One of the best and most beloved sitcoms of all time, Everybody Loves Raymond has been off of the air for 20 years, but unlike many others that experienced popular booms during the same era, the creator and cast haven’t ever staged a return to that universe. Fans will get the next best thing, however, when CBS airs the 30th anniversary reunion special (which is actually taking place only 29 years later), bringing creator Phil Rosenthal back together with Ray Romano and other surviving stars.
When the special hits the 2025 TV schedule, it’ll mark the culmination of nearly a decade of effort on Rosenthal’s part, as he’s been eager to bring the core cast together to reminisce about days gone by, just not in a way where new stories would be told for the Barone family. He and Ray Romano have been saying no to revivals and reboots for years often with the caveat that nobody wants to go back without the sitcom’s various Hollywood icons who passed away after the initial run. Speaking with Deadline ahead of the reunion’s airing, Rosenthal also laid out another smart reason why he’s not interested, saying:
Because we’re still in syndication and that we’re on every day somewhere in the world, all over the world, the show exists in the form that we took such care in presenting so we don’t see really a need or a desire to do a reboot. I just feel like it has to be right.
Indeed. In order for an Everybody Loves Raymond revival to feel absolutely justified, it would likely need to address a distinct lack of Ray, Debra, Marie and others on the small screen. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so it goes, and if ELR wouldn’t have enjoyed such massive success through syndication and streaming, perhaps audiences would have clamored for more simply due to the dearth of Barone family drama.
But to Rosenthal’s point, Everybody Loves Raymond is almost always on somewhere, and if it isn’t, there are commercials promising reruns’ impending arrivals. If the original product is still readily available to enjoy, then there’s far less of a need to go back and tinker with the formula for today’s audiences.
Rosenthal shared that they were already so particular about maintaining quality at the time that the creative team essentially curtailed the show’s endgame in order to go out on a high note. As he put it:
We cared very much about the quality of the show and we even ended the show when CBS still wanted us to continue but we ended it on our terms, we ended it after nine seasons. In fact, we did a shortened ninth season, we only did 16 episodes because we felt that was the number of good stories that we could generate at the end.
Very few shows are able to reach the pinnacle of producing hundreds of episodes without losing steam or popularity, and even fewer are able to craft their own swan songs. (Larry David’s Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm are key exceptions.) So in Rosenthal’s mind, it would be ludicrous to tamper with that legacy without the most surefire idea possible to guide it.
Ray Romano also spoke out against the idea of a revival or reboot, saying that even if all of the late cast members were still with us, it wouldn’t be possible to recapture the sitcom’s prime. In his words:
First of all, even if every cast member was alive and well, they’re never as good as when the show was thriving and we were younger. And the fact that the mother and the father and one of the kids is gone, and also a couple of the guest stars are gone, we would be doing a disservice to the show. They are such a major dynamic and element of what made the show work, it would almost feel disrespectful to them to even try to do it. I think even before, had the other actors still been around, I still think we would decide against doing a reboot.
Ray Romano
So instead of trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice, Rosenthal & Co. thought it would be more more ideal to bring the cast members back together so that they could reflect on all of the happiest memories and pay tribute to those who’ve passed without any awkwardly forced on-screen sentiments.
Everybody Loves Raymond Stars Who Passed Away
- Peter Boyle (Frank Barone) – Died December 12, 2006
- Doris Roberts (Maria Barone) – Died April 17, 2016
- Sawyer Sweeten (Geoffrey Barone) – Died April 23. 2015
- Robert Culp (Warren Whelan) – Died March 24, 2010
- Katherine Helmond (Lois Whelan) – Died February 23, 2019
- Fred Willard (Hank MacDougall) – Died May 15, 2020
- Georgia Engel (Pat MacDougall) – Died April 12, 2019
The Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion special airs on CBS on Monday, November 24, at 8:00 p.m. ET, and can also be streamed via Paramount+ subscription.