What To Know
- Everybody Loves Raymond‘s Phil Rosenthal and Ray Romano explain how the show couldn’t be made today.
- Learn more about how the inspiration from their personal lives played a key role.
Everybody Loves Raymond may have premiered 30 years ago, but there’s a reason the show itself couldn’t exist today, as series creator Phil Rosenthal and star Ray Romano explained to TV Insider while stopping by our studio at ATX TV Festival 2026.
“They’re not doing these types of shows anymore,” Rosenthal noted, adding, “they stopped kind of doing them when we were done.”
But it’s more than just the networks not making these kinds of wide-ranging family comedies. Rosenthal points out, “What’s funny [is]… we could incorporate our lives into the characters because we were the same age as the characters. We were going through having little kids and being married… that time of life is fraught. There’s a lot of pressure.”
But there’s a lot of inspiration, clearly, and Romano shares, “We would do things together too, you know? We were a group that, outside the show, we got along, we would go out to parties together… you and I would travel with our families together,” he says, pointing between himself and Rosenthal.
Sonja Flemming / CBS
For fans that may not know, Rosenthal’s real-life wife, Monica Horan, played Amy, wife to Ray Barone’s (Romano) brother, Robert (Brad Garrett). So, the show really was a family affair onscreen and behind the scenes.
And regarding those group trips, Rosenthal says, “And we still do.” Romano confirms as much, saying, “Yeah, it’s really nice.”
The best part, Rosenthal reveals, is, “It’s fun to revisit the shows that we made, but because so many of our personal stories are in them, they’re a little bit like watching home movies.”
Now that they’ve graduated beyond those points in their lives, Everybody Loves Raymond couldn’t exist as it had when they were living in that moment of their real lives. Instead, Romano notes he’s started a new chapter as a grandfather, “We’ll have more material for another thing soon,” he teases, clarifying that there are no current plans for a reboot or series.
But who knows what the future holds? Let us know what you think of Rosenthal and Romano’s stance in the comments section below.
— Additional Reporting by Damian Holbrook
Everybody Loves Raymond, Streaming now, Paramount+