The Best Episodes Of Everybody Loves Raymond

In 1996, comedian Ray Romano partnered with writer and producer Phil Rosenthal to develop a sitcom based on Romano's comedy. The result was one of the greatest TV comedies not just of the 1990s, but of all time.

The story of sportswriter Ray Barone (Romano), his put-upon wife Debra (Patricia Heaton), his overbearing mother Marie (Doris Roberts), wise-cracking father Frank (Peter Boyle), and brother Robert (Brad Garrett), the series followed the life of the Barone family in their Long Island neighborhood as the grappled with everything from marital strife to parenting woes to the joys and challenges of having your parents living right across the street.

Over the course of nine years on the air, "Everybody Loves Raymond" released more than 200 episodes, became a ratings hit, won 15 Emmy Awards (including two for Outstanding Comedy Series), and has since became a syndication phenomenon. It seems like "Raymond" is always on somewhere, and there are dozens of great episodes — but what are the ones you need to watch if you want the very best? That's why we're here. From Ray and Debra's household battles to Robert's love life, these are the best episodes of "Everybody Loves Raymond," 25 years after its premiere.

One of the backbones of the comedy, and sometimes the drama, of "Everybody Loves Raymond" is the relationship between Debra and her overbearing mother-in-law, Marie. Dozens of episodes over the course of the show's run explore their conflict and the highs and lows of their lives together, but one of the best came very early in "Raymond" history.

In "The Letter," Debra decides to break out a nuclear option after Marie shows up unexpectedly at a party she's throwing for her friends and butt in, ruining the event in the process. Debra is so overcome with rage that she decides to write Marie a letter telling her exactly what she thinks of her. The rest of the episode deals with the fallout, as Ray reacts to his wife actually sending the letter and Marie decides to respond with a little writing of her own.

This episode ranks among the show's best for a number of reasons, not least of which is its ability to wrench surprising heart and vulnerability out of what's ultimately the story of two women trading insults. No matter how heated "Raymond" got, it always came back to love, and this is the one of the best examples of that.

"Everybody Loves Raymond" work so well in part because its characters were designed to be relatable representations of every American family — while also verging into near-cartoonish territory whenever the show's premises called for it. There's perhaps no better example of this than Frank Barone, Peter Boyle's gruff, wise-cracking father who'd rather sit in front of the TV and eat than do pretty much anything else.

Frank's persona was already pretty well-defined by the time the character made it to the show's third season, but "Frank's Tribute" forever cemented exactly the kind of guy he was. In the episode, Ray and Robert are tasked with collecting video testimonials about their father for an award he's about to receive ... but when they go to Frank's lodge to ask his "friends" to talk about him, they find that no one actually has anything nice to say. Their fix, and Frank's response to it, is hilarious — but by the end of the episode "Frank's Tribute" also betrays a certain tenderness, revealing a depth to Frank that ends up making all the over-the-top reactions that much more resonant.

One of the most famous running jokes on "Everybody Loves Raymond" is the fact that Debra can't really cook. When she does cook, she seems to always make only one thing — lemon chicken — and when she tries to get adventurous with food it's usually met with skepticism and more than a few barbs thrown by Marie. So naturally, when she finally figures out how to make something else that tastes good, it throws the whole family into disarray.

The "something" in "Debra Makes Something Good" is braciole, an Italian stuffed beef dish that all the Barone men quickly go crazy for. Marie is, of course, unhappy with this. What throws things even more out of whack is what happens when Debra finds out that Ray is still making jokes about her cooking at work, despite her newfound gift for braciole. Throw in Frank's sudden obsession with his daughter-in-law's kitchen, and you've got one of the show's most well-constructed instant classics.

There's a lot of yelling in "Everybody Loves Raymond." Ray yells at Debra, Robert yells at Ray, Frank yells at Marie, and on some occasions everyone yells at each other. The writers were always able to insert an element of relatability into each of the key fights, then cap them off with expressions of love. Nowhere is that better exemplified than in the Season 6 premiere, "The Angry Family."

The episode begins with the family gathered at school to watch one of Ray and Debra's son read a story he wrote for his class. When they realize the story is called "The Angry Family," and it's about a group of adults who never stop yelling at each other, the whole Barone crew is mortified. What follows is a half-hour of serious self-examination that culminates in a meeting with a priest and a family counselor, as the Barone adults try to reckon with what exactly made the kid write that story in the first place. It's "Raymond" at its most meta-textual, as the characters themselves pick apart the entire dynamic of the show, and it's great fun to watch.

One of Ray's defining personality traits is his discomfort with certain kinds of intimacy, something that creates friction with Debra. While his wife is very in touch with her feelings, Ray struggles to access certain areas of his emotions, thanks in part to his upbringing. Still, sometimes he's determined to break through that barrier, with hilarious consequences.

In "Talk to Your Daughter," Ray decides he will prove to Debra that he's a mature adult by talking to their daughter Ally (Madylin Sweeten) about sex. When Ray gets into the room for The Talk, though, he finds that Ally isn't asking how babies are made, but why babies exist in the first place. His daughter's question about the meaning of life itself throws Ray for a loop, which then extends to the entire Barone family, as the adults are left reeling from this single simple question. It's one of the more philosophically daring "Raymond" episodes, and yet it never stops being completely relatable.

Because so much of "Everybody Loves Raymond" centers on the ins and outs of married life, some of the best episodes in the show's history are focused on very simple premises that allows Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton to just go at each other for half an hour. There are quite a few such episodes, but the best might be "Baggage."

The setup is extremely straightforward. Ray and Debra come home from a family trip and Ray sets a big suitcase full of dirty clothes on the stair landing right next to the living room. Then it sits there, and sits there, and sits there, because neither Ray nor Debra thinks that they should be the one to move it, and neither of them is willing to back down in the face of the other's pressure. So, with input from both Frank and Marie, the couple engages in a full-on battle of wills over a single suitcase. It's one of the best episodes of pure marriage pettiness in a show full of them.

With a couple of exceptions, "Everybody Loves Raymond" was a thoroughly episodic show, meaning you could dip into any episode at any time and enjoy it. There were no major dangling storylines to wrap up as the series came to an end after nine seasons, which meant the writers had to craft a satisfying conclusion without drawing from a larger plot.

What they eventually landed on for "The Finale" is a pitch-perfect farewell that blends the heart and humor of the series with a certain momentary sense of danger. The episode follows the family as Ray is set to have a minor surgical procedure, then reveals what happens when, for just a moment, something goes very wrong. In the split second when it seems like Ray might not wake up, every member of the Barone clan has something different to say and do about it, and that gives each of them a final word in the series on how they feel about Ray, and each other. It's a poignant goodbye that also packs a feather-light touch.