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Everybody Loves Raymond - The Complete First Season
Actors: Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, and Brad Garrett
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Retail Price (not our price): $44.98
Release Date: 2004-09-14
Theatrical Release Date: 1996-09-13
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Run Time: 538 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Discs: 5


Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):

1) Amazon.com
"Hi, I'm Ray and I live here in Long Island with my wife, Debra." Thus Ray (Ray Romano) introduces himself in the opening to each episode of his Emmy-winning comedy series. He proceeds to mention their children (Ally, Michael, and Geoffrey), then notes as an aside, "It's not really about the kids." He's right--it isn't. They don't even appear in each episode. Everybody Loves Raymond looks like any other family sitcom, but isn't. Everything is just a little bit better. Sure, it isn't as clever as Seinfeld (on which Romano and Brad Garrett appeared in their early days) or as sophisticated as Frasier; nor is it trying to be. The real subject of the show is Ray's relationship with Debra (Patricia Heaton), parents Frank and Marie (Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle), and brother Robert (Garrett).Everybody Loves Raymond trains a microscope on the day-to-day ephemera of Ray's life. And since he's a sportswriter, a number of sports stars made guest appearances during the first season, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ("Frank, the Writer") and Terry Bradshaw ("Debra's Sick"), but this will happen less often in the years to come. On the surface, Ray has an ideal life, but he's always trying to please everyone; and someone inevitably feels left out. Sometimes it's Debra, sometimes Frank and Marie, sometimes Robert, and sometimes his buddies (including King of Queens star Kevin James). Then there are his in-laws (Katherine Helmond and Robert Culp). If this were a different kind of show, Ray would have a breakdown at the end of each episode, but instead he finds a solution to each problem--and it usually comes from Debra. In short order, Everybody Loves Raymond became a top-rated program, with several cast members winning Emmys--numerous times in the case of small-screen scene-stealer Doris Roberts. -- Kathleen C. Fennessy

2) Description
Standup comedian Ray Romano stars as Ray Barone, a successful sportswriter who deals with his brother and parents, who happen to live across the street. Patricia Heaton ("The Goodbye Girl"), Peter Boyle ("While You Were Sleeping"), Doris Roberts ("Remington Steele"), and Brad Garrett ("Gleason") round out the stellar cast.

Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

1) gives you much needed laugh   [Rating: 4 out of 5]
Excellent to have in your collection! I personally like CD-2,3,4,5 episodes more than CD-1 episodes.

2) Everybody Loves Raymond, Complete 1st Season   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This was a gift for my stepdad and along with the Second Season of Raymond, he loved it! I loved the ease of getting these DVDs and the short time it took to ship them...awesome!

3) Great Gift   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I bought this as a gift for my parents, this is one of their very favorite shows. They've never bought a DVD of a TV series before, so it was quite an eye-opener for them.

4) Why Everbody still loves this show?   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This show was probably a sleeper hit in a time of Friends and it's many copied sitcoms. This show is a family based sitcom with a stellar cast like New York Long Island comedian Ray Romano who finally got out of doing the standup routines that we knew him for finally got his own show like Drew Carey. The First season is still stellar when it comes to casting like PAtricia Heaton as the long-suffering wife and mother who stays home to take care of the kids. Ray's parents are perfectly casted with Emmy winners Peter Boyle and DOris Roberts as the veteran couple. Who doesn't love Frank and Marie? They live across the street from her son, his wife and grandchildren. THeir older son, Robert, lives with them also. He is played by another standup comedian, Brad Garrett. The show doesn't revolve around the children as much as it revolved around the interactions between Ray and Debra, Frank and Marie, Robert and Raymond, etc. Their plots are never stupid or out of this world or crazy like some shows. They all learn learn something from each other especially about tolerating each other's annoying habits like Marie comes over and criticizes Debra's household from cleaning to cooking, etc. According to Marie, Debra is sloppy and a terrible cook but she's not. Marie is acting like a typical mother-in-law and grandmother. Her husband, Frank, likes to sit with his zippers unzipped watching games. RObert is a police officer who always has an unhappy look on his face because his brother Raymond gets all the love including mom and dad. Ray is a sports writer who travels mostly in the first season. I love the episode in the first season where Debra's parents come from Connecticut and they are played by Robert Culp and Katherine Helmond to take the whole family out to a fancy French restaurant. Frank and Marie act like they have never been to somewhere there are too many silverware and glassware on the table and worrying about the cost. Ray remarks "your parents and my parents don't belong in the same state." After all, Debra's parents are cultured, world travellers who are planning a trip to Vietnam. Frank and Marie are just lucky enough to leave Long Island. They're just satisfied as they are but the two parents are worlds apart as we learn and Debra's upbringing included trips to museums and shows.

5) Great show!   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This show always has my husband and I laughing hysterically. We bought the first season on DVD for family, and hoped to spread the laughter that this show has provided us so often.