LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Ray Romano is looking to return to television, this time on the drama side.

The former "Everybody Loves Raymond" star will play a slightly neurotic, divorced father on cable network TNT's pilot "Men of a Certain Age."

The character-based project will take a wry look at what it means to be a guy approaching midlife while also exploring the bonds of male friendship, all through the eyes of three college buddies who are in their 40s.

Romano will play Joe, who had dreams of being a pro golfer but instead owns and runs a party store. His two best friends are Owen, an overstressed black husband and father who is a car salesman at his dad's dealership, and Terry, an offbeat, handsome, intelligent and still struggling-to-make it actor.

Romano wrote the script with Mike Royce, a writer-producer from "Everybody Loves Raymond."

"Mike and I have always had success writing what we know," said Romano, aged 50. "What we know now is that we're middle-aged, neurotic and fat."

Romano won an Emmy for his starring role on "Raymond," which ended its nine-year run in 2005, and shared two best comedy series Emmys with the rest of the show's producing team. Coming up, he is set to reprise his voice role as Manny the woolly mammoth in the third installment of the animated "Ice Age" franchise.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Ray Romano is looking to return to television, this time on the drama side.

The former "Everybody Loves Raymond" star will play a slightly neurotic, divorced father on cable network TNT's pilot "Men of a Certain Age."

The character-based project will take a wry look at what it means to be a guy approaching midlife while also exploring the bonds of male friendship, all through the eyes of three college buddies who are in their 40s.

Romano will play Joe, who had dreams of being a pro golfer but instead owns and runs a party store. His two best friends are Owen, an overstressed black husband and father who is a car salesman at his dad's dealership, and Terry, an offbeat, handsome, intelligent and still struggling-to-make it actor.

Romano wrote the script with Mike Royce, a writer-producer from "Everybody Loves Raymond."

"Mike and I have always had success writing what we know," said Romano, aged 50. "What we know now is that we're middle-aged, neurotic and fat."

Romano won an Emmy for his starring role on "Raymond," which ended its nine-year run in 2005, and shared two best comedy series Emmys with the rest of the show's producing team. Coming up, he is set to reprise his voice role as Manny the woolly mammoth in the third installment of the animated "Ice Age" franchise.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter


A "Ray" of sunshine - pun intended. I bet he & the show will be great.

The problem with Ray Ramono is that is the only thing he is, Ray Ramano. More or less the guy you see on ELR is him, only richer. You'll never see him in a gangster movie, or something dramatic or dark, the man has no range for that. He became rich by being him. Same with Jerry Seinfeld. Same guy on camera and off camera.

Both of these men got rich and famous just by being them, and that is how we are always going to see them.

Senor

I hope he can do drama as good as comedy. That's all I'm saying so far.

The problem with Ray Ramono is that is the only thing he is, Ray Ramano. More or less the guy you see on ELR is him, only richer. You'll never see him in a gangster movie, or something dramatic or dark, the man has no range for that. He became rich by being him. Same with Jerry Seinfeld. Same guy on camera and off camera.

Both of these men got rich and famous just by being them, and that is how we are always going to see them.

Senor

That's so true, but I can see Ray doing a dramatic part. This is just a TV movie, right? Or is it a pilot for a TV series? The bad thing about comedians trying to do comedy, as you pointed out Senor, is that people are always going to laugh at whatever they say. Remember when Jerry Seinfeld was on the Tonight Show and Michael Richards was on camera apologizing for his racist remark? People were laughing during the apology, because they only saw him as Kramer for all those years. It must be hard trying to transition from one genre to another.

Andrea

Romano will play Joe, who had dreams of being a pro golfer but instead owns and runs a party store. His two best friends are Owen, an overstressed black husband and father who is a car salesman at his dad's dealership, and Terry, an offbeat, handsome, intelligent and still struggling-to-make it actor.

Romano wrote the script with Mike Royce, a writer-producer from "Everybody Loves Raymond."

"Mike and I have always had success writing what we know," said Romano, aged 50. "What we know now is that we're middle-aged, neurotic and fat."

Realy, A drama, Dosn't seem like Ray!