{"id":153105,"date":"2025-11-26T02:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/153105\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T02:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T02:26:07","slug":"ray-romano-phil-rosenthal-on-everybody-loves-raymond-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/153105\/","title":{"rendered":"Ray Romano, Phil Rosenthal on \u2018Everybody Loves Raymond\u2019 Reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPhil Rosenthal<\/a> has tried to sell CBS on an Everybody Loves Raymond<\/a> reunion special in the past, but the network never bit \u2014 until this year.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI thought we should do a 20-year reunion, but CBS didn\u2019t want it. Twenty-five years? Nope,\u201d Rosenthal told The Hollywood Reporter Tuesday, a day after the network aired a 90-minute reunion special<\/a> \u2014\u00a0featuring series creator Rosenthal and stars Ray Romano<\/a>, Patricia Heaton, Brad Garrett, Monica Horan, Madylin Sweeten and Sullivan Sweeten \u2014\u00a0marking the show\u2019s (almost) 30th anniversary. He credits CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach with getting the special on the air: \u201cAmy was not only supportive, she was really into it. It shows that it just takes one person to make a difference in these kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the slight fudging of the 30th anniversary date \u2014\u00a0Everybody Loves Raymond premiered in September 1996, Rosenthal isn\u2019t worried about it. \u201cI have two answers for that,\u201d he said. \u201cOne is they wanted it now, so who cares? The other is, Ray and I met 30 years ago, and I wrote the pilot 30 years ago. So in essence the show was born 30 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRomano and Rosenthal spoke to THR in separate interviews Tuesday to discuss what didn\u2019t make the final edit of the special, unexpectedly emotional moments and their favorite Thanksgiving episodes of the show. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe reunion really did feel like old friends getting together again. Do you all still see one another frequently?<\/p>\n

\n\tRAY ROMANO Phil and I see each other all the time. Our families are close \u2014 we go to movie night at his house, and we\u2019ve gone on vacations together. Brad I see not as much, but I see him. I\u2019ll go to Vegas [where Garrett lives] and play poker, and we go out to dinner every now and then. Patty I see the least, since she moved to Nashville. But we still correspond every now and then and go out to lunch a couple times a year.<\/p>\n

\n\tPhil, do you still see the other writers from the show?<\/p>\n

\n\tPHIL ROSENTHAL We try to have lunch or dinner every couple of months at least, all of us. \u2026\u00a0This was like going to high school, college and some of grad school over nine years [of making the series]. They\u2019re lifelong friends. People ask me do I miss doing the show, and I do miss doing it because of all the friends there. We feel like the show ran its course \u2014\u00a0we did 210 episodes \u2014 so I don\u2019t miss it [in that way], but I do miss my friends. That writers room was the happiest place on Earth. It was getting paid to laugh all day.<\/p>\n

\n\tWere there things from the taping that didn\u2019t make it into the final edit that wish had?<\/p>\n

\n\tROSENTHAL I\u2019m sure there are, but once you start editing and cut stuff, you don\u2019t miss it. i don\u2019t know why that is, but it happens on every single show I\u2019ve ever done. I think we kept the best stuff. <\/p>\n

\n\tROMANO We were trying to get two hours, which would be an hour and 20 minutes or so [without commercials]. Some of the compilations we had to cut down, the gag reel had to be cut down. My wife [Anna] did a half-hour interview, and they showed her for three seconds. My father and Phil\u2019s father did guest spots together a few times, and they weren\u2019t actors but they were always hysterical. We showed that during the live taping but had to cut it down. But you also don\u2019t want to go too long. We could have used another 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere were several emotional moments where you and everyone else on stage teared up a little. Did any of that come at you unexpectedly?<\/p>\n

\n\tROMANO I didn\u2019t expect that I would tear up \u2014\u00a0I don\u2019t know if it was noticeable \u2014 talking about Peter Boyle and the piece of advice he gave me when we were filming the pilot. That caught me off guard.<\/p>\n

\n\tROSENTHAL The first one \u2014\u00a0I was on stage with Ray and Patty. We had just seen a clip, and I got emotional because I realized how lucky I was and how great they were. Not just the two of them, but all of our cast, our guest actors, and all our writers and crew.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was it like stepping onto the re-created set?<\/p>\n

\n\tROSENTHAL That set was so good, I think people probably thought it had just been sitting there forever. The moment our show was done, they took it down and took it apart, and then used it for parts on other sets. But they re-created it down to the refrigerator magnets. It was a very surreal and beautiful kind of Twilight Zone.<\/p>\n

\n\tROMANO There was a little bit of a time travel feeling. Then it got weird because it didn\u2019t feel weird anymore. We all felt like we never left. It was a bit of a mind-blowing thing. We\u2019re all older; our kids grew up on set. It brought back memories \u2014 it was sweet and it was nice, but also a little bittersweet.<\/p>\n

\n\tRay, one of the funnier moments for me in the special was watching your kids do impressions of you. Do they ever do that when you\u2019re around?<\/p>\n

\n\tROMANO Guys, do you want to do it? I\u2019m driving with the three boys.<\/p>\n

\n\tGREG ROMANO (Ray\u2019s son) I had to think about it for a second. I had to go a little deeper than my actual voice.<\/p>\n

\n\tROMANO They don\u2019t do it in front of me. My daughter [Ally] isn\u2019t here, but the stuff she said, she\u2019s said to my face many times. She\u2019s like my wife \u2014\u00a0she tells it like it is when I\u2019m being a pain in the butt.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince we\u2019re closing in on the holiday, do you have a favorite Thanksgiving episode from the show?<\/p>\n

\n\tROSENTHAL Thanksgiving was such a good holiday to do an episode about, because it\u2019s so family oriented. Everyone relates, for better or worse. They\u2019re either dreading it or it\u2019s a celebration. The one with tofu turkey [season three\u2019s \u201cNo Fat\u201d] was really good, and [season eight\u2019s \u201cThe Bird\u201d], where they go to Amy\u2019s [Horan] parents\u2019 house and bird flies into the window and Amy\u2019s mother kills it. Even the first one we did [\u201cFish or Turkey\u201d from season one], where Ray puts the fish Debra wants to make in the dishwasher. I like that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tROMANO I think pound for pound, the tofu turkey one was the favorite.<\/p>\n

\n\tInterviews edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phil Rosenthal has tried to sell CBS on an Everybody Loves Raymond reunion special in the past, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,38228,85,46,38384,38385],"class_list":["post-153105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-everybody-loves-raymond","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-phil-rosenthal","tag-ray-romano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}