[00:00:39] Speaker A: All right, I think it's all plugged in. Mike, I think we are recording.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Good. Okay. Yeah. It's been a while since we've done this. It feels almost unnatural. I know.
Mean, well, at least partly because we're no longer in a building. We're, like, on the side of a.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: Road, but yeah, well, I mean, look, Adam sent us the coordinates, which was weird because we're still in limbrook, but he sent us the coordinates of didn't.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah, he didn't send us the corner of Horton and Sunrise. He sent us the latitude and longitude of this location, and it led to.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: This street that we're just currently just kind of standing here, just kind of looking around. I don't see him anywhere. Yeah.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: No.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Wait. Do you hear something? Is that gas?
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Mike.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Hey, that looks like a creepy van. It's a that's that's gotta be him. Okay. Yeah. Adam, what the hell is this thing?
[00:01:39] Speaker C: I can't stop the car. You have to get in.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: All right, Mike, grab the stuff. Start running. I got it. I got it.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: One, two got it.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Okay. All right.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: Close the door. Close the door. Okay, Adam, hold on. So I'm going to take this hill and then throw the ebrake on.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: All right, great.
[00:02:01] Speaker C: We're good.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Are you taking us to the new Barone Zone?
[00:02:06] Speaker C: In this camper, I have taken you to the new Barone Zone.
Welcome to the recreational vehicle or winarego the winter rego.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: The Winarego. You bought a Winnebago?
[00:02:24] Speaker C: Well, bought I guess I did buy it. I gave Billy my share of the Billy Joel. I gave Billy my share of the money that we got for selling the Barone Zone, and he hooked us up. I said, Billy, get us the nicest studio you can. I'm going to give you this bag of cash. And he immediately handed me the keys to this 1991 Winnabago, which I renamed the winnerego, as you can see from the masking tape on the side.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. I did see that, actually. It's very nicely written in there. I think we could do something with Sharpie there instead of the duct tape, but it's a nice look.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Let's get a look. Okay. We got a nice couch here. We got the sink, refrigerator. Oh, look, all the way in the back instead of a bed. This is the recording studio.
[00:03:20] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Adam, I actually do have a question here.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: So, if I understand correctly, alex sold.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: The Barone Zone for us and gave us each an equal share. Yes, he sold the Barone Zone for $15 million. Which means we each got 5 million. No.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: Well, no, we've gone over this several times by Mike.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: We were barely in the green because of all the fireworks that we bought.
[00:03:46] Speaker C: Fireworks?
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. You know what?
[00:03:47] Speaker C: We had to pay those off, sotheby's got their cut from the auction. We had to give Dwayne a share by the end of it. I believe we all got five to $600,000.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Again, I repeat. First of all, this is why I said we should have gone for the fireworks insurance when we first got the Barone zone. Second of all, I do want to ask, though, you spent five to $600,000 on this RV.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: Well, I gave the money to Billy in cash.
I gave him the pretty clear instructions, go to I thought, this is an opportunity for growth. Go to downtown Manhattan, go to Wall Street, get us a nice penthouse studio, something that puts the Barone zone to shame. And he took the money, he threw it in the trunk of the bronco, handed me the keys to this thing, which it took me a while to find because I had to keep pressing the lock button to make it chirp.
But it was down there in the Madison Square Garden parking garage. By the way, how was your show?
[00:04:58] Speaker B: Oh, the show, yeah.
[00:04:59] Speaker C: Were you filled in for Billy's drummer?
[00:05:01] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it was awesome. It was awesome.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: I heard you did okay.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: I did.
You know, there weren't many drum riffs, except when he surprised me by doing a cover of that Phil Collins song in the air tonight.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: Yeah, you missed the drum.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Exactly. I didn't do the I couldn't find the right drum, so it was really a bad pitter patter.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: I'm going to stop you right there, Mike, just because I finished setting up the microphones back here. I just want to take this time to say that this is Everybody Loves Everybody Loves Raymond. My name is Alex, that's Mike, and Adam is our driver. And if you're confused, we had a very insane season one, and we're just kind of refiguring out where we're going to do our Everybody Loves Raymond rewatch podcast.
[00:05:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Now on.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: When we started this podcast, we wanted it to be journalistic in nature. Dry, no commentary, just a straight up recap of the show, a list of the cast members, very pristine.
And as happens, your personal lives get in the way of what you're trying to do.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: It just happens.
[00:06:32] Speaker C: It just happens. And our personal lives recently ramped up in such a way that we couldn't not talk about it on the show.
But now, moving forward, we are going to do no, we're going to catch up with each other at the start of the show, but it's not going to be crazy this time. This time it's going to be a normal TV rewatch podcast that everyone across the political spectrum can love.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: No controversy here.
[00:07:05] Speaker C: No controversy, no violence, no explosives, nothing. Just three guys sitting in beanbag chairs in the back of a Winarego parked on a hill.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Winnarego. Right now we're parked, but I have a feeling we're going to be moving.
[00:07:23] Speaker C: Well. We are very slowly rolling down the hill.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: Yeah. The emergency brake is not high quality.
I can already tell.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, this is a 1991 winnerego that I paid beyond market price for Kelly from the Blue Book screeched to a halt. And she begged me not to do this. She said, this thing is absolutely worthless. Look at my blue book. And I said, there's nothing I can do. My hands are tied. He's gone, bronco. By that point was halfway to Montauk, where Billy that's well, Billy lives in a lighthouse on Know the rare he.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: Looks out for crime and ships.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: Yeah, crime and ships. So, yeah, I mean, that's where we are. We're in this vehicle. But we will get to the episode, and we promise to keep it level, calm, normal. But first, let's check in with each other.
I haven't seen you guys in, like, two, three weeks at this point.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been a while.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: It's been a long time.
[00:08:33] Speaker C: The last we saw each other, Alex and I parted ways in the parking garage. Mike, I don't know what happened to you after the show.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah, what happened to you, Mike?
