Analytical Episode Guide:Everybody Loves Raymond (Season 2, Part 5)

Let’s wrap up season 2…….

Season 2, Episode 21
Traffic School

Plot Summary-Robert tries out teaching traffic school to the family by using a puppet named Timmy

Nitpick of the episode- It drives me nuts when Robert says that if it had been Ray’s traffic school they all would have sat quietly. Does Robert not realize that the family does give Ray a hard time once in awhile too?

Best Line-“The binder’s not just a guide, Debra. The binder is… binding.”…Robert

Episode Fun Fact –Amazingly Timmy would appear again

Deleted Scenes-Frank and Marie about the answering machine

Syndication Edit-top of the teaser and the second act where Marie singles out ray for laughing at Robert (even though they all were)

Best Character-Frank, I love the “revenge” he gets on Timmy in the end!

Worst Character-Robert, this is his episode but seriously dude, get over it already

Final Thoughts-I’d really like to know where the heck this idea came from. This is an interesting dive into Roberts psyche. It gets downright uncomfortable. But as the episode goes on we see that the problem is Robert holds on to everything. The whole bit with Timmy is odd. I like the talk in the end between Ray and Robert, where Ray tells him being smothered was just as damaging as being neglected. And Rays right, Robert doesn’t own messed up. But it’s a decent episode especially for season 2.

Grade-B+

A Quick Look at the ELR Crossover’s

So I thought it was only appropriate to take a second and talk about the Everybody Loves Raymond crossover’s. CBS actually loved doing this back then, and so Ray appeared on a few shows. Let’s discuss them real quick:


Cosby, “Lucas Raymondicus”


Yeah no pic for this one. Hilton contacts Ray Barone after Ray writes that his father one a championship that Hilton actually won. Ray says Frank has been telling him that his whole life. At first Hilton is willing to along with the lie until Frank hogs to much glory. Peter Boyle obviously also appears, and this episode is a great example of what happens when you take a character and put him on a different show with different writers. All of Frank’s likeability is gone, and he’s just an insufferable ass! I have no copy so am going by memory from the one time I watched this episode, and hated it.



The Nanny, “The Reunion Show”

This was really just a quick cameo, probably to plug ELR, as Fran runs into Ray Barone at her high school reunion. Ray gets out some stand up lines regarding living near his parents and Fran notes how “everybody loved raymond!”. The funny thing is that Drescher and Romano really did go to the same high school together. My favorite part is the end of the bit, Fran notes that his wife (offscreen) looks annoyed that he is talking to them. Yeah sounds like Debra.

Analytical Episode Guide:Everybody Loves Raymond (Season 2, Part 4)

Season 2, Episode 16
The Checkbook



Plot Summary-When Ray says he could do the checkbook better than Debra, she gives him the chance.

Nitpick of the episode-OK so it’s been six weeks and Ray is already getting turned off by the power company. Um, what electric company just shuts customers off with no notice? And only after a month? And if they did notify Ray, how did Debra not become aware? Were there no phone calls? Did she avoid all the mail since Ray was doing the bills? And how in the world did Ray pay the bill first thing in the morning? They were open? And Debra didn’t notice the clocks were off or the fridge was defrosting? And did he really think making a fake checkbook was the answer? Even Debra asks why if he had time to make a fake checkbook didn’t he just do it right???  Arrrgh…. I think THIS CLIP sums it up!

Best Line-“Ray, when you’re on the Titanic, you load the lifeboats, you don’t stop to yell at the iceberg.”….Debra

Episode Fun Fact –The other officer in the bank scene is Ray Romano’s real brother

Deleted Scenes- none for the episode

Syndication Edit-top of the teaser, ray complaining about money, also Andy at Nemo’s before ray enters

Best Character-Robert, nice of him to lend ray the money but……..

Worst Character- Robert, not only is his asking Mari to give Ray check the contrived it’s just stupid since Robert isn’t that big of an idiot. He should know ray didn’t need Marie knowing what was going on.

Final Thoughts-This is one of those episodes that makes Ray a little too stupid. I can maybe buy that he had no idea how to balance a checkbook, but if he didn’t why didn’t he seek out help earlier? Some things you don’t fool around with which his friend Andy points out at one point. The scene at the bank is interesting since we don’t hear any dialogue we just see Ray panic to make the deposit before Debra could cash the check. Which is stupid because even then there’s no guarantee the money will be all available. But it’s a different kind of scene for this show and it’s always cool when shows try something different. This episode makes me appreciate computers today, I hated balancing the check book.

Grade-B-

Analytical Episode Guide:Everybody Loves Raymond (Season 2, Part 3)

Season 2 rolls on….



Season 2, Episode 11
The Letter

Plot Summary-After Marie ruins her party, Debra decides to writer her a letter.

Nitpick of the episode-NO NO NO NO!! You never put something like that in writing! I get Debra was angry, she had a right to be, but cool off first! If you put it in writing you can’t take it back (trust me I have some experience in this area). Ray says this but of course isn’t listened to. By the way, why didn’t she go to a friend’s house for the party? She could have avoided Marie and ray would have had the tv.

