty feuds always springing up among the
members of the two households. But it sure is nice to know that if I
want to, with the click of a remote, I can simply turn off the
bickering.
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