[00:08:43] Speaker B: I got carried off, as you all know. Billy dropped you guys off in the it took me backstage and basically told me, all right, you're on for the Madison Square Garden show, which was a lot.
Then after that, I was really tired because we've had a day, so I kind of walked into what's?
[00:09:02] Speaker C: The same day that you saw well, you saw God destroy a building.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: I did see God destroy you fell.
[00:09:10] Speaker C: Nearly to your death. You saw the skyscraper that you were third owner in, Fly to the Moon. And you watched God destroy another skyscraper. Yeah. Babbled the jokers. And then you had to go on stage and play drums for Billy Joel. So you had quite a day.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Quite a day. That was a tough day.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: So I just decided to go to go to Starbucks, pick up a coffee, but I opened the wrong door and ended up in a secret flat earth meeting at Starbucks. Well, I mean, it wasn't a Starbucks. As I left, I realized it was next door to the Starbucks, and I just opened the wrong door. Yeah, I've done that before.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: Makes sense.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
They had a key code, but I had been to the Starbucks before, so I just entered in the bathroom code. And it just happened to be you.
[00:09:58] Speaker C: Go to that Starbucks a lot.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: Yeah. If they gave you the bathroom code just to memorize.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Well, they gave it to me once. They just never changed it.
[00:10:07] Speaker C: Well and they said, Sunk cost. You have used the bathroom enough. It's not quite a punch card situation. It's more of like a disaster aversion situation because you have come in and not made it before.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Gross.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Yeah, they don't love me there.
[00:10:29] Speaker C: But it's interesting that this door that you went through had the same code.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: Are you sure you didn't you sure.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: This wasn't the Starbucks bathroom that this meeting was being held?
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Sure. I'm not sure, actually. It was a very cramped space, actually, now that you mentioned it. But like we've established, I've been to that bathroom many times, and there haven't been people sitting around talking about how flat the Earth is. But there was this time, and let me tell you, I was already suspicious. They made some very compelling points. Yeah, they made some very compelling points.
What they did is I was like, I don't know, guys. I mean, I think the Earth is flat, but I have friends that don't. And they said, Mike, they pointed to a map that was hanging up on the wall and said, Is that a cube? And I said, Is that a cube? And I said, no, it's not a cube. It's not a sphere. That's flat. And they were like, yeah, flat earth.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: And I was like, Damn.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: All right, they got me.
[00:11:27] Speaker C: They showed you a map and that's all it took? You've seen maps before?
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
Mike, are you serious?
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Am I what?
I've seen maps before. Yeah, that's how the world is. They like, shrink it down and they give it to you.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: That's it.
[00:11:44] Speaker C: That's how the world is. They shrink it down and give it to you.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah, they take the world, they shrink it down and they give you who's they that copy the government, the world people.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: Totally normal. Everybody Loves Raymond rewatch podcast.
[00:12:10] Speaker C: I hope for your sake that you don't spend too much time with those people moving forward, because it does sound like they are bad influence on you.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: But we need you here, level headed to talk about Raymond. Normally.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: Listen, I am, first of all, second of also. You know what also is level headed?
The planet Earth. It's like level it's just one flat.
[00:12:37] Speaker C: You go beyond that, the world is just on one plane. You think it's completely flat.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: It is, yeah.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: So no mountains, right?
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Those are illusions.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: Mountains are illusions.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Mountains are illusions, yeah.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: So you can't climb Everest if you believe hard enough.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: You sure can.
[00:12:59] Speaker C: But, like, you know, saying that mountains are artificial.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: I saw a 100 story skyscraper be lifted into the air using 4 July fireworks. I'm sure that people can fly if they believe.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: I wish I could argue with that, I really do.
[00:13:15] Speaker C: And the people who are perpetrating this mountain illusion, I have to assume these are the world people you mentioned earlier.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: The world people, okay. The world people think of everything.
[00:13:28] Speaker C: What a very specific conspiracy.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: So you've had a weird couple of weeks.
[00:13:32] Speaker C: You've had a weird couple of weeks.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: They gave me a punch card. I've been nine times. If I go the 10th, I get a free sandwich. So I'm looking what you getting?
[00:13:40] Speaker A: What kind of sandwich? Flatbread.
[00:13:42] Speaker C: Flat.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Flatbread.
[00:13:45] Speaker C: You are so pleased with yourself.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: Wow. All right.
[00:13:54] Speaker C: Okay. Alex, how have you been these past couple of weeks?
[00:13:58] Speaker A: Better than Mike, apparently.
[00:14:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: Though he's getting a sandwich.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: I've been doing okay. I played at MSG. I found a new group of friends. This is great. Yeah. I'm sorry, but you said you're doing better.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I'm not doing poorly, that's for sure.
We talked a little bit last season about how the mayor oscar. The mayor was giving us a bunch of trouble and just all around just not being the best influence on Limbrook. And since he has been lifted into space because I sold him the barone zone, then he moved in. And then the barone zone got sent to space.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Limbrook. I mean, as you both know, it's been kind of like there's a power vacuum.
[00:14:42] Speaker C: Power vacuum.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: A lot of people trying to claw the way to power. There's talks of a special election, which is very interesting to me. That's great, because I want a leader in this town who is honest and truthful and can help push our ray.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Who are you thinking?
[00:15:05] Speaker A: I'm not sure.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Billy ran off with the bronco. I don't think he's coming back.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: I think the law is you have to be born in Limbrook to be mayor of Lynbrook.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Oh, it's one of those. Okay.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Yeah. No, it's weird. It's like America for president and then everywhere else there's no law about this, but then Limbrook specifically, you have to be born here to be the mayor.
[00:15:28] Speaker C: So I couldn't be you know, you.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Immigrated here legally different from Philadelphia.
