Sunday, March 04, 2007

Raymond Barone (Ray Romano)

Ray Romano plays the role of Raymond Barone, the favorite child of Frank Barone (Peter Boyle) and Marie Barone (Doris Roberts). He is married to Debra Barone (Patricia Heaton) and has three children, Michael and Geoffrey Barone (Sullivan and Sawyer Sweeten) and Alexandra (Ally) Barone (Madylin Sweeten). Ray grew up in a unbalanced household where one parent nourtured, sometimes to an extreme, while the other tried to mess up his wife's work. This may have led to him having psychological weaknesses. Raymond barely helps out his wife (Debra) around the house or with the kids, partially due to the fact that he is a sportswriter and is on the road a lot with professional sports teams covering the games. When he is around, he just watches television. Ray and Debra are constantly being bothered by Frank and Marie, who continuously "barge" into their house uninvited. This leaves him to wonder why he even moved in across the street from them in the first place. But Ray welcomes his father and brother in sometimes to watch the game with him. Ray has a fear of confronting his mother when she does things that annoy him. The psychological hold that his mother has on him puzzles Debra sometimes. Ray has little concern for important material. For example, one episode shows Ray taping over their wedding video with a Super Bowl from the early-90's.