Everybody Loves Raymond ran for nine seasons and an astonishing 210 episodes, from 1996 to 2005, offering fans plenty of things to question about the classic sitcom. The series served as the breakout hit for Ray Romano who starred as sportswriter Ray Barone raising his family alongside wife Debra with his overbearing family always getting involved. The series delivered lots of laughs with its strong writing, eccentric characters, and hilarious domestic misadventures.
Like most sitcoms, Everybody Loves Raymond is not a show that requires much of a deep dive from viewers. However, with the show continuing to find new fans and seeing the older ones revisit it, there are some interesting points that come up. Not only are there aspects of the show that don’t make sense, but some of them offer the opportunity for some fun fan theories. From Ray and Debra’s marriage to the dynamics of brother Robert right to the show’s final episode, Everybody Loves Raymond provides a surprising amount to explore further.
Robert’s Date Everybody Loves Raymond
There is an ongoing joke throughout Everybody Loves Raymond that Robert Barone is jealous of everything working out for his younger brother while he is left with less in comparison. However, one way Robert should be better off than Ray is financially. Robert lives rent-free with full board at his parents’. At the beginning of the series, he is a police sergeant and later earns a promotion to the rank of lieutenant. That’s a pretty impressive promotion and one that comes with a sizable pay rise.
Yet despite this, Robert seems to be constantly short of money. At one point his finances are so bad that Robert resorts to eating bologna for his meals and Ray and Debra have to give him money. Robert may have had to pay out some sort of settlement following his divorce from his first wife Joanne but the extent to which he is shown to be struggling seems unlikely.
Another financial situation that doesn’t make any sense on Everybody Loves Raymond is how Ray is so successful. Ray and Debra live in a spacious house, in a well-to-do residential neighborhood, their kids go to nice schools, and they are never seen struggling. Indeed, them being able to help Robert when he is struggling is odd as Robert’s job as a high-ranking police officer would seemingly pay a lot more than Ray’s job as a sports writer.
There are many examples of financially unrealistic situations in sitcoms, especially when it comes to “cool jobs.” Making Ray a sports writer adds to the character’s personality on the series but the show seems less concerned with showing the realities of the job. The Barone family on Everybody Loves Raymond is an affluent middle-class family which could not be expected on such a salary.
Debra looking shocked in Everybody Loves Raymond
Even if Ray does make a better-than-average salary as a sportswriter and is able to support his family, there’s something slightly odd and reductive about Debra’s decision to stay at home rather than get a job herself. A fiercely independent woman of considerable intelligence and capability, it is out of character for Debra that she would decide to play homemaker. While it is an important role in the household, it doesn’t seem like something Debra would be satisfied with settling into.
For someone who so regularly challenges her husband, Ray, it makes little sense that she would not want to go out into the working world. More importantly, given how often Ray’s parents stop in during the day and how much it tests Debra’s patience, it would be more realistic that Debra would take any opportunity to be out of the house and away from her in-laws.
One of the simplest aspects of Everybody Loves Raymond also helps to make it one of the funniest sitcoms of all time.
One of the simplest aspects of Everybody Loves Raymond also helps to make it one of the funniest sitcoms of all time. Ray and Debra live directly across the street from Ray’s parents, Frank and Marie, meaning that they pop into the house frequently and unannounced. This is well established and, in most instances, they will visit Ray and the family using the front door.
However, there are a number of instances when the in-laws will choose to come in through the back door which enters into Ray and Debra’s kitchen. Along with highlighting the lack of boundar