[00:15:40] Speaker C: And we should talk about how Limbrook is technically a micronation, much like San Marino or Vatican City, where people in Limbrook have two passports. They have their own special. They don't have New York State driver's licenses. They have Lynbrook driver's licenses, which are.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: New York licenses crossed out in the New York is crossed out in a Sharpie, and Lynbrook is written underneath it because the last mayor was working on it. But as of yet, we're still not recognized by 186 countries, including the UN.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: But I've been doing some research about the history of Lindbrook's political races, and they all seem very interesting. It seems kind of fun, honestly. There's a slip and slide race, literal races.
There's a debate in Grant Park where all those trees used to be, and it's like a stump speech. You stand on the stump of old trees.
[00:16:44] Speaker C: Is that one a race? Is it? Who can do their speech? Yes.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Who can finish their speech the fastest?
[00:16:51] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: That's how we got the 86 year reign of quick tongue Quentin.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
After Quentin died, they changed the law that you also have to give a book report on Moby Dick so that you can't purposefully give a short speech. Right.
You have to cover a lot.
[00:17:16] Speaker C: It did seem unfair that they didn't have a word count in the initial no, no.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Quentin just did know a sentence. And then the other candidates couldn't compete because they actually had ideas.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: But convey them fast enough in the election after that, it was who you know most people don't know was born here and then moved to Detroit, and Michael Winslow were the main two candidates. You know, Michael Winslow, the guy who does the sound effects from.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: It took me a second.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: He almost did the sound effects for all of Lynbrook as mayor, but he didn't make it.
[00:17:54] Speaker C: And that know, unfortunately, marred by their mysterious disqualification from the race and a lot of free hot dogs being handed out. And that, I think, convinced most people.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: To vote for Oscar.
And that's kind of how we got into our current predicament. Right. And now kind of limburg has to kind of be rebuilt up, I think. Well, I've been just kind of following the lead up to the announcements for.
[00:18:29] Speaker C: Election, stuff like that, seeing who's announced their candidacy, seeing the fundraising numbers.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Listening to the rumors and stuff like that. There haven't been any announcements yet, but I'm eagerly.
We'll see that's kind of all I've been doing.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: Well, look, I don't know how many people who listen to this are in limbrook, but if one of the hosts of this show were to run for mayor, I feel like that's at least five votes.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah. They should be able to support us by buying the potential shirts and stickers and buttons that are made for the campaign that may or may not go on sale at some point. But again, we're talking nonsense because I don't know what we're talking about.
There's no plan to do this yet.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Thinking about you did form. I saw you with a couple of those guys in suits, those, like, lobbyist type guys. You have been down at the park doing what you call an exploratory committee, but it does look like you guys are just doing a scavenger hunt and having fun.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Yeah, we found a set of dice and a couple of cards.
One of the lobbyists found, like, a weird penny. It was, like, bent a little bit.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:19:57] Speaker A: That was interesting.
So great research. That's where my share of the money from the Barone Zone went into doing that research.
[00:20:06] Speaker C: The scavenger hunt.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Yes. And we have a lot to show for it. Mainly the dice and the penny. I lost the cards.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: Oh, no.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: That's too bad. Yeah.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Well, you know what? Bright future ahead.
I think the next mayor is going to be one that the people can be proud of.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: I hope so. Yeah. And we'll just have to wait and see who that turns out to be.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Absolutely. Adam, what's up with oh, well, you.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: Know, since I last saw you. So we parted ways in the parking garage, and I looked around. It took me a couple of hours to find this thing because Billy has a lot of vehicles down there.
It's kind of like a Jay Leno's garage kind of thing, but it's subterranean, so he's got, like, gelappies, 1920s fire engines, multiple trains. But I did find the recreational vehicle eventually, and not knowing what to do.
I've never driven one of these things before. I thought, where should I go to learn everything there is to know about RVs? And luckily, I did a little bing maps, and I saw the Idlewild Pines RV Park, which is very close to here. I drove over there. It turns out that this was actually the cell phone lot at JFK.
But so many people had been waiting so long for their loved ones that they just stayed. And that a little community that's really sad, actually.
They just gave up, but they were sad. And now they found this community of other sad people.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: They're all sad together.
[00:21:58] Speaker C: They put up some trees. They put up a little fishing pond, and it was just really beautiful. And I pulled in, and the first thing I saw was people having a barbecue and drinking frozen margaritas. And they waved me in. They gave me a prime spot right next to the old what do you call them? Barbecues. And I got out, I shook their hands, and, well, it's all been kind of a blur since then. I've just been living the RV lifestyle and have been embraced by this group of people. You can't beat it. It's close to the airport, so I go back there every night. And you guys are unfortunately, as you can see, there's not a ton of room on here.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I did notice. There's only one.
[00:22:50] Speaker C: You're going to have to sort of find your own place to sleep. This is going to purely be a studio for you guys.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:59] Speaker C: All right.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: You'll just pick us up.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: I don't get to move out of my extraordinarily comfortable and relaxing home and move into this tight, cramped, hot RV with you and one other man?
[00:23:14] Speaker C: Unfortunately, no, you are not going to be able to.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Everybody Loves Raymond is over.
[00:23:21] Speaker C: Oh, come on, Alex.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Come on, Alex.
[00:23:23] Speaker C: We still have to talk about the episode.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Waiting, right?
[00:23:26] Speaker C: At least wait until the end.
Sorry.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: Some dreams crushed. I'm okay.
[00:23:33] Speaker C: Unfortunately, the Ray creational lifestyle for me is 24/7. For you guys, it's going to be two, one.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: It's about, like, 2 hours every week.
[00:23:45] Speaker C: Yeah, 2121.
But I'm just embracing it. I'm seeing where the wind takes me. We're talking about maybe all of us going on an RV vacation together.
So if that happens, I'd be willing to bring you guys along, but I might just call in. I don't know. We're talking about going up north to Canada and seeing the Northern Lights.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: That sounds fun, but getting out of limbrook is such a bitch for residents.
I don't even know if I want.
