93 Fun Facts About Everybody Loves Raymond

On Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray Barone is a sportswriter for which newspaper?

Newsday is Ray's paper, and his father wants in: after Reader's Digest prints a piece of his, Frank writes a column of his own and asks Ray to hand it to his editor.

Which network aired Everybody Loves Raymond for its entire nine-season run?

CBS first put the show on Friday nights, where it flopped; moved to Mondays in March 1997, it found its audience and stayed on the network until 2005.

Whose late-night show led to Everybody Loves Raymond?

David Letterman's company signed Ray Romano after a five-minute Late Show set in 1995: 'by the end we already had lawyers lined up', its chief said. The sitcom that followed ran for 210 episodes.

In which Long Island town do the Barones live?

Lynbrook, in Nassau County, is home to the Barones, though the family they are drawn from stayed in the city: Ray Romano grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, and in 1997 still lived in Queens, down the street from his parents.

Who created Everybody Loves Raymond?

Philip Rosenthal kept the show close to Ray Romano's real family because, he said, it was funnier than anything he could have dreamed up; his own relatives fed into the characters too.

Everybody Loves Raymond takes its title from a sarcastic remark by which of Ray Romano's relatives?

His brother Richard, comparing his own job with Ray's comedy awards, cracked that 'everybody loves Raymond'. Romano hated it as a title and asked the network to change it, in vain.

What nervous habit is Robert Barone known for?

Touching food to his chin before eating is the tic the family calls his 'crazy chin', and the show traces it to childhood anxiety: it began when baby Raymond took all of their mother's attention.

What is Robert Barone's profession?

NYPD police officer is Robert's job, and he nearly trades it for the FBI: he lands an interview, only for Marie to scorch his lucky suit with the iron and then send the interviewer a fax about her son.

What is Frank Barone's signature catchphrase?

"Holy crap" greets every shock in the Barone house, as when a woman tells the family she is 'kind of dating' Ray while his wife stands right there.

What did Frank Barone do for a living before retiring?

Bookkeeper, 'not even an accountant', is how Frank puts it: home from Korea with no skills, he lost a string of jobs first, one to a bowling alley's ball-return machine, and admits he hated the desk.

What is the name of the lodge Frank Barone belongs to?

Order of the Caribou is the lodge that votes Frank its Man of the Year; filming a tribute for the big night, Ray and Robert find that none of his lodge brothers has a kind word to say about him.

What is Debra Barone's maiden name on Everybody Loves Raymond?

Whelan: her wealthy Connecticut parents, Warren and Lois, look like the calm opposite of the Barones until one Thanksgiving shows how unhappy they are, and by the season's end they have separated.

Before marrying Ray Barone, Debra worked in public relations for which team?

New York Rangers: when Ray, a futon delivery man who dreamed of sportswriting, learned that his customer did the team's PR, his first question was whether she knew the players.

What does Robert Barone ask whenever he walks into a room and the family falls silent?

"Is this about me?" is Robert's reflex after a lifetime in his brother's shadow: a happy room must be about Raymond, he reasons, so a tense one must be his fault.

What were the Barone twins named in the pilot, before they became Geoffrey and Michael?

Gregory and Matthew are Ray Romano's real twin sons; after the pilot the boys on screen were renamed, though Ally went on sharing a name with his real daughter for all nine seasons.

How was Robert Barone once injured on the job?

Gored by a bull at an illegal rodeo, Robert took the horn in the backside and lost his nerve for work; he tried telemarketing until Ray took him to a petting zoo to make peace with the bull.

Who played Frank Barone?

Peter Boyle got lost on the way to his audition and walked in flustered and irritable, which was Frank to the life; the role brought him seven Emmy nominations and no win.

The actor who played Ray Barone's father on Everybody Loves Raymond had earlier starred in which Mel Brooks film?

Young Frankenstein (1974) cast him as the Monster, famously tap-dancing to 'Puttin' on the Ritz'; he also played the cabbie Wizard in Taxi Driver.

Who played the meddling matriarch Marie Barone?

Doris Roberts heard that over a hundred actresses had already read for Marie and drove to her audition unprepared and in a bad mood; her frustration made the room laugh, and the part won her four Emmys.

