There was a time when family sitcoms ruled TV. You can trace it all the way back to the 1950s and shows like Leave It to Beaver to see where our love affair with simple comedies surrounding the family dynamic started.
Family sitcoms were easy to digest. We could relate to the problems, we could find humor in the smallest everyday moments, and it made us feel good to see the family work through their drama in 30 minutes or less, always coming out the other side with a group hug and a lesson learned.
Of course, sitcoms have changed throughout the decades. Married… With Children showed just how twisted a family could get. Something like Seinfeld, while not a traditional family, still involved four people who depended on each other, even if they would never admit it. Sitcoms got more snarky, the characters a little more selfish. Everybody Loves Raymond was the best of both worlds, with the look of something from the ’80s and the tone of more modern sarcastic fare. Its titular character, Ray Barone (Ray Romano), was the center of attention, but the more horrible he could be, the more you had to ask why anyone put up with him at all.
Ray Often Teases His Troubled Brother Robert
To be critical of Ray Barone’s behavior is not to belittle Everybody Loves Raymond. It’s one of the best modern sitcoms and deserves every accolade it ever received. The only true negative of the show is that they went back to the same well way too often, with so many episodes revolving around Ray doing something inconsiderate, to the joy of the studio audience, and then, funny as it was, having to find a way to get out of it and find forgiveness.
Some of Ray’s worst behavior is saved for his older brother, Robert (Brad Garrett). If there’s anyone that should be treated with kindness, it’s Robert. His dysfunctional family has left him more messed up than anyone else. His father, Frank (Peter Boyle), is a loud and angry man quick to criticize and belittle. You’re not going to get much love from him. His mother, Marie (Doris Roberts), is obsessed with the baby of the family, Ray. In her eyes, he is perfect and can do no wrong. She is blind to his flaws, and anything bad that befalls him must be someone else’s fault. What makes it worse is that she’s the exact opposite with Robert. He’s the invisible one, despite the fact that Brad Garrett is 6’9″. That leaves Robert a very quirky, self-conscious man, his love life a mess, and living at home. Day after day, he sees Ray get the love he doesn’t. He can only grumble and moan, “Everybody loves Raymond.”
While Ray might not like how overprotective his mother is, he loves the attention. He wouldn’t know what to do without his mother always telling him how great he is. It’s made him feel that he can do and get away with anything. That doesn’t mean that Ray is a horrible person, just not a thoughtful one. He rips on Robert constantly, either making fun of his size or his oddities. Some of that’s just normal brother stuff, but there are also some deep insecurities there. When Robert helps Ray get his wife, Debra (Patricia Heaton), a thoughtful gift for Christmas, Ray has to take all the credit for it. When he lies to get out of hanging out with Robert, his brother, a cop, takes an extra shift, only to get gored by a bull. The cruelest moment, however, sees Ray threatened by how much his kids like their uncle, maybe even more than their dad. Ray lashes out, telling Robert he has no family and no life. Even for Ray, it crosses the line.
The principal cast of Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody loves Raymond. Nobody loves these jokes.
Ray’s Disrespect for His Wife Leads to Constant Conflict
Debra and Ray on ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’Image via CBS
You’re stuck with the family you’re born into, but we choose who we marry.