[00:24:22] Speaker C: To do the that's true.
The border checks alone are going to be a whole thing, but we're determined. We're determined, but that's what I've been up to.
What do you guys say?
We're not going to talk about our personal lives anymore for the rest of the episode, and we're going to launch into our serious dry. No commentary, no opinions. Recap of Everybody Loves Raymond. Hey, we're in season two.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Season two, baby.
[00:24:54] Speaker C: We're talking about season two, episode one. It's called Raise on TV, and we are going to talk about it right after this.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Do you want more of the Barone boys? Then head on over to Postfund.org slash Donate.
[00:25:12] Speaker C: Sorry, Mike. Mike. Mike. Sorry, that sounded a little too what?
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Can we try again?
[00:25:21] Speaker C: Can you try again a little? Just turn down the like I know you love Raymond, but you're not him. You can't just be openly horny. So go ahead and try it again.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: I'll put my dick away. Sorry about that.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Well, keep that out.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: It's audio.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: Don't worry.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: All all right. Right.
Do you want more of the Barone boys?
[00:25:42] Speaker C: Is that the line that I'm taking issue with?
[00:25:45] Speaker B: I thought you were criticizing.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: For a good time.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: Sorry. For a good time, go to Postpone.org.
[00:25:56] Speaker C: I don't want to give people the wrong impression about look, we are doing bonus content. Sorry, barone content.
[00:26:03] Speaker B: Barone content.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:05] Speaker C: I don't want people to think that they're getting something that they're not getting.
If they go to Postfund.org Donate and they pay what they want for lifetime access to the Baronus Zonus, where we're doing monthly bonus episodes of this show and they're expecting something salacious, they're just not going to get it.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: We should launch this service on OnlyFans and just keep doing this. But it's on OnlyFans.
[00:26:31] Speaker C: We might be more.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: When are we launching the Veroni fans?
[00:26:41] Speaker C: Welcome back to Everybody Loves everybody Loves Raymond. We're talking about season two, episode one. It's called rays on TV. We're here in the recreational vehicle, or winarego, if you will. I'm Adam. That's Alex.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:26:56] Speaker C: And Mike.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: What up?
[00:26:58] Speaker C: And we're going to be talking about this episode. We're going to be going scene by scene through Rays on TV. But first we do our overall impressions of the episode. Mike, because of your beliefs, I'm going to relegate you to permanent last overall impression.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: That is okay with me.
[00:27:19] Speaker C: This is just a passive aggressive way of telling you that I don't approve of your new friends and your belief system.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: We'll have them on its guests once in a while.
[00:27:30] Speaker C: Will we?
[00:27:32] Speaker B: I think we can. I think they'd be fun.
[00:27:35] Speaker C: Are they fun, this group?
[00:27:37] Speaker B: They're fun, yeah. They gave out punch cards.
[00:27:40] Speaker C: Adam, is the meeting sort of like the tone of the meeting? Is it like dour and serious, or is it kind of like, look, guys, we all know the Earth is flat. Let's have some fun with that.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: It depends on who's running it. If Dylan's running it, it's a great time.
[00:28:00] Speaker C: Tell us about Dylan.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: Dylan?
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:02] Speaker C: What's Dylan like?
[00:28:04] Speaker B: He's fun.
He's the guy that's like, hey, Debra, s is flat. AHA, he does like finger guns. He's great.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: He does finger guns?
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah. He's like flat earth. Yeah, that's it.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: So what did we think of this episode?
[00:28:17] Speaker C: Alex, what did you think of this episode?
[00:28:20] Speaker A: I'm glad you asked, Adam. I liked this episode. This is one of the few that I remembered very well going into it. I don't know why I did. Oh, wait, no. Yes, I do. Because it made me feel very uncomfortable to see kind of Raymond struggle on TV. And that just tells me that Romano did an insanely good job at portraying someone who was terrified. And I honestly think his acting really went up a level even compared to the end of last season.
And it just was a good time. It was fun. It made me uncomfortable. And just the whole premise is very just everybody Loves Raymond's shenanigans. A couple of changes I noticed just in the actual kind of layout and how it was presented on Peacock specifically. I noticed that the entire thing was a little more zoomed in to get it like a wider aspect ratio. But that's not Raymond's fault.
[00:29:22] Speaker C: Oh, really?
[00:29:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:24] Speaker C: It was in like 16 nine and the other one was four x three, I think.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Yeah, before this, it was four x three. And I noticed initially, because Robert's head was like top of his head was cut out of every shot.
[00:29:40] Speaker C: Oh, interesting.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: I also noticed that actually I didn't piece together that it was a different aspect ratio. I thought you just got a new camera guy.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: I think it was literally because they took the four x three that it was originally shot in, cut off the top and bottom, and then zoomed in on it to make it widescreen.
[00:30:01] Speaker C: That's very interesting. I guess I didn't pay attention to that. My overall impression of the episode. I also remembered this, and this stands out in my mind as an episode that I remember.
It's great to just see a really quintessential Everybody Loves Raymond episode like this where Ray is sort of a goof, a fool. And we get to see the dynamics of the family really at play here. We get to see Marie and Frank giving us another insight into their parenting style. We get to see Know reacting to Ray's successes and failures, which is great to, you know, we get a little bit not a ton, but we get a little nice dynamic of Ray and Know supporting each other. And at the end let's not spoil it, but something very big happens.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: Oh, ayo big things.
[00:31:00] Speaker C: Mike, what is your overall impression of this episode?
[00:31:03] Speaker B: Thought it was great.
Oh, you want me to say more? I thought that okay. Cool. Sorry about that. Yeah, sure. I thought it was a good episode. Yeah, I thought it was really funny. I did not remember this episode. You guys both said that this was a memorable one for you. I cannot say the same.