Who played Ray's towering brother Robert?

Brad Garrett won three Emmys as Ray's put-upon older brother, though he is the younger man by more than two years: he was born in April 1960, Romano in December 1957.

Who played Debra Barone?

Patricia Heaton came to the part of a sportswriter's wife as a sportswriter's daughter. Her real pregnancies during the run were never written in: the show hid them, and Debra stayed a mother of three.

Who played Amy MacDougall?

Monica Horan, who married the show's creator in 1990, kept being written back as Amy: she and Robert split up again and again over six seasons before finally marrying at the end of the seventh.

The child actors who played the Barone twins, Geoffrey and Michael, were real-life brothers of which young actress?

Madylin Sweeten, who played Ally, is the big sister of Sawyer and Sullivan Sweeten; her twin brothers took over the parts after the pilot, in which a set of triplets had shared them.

Which Italian dish does Debra Barone finally cook so well that Marie takes it as a threat?

Braciole, stuffed beef, has Ray, Robert and Frank coming back for more after years of her lemon chicken; a jealous Marie confronts Debra, and it is war.

Which King of Queens cast member first played a friend of Ray Barone's on Everybody Loves Raymond?

Kevin James played Ray's golf buddy Kevin Daniels in the early seasons, and the guest spots led to a sitcom of his own in 1998; Ray Barone then turned up on The King of Queens in several crossovers.

Which comic actor played Amy's father, Hank MacDougall, in the later seasons?

Fred Willard played Hank MacDougall as a strait-laced Pennsylvanian who turns up to talk Amy out of marrying Robert; the part brought him an Emmy nomination in each of the show's last three seasons.

Ray Romano is also the voice of which character in the Ice Age films?

Manny the mammoth was first imagined with a big voice like James Earl Jones's; the director found that too obvious and, once Romano read a few of the lines, called it a eureka moment.

Ray Barone turns up at a high-school reunion on which other sitcom, whose star was Ray Romano's real classmate?

The Nanny sends Fran Fine to her class reunion, where the man at the buffet turns round and is Ray Barone: Romano and Fran Drescher really were classmates at Hillcrest High in Queens.

In 2002 three Everybody Loves Raymond actors won Emmys, but which show beat it to Outstanding Comedy Series?

Friends took the series prize, and its star Jennifer Aniston took one more from Raymond: the lead-actress Emmy, which Raymond's own leading lady had won in each of the two years before.

Which Everybody Loves Raymond episode, about Debra's PMS, won the actress who plays her the show's first acting Emmy?

Bad Moon Rising, co-written by Ray Romano, has Ray record one of his wife's outbursts and play it back to her to prove his point; the fight that follows is what won the actress her Emmy.

What does Ray say the family needs as Everybody Loves Raymond ends?

A bigger table: Debra says it is getting crowded, Ray agrees, and the picture fades with the family still talking over breakfast. 32.9 million watched, the largest audience of the show's run.

Which engraved Christmas gift from Ray Barone do his parents trade in without even opening the box?

A toaster, engraved with a Christmas message from the whole family: Frank and Marie swap it at Bloomingdale's for a coffee machine, then learn what it said and try, disastrously, to get it back.

The actor who played Frank Barone suffered what medical emergency on the Everybody Loves Raymond set in 1999?

A heart attack struck him on set near the end of the third season: three episodes went ahead without Frank, and after a summer's recovery he came back to play him for six more years.

What do Ray and Debra Barone leave on the stairs for three weeks, each refusing to be the one to move it?

A suitcase from a weekend away, in the Emmy-winning episode 'Baggage'; Marie then admits that the giant fork and spoon on her kitchen wall are the relic of the same kind of standoff with Frank.

What does Marie's abstract artwork resemble in the episode "Marie's Sculpture"?

Female genitalia is what Ray and Debra see at once and Marie does not, even as she donates the piece to the church auction; it takes the nuns who come to collect it to make her look again.

In Everybody Loves Raymond's final season, Frank and Marie move to a retirement community in which state, only to be thrown out?

