Did you know that the final episode of Everybody Loves Raymond brought in almost 33 million viewers? This pushed it into the top 10 most-viewed shows of the decade! Maybe you’re a huge fan of the sitcom too and you want to know more about it.
For example, is it based on real-life at all? Read on to find out.
Real-Life Experiences, but Not From Who You’d Expect
To answer your question straight off the bat, around 90% of the episodes’ events were based on real-life events! Considering Ray Romano was not only the shining star of the sitcom, but also the executive producer, you’d think these experiences all came from him, right?
Wrong!
These funny events actually mostly came from Phil Rosenthal, the creator of the show. Many also came from the various talented writers who worked on the show.
Phil explained that with most of these experiences, you could look at them in either a glass half-full or half-empty way. He said that many of those life events could’ve driven him into depression, but instead, he decided to make something of them.
And not all experiences were bad anyway. For example, Phil shared that he based much of Marie’s antics on his own mom!
Personal Marital Experiences
Many people don’t know this, but show creator Phil’s real-life wife Monica Horan actually played Robert’s wife Amy on the show! You can bet that Phil injected a lot of their own marital experiences into Robert and Amy’s marriage, which gave it a very personal touch.
In fact, the writers would joke about assigning homework to the couple, saying they had to fight so they had material to work with!
Ray Romano Also Contributed to the IRL Experiences
While Phil and the writers contributed most of the IRL experiences, that doesn’t mean star Ray Romano didn’t. For example, he based his show brother Robert on his own real-life brother, Richard.
In fact, actor Brad Garrett (brother Robert) went out to dinner and hung out a few times with Ray’s real-life brother Richard. Perhaps these genuine experiences are what allowed the actor and the rest of the cast to have such organic moments on the sitcom, which obviously lead to its huge success.
If the above has gotten you wondering what happened to the Everybody Loves Raymond cast, you’ve got to check out where they are today!
Enjoy Everybody Loves Raymond
As you can see, Everybody Loves Raymond is based on a lot of real experiences. From creator Phil Rosenthal (and wife Monica Horan) to actors Ray Romano and Brad Garrett, they all had their personal and unique input to give to the sitcom.
Perhaps this is why so many people loved the show. After all, when you can relate to things on TV, it can make you appreciate the episodes so much more!
If you liked this article about this classic sitcom, then make sure you check out all our other blog posts too!
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