I love comedies that are consistently funny, many times over, where the laughs don't all necessarily come from script, but from situation and timing. Other examples are The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and The King Of Queens. Now Ray Romano may, not be the best actor in the world, but he's acting comedic timing, in playing this kind of layabout hunky sports columnist writer, Ray, ha ha, is dynamite. His folks are played by two superb actors, who gave such great performances, both who've sadly passed away, one most recently (another sad day in Hollywood). I love household comedies, and this is just another household, I'd loved to be part of. ELR has a high ratio laughs level, and for people to say this is crap, honestly, this has left me dumbstruck. Ray's older, less fortunate, and big cop brother, Robert (Brad Garrett) too has wonderful comic timing, with great character to boot. He never slips up, where in stand up, he's bloody fun. I know too, the kids go very neglected here, with not much time on the acting field, but this is the right decision, on part of the writers, as this would take away, the hours of laughs, or magic within the other characters. ELR is one of the best comedies of the last twenty years, where disregard, totally the bad and unfair criticisms. Wonderful frickin' show, and honestly, how could you hate Raymond?
