Ray Romano’s smash-hit sitcomEverybody Loves Raymondended its run after season 9. Along withFriendsandSeinfeld,Everybody Loves Raymondwas one ofthe most popular sitcoms of the 1990s. Millions of people tuned in every week to see the wacky Long Island misadventures of the Barone clan. Romano was the quintessential everyman, deftly translating his standup persona as a lovable dad to the small screen. Audiences could see their own family in Ray’s overbearing parents, Frank and Marie, and the show was chock full of relatably mundane storylines about everything from little-league snacks to the P.T.A.
Although it initially struggled to find an audience,Everybody Loves Raymondsoon became a bona fide hit. The series made icons of Romano and his castmates, and it remains one of the funniest on-screen portrayals of a dysfunctional family. Between 1996 and 2005,Everybody Loves Raymondaired nine seasons. The show was still a consistent hit in the ratings in season 9, so why did the series end with that season? Was it canceled by the network or was it a choice by the creators to wrap it up?
Everybody Loves Raymond’s Creator Decided To End The Series
“We Ran Out Of Ideas,” According To Phil Rosenthal
In an interview withThe A.V. Club, Phil Rosenthal explained that it was his decision to end the series. The ratings were still strong, soCBS was in no hurry to end it, but Rosenthal felt it was time. He said that, after nine long years of creating problems in Ray and Debra’s marriage, “We ran out of ideas.” Every day, his team of writers would come in with stories about arguments with their wives and difficulties raising their kids, and those stories would inform episodes of the show. But after almost a decade, the well started to run dry.
“You want to get off the stage before you wear out your welcome.”
Rosenthal also wanted to get ahead of the critics. He wanted to end the series before people started complaining that it had gone on for too long. “You want to get off the stage before you wear out your welcome,” he said.Rosenthal “cared enough” about the show’s fan base that he wanted to end it on a high notebefore it “became lousy.” He acknowledges that the series had some episodes that were weaker than others, but feels confident that the show ended before its overall quality dipped below a satisfactory level.
How Everybody Loves Raymond Ends
Ray Has A Health Scare
Everybody Loves Raymondended its run with season 9, episode 16, “The Finale,” which was the 210th episode of the show overall. In the episode,Ray goes in for a routine surgery and the doctors have a tough time waking him up, causing the family to briefly worry that the worst will happen. When Ray finally wakes up, everyone has realized how much they care about him, so they start acting a little nicer towards him. It’s not a momentous finale that changes everyone’s lives; it uses a health scare to highlight how much the characters care about each other.
Everybody Loves Raymond’s series finale was accompanied by an hour-long retrospective of the show’s history.
The finale was well-received by critics. It was praised for focusing on the family’s love for each other, which made it more sentimental than any other episode of the series. In his interview withThe A.V. Club,Rosenthal named the finale as his favorite episode of the entire series. He felt that it maintained a healthy balance between being a typicalepisode ofEverybody Loves Raymond, featuring everything fans loved about the series, and providing a real sense of finality as the final episode.
Will There Ever Be An Everybody Loves Raymond Reboot?
There Probably Won’t Be A Reboot, But There Could Be A Reunion Special
In the past few years, Hollywood has revived just about every popular sitcom, but willEverybody Loves Raymondget a reboot?Rosenthal said that aFriends-style reunion show would be possible, and that he’s currently in talks with production companies to put such a special together. However,Brad Garrett has cast doubt on a reboot, because Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle have both passed and there’s “no show without the parents.” As much fun as it would be to see the Barones again, Garrett is right; Frank and Marie were the heart ofEverybody Loves Raymond’s comedy.
