63EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND - TIE

Aired: CBS, 1996-2005

There was always something deceptively simple on display, in both its straightforward concept and skillful execution. Ray Romano had a well-developed sense of his comedy from years as a standup when he teamed with Phil Rosenthal, a former actor who had written for series like Baby Talk and Coach. Together they made if not TV history then something like it an intelligently done, four-camera family sitcom during an era when the rest of the sitcom business seemed to be doing cartwheels to figure out what people wanted to watch. Rosenthal, describing the kind of show he wanted to do, referred to how he'd read that Carl Reiner, on The Dick Van Dyke Show, would get story ideas by asking his writers, "What happened at your house this week?" "I thought that Everybody Loves Raymond could be the perfect vehicle for such thinking," Rosenthal said.