Oh, how I miss the era of late 90s and early 2000s family sitcoms. You know, the type with some dolt of a guy somehow married to a woman out of his league. They now have a home and several kids together, but the guy is such an idiot who always gets himself into trouble and leaves his significant other annoyed. While there may have been many shows that followed this trope, none did it better than Everybody Loves Raymond. It had a perfect cast, with Patricia Heaton as the put-upon wife, Debra, Brad Garrett as Robert, the ignored brother with self-esteem issues, and Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts as the most terrifying (and thus hilarious) in-laws imaginable. Still, with Raymond in the title, the series belongs to Ray Barone (Ray Romano). He’s as stupid and selfish as it gets. Part of the humor is about him getting in trouble for his behavior, and while that led to lots of laughs, one episode in particular makes it hard to laugh at Ray at all.
Ray Barone Is Like If Jerry Seinfeld Married and Had Kids
I was a teenager when Everybody Loves Raymond first came out. I had no idea who Ray Romano was, but I remember reading a review somewhere that described Everybody Loves Raymond as Seinfeld meets Home Improvement. Being a fan of both shows, that description got me to check it out. What I discovered was very accurate. It did feel a lot like Home Improvement, with a doofus of a dad, a smart wife, and a house filled with kids. Tim Taylor (Tim Allen) may constantly get himself in trouble, but at the same time, he is always there for his family and loves spending time with his kids.
But that’s not who Ray Barone is. He is selfish. Life revolves around him and his wants, and if he doesn’t get his way, he complains about it. Blame it on how he was raised, with his mom praising his every move, but that’s where the Seinfeld comparison came in. They are the most self-absorbed cast of people you’d ever meet. Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) is the worst of all, having a new girlfriend every week. But what if Jerry did get married and have kids, but couldn’t give up his selfish ways? Now you’ve got Ray Barone. Although Jerry and Ray would not be likable people in real life, the tone of the shows they are in, along with the funny performances of the actors who play them, makes them easy to laugh at rather than loathe. But in one Everybody Loves Raymond episode, even the biggest fan will hate him.
In the ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Episode “A Vote for Debra,” Ray Is At His Worst
Ray Barone does a lot of horrible things. In one episode, he ditches his wife when she’s running late. In another, he accidentally tapes over their wedding video with the Super Bowl. At least those moments can be excused as a misunderstanding and an honest mistake, but in Season 6’s “A Vote for Debra,” Ray knows exactly what he’s doing when he hurts his wife.
In the episode, Debra wants to find a way to get out of the house. She works hard being a stay-at-home mom and raising three kids (and a husband), so it’s understandable that she’d need to get away and make a difference elsewhere. She finds this by deciding to run for school board president. It starts with her simply going to meetings and coming home with a big smile on her face. Meanwhile, Ray is grumpy because he had to watch the kids, saying of his twin sons, “I know that I’m supposed to love them, but why do they make it so freaking hard?” Debra is so ecstatic when she tells Ray that she’s going to run for president. Ray doesn’t share this enthusiasm at all because it will mean she’s gone at night for meetings, and Ray will have to watch his kids instead of TV.
There is only one other person running for president, and even if Ray is mildly supportive of his wife, it’s no surprise what he does next. Ray, not wanting to lose Debra being at home, votes against her! Debra narrowly loses the election, leading to an angry outburst taken out on a coat rack at home. Ray is consoling in his own way, but because the comedy is in the comeuppance, Deb, of course, finds out what Ray did. With his guilt getting the best of him, Ray confesses simply through his body language that he didn’t vote for his own wife. Even his mother can’t defend him this time.
Related
‘Everybody Loves Raymond,’ but Actually No One Should!
It’s a wonder how anyone put up with Ray Barone’s attitude.
Ray Gets Away With His Behavior Because of a Mistake Debra Made
Ray is scared, but Deb is redder than the blouse she’s wearing. She is justified in her anger, especially when Ray shows no remorse and plays dumb. If anything, he’s manipulative, saying that he voted against Deb to protect her. Deb is no dummy, though, and sees right through him. She saw how he constantly complained when she had the nerve to go to two whole meetings, adding, “We all know why you didn’t vote for me, Ray. Because you were afraid that if I win, I might get out of this house, and you might have to get off your butt once in a while and do something.”
Ray, as so often happens, is given an out when Debra makes a mistake of her own. An earlier scene at a pot-luck dinner had a nervous Ray stuffing meat into his pockets while everyone watched. Filled with rage, Deb admits she was so embarrassed by Ray that she told people she didn’t know him. This crushes Ray. His own wife denied knowing him. He’s so heartbroken that Deb immediately apologizes because she loves her husband so much. Hurting him is the last thing she’d ever want to do. That is the serious moment of the episode where the studio audience goes quiet, not what Ray did to Deb. He does apologize right after, as he always does, but Deb is the one who has to admit that she got carried away, and Ray acts like he was proven right. Wait, so the tables have turned, and in the end, Debra is portrayed as the bigger jerk? What?
Ray and Deb do reconcile, and the next time we see them, they’re smiling and happy. But then Debra gets a call from the new school president, who wants her help at meetings. Deb is thrilled to help, but Ray’s happiness immediately fades away. When his son calls out for his mommy because he peed the bed, Ray grumbles that he is the one who has to clean it up. He is supportive enough to go to a meeting, but he treats it like a joke, yet again embarrassing Deb in front of everyone. He may have learned his lesson in the moment, but it never leads to long-term changed behavior. Yes, I know Everybody Loves Raymond wouldn’t exist if he were the ultra-supportive husband and dad (where’s the comedy in that), but the fact that he’ll do the same selfish things in the next episode is why sometimes everybody hates Raymond.
- Release Date
-
1996 – 2004
- Network
-
CBS
- Showrunner
-
Phil Rosenthal
-
-
Patricia Heaton
Debra Barone