I went in completely blind. And yeah, I had a great time. I loved how quickly the family turned on Ray from exalting him as this hero of television, like the next big thing, to immediately just freaking ragging on him at every corner. I thought it was really, really funny. So yeah, I enjoyed it.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: It was a good episode. Yeah, the charade went down and Ray kind of revealed he was going back and it kind of got me thinking about the idea of lying to ease emotions when there would be no consequences. Right.
I don't know, Mike. If you went and did an interview for Flat Earth magazine and it was like a one time thing and I thought you blew it, but I knew you were never going to do it again, I would be nice to you. I'd say like, hey, I think you did a good job. I think you were really expressive about your beliefs. And then if you told me you were going back, then I would probably be honest about know, Mike, I'm not.
[00:32:32] Speaker C: Thrilled about you falling in with this group, but I do know that Flat Earth magazine is extremely popular.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: And if you it would be a big deal if I were to get.
[00:32:43] Speaker C: An interview in Flat Earth magazine, or at the very least get an ad for us on the back page or something. I might be convinced to let Dylan or one of your other friends come on and maybe not talk about it so much. But there's a little quid pro quo there.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: What if the main tagline because this is what's going to be the conversation and we can cut this out later because this isn't relevant. We said we were going to stop talking about our personal lives. But regardless, what if the ad was the premier flat Earth, Everybody Loves Raymond podcast?
[00:33:24] Speaker C: What about the premier Everybody Loves Raymond podcast hosted by two great regular people and their Flat Earth friend? Or the premier Everybody Loves Raymond Podcast.
And then in the corner, a little like one of those pop out bubbles with you going like this and winking and being like little speech bubble coming out of that bubble saying the Earth is flat. Yeah, okay, deal.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: I'm here for that. I'm here for that.
$400,000.
[00:33:59] Speaker C: Is it $400,000 per magazine? Actually per printed?
[00:34:06] Speaker B: No, like per month.
[00:34:09] Speaker C: It's a monthly.
[00:34:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a monthly.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: That's more than I would expect it to come out. But it's not ridiculous.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: It seems ridiculous.
[00:34:21] Speaker C: That's pretty much how many developments are there month to month within the Flat Earth community. That's what's confusing to me.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: Breaking news, Earth's still flat.
[00:34:35] Speaker C: Podcast is going to get flagged. We're going to get put on a list.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: Fantastic. My God, dude, if we don't get a warning on at least one of our podcasts, are we really white guys doing a podcast? Like, come on, this is part of the experience.
[00:34:55] Speaker C: Well, you keep us posted on how those negotiations go and quid pro quo. I'll leave it at that. Let's crack into the episode. Here and go to our cold open.
[00:35:10] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:35:11] Speaker C: Ray comes downstairs and Marie and Frank are on the couch. They're playing with Ali and the twins. And Ray crosses to the kitchen to where Deborah is looking at a picture that Allie drew, which has Ray and Debra and the twins and then giant scary entities representing Marie and Frank. And we see Marie and Frank are sort know, when Ray came downstairs, it looked like they were all having a good time. But then we turn over to Marie and I I wrote down the doctor's office ball thing because I don't know how else to describe know. It's the little metal wires with the wooden balls on it that seem to only exist in pediatricians waiting rooms.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Wait, actually, now that you mention it how the hell did they get that then?
Rob a doctor.
[00:36:07] Speaker A: Do they know a doctor?
[00:36:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:10] Speaker C: I think if there are any parents out there, you can tell us whether these things are commercially available or if you need a medical license to acquire one.
But yeah, Marie and Frank are being very domineering about it and telling them that they're doing it wrong.
Deborah doesn't want to put this picture on the fridge, obviously, because what if Marie and Frank see it? And then Ali comes over and looks at the picture and Deborah asks her, why did you draw Grandma and Grandpa like that? And she says, that's not Grandma and Grandpa. Those are Halloween monsters.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: Grandma and Grandpa aren't monsters. Yeah.
[00:36:49] Speaker C: That'S the cold open. And then we go to the okay.
[00:36:53] Speaker A: I like that. It set up.
It's not even a B story. It's like a little side joke that carries throughout the whole episode.
[00:37:04] Speaker C: I thought it was very funny.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: There's no resolution to it. It's just funny.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: It's a cute opening moment. I enjoyed it.
[00:37:11] Speaker C: Yeah. And then we go to its opening time. It's theme song time.
It's not the playset. It's not the conveyor belt.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: I thought it was at first.
[00:37:25] Speaker C: Me, too.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: No, it's conveyor belt 2.0.
[00:37:28] Speaker B: Is this a conveyor belt at all?
[00:37:31] Speaker A: No.
[00:37:31] Speaker C: I don't know what it's got to be some sort of wire system.
The family is defying. Ray says not every family would defy gravity for you. That's the big difference between this and the conveyor belt opening. Ray is sitting in this lawn chair, and the family, as he mentions each of them, are swooping in from the top in some sort of anti gravity opening. Alex mentioned this several episodes ago.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: I did.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Right at the beginning, I believe.
[00:38:03] Speaker C: Mike and I have never seen this before in our lives.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: So, you two, let me ask, now that you have been witnessed to one of the more stranger openings, what did you two think of this? I hated it.
[00:38:17] Speaker C: I hated it.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:38:19] Speaker C: I thought it was just so it was more ambitious than the time was capable of. And it looks really weird.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: It looks terrible.
[00:38:28] Speaker C: It's uncanny. Valley kind of, like, disturbing.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's just like, first of all, it breaks the base reality of the show.
[00:38:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:37] Speaker B: Like, sure, okay, conveyor belt is like, all right, that's weird, but it's within the realm of possibility. But it's like, this isn't a superhero show. This isn't a science fiction show. This is a stupid show about a guy that lives across the street from his parents, and it's one of the greatest works of all time. But at the same time, no one can fly.
[00:38:59] Speaker C: This show is grounded, no pun intended, in realism and the life of Ray Romano. So to have this artistic flight, no pun intended, a fancy here, I'm not mad at that.
