‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Reboot: Ray Romano & Phil Rosenthal Share Big Update

“Many shows do reboots, and we’ve never wanted to do that,” Rosenthal told the outlet. “We felt like we couldn’t honestly do one since some of the cast isn’t with us anymore, and they were essential to the success of the show. Also, Ray and I both believe that reboots generally are never as good as the original.”

Everybody Loves Raymond aired from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005, with a total of 210 episodes across nine seasons. In the years since, several of the show’s core cast have died, including Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle, who played Ray Barone’s (Romano) parents, and Sawyer Sweeten, who played one of Ray and Debra’s (Patricia Heaton) twin sons.

In addition, Fred Willard and Georgia Engel, who guest-starred as Hank MacDougall and Pat MacDougall, respectively, have passed.

Romano said that a reboot would “never be as good” as the original, noting, “even if every cast member was alive and well, they’re never as good as when the show was thriving and we were younger.”

He added, “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.”

Romano and Rosenthal agreed that even if the other actors had still been alive, they would most likely still be against doing a reboot. However, a reunion was something both had been interested in for some time.

“Doing a reunion is something that we want to do, because we get a chance, first of all, to see each other and talk about [the series] and show clips and but also to honor those actors,” Romano explained.

Another reason Rosenthal sees no need for a reboot is that Everybody Loves Raymond still airs in syndication worldwide. “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,” he stated.

Rosenthal added that they all cared about “the quality of the show,” including ending it on their terms, even when CBS wanted them to continue with more 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,” he revealed.

While a reboot has never been on the agenda, Rosenthal did admit he attempted to get a spinoff off the ground soon after Raymond ended its nine-season run. The spinoff would have been focused on Ray’s cop brother, Robert (Brad Garrett) and his wife Amy (Monica Horan).

Rosenthal said he wanted to do the spinoff “to keep the writers together” and also “do a different show with Amy’s parents, who we loved, Fred Willard and Georgia Engel, and her brother, who we loved, Chris Elliot and, of course, Monica and Brad.” However, CBS didn’t want it.

Hosted by Romano and Rosenthal, the Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion airs tonight from 8 to 9:30 pm on CBS. The special will feature appearances from cast members Garrett, Heaton, Horan, Madylin Sweeten, and Sullivan Sweeten.

Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion, Monday, 8 pm et, CBS

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