Janice
10-27-2003, 12:54 PM
Raymond Mama Issues Ultimatum
by Daniel R. Coleridge
TV GUIDE Insider
Will Everybody Loves Raymond wrap its run at the end of Season Eight? Star Ray Romano and executive producer Phil Rosenthal won't make that decision until January or February. But we've heard Ray's TV mom, Doris Roberts, has threatened to spank him if he calls it quits. "Oh, I'll do more than that," she tells TV Guide Online. "I'll choke him!"
She's kidding, folks. Um, we think. "The thing is that they have been writing these scripts for eight years now," the recent Emmy-winner says. "They think they won't have good ideas anymore or they'll repeat. But the shows this year are the best they've ever been! For instance, last week, we taped one where everybody lies. Everybody, including the kids, tells white lies that get everybody in trouble. It's great! And in the episode that we're taping now, Deborah has maneuvered her own surprise birthday party. Deborah is unbelievable. She's arranged the whole thing the way she wants it for herself, with a Chinese motif, but she plays like it's a surprise.
"Raymond is based on minute little things that happen in the family that are real," Roberts adds. "I loved the one that aired about the newest daughter-in-law that I have, Amy. She had to send thank-you notes for her wedding gifts, and I wouldn't get off her back. I just stayed on it and stayed on it... If that were my mother-in-law, I'd sock her!"
As Roberts explains it, the role of a pushy mama like Marie Barone requires a delicate balance. "It's very cunning and clever, what I do," the 72-year-old actress says proudly. "Because I have a deep voice. If I played Marie like that, she's be too formidable. 'Oh wow, that's a virago, I don't want to get near her.' But I play it with a high voice. So I walk a very thin line of being a big pain in the butt, absolutely a control freak, absolutely in their face about everything, but you laugh at me. And if you can laugh at me, you can laugh at your own mother-in-law. You have to, 'cause they're big problems!"
by Daniel R. Coleridge
TV GUIDE Insider
Will Everybody Loves Raymond wrap its run at the end of Season Eight? Star Ray Romano and executive producer Phil Rosenthal won't make that decision until January or February. But we've heard Ray's TV mom, Doris Roberts, has threatened to spank him if he calls it quits. "Oh, I'll do more than that," she tells TV Guide Online. "I'll choke him!"
She's kidding, folks. Um, we think. "The thing is that they have been writing these scripts for eight years now," the recent Emmy-winner says. "They think they won't have good ideas anymore or they'll repeat. But the shows this year are the best they've ever been! For instance, last week, we taped one where everybody lies. Everybody, including the kids, tells white lies that get everybody in trouble. It's great! And in the episode that we're taping now, Deborah has maneuvered her own surprise birthday party. Deborah is unbelievable. She's arranged the whole thing the way she wants it for herself, with a Chinese motif, but she plays like it's a surprise.
"Raymond is based on minute little things that happen in the family that are real," Roberts adds. "I loved the one that aired about the newest daughter-in-law that I have, Amy. She had to send thank-you notes for her wedding gifts, and I wouldn't get off her back. I just stayed on it and stayed on it... If that were my mother-in-law, I'd sock her!"
As Roberts explains it, the role of a pushy mama like Marie Barone requires a delicate balance. "It's very cunning and clever, what I do," the 72-year-old actress says proudly. "Because I have a deep voice. If I played Marie like that, she's be too formidable. 'Oh wow, that's a virago, I don't want to get near her.' But I play it with a high voice. So I walk a very thin line of being a big pain in the butt, absolutely a control freak, absolutely in their face about everything, but you laugh at me. And if you can laugh at me, you can laugh at your own mother-in-law. You have to, 'cause they're big problems!"