New Jersey: they sell the house to Robert and Amy and leave for a condo there, but their behaviour gets them kicked out, and they move back in as their son's guests.

Which NFL legend guest-starred as himself in the Everybody Loves Raymond episode "Debra's Sick"?

Terry Bradshaw plays himself: with the family down with flu, Ray holds their meeting in a pediatrician's waiting room, where he learns he has brought the healthy twin and left the sick one at home.

In Everybody Loves Raymond's hour-long "Italy" episode, whom do the Barones travel to visit?

Marie's cousin Colletta, strictly her mother's cousin, lives in a village outside Rome, and Marie pays for the whole family to go with money she has secretly put aside for 45 years; only Ray is unwilling.

What minor operation does Ray Barone undergo in the final episode of Everybody Loves Raymond?

Having his adenoids removed is Ray's minor operation; when he is slow to wake from the anaesthetic the family panics, then agrees to keep the scare from him once he comes round.

In Everybody Loves Raymond's "Marie's Meatballs", what does Marie give Debra so that her attempt at the recipe fails?

Tarragon labelled as basil is what Marie hands over, and she is caught when the fake label peels off the jar. Cornered, she admits she panicked: her cooking is the one thing her grown son still needs her for.

What is the title of the 2010 documentary about adapting Everybody Loves Raymond for Russian television?

Exporting Raymond is the creator's own film of the job: he flew to Moscow to help a Russian team remake his sitcom, hit one cultural roadblock after another, and directed and narrated the result.

The Russian adaptation of Everybody Loves Raymond was broadcast under what title?

The Voronins (Voroniny) outlived its model: once all 210 American scripts were used up it carried on with stories of its own, passing 450 episodes and, in 2017, entering Guinness World Records as the longest-running adapted show.

On the Barones' trip to Italy, Robert falls at first sight for Stefania, who earns her living how?

Selling gelato: Frank calls what hits Robert 'the thunderbolt', and he courts her for the rest of the trip over her father's objections; later that season she turns up to see him in America.

Which Beatle was best man at the wedding of the actor who plays grumpy Frank Barone?

John Lennon did the honors in 1977, having befriended the actor through the bride's friendship with Yoko Ono.

In 'Halloween Candy', what does Frank Barone hand to trick-or-treaters by mistake once the sweets run out?

Condoms in bright colors were Ray's alternative to a vasectomy, and Frank grabbed them from the kitchen shelf after eating too much of the candy himself.

In 'Wallpaper', what accident caused by Frank and Marie Barone leaves the front of Ray's house needing repairs?

A car crash does it: Marie reverses Frank's car through the front door, and Debra insists that Frank pay to repair everything that was damaged.

Frank Barone never lets his family forget his army days fighting in which war?

Korean War stories are Frank's stock answer to any complaint, and the old soldier is also a history buff with a soft spot for the American Civil War.

In 'The Ball', Ray Barone learns his cherished baseball's autograph of which Yankees legend was forged by Frank?

Mickey Mantle never signed it: Frank admits at Christmas that he did, and the confession leaves Ray wondering whether he should keep lying to Ally about Santa Claus.

The network first imagined towering Robert Barone as a short, scrappy type in the mold of which actor?

Danny DeVito was the template until a much taller stand-up auditioned and played Robert as a beaten-down man resigned to losing.

The actress who plays Debra Barone later starred as harried mom Frankie Heck in which ABC sitcom?

The Middle ran from 2009 to 2018, and its star earned a Critics' Choice nomination for playing another worn-out sitcom mother.

Hoping to start her own Thanksgiving tradition, what does Debra Barone serve in place of turkey?

Fish it is, until Ray puts it in the dishwasher and Marie turns up carrying a turkey of her own.

On their tenth anniversary, Debra Barone finds that Ray has recorded what over their wedding video?

A football game had replaced the ceremony, so Ray staged a vow renewal to tape instead, then forgot both his new vows and the camera.

Despite his towering frame and gloomy manner, Robert Barone turns out to be surprisingly good at what?

Dancing is his hidden talent, and when Ray suggests he take Debra out to a swing night, the pair enjoy it so much that Ray gets jealous.

Worried about her cholesterol in 'No Fat', Marie Barone serves a Thanksgiving turkey made from what?

