Product Description

Standup comedian Ray Romano stars as Ray Barone, a successful sportswriter who deals with his brother and parents, who happen to live across the street. Patricia Heaton ("The Goodbye Girl"), Peter Boyle ("While You Were Sleeping"), Doris Roberts ("Remington Steele"), and Brad Garrett ("Gleason") round out the stellar cast.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Three optional audio commentaries ("Italy", "Young Girl," and "The Canister" with series creator Phil Rosenthal, Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, and writer Tom Caltabiano
Other:Never-before-seen Bloopers and Deleted Scenes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5349 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-12-06
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 750 minutes

Amazon.com
The beloved sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond would be as brutal as a Strindberg drama if it didn't make familial bitterness so genuinely funny. Stand-up comedian Ray Romano (Ice Age) plays Ray Barone, a sportswriter married to Debra (the sharp and sexy Patricia Heaton) who has the misfortune to live just across the street from his invasive, bickering parents Frank and Marie (Peter Boyle, Young Frankenstein, and Doris Roberts, Remington Steele). Rounding out the cast is Ray's neglected older brother Robert (Brad Garrett, Gleason), whose every accomplishment has been ignored because his parents prefer to dote on the younger, cuter Ray. Robert, whose gloomy mug and huge size makes him loom over Ray like some malevolent alter-ego, is actually more honest and sensitive to the needs of others than is Ray, who's both self-centered and too eager to please--an impossible balance that Romano spins to great comic effect.

The fifth season presents the show at the peak of its strength. The season opener, a two-part story about a trip to Italy, degenerates into schmaltz, but immediately afterward Everyone Loves Raymond regains its bearings and launches into series of deftly played and skillfully written domestic skirmishes between husband and wife or parent and child. Episodes range from an explosive fight over wallpaper (a fan favorite) to anxiety over Ray's twin sons playing fairies in a school performance to the separation of Debra's seemingly perfect parents (Katherine Helmond, Brazil, and Robert Culp, I Spy). It's hard to imagine that any other show could get away with such a morbid view of marriage. In one episode, Ray and Debra panic when they realize they're running out of things to talk about; but after they witness Ray's parents having a meal without speaking a single word (a hypnotic pas de deux between Boyle and Roberts), Debra persuades herself that being quiet with each other is true intimacy...but the show never tells you whether she's discovered marital zen or if she's just rationalizing the inevitable emotional heat-death of a life-long commitment. Robert's romantic troubles recur throughout the season, culminating in the nightmare of having his ex-girlfriends meet to hash out everything that's wrong with him. Just a slight adjustment in tone would make Everyone Loves Raymond a bleak indictment of how people can be cruelest to those closest to them; instead, it's a cunningly comic celebration of how people can be cruelest to those closest to them. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

More Everybody Loves Raymond Perfection Right on Schedule!
I am so impressed with the timeliness in which they are releasing the ELR seasons on DVD. This is the way it should be! Here's the episode guide for Season 5:

1. Italy (Part 1) - When Marie surprises the family with the news that she's treating them all to a two-week vacation in Rome, everybody loves the idea--except Raymond.

2. Italy (Part 2) - When Marie surprises the family with the news that she's treating them all to a two-week vacation in Rome, everybody loves the idea--except Raymond.

3. The Wallpaper - After Ray and Debra lose their cool when Frank and Marie pull the ultimate unannounced visit to their home, Ray finally reaches the breaking point with his parents and kicks them out of his house.

4. Meant to Be - Robert finds himself in the most unlikely position of having to choose one of three women--girlfriend Amy, ex-wife Joanne or Italian bombshell Stefania--to share the future with him.

5. Pet Cemetery - Ray inadvertently commits "pet-slaughter" on Ally's hamster while Debra and the kids are away for the weekend.

6. The Author - The competition for attention between Ray and Robert reaches an all-time high with the brothers ending up in a fight. Ray's dreams of authoring a sports book get squashed when the publishing company takes a pass on it, just as Robert receives the good news that he is being promoted to lieutenant.

7. The Walk to the Door - Ray is mortified when he meets a girl whom he dated 25 years earlier and believes he treated with disrespect.

8. Young Girl - Robert starts to date a 22-year old woman and Marie and Debra don't think it is right.

9. Fighting In-Laws - While celebrating Thanksgiving, Debra discovers that her seemingly contented parents are really not very happy with each other.

10. The Sneeze - Ray fears that he is going to come down with something dreadful after someone sneezes on him.

11. Christmas Present - Ray buys Debra an elaborate Christmas gift in the hopes that she will be so impressed, she will let him go on a weekend golf trip with his buddies.

12. What Good Are You? - When Ray doesn't react to Debra's choking everyone makes fun of him so he tries to be more attentive in similar situations.

13. Super Bowl - Ray gets to go to the Super Bowl and cover it for his newspaper. He brings Gianni but feels bad about not having brought Debra when he sees that all the other reporters brought their wives.

