Vanuatu has come to an end, and Palau is just a couple months away from taking off. So, in the meantime, I want to write about another of my favorite television shows.
This show is a sitcom, so this will definitely be a different approach than my usual Survivor columns. This sitcom is one of the best sitcoms ever written and produced. The actors are top-notch, the storylines are realistic, believable, and funny all at the same time, and all the characters are extremely well-rounded and three-dimensional.
I am talking, of course, about EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND.
Now, as I am sitting here and writing this, I am picturing all my readers out there having one of three reactions:
1) Nodding knowingly and sitting back to read and enjoy what I have to say as longtime or newer fans of the show.
2) Scratching your head in wonder as someone who has never seen the show before, but willing to keep reading, and possibly give it a shot.
3) Shaking your head in disgust as someone who despises the show and walking away and refusing to read my column again until February.
As hard as it is for me to believe, there are people who don’t like this show. Why they don’t like it is beyond me, because not only am I entertained by this show on a regular basis, but I also have an appreciation for the depth and realism behind this show. And, seeing as this is Raymond’s ninth and final season this year, I want to take these next few weeks to write about this show, and share with you my insights into what is really going on in the characte’s minds and in their lives.
So, even if you’re a #3 person, I hope you’ll stick around. Who knows? Maybe if you read my analysis and then go watch the show, maybe you’ll change your mind and become a fan. If you’re a #1, hopefully I can make you realize some stuff about this show that you didn’t see before and make you even more of a fan. And I’m also hoping to pull some #2’s over to my side of the fence.
Most importantly, though, I just want the readers to know what this show is all about. I know better than anybody that Raymond is a show that, unless taken seriously for what it is and enjoyed as a result, can give the wrong impression.
Let me tell you how I first came to know Raymond. My younger brother and my parents watched the show before I got into it, however, I never initially saw the magic that was there. All I allowed myself to see was a bunch of crazy people yelling at each other, and made a quick judgment that I did not like the show and never would.
Then I took the time to sit down and actually watch it.
And man, oh, man, was I blown away. It was absolutely beautiful. The chemistry behind the actors and the realistic, and yet funny, situations they bring to life on the television screen is the marking of a sitcom at its best.
Yes, this sitcom is and always has been better than Friends. By a long shot. Maybe not as popular”¦.but you’ve got to take quality of the program over quantity of viewers, in my opinion.
Now, this week, I’m just giving you guys a generalization of what I want to happen in the next few weeks. In a little bit, I’m going to give you the premise of the show, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the show. A lot of the stuff I’m talking about will be discussed in greater detail in the coming weeks.
Over the next few weeks, I am basically going to try and accomplish the following things:
1) Get into each of the main characte’s heads in great detail, and analyze their role in the show.
2) Delve into the meaning behind the show and extract the messages it is giving in a complex, and yet beautifully simple, manner.
3) Review and discuss any new episodes that air, and provide you with some of my favorite quotes from the series.
Now, I will summarize for you the premise of this show so you have a general idea what the show is about before we dig deeper next week:
Raymond Barone is a well-known and popular sportswriter for New York Newsday. He and his wife, Debra, have a daughter Ally and twin boys, Michael and Geoffrey, and they all live together on Long Island. Ray goes to work every day and Debra is a stay-at-home mom who takes care of the kids and the house and all that stuff.
Sounds picture perfect, right? You’d assume this is a normal, everyday, average suburban American family.
Well, that assumption would be wrong. The problem?
Raymond’s parents, Frank and Marie Barone, live right across the street. And believe you me, they know no boundaries. (We’ll go into their characters in much greater depth in the coming weeks.) A famous radio psychologist in a season one episode says “I guess the boundaries around here are rather informal” when Frank and Marie come in once again without knocking, to which Ray responds and sums up the situation perfectly by saying:
“They’re rather invisible, actually.”
As if it couldn’t be any crazier around the Barone household, you also seen Raymond’s older brother Robert on a regular basis. Robert is an NYPD police officer who happens to also be obsessive-compulsive, most notably shown by his needing to touch every bite of food to his chin before he eats it. Raymond has always been treated by his parents as the favorite child (hence the name of the series) and has been luckier in life than Robert. Ray has a successful career, where he is once again popular with fans, has a beautiful wife, a great house with a yard, and three kids.
Robert has none of the above, as he put is himself in the show’s pilot episode: “It never ends for Raymond. I go to work people shoot at me. Ray goes to work, people do the Wave.”
While the kids are seen throughout the series, and sometimes are an integral part of an episode’s story, the main focus is not on the children. This is not a Full House type of sitcom.
The primary focus is on the five adults: Raymond, Debra, Marie, Frank, and Robert. Of course, supporting characters come in and interact with these people, and we’ll talk more about all of that in the coming weeks.
That’s it for this week. I just wanted to give you a general introduction to the world of Raymond, and I hope that you’ll stick around between now and the premiere of Survivor: Palau as I go much further in-depth into this “sitcom of our times.”
“See” you next week!