Tofu makes up the fat-free bird, and the family's support collapses the moment the restaurant dinner Ray secretly ordered arrives.

In the penultimate Everybody Loves Raymond episode, what hidden habit of Amy's prim mother, Pat, comes to light?

Smoking is her way of coping, and Robert promises to keep quiet, only to be accused of the habit himself and lectured by Amy's dad.

In the flashback episode 'How They Met', what is Ray Barone delivering when he first meets Debra?

A futon brought them together: Ray delivered it, lined up a date, then cancelled out of embarrassment after accidentally seeing her undressed.

In 'Frank's Tribute', Ray and Robert Barone fake a glowing video by asking lodge members to praise what?

Chocolate got the warm words, and the brothers cut the tape so the praise seemed meant for their dad, because none of his lodge friends had anything kind to say about him.

In 'The Angry Family', Michael Barone's class story about a shouting household turns out to be based on what?

A TV cartoon called Monster Maniacs was his model, Michael admits at bedtime, after the whole family has sat through a counseling session over it.

Frank Barone's lodge pal Garvin greets Ray with the arms-up delight his actor also used as which Seinfeld character?

Uncle Leo hailed his nephew Jerry the same way, and Len Lesser carried the arms-in-the-air welcome across to Frank's circle of lodge friends.

At which game does Ray Barone learn that Frank once let him win, sparking a furious rematch?

Ping-pong is the battleground: Frank wins the rematch, then loses his temper when Ray claims he threw it.

What is the first name of Robert Barone's first wife, who divorced him before Everybody Loves Raymond begins?

Joanne appears in a flashback being so mean to Robert that Marie throws her out of the house the moment she asks for a divorce.

Robert Barone names his beloved bulldog Shamsky after a player from which baseball team?

New York Mets favorite Art Shamsky later appears as himself, signing autographs with seven 1969 teammates while Ray tries to jump the queue.

What is the name of the pizzeria where Ray Barone and his friends gather in the early seasons?

Nemo's also sponsored the friends' basketball team, and it took a new name once the dad of Robert's Italian girlfriend bought the place.

In 'Pet Cemetery', which pet of Ally Barone's dies through Ray's carelessness, leading to a family funeral?

A hamster named Pumpernickel was the casualty, and Ally saw through Ray's replacement at once, so the family held a funeral instead.

In 'Lucky Suit', Marie Barone scorches the suit Robert planned to wear to a job interview with which agency?

The FBI then received a fax from Marie apologizing for the suit, followed by a visit from her in person, carrying cookies.

Which novel, the subject of Debra Barone's thesis, does Ray give her as a first edition?

To Kill a Mockingbird was Robert's idea, and his fury at getting no credit for it leads him to tell Debra who really thought of the gift.

In 'She's the One', Robert Barone escapes through a window after finding his date's apartment full of what?

Frogs fill the place, which convinces Robert that Ray really did see his dream girl eat a fly.

The Barones drive to which state, home of Amy's devout family, for Robert's wedding?

Pennsylvania hosts a ceremony where the groom hides in the bathroom, the priest goes missing and Marie interrupts the vows with an objection.

For thirty years Frank Barone blames Ray for a furnace mishap that ruined his prized collection of what?

Jazz records melted by the furnace one Christmas were the grudge, until Robert finally confessed that he was the one who had moved them.

Debra Barone's free-spirited sister Jennifer stuns the family by announcing she plans to become what?

A nun is quite a turn for a hippie nudist, and the family's sudden change of attitude towards her leaves Debra very upset.

Debra Barone accidentally throws out a treasured letter that Ray received from which boxing legend?

Muhammad Ali wrote it, and Marie takes the blame to spare Debra, then cashes in the favor by pinning one of her own misdeeds on her.

A medication Frank Barone secretly takes robs him of which sense, plunging Marie into despair?

Taste deserts him, so he salts Marie's lasagna and praises Debra's cooking, and Marie decides her greatest skill must have failed her.

Filming of the Everybody Loves Raymond finale was delayed twice because the actress playing Debra caught what?

Laryngitis pushed the last taping back twice, and the same actress was in tears at the final table read in January 2005.

