Lots of classic television shows are getting rebooted and revived on television nowadays, but Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal isn't at all eager to have his hit sitcom become one of them. Rosenthal, who currently hosts Netflix's superb food and travel show Somebody Feed Phil, spoke with CinemaBlend about the new batch of episodes coming to his Netflix series, but after I brought Everybody Loves Raymond up, he quickly shut down the notion that he has any interest in bringing the classic CBS comedy back to television. In his words:
I know what you're going to ask and the answer is no. I'll never say never, but look, we lost three of our cast members, right? It's never going to be the same again, it can't be. Plus these shows usually aren't the same again anyway. We did the show exactly the way we wanted to. If you love the show and love those characters, they're still available, thankfully, in syndication. You can always visit your friends. . . . I think to try and recreate that (now), it's like we don't ask football players at 70 years old to go out on the field and let us tackle them again, right?
Phil Rosenthal has some sound reasoning for not wanting to bring Everybody Loves Raymond back for a revival in 2018 or beyond. As recent events have shown, revivals can be very different from the show they originally came from, which isn't always ideal. In the case of Everybody Loves Raymond, this would be especially true, considering both of the actors who played Ray's parents, Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle, passed away in recent years, as did actor Sawyer Sweeten, who played twin son Geoffrey.
The absence of Ray's parents, or any other main characters for that matter, would change the dynamic of the series greatly, even if things were explained properly, and it still wouldn't be the sitcom everyone remembered. Rosenthal did add that anyone who does want to see Everybody Loves Raymond characters on a regular basis can easily still do so quite often, as the show is still in syndication, so they should continue to enjoy that.
Phil Rosenthal was pretty adamant about not doing a revival in his interview, but even he can subscribe to the old adage of "never say never." It may not mean he will ever change his mind on bringing Ray and the family back to television for a proper revival, but Rosenthal may have something to offer fans as a consolation, saying that he would feasibly be up for an Everybody Loves Raymond reunion show of sorts.
Here's what I would do. I would happily do a reunion show where we get together and we reminisce about the show. You can see how everybody looks if you're interested. You can see them interacting. They're pretty close to their characters anyway. And we can show clips and tell stories about the times we had, and that way you can revisit them now.
That idea probably comes the closest to nailing down what fans might be most comfortable with at this point. The departed cast members could be honored properly through clips and conversations, and all without any potentially polarizing explanations for where the characters went. Plus, a reunion special could quite literally have fans reliving the show's best moments, as opposed to Rosenthal and other writers attempting to recapture everything that fans fell in love with the first go-around. Plus, a mini-reunion wouldn't take him away from his work on Somebody Feed Phil, so no worries there. Let us know in the poll below what you guys think.
Somebody Feed Phil : The Second Course will debut on Netflix on July 6, so be sure to get your appetites ready. For a list of other programming headed to Netflix in the near future, make sure to visit and bookmark our Netflix premiere guide. Those looking for a more general offering of what's coming to television in the next few weeks can find out by heading on over to our summer premiere guide.
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