Why Ray Romano Was Worried About Everybody Loves Raymond's Title

The Writers Guild of America named "Everybody Loves Raymond" among the 101 best-written shows of all time, so no one can dispute that its creators knew what they were doing. However, Ray Romano — who plays Raymond Barone on the multi-Emmy Award-winning sitcom, which aired for nine seasons between 1997 and 2005 — originally questioned the decision to call it "Everybody Loves Raymond," even going as far as to protest the idea.

Recalling the experience in a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, series creator Phil Rosenthal explained that he chose the name "Everybody Loves Raymond" because he wanted to make an old-school comedy in the vein of "I Love Lucy," something to stand out from the snarky 1990s postmodernism of the best "Seinfeld" episodes. "Once you knew the show, you got that the title spoke to sibling rivalries, problems with parents, problems with your wife," Rosenthal noted. "Before I turned it in, I showed it to Ray. He said, 'You can't call it that because then we're asking for it. I'm named Raymond. I don't want that pressure of everybody having to love me.' The next thing is, 'Oh yeah? I don't.'"

The show's instant popularity and enduring legacy suggests that audiences had no issues with it being called "Everybody Loves Raymond," regardless of whether they liked or disliked the titular character. However, would the series have enjoyed the same levels of success if they went with one of Romano's ideas for a title?

Ray Romano's pleas to rename the sitcom didn't just fall on the ears of the "Everybody Loves Raymond" creator. He even tried to get Les Moonves, the former CEO of the CBS Corporation, to change it. In the aforementioned interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Phil Rosenthal recalled Moonves telling Romano that he'd be free to change the show's name to one of the actor's alternative ideas if "Everybody Loves Raymond" became one of the top 15 shows on television. In response, Romano came up with a litany of other titles, including such ideas as "Relating to Raymond," "Raymond's Tree," "That Raymond Guy," and even "Um, Raymond."  

"They were all terrible, which he admits now," Phil Rosenthal said. "He wrote them on a piece of paper, which we then framed and put up in our office." 

When the show did hit the top 15, Moonves reneged on his promise — arguing that now that they'd hit such a huge milestone, it was too late to change it. In the end, while maybe Romano didn't like the show's title, he probably appreciated being a leading star in one of television's all-time biggest sitcoms for almost a decade (even if its planned Robert and Amy spin-off never happened). What's more, being loved isn't the worst legacy to leave behind, either. Though it does come with one downside, as Rosenthal explained: "Every introduction for the rest of Ray's life will be, 'Here's the guy that everybody loves.'"