Best Line-“What in hell’s bathroom was that??”…Frank

Episode Fun Fact –First appearance of Gianni

Deleted Scenes-none for this episode

Syndication Edit- The teaser (shocker) establishing the Tupperware party

Best Character-Ray, poor guy does everything he can to prevent the letter from being read

Worst Character-Debra, sorry I can’t let you off the hook here. You brought this on yourself

Final Thoughts-I said last time that the series would basically become the family having arguments with each other. With no real structure or plot. This is the first time we see that, though it’s not to bad. Is Marie really such a baby that if Debra explained to her that she wanted to have a party with just her friends she would have a fit? Yeah she probably is, but still Debra had to know she would come over for one reason for another. Debra says only good can come from the letter, how? The last scene is great and the final conversation between Marie and Debra, though maybe the forgiveness is  a little fast. And why does she let Ray off the hook his friends ruined the party too? The best scene is Frank reading the letter, great moment. And we also see the first time despite his complaining Robert really cares for his family as he is moved to tears when Mare and Debra hug and make up. This will come up later.

Grade-A, quintessential episode

Analytical Episode Guide:Everybody Loves Raymond (Season 2, Part 2)

Let’s resume season 2 with some good episodes, well except one.




Season 2, Episode 6   
Anniversary

Plot Summary-At Marie and Frank’s anniversary Ray learns that the two almost got divorced when he was a kid.


Nitpick of the episode-How in the world did Ray not at least have some idea what was going on that year when his father left? Ok he was only six but still! Also it’s nice to see Amy, Robert has been dating her regularly but she’s hardly made appearances.

Best Line-“The next time you want to dance, give me notice so I can kill myself.”…Frank

Episode Fun Fact –Not sure but this could be the first use of Debra’s nickname for Ray, Idiot

Deleted Scenes-none for this episode

Syndication Edit-the teaser with Ray tying to sing the kids to sleep and then quite Debra

Best Character-Frank, I’m on his side; most salt lovers don’t wait to try the meat before reaching for the salt. Marie did overreact taking that way to personally! And I’m no salt lover by the way.

Worst Character-Ray, for the life of me I can’t understand why he had to nearly ruin the anniversary party just to hear the story of his parents almost splitting up. A story he should have known and was moot since they ended up staying together. Sometimes his selfishness astounds me.

Debra, Ok I gotta call a tie, rays and idiot for worrying if they’ll end up like his parents but later on Debra worries the same thing when her parents separate. Of course.

Final Thoughts-This is an interesting episode as it once again shows that while Marie and frank argue a lot, the truth is that they are comfortable in their situation. For whatever reason we see in the flashback Debra looked just like Marie and frank just like Ray. This is lame but let’s assume they didn’t feel like hiring actors for the roles so they came up with that as an excuse to explain it away. You gotta love the opening where ray and Robert try to plan the anniversary, it’s just like two guys to have no idea how to do it forcing Debra to step in. Of course she had fought against it.


Grade-A-

Top 10 Favorite Weird Al Songs

There are some music artists out there that I love so much, I can listen to their entire album and enjoy it. So maybe this year it’s time to go over some them, artists that I love and albums I adore. Today I wanted to start by discussing the master of song parody, Weird Al Yankovic

There aren’t to many artists out there I can say I loved as a kid and still love today. But we discovered Weird Al sometime in the 80’s, and I think my brother and I played that greatest hits album a million times. I just love how talented he is, and his parodies were great in the 80’s and are still great today. Ok I never saw UHF or anything, but some of my favorite songs are these silly parodies.


Rather than discuss the songs in that, admittedly old, album I wanted to cover the ten songs I love from any era. Here are my ten favorite:




#10.Everything You Know is Wrong
I can’t lie, I hadn’t really heard this song until it started being used by Nostalgia Critic and Linkara. I also put it here because he has done a lot of original songs, and so I needed one. There doesn’t seem to be an official video so enjoy the below.

Analytical Episode Guide:Everybody Loves Raymond (Season 2, Part 1)

 

Welcome to season 2 which featured a big adjustment to the series. And not just with the stories, which became less about Ray as a jerk. The set's were revamped a bit and the show was finally evolving into the one we would love. Let’s get started:





Season 2, Episode 1
Ray’s on TV

Plot Summary-Ray is mortified to find out his family has been lying to him his whole life.

Nitpick of the episode-Real easy one, Ray’s first time on TV was such a mess why in the world was he invited back for that second time? And has this show never heard of doing a rehearsal before going live!

Best Line-“I could’ve eaten a box of Alpha-Bits and crapped a better interview.”…Frank

Episode Fun Fact –We get some changes for the second season. The new opening (which is lame), and the living room has been given new wallpaper which is much brighter. Also the window near the door was adjusted, possibly to more closely reflect the house in the establishing shots. Frank and Marie’s kitchen has been improved and Robert is finally the character we would love for the rest of the series. They  say it’s because he lost weight but I get the feeling he got some notes during the summer. Finally Robert can enjoy himself once in awhile and stop acting, well, creepy.

Deleted Scenes-none for this episode

Syndication Edit-few second of teaser with ray saying goodbye to his parents

Best Character-Debra, she actually come off supportive  here!

Worst Character-Ray, because he’s Ray

Final Thoughts-This episode is such a relief after watching that first season. This is the show I love! Ok I’m not going to pretend this is the best episode ever. In fact it’s a little one sided with no B story at all. But it was a season premiere. The main premise of the episode is that parents always lie to their kids for their own good. I am not sure if the episodes really hits that as good as it could have, but watching ray accept his quirks is always fun. Though while I can forgive him for mispronouncing words not scratching the mic or talking after the show has started should have been common sense.

Grade-B+