14. Ray's Journal - Ray is mortified when he realizes that Marie used to read the personal journal he kept as a teenager.

15. Silent Partners - Ray and Debra discover that they have nothing to talk about except the kids.

16. Fairies - Ray is upset when he finds out that Debra signed up Michael and Geoffrey to play fairies in a school play.

17. Stefania Arrives - Robert gets a surprise visit from Stefania, the woman with whom he fell head over heels in love when the Barones vacationed in Italy.

18. Humm Vac - Ray purchases a new state-of-the-art vacuum cleaner from an attractive door to door saleswoman and it ignites a housekeeping war between Marie and Debra.

19. The Canister - Tempers flare when Marie accuses Debra of not returning a borrowed canister that holds sentimental value and Debra insists that she has already given it back. Debra is then horrified when she discovers that she does indeed still have the canister in her possession.

20. Net Worth - Debra becomes angry when Ray contributes $1,000 to his friends' hair brained scheme to open a go-cart business without first consulting her.

21. Let's Fix Robert - Marie gathers Robert's ex-girlfriends Amy and Stefania and his female police partner, Judy, together so they can dissect his character in an effort to help her better understand why Robert can't commit to a relationship.

22. Say Uncle - When Ray realizes that his kids would rather spend time with their Uncle Robert than with him, he decides to do something about the situation.

23. Separation - Debra gets upset when she finds out that her parents have separated.

24. Frank Paints the House - When Ray and Debra find Frank painting their house, they find out that Marie put him up to the job due to his retirement. But, when Frank paints it a color they don't like, Ray fires him.

25. Ally's Birth - As Ray escorts Ally to a father-daughter dance, he realizes how grown up and independent his daughter has become. As a result, he begins to recall the day, nine years ago, when the Barone clan welcomed her into the family, but not without incident.

A great series and really good dvd sets!
Why I like the show:
* always amusing to hilarious family situations that you can identify with or laugh at(and hope it never happens to you).
*great cast of performers that really knew their characters and excelled at them.
* one of the sexiest/cutest moms to grace tv(i'm talking about Debra!), that's NOT trying to be sexy/cute.
* a who's who of stand-up comics making appearances: Dave Attel, Andy Kindler, Fred Stoller, Kevin James, Ray Romano, Brad Garret, etc.
* during the first season, maybe even after the first show, they started to find their groove. by the second season and beyond, they were hitting on all cylinders imo. (and now, seasons 1 & 2 are under $20 each)
* no shows emphasizing how cute the kids can be, no desperate ratings grabber by having Debra pregnant, and thank goodness the show went off the air before we got those shows emphasizing the teenage hijinx of the kids all grown-up(like other shows did at some point to boost ratings/condescend to viewers)
* it started out low-key, and ended low-key. no major hype and annoying year long finales. a 'modest' show that succeeded on its merits(writing, performances, comedy, etc).

as for season 5 specifically, another great season that seems to emphasize Robert's character and his female troubles. Can't wait. and thanks to the reviewer that listed the episode guide, always helpful.

another great DVD set, I have only one wish for future releases......
Without a doubt, these Everybody Loves Raymond sets are the thing to collect if you are an avid fan of the classic show. They have indeed been released in a very timely manner, and we are already over the halfway mark with the number of season sets that have come out in the series.

Season 5 delivers the same funny and genuine episodes you are used to seeing from this series. The two-part season opener "Italy" delivers a notably different atmosphere and plot than fans are used to, and I have found that people either loved it or hated it, but after that the show returns to its usual self. The classic "Wallpaper" episode is just hilarious, and I was also personally partial to the season finale "Ally's Birth," where Ray reminisced about the crazy "Barone style" events surrounding Debra's pregnancy with their first child. Also notable are the the two-part season opener "Italy," which has a significantly more sensitive plot that may not suit some fans but is still worth watching; "Super Bowl," where Ray takes drastic measures to prove he loves Debra more than his Super Bowl tickets; and of course, "The Canister," which chronicles one of the most hilarious Debra/Marie conflicts in the show's 9-year run. (This episode was also among the most popular "fan favorites" and is a real keeper!)

There isn't really a large number of special features on these sets, although the audio commentaries are very consistent and nice to have. I am glad that Patricia Heaton has also joined in on a couple of them on Seasons 4 and 5. The only thing I would like to see more of is the cast members talking about the Barone kids. Madylin, Sawyer, and Sullivan Sweeten were obviously not a huge part of the show at all, but Phil Rosenthal, Ray Romano, and Patricia Heaton don't talk about them at all in the commentaries, and it would be nice to see how these actors related to them and gain more insight on the relationship that they shared while working on the show. Hopefully we will see a little more of this in future DVD releases...but in general, this is, of course, an outstanding show and I can't wait to own the whole series.