Despite its multitude of awards and millions of fans, it may surprise you to learn that not everybody loved RAYMOND when it originally aired on CBS from 1996 thru 2005. More surprising still, it took until last December — courtesy of a 16 hour road trip spent listening to creator Phil Rosenthal’s autobiography “You’re Lucky You’re Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom.” — to realize that we completely missed out on what is hands down one of television’s funniest sitcoms.
Since then, our love affair with RAYMOND has blossomed to the point that when we were recently offered the opportunity to interview Phil Rosenthal about his latest project Exporting Raymond, a documentary arriving in theaters today that chronicles his hilarious journey of transporting RAYMOND to Russia, we jumped at the chance.
One of the things that really comes across in your “book is your commitment to RAYMOND. In fact, you stuck with the show throughout its nine year run, which nowadays is somewhat of a rarity for showrunners. That being said, just how apprehensive were you about handing over your legacy to Russia?
Phil Rosenthal: It was very hard to let someone else do that but here’s what I thought was going to happen. The head of Sony called me into his office a few years ago and said, “You know, Sony created the sitcom business in Russia.” Turns out, the sitcom did not exist in Russia until Sony brought THE NANNY over there and they translated it into a huge hit. So the head of Sony asked me how would I like to go over to Russia, obverse how they make make sitcoms and then come back and write a fictional feature film about a guy who goes over there to have his show translated. And I said, “Well, that sounds good but if the situation really exists why not bring a camera crew and film what would really happen.” He loved the idea, asked if I would be the guy, and like an idiot I said yes.