Just it does not look good. And also, if we think about the reality of these openings, the conveyor belt, we assumed that Ray was standing there telling this to the mailman or something with this. He's sitting down in a chair. He's not even trying.
Uh, he's just waiting for people to come by. He's relaxed. I don't like this at all, guys.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: The thing that bugged me the most about it, believe it or not, was not necessarily how awful it looked or the fact that they were flying. It was that in spite of all of that, the cameraman still had to change the angle at the camera to get Robert in the frame. And I thought at the very end, it was just like, dead on, dead on, dead on. And then it just leans back, and I'm like, what's going on? And then Robert walks by, head still cut off, but mind you, as we discussed. But I was just like, you can't I don't, like, zoom out. From the beginning, it looked really bad.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: Guys, I know what you're saying. I agree with all of it. It's way like before the time it was capable of editing wise, does not make sense with the show. The whole thing is just bizarre, and it's kind of uncanny. Valley that being said, I think this is my favorite intro for all of those reasons.
[00:40:38] Speaker B: For all of them. Okay.
[00:40:39] Speaker C: We haven't seen my favorite one yet, which is the classical classical music one.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that one's. Okay. That's like, middle of the road for me, I guess.
[00:40:50] Speaker C: I mean, of the ones we've seen, I think I've said that I like the conveyor belt best, and I'm still standing by that, but yeah, me too. We come out of this nightmare, and we are at raining mike. Mike, why don't you tell us about if you saw some of the episode descriptions for season one and you said, I don't want to listen to any of this, and you jumped right to season two. You got to know that Mike is our sports guy. He tells us everything about sports.
So, Mike, why don't you go ahead and tell us about Shay Stadium.
[00:41:29] Speaker B: Shay Stadium is the stadium where the new York Mets play. It's located in Flushing, Queens, or at least it was until it was destroyed, I believe, in 2008. And it was rebuilt in actually, I'm pretty sure it was 2008, and it was rebuilt as City Field, literally about 100ft west of Shay Stadium. The current location of Shay Stadium or the Shay Stadium is located where City Fields parking lot currently is. But at the time, this was where the Mets played, and a lot of great memories for all Mets fans had here.
And that's the end of sports talk. That's all I oh, it's named after William Shea. That's also who is a great New York sports legend.
[00:42:19] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: I didn't realize I was going to be doing a Shay Stadium sports Talk today, so I was not prepared with little bits of trivia like I typically am.
[00:42:27] Speaker C: Well, if you want to take some time, we can stop down. We can go we are parked on this hill outside of what looks to be a deli, and there's a pool hall and a pool store, like swimming pools. So, I don't know. I mean, we can stop down for 20 to 30 minutes if you want, get a sandwich, play some pool, have a swim so you can do your research.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: So I can do some research on Shay Stadium. I mean, I don't think I'll find too much more other than confirming the year, but yeah.
[00:43:03] Speaker C: All right, then don't do that.
[00:43:08] Speaker B: Shay Stadium was torn down in oh, yeah, 2008. I got it right, actually.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: Look at me. All right.
[00:43:15] Speaker C: Great classic location.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: The Beatles played there, too, by the way.
[00:43:21] Speaker C: Sorry.
No, that's good information. The Beatles played there.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: Hooray, Beatles.
[00:43:27] Speaker C: Shay Stadium. It's raining. We go inside. Look, this is the press box, apparently, and it looks like it sucks. I mean, doesn't it look kind of like a bus station or something?
[00:43:39] Speaker A: Doesn't look terrible to be there.
[00:43:41] Speaker C: I always assumed that a press box was, like, a know cush.
[00:43:46] Speaker B: Is that what this is supposed to be? Is this supposed to be the press box?
[00:43:50] Speaker C: Because yes, kevin says typically the press box.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: Well, no, he says that he's the radio announcer, so he's typically in the press box. But I didn't know if this was supposedly the press box itself.
[00:44:05] Speaker C: What else would it be, I wonder? Like the waiting room for the press box.
[00:44:10] Speaker A: Sorry.
[00:44:10] Speaker B: It could be like yeah, I mean, that's possible.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know.
[00:44:16] Speaker C: It just looks really like plastic chairs and shitty tables and two vendors.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: I have seen the press box at City Field. It's nice, but typically there's a glass window because to be in the press box, you have to be announcing the game, and in order to do that, you have to see the game. And there wasn't any glass thing. You couldn't see the field from there, so I thought that was that's part of why I didn't realize that it was the press box because it was.
[00:44:42] Speaker A: Well, there's like a window there.
[00:44:43] Speaker C: It's sort of like but it's more than a window.
Yeah, it's like maybe there's like the balcony part. And then Ray comes in and he's like, it doesn't look like it's going to stop. So Ray says it's raining and it doesn't look like it's going to stop, so we're probably not going to play the game.
Meanwhile, Andy and Kevin are looking at first we don't realize that it's a newspaper. I feel think, you know, from the lines, it seems like they're looking at pornography in the workplace, but it turns out they're just looking at personal ads for sex workers. And Kevin gets a call at this point from Roy Firestone, the host of Sports Look. Mike, who the hell is that?
[00:45:32] Speaker A: The d d Roy firestone.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: Roy Firestone does sound like A-D-D character. He kind of looks like he could be like some sort of fantasy character, if I'm being honest. That's kind of mean.
Roy Firestone is a very famous American. He's a sports commentator. He's a journalist. He hosted many ESPN and sports talk shows throughout the years. He did actually have a at this time this was 1997, so he did not have a specific sports talk show at this moment. But he was very most famous for having a show called Sports Look. Not sports talk, but sports look, which was later renamed up close.
But he then started doing Sunday Night Football. He announced all these playoff games and things like that. So he was a very recognized media sports media person in the 90s era.
[00:46:33] Speaker C: Great.
I am going to keep you insulting him in.
