'Everybody Loves Raymond' Creator Says the Iconic Show Couldn't Be Made Today

The legacy of Everybody Loves Raymond continues to stand alone 30 years after its premiere-and series creator Phil Rosenthal believes there's a reason the show couldn't be made today.

"They're not doing these types of shows anymore," Rosenthal told TV Insider while attending ATX TV Festival 2026 alongside star Ray Romano, adding, "They stopped kind of doing them when we were done."

Everybody Loves Raymond is singular not only for the era of network television in which it was made, but also for the era in the cast and crew's personal lives from which it drew inspiration.

"What's funny [is]… we could incorporate our lives into the characters because we were the same age as the characters," Rosenthal explained. "We were going through having little kids and being married… that time of life is fraught. There's a lot of pressure."

He continued, "It's fun to revisit the shows that we made, but because so many of our personal stories are in them, they're a little bit like watching home movies."

Romano and Rosenthal also spoke about how Everybody Loves Raymond got its title-and how Romano tried to change it-during a Saturday, May 30, panel at the 2026 ATX TV Festival.

Romano explained that when the show was starting, he told Rosenthal a story about his brother, and it ended up inspiring the name.

"My brother, who in real life is a New York City policeman, came home one day, saw that I got an award for some stand-up comedy that I did, and he said sarcastically, 'Raymond goes to work and they give him awards. I go to work, and people spit on me. Everybody loves Raymond,'" said Romano (via PEOPLE), who admittedly wanted the show to be called something else.

While the comedian was told by higher-ups at CBS that he could change the show's name if it made it into the top 10, when it did climb the charts in its second season, "I go, 'So now I can change it?'" Romano recalled. "And he goes, 'Well, you can't change it now!'"

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This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 7:39 AM.