The 10 Best "Everybody Loves Raymond" Episodes

Picking your favorite Raymond episodes ultimately comes down to “which Everybody Loves Raymond do you like best?” Don’t get me wrong: unlike a lot of long-running series, Everybody Loves Raymond has no dramatic shifts in focus or approach. No new showrunner comes in at the halfway mark hellbent on “righting the ship”; there are no late-stage casting shake-ups designed to goose the ratings. The core characters in the pilot — sportswriter Ray Barone and his wife Debra, plus his parents Frank and Marie and brother Robert, who live across the street (thaaat’s right) — are the core characters in the finale. (Monica Horan, a recurring presence for seven seasons, is elevated to series principal near the end, but that stems from story-line, as her character marries into the family.) Showrunner Phil Rosenthal and writers Tucker Cawley, Steve Skrovan and Lew Schneider are there at the start and there at the end. Kathy Ann Stumpe pens her first script early in Season 1 and sticks around for five years; Aaron Shure and Tom Caltabiano come aboard a few seasons in and never leave. Stability in every department — nine years of it — is paramount to Raymond’s success.

And yet…