[00:46:40] Speaker B: If you look at him, he's got like a really weird shaped face and the smile makes it bigger. So it's a little bit weird.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: It is true. He does look impish. I think that's a kind way to describe it.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: I don't know if kind is the right way to say that, but yeah.
[00:46:55] Speaker C: Kevin gets a call from Roy Firestone and we find out that Kevin kevin.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: Is revealed, is the play by play guy for the New York Mets at this point in time. And that made me I have a lot of questions about that because the only two guys that really are famous for doing play by play are Ralph Kiner and Howie Rose. And those are two of the big time radio talk show like Baseball and sports legends and icons of the New York Mets. Ralph Kiner's number is retired and hanging in City Field. And they just gave that to some random guy, Kevin James, that didn't expect us to answer any question, ask any questions about it. I don't know. I'm not here for it. I don't love it. Because this was also the first year that Howie Rose 1997 was actually hold on. The second year I'm sorry, I looked this up. This was the second year that Howie Rose did sports talk for the Mets. And it's just like, this was a great time. You had Howie Rose. You had Ralph Kiner. You can't just replace those two guys.
This is meaningless to everybody except me. But I don't care. I was just the fact that they didn't make him a reporter. They just made him they made him the play by play guy. That's a much bigger deal. And he outranks Ray, like, ten to one.
[00:48:22] Speaker A: And it's yeah, sorry.
[00:48:24] Speaker C: I think it's possible that in universe, because we're coming up fast on Kevin, the character ceasing to exist and being sublimated by Doug Heffernan. But is it possible that this is taking place right know, there's some sort of time dilation happening here, that this is taking place right before Howie Rose is becoming the announcer and know his mysterious disappearance in a couple weeks is going to open up that slot for him? That's how I would justifying are you.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: Implying that Howie Rose offed Kevin?
Ralph Kiner was done with Kevin's bullshit, and so he just got Howie to do the dirty work?
[00:49:15] Speaker C: Based on the information that I have.
[00:49:17] Speaker A: Yes, it's a reasonable assumption.
[00:49:20] Speaker C: I mean, look, we've already seen one mysterious it's possible that Howie Rose is responsible for Leo's death too. We don't know at this point.
[00:49:28] Speaker B: Howie Rose is the Raymond assassin. Like the ELR I gotta look at.
[00:49:33] Speaker C: The picture of this.
[00:49:35] Speaker B: He's he is not very.
[00:49:40] Speaker C: Oh, my God, the teeth on this man.
[00:49:43] Speaker B: Okay, he's listen, howie Rose is beloved. He's one of my favorite guys of all time.
He's got a face for radio. I hate to say it, but he's got a face for radio.
[00:49:53] Speaker C: You are not holding back this episode. Nobody's safe.
[00:49:57] Speaker A: Jeez, Mike, slow down. First the earth and now Howie.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: Rose.
[00:50:02] Speaker C: Howie Rose is flat.
That's a much smaller conspiracy group. Okay, so Kevin is on the phone with Roy Firestone.
We find out that Kevin does play by play and Andy is the stats guy. So I don't know if they actually do they actually both also work at newsday with Ray? Because I feel like we've seen Andy at work with Ray. That's another possible.
Yeah, it's possible that Andy is providing his stats from his work at Newsday to Kevin for him to do on the radio. But it doesn't really if that's something.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: That exists, that's not how I understand it. My understanding is that the play by play guy and the stats guy and that entire booth first of all, it's not just one stats guy. There's, like an entire department dedicated to that stuff. But if that's the case, my understanding is they're either employed by the Mets or by the TV station that is broadcasting the Mets games or the radio station, whatever it may like.
[00:51:17] Speaker C: But Kevin came in and he was, no, no, I've got my own stats guy, and if you want me and this is the sort of big timing that I'm assuming bred the resentment that eventually led to his mysterious disappearance. If you want Kevin, you got to take.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:51:36] Speaker C: I don't this the whole thing is starting to get complicated. Luckily, they simplify things by murdering.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: Do.
[00:51:49] Speaker C: And replacing, but we never see Ray.
[00:51:50] Speaker B: Go to the funeral, so that says something about him, too.
[00:51:54] Speaker C: It's possible that Ray didn't know and saw Doug and had a Mandela effect thing. Where I've been calling you Kevin. I'm sorry, I didn't realize your name was Doug Heffernan and you live in Queens with your wife Carrie.
Anyway, and he does stats. Kevin gets off the phone. He tells Ray that Harvey Johnson, who I did look up and is not a real person, is taking a vacation. So Roy Firestone wants Ray to fill in on the TV show. And Ray's, like me, and Kevin's, like Roy, specifically asked for a newspaper guy or a Chinese person, which it kind of made me laugh, the randomness of it. I don't know what that means. I don't know why Roy Firestone was okay with that specific. I don't know if it's a prejudice or a fetish.
I don't know.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: It's weird.
[00:52:53] Speaker B: That is weird. My read on it was that it was like a demographics thing. But yeah, I don't that's literally no idea.
[00:53:02] Speaker C: Just a weird little line. But Ray says he'll do it.
He will go on the show and he calls Deborah or tries to call Deborah, and Michael answers the phone. This sounded like 100%. It was a stand up bit.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: Oh, no doubt.
[00:53:18] Speaker C: Of calling home and the kid answering. But basically Michael answers the phone, doesn't get that it's Ray on the other end of the phone and then drops the phone and Ray's shouting into the phone, trying to get somebody's attention.
Great. Cut to the TV station.
I did look to see if this makeup artist who's on the screen for a long time is credited at all. No, she got a $100.
[00:53:43] Speaker A: Here's the thing.
Touching Ray's face is reward enough.
[00:53:49] Speaker C: She got a slice of pizza and was sent on her way.
But Ray is talking about how his family is all excited. Marie put up flyers in the neighborhood, and Frank told everyone at the Elks Lodge. The IMDb trivia points out that Frank's Lodge is not called the Elks moving forward.
