In a 2005 interview with the Archive of American Television, Doris Roberts, who died in 2016, shared her favorite episodes of the now-classic sitcom in which she starred for nine seasons as the Barone family matriarch, Marie Barone.
The first episode she called a favorite was one in which Marie finds her son Raymond’s diary from his adolescence.
“I loved “Ray’s Diary,” Roberts said. “I thought that had many levels of tenderness and pathos and sensitivity and humor. I loved that one very much, very much.”
Another episode that was dear to the veteran actor was “Frank’s Tribute,” “the one with Peter [Boyle], cleaning cold cream off my face,” Roberts said.
In “Frank’s Tribute,” Ray and Robert create a video honoring their father, Frank, for his lodge and do a subpar job. Frank is furious.
By the episode’s conclusion, Marie wants to know why her husband is so upset. Frank has little to say and Marie stops trying to understand him for the night, putting cold cream on her face before going to bed. The episode shows a tender side to the normally abrasive Frank as he lovingly wipes the cold cream off of his wife’s face.
