Why This ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Spinoff Never Got Made
What To Know
- After Everybody Loves Raymond ended in 2005, there were plans for a spinoff series focused on Robert and Amy, played by Brad Garrett and Monica Horan.
- The spinoff would have followed the couple as they moved to Pennsylvania and interacted with Amy’s family, but CBS was only interested if a pilot was produced.
- The project ultimately fell through because the original writers pursued other opportunities, and the creative team felt a spinoff wouldn’t work without them.
It takes a lot to make a series a hit — you have to have the right group of people, including actors, writers and producers, to find that TV magic and create a long-running, beloved show. Everybody Loves Raymond was one of those shows, running from 1996 to 2005 and spending most of those years among the top 10 most-watched shows in America. After nine years, fans said goodbye to the Barone family, but many weren’t quite ready for it, so there had been talks about doing a spinoff series starring Brad Garrett, who played Raymond’s brother Robert. However, one piece of the puzzle didn’t fit — the network wasn’t ready to greenlight the show without a pilot.
What would the Everybody Loves Raymond spinoff have been about?
The sequel series would have been centered around Robert and his new wife, Amy, played by the show creator Phil Rosenthal‘s real-life wife, Monica Horan. At the time, Garrett said, according to MeTV, “It’s been pure conjecture, and I think (CBS) is smart not to bring it up right now. Sure, I’d love to do my own show, but this [Everybody Loves Raymond] is an ensemble show. But I also know that, if we do not do any more seasons, that the writers are very talented and have their own deals to do other things.”
CBS/Everett Collection
Rosenthal added, according to TV Line, “We had a spin-off ready right after Raymond went off the air, and the reason that I wanted to do this spin-off was to keep the writers together, but to do a different show. We thought we could use some of the characters and send them into a different world, in a different setting, but CBS didn’t want it.” Rosenthal added that the show may have seen Robert and Amy moving to live with her family in Pennsylvania, and getting new jobs, with Chris Elliott starring as Amy’s brother, Peter.
Why the Everybody Loves Raymond spinoff was never made
Ultimately, CBS said it would approve the show only if it saw a pilot, but the writers wanted guaranteed jobs and looked elsewhere. “There were some creative choices that really had to come to pass to make that spin-off make sense,” Garrett said during another interview. “Like the writing. We couldn’t get the writers that Raymond had. They were all on their own things. And it didn’t make sense to do a spin-off with writers that weren’t familiar.”
Remind 
February 2021
1990s Rom-Coms
Pop some popcorn and cozy up to feel-good movies and TV shows from a generation ago.
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