So it's not cares, but yeah, it's called the what does this say? The IMDb trivia says ray mentions that his dad told everyone at the Elks that he was going to be on TV, but Frank is a member of the caribou, not the Elks. So apparently that changes at some point.
[00:54:36] Speaker B: They probably got sued because the Elks Lodge is a real place in Lynbrook. It is, yeah.
[00:54:42] Speaker C: I hope it didn't rise to the level of a lawsuit.
[00:54:45] Speaker B: I hope that it was just some lawyering happening there. You know what I mean? Like, if they had to quarter turn it from Elk to like some lawyer was like, this could be a problem.
[00:54:55] Speaker A: That's quite an animal change.
[00:54:57] Speaker C: This might be a segue.
This might be a tangent, but what is the Elk Caribou relation?
[00:55:06] Speaker A: I think they're both they belong to.
[00:55:10] Speaker C: The same family, the Cerviday family, but they are different species.
[00:55:15] Speaker A: Thank you, Adam.
[00:55:18] Speaker C: Okay, that was worth it.
[00:55:20] Speaker B: I'm glad we took that.
[00:55:21] Speaker C: Frank told everyone that he was a deal.
So then Kevin and Ray are getting their makeup, and then Roy and James Worthy show up.
Mike. Who the heck is James Worthy?
[00:55:35] Speaker A: Here we go.
[00:55:35] Speaker B: Well, if I hold on a second, I got to get the thing up.
Yes. Here we go. Okay, James Worthy. James Worthy is a legendary basketball player and later on, sports commentator and TV host and analyst and all those kinds of things. During his playing career, he played for the La. Lakers. He won three NBA championships in 85, 87, and 88. He actually won he was actually named MVP of the NBA Finals in 1988. He was in the All Star Game many times. And I believe yeah, I'm actually looking this up right now. Cut this out so that it sounds nicer. Yes, he got to the Basketball Hall of Fame as well after he retired from the La lakers. He did work as a coach very briefly, but most of his career after that was being an analyst for many big games, particularly in basketball history.
His jersey number was also actually retired by the Lakers. But like I said, his post NBA career was primarily just as the guy on TV, on radio, on sports shows much like this one, to discuss an insider's perspective on the games currently happening. I do not believe he's still working today, but, yeah, that is James Worthy.
[00:57:10] Speaker C: When you say sports shows like this one, are you referring to a the show within this episode of Raymond, b, the podcast, or C, the mini show that is the Sports Guy, the show within our show that your little segment constitutes I was referenced, or D, all of the above?
[00:57:35] Speaker B: Let's go with all the above. Let's go with all of the.
[00:57:39] Speaker C: DA where are we? Oh, by the way, this is not a joke. I did reach out to James Worthy's representation for comment.
[00:57:51] Speaker A: Did they get back to you?
[00:57:52] Speaker C: No, they didn't get back.
[00:57:54] Speaker B: They did not. But I got back to him.
I did say, remember that TV show you were on for about two lines of dialogue in 1997? Do you have anything to say about that?
[00:58:07] Speaker A: Three assholes on the Internet want to hear if you have a comment about it?
[00:58:12] Speaker C: Yeah. No, they didn't get back to me. I could have spent $10 to send him a message on cameo, but money is only $10 to send a message. It's $10, and there's no guarantee that you receive a reply. His video is, like, 200, and then you can have a live call with him for like 600.
[00:58:33] Speaker B: I was going to say yeah, because he's a hall of fame, retired number Lakers player, he should cost more than $10.
[00:58:43] Speaker C: If his representation does get back to me, I will break into the episode right here.
And if you didn't hear anything, they did not get back to me. Okay, moving on. So Roy and James Worthy show up and Ray is saying he's nervous and he asks the guys if they ever feel nervous. And James Worthy says, I just throw up before every live show, which is a funny line for an athlete guest star to have.
And then the show starts and Ray very awkwardly, this was like, uncomfortable to see that he misses the cue that they're about to start. He turns and he's like, can I get some coffee?
And then Roy firestone, I feel like does a good job in this episode of acting, like the look that he gives Ray as he's doing that and delivering his just really funny. And they go around and introduce everyone and then they introduce Ray and Ray looks directly at the camera and says.
[00:59:43] Speaker A: Howdy, which that made me crack up. That was yeah, me too, howdy.
It's so good. It just does awkward so well in this episode.
[00:59:56] Speaker C: I feel like that's his persona, that's the core of his persona outside of the family. And whenever they hit that note with him, it's really successful.
Their topic is steroids, perhaps inspired by last season's guest star, Barry Bonds.
[01:00:16] Speaker B: Roy says, Barry Bonds probably was not found out yet. I don't think Barry Bonds got caught with steroids until after his legendary 2001 season in which he hit the 70 something home runs. So Barry Bonds's name, this is like start of the storage scandal, the scandal, but as of right now, he's probably still clean. Yeah.
[01:00:40] Speaker C: Okay.
Roy says something very that hit my ear wrong. They're talking about the fact that there's been an increasing use of the steroids. So clearly we're at the early days of this epidemic where people are still putting the article in front of steroids. Thus steroids. I don't know.
[01:00:59] Speaker B: No, you're right.
[01:01:02] Speaker C: Ray apparently wrote an interesting piece about this and we've talked about what must Ray's column look like and apparently he is diving into the big issues about he wrote about Olympic athletes going pro or something and now he's writing about steroids and he takes a while to get going. He cannot find the word epidemic. And then it's a pretty funny exchange where James offers epidemic and Ray's like, no, it's not an epidemic, it's more like, uh, yeah, it's an epidemic. Epidemic.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: We've had moments like that on this very show.
[01:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah, we have.
[01:01:39] Speaker C: So we are operating at about the capacity that Ray is, but he kind of picks up steam and once he gets into the actual information, 64% of Olympic athletes would take steroids if it got them an Olympic medal, even if it