Recently I've found some of the outright hatred of Everybody Loves Raymond on its board here at S.O. to be somewhat unsettling. It seems like for some, there is absolutely nothing they like about the premise, the characters, repeating themes - nothing - going as far as to complain about the sound of Romano's voice. So I thought I would try taking refuge here, probably in a mistaken belief I can avoid coming under attack myself if I attempted any defense.

I was a pretty big fan of ELR and Brad Garrett back when I first checked out 'Til Death and I liked it too. I liked all of the actors first and foremost.
I couldn't say that about some other series of the era (for example even though I'd watched Home Improvement regularly, I never much cared for the 2 older sons).

I thought TD would endure. The intro of Kenny in Season 2 was an interesting twist. I just think TD had a lot of potential, there's something about Garrett that screams to me "sitcom lead actor" and Joely Fisher was compelling in her role. Unfortunately, its demise was not an unusual type of fate at the time and good series have continued to get the axe prematurely/unmercifully as time has gone on.

Anyway, I thought there were great episodes and even hysterically funny ones of both series, and I would guess that lots of other ELR fans went on to TD.

It's weird the way people choose shows. I'm just barely aware of this one, and part of the reason is the name. Coming out of the 1980s, I got used to the idea that shows whose names were everyday sayings would be uninteresting domestic sitcoms. Diff'rent Strokes, Facts of Life, Silver Spoons, Who's the Boss, Full House. So "'Til Death" wouldn't have gotten much attention from me unless it created an awful lot of "buzz."

A second thing is that, though I like Raymond quite a bit, I didn't stay with it all the way to the end so there was no carryover to a new show. I think a lot of shows from that era - Frasier, Friends, King of Queens, Raymond - really wrung the last dollars out of the shows, and until the last couple of years I hadn't seen the finales of any of them.

Recently I've found some of the outright hatred of Everybody Loves Raymond on its board here at S.O. to be somewhat unsettling. It seems like for some, there is absolutely nothing they like about the premise, the characters, repeating themes - nothing - going as far as to complain about the sound of Romano's voice.

It WAS shocking.

The program was very popular and went 9 seasons. In the present time it been a popular primetime staple on TV Land, for years.