In the Everybody Loves Raymond finale, why does Robert claim he pulled his car over?

A cat he thought he'd hit is Robert's excuse, though Amy tells the family a love song on the radio had him in tears on the drive home from the hospital.

Before Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray Romano was cast in and then fired from which 1990s workplace sitcom?

NewsRadio dropped him from the part of Joe before the pilot, and the role went to Joe Rogan for the rest of the run.

Before playing Marie Barone, the same actress was Mildred Krebs on which 1980s detective series?

Remington Steele kept her on NBC from 1983 to 1987, years before she became television's most meddling mother-in-law.

The actor who plays Robert Barone voices Auguste Gusteau in which Pixar film?

Ratatouille cast him as the famous Paris chef whose restaurant the rat Remy dreams of cooking in.

Which comedian plays Peter MacDougall, Amy's eccentric brother who lives with his cat Miss Puss?

Chris Elliott took over a character first seen once as a comic-book shop owner called Russell, played by Paul Reubens.

Which Mary Tyler Moore Show actress plays Amy's soft-voiced mother, Pat MacDougall, in the later seasons?

Georgia Engel, the earlier sitcom's Georgette, earned Emmy nominations three years running for playing Robert's gentle mother-in-law.

Which unusual Valentine's Day gift does Robert Barone give Amy because her favorite color is green?

An iguana was his answer to the tie decorated with guns that Amy gave him the same day.

Which baseball figure visits Ray Barone's house and tells him how to cook properly after trying his sauce?

Tommy Lasorda played himself in the first-season episode 'Neighbors', while Ray's guilt over hosting a meeting behind Frank and Marie's backs had him imagining an angry Pope in the mirror.

In which country was Everybody Loves Raymond remade as the series Sumit Sambhal Lega?

India got its version in 2015, with one telling change: the older generation shares Sumit's house instead of living across the street.

Which Beethoven melody served as the opening music of Everybody Loves Raymond in seasons three to five?

Ode to Joy gave way to an orchestral take on the shanty Drunken Sailor in season six and a Steve Miller Band song in season seven.

Which 1950s sitcom did the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond take as the model for its classic style?

The Honeymooners inspired a rule against topical references, so that the episodes would never date.

Which couple do Ray and Debra Barone first ask to be their children's guardians, offending the whole family?

Bernie and Linda turn the offer down because of Ray's relatives, which leaves Frank and Marie as the choice after all.

The real house used for exterior shots of Ray and Debra Barone's home stands in which Long Island hamlet?

Merrick has both houses: as on screen, the home used for Frank and Marie's exterior sits directly across the street.

Ray Romano's real daughter Alexandra appears in Everybody Loves Raymond as which friend of Ally Barone?

Molly is the daughter of scout leader Peggy, Ray's nemesis, and the young actress also gave her own first name to the character of Ally.

Ray Romano's real-life dad appears in Everybody Loves Raymond as which lodge friend of Frank Barone?

Albert kept the first name of Albert Romano, who sat among the lodge regulars beside Max, a part played by the dad of the series creator.

Which instrument does Ray Barone's hypochondriac cousin Gerard play, mostly just the first notes of famous songs?

Accordion is his instrument, and Gerard supplies the music at the bachelor party Ray throws for Robert at Frank's lodge.

When the Barones' cable goes out in an early Everybody Loves Raymond episode, which game sparks a family fight?

Scruples was the women's pick over renting a movie, and the outage itself turned out to be Frank's doing: he had fitted an illegal splitter.

Why does Robert Barone move out of the attic he rents from Harry and Rita Stipe?

They resemble his parents so closely that Ray has to point it out, and the Stipes later become Frank and Marie's new friends.

In 'Civil War', why does Ray Barone end up on the Confederate side of Frank's battle reenactment?

A uniform shortage sends Ray to the other army while Frank and Robert fight for the Union, after he signed up only out of jealousy that Robert was going.

Which magazine prints one of Frank Barone's army anecdotes, convincing him he should write a column?

Reader's Digest ran it in its section of military humor, and Frank promptly handed Ray a column of his own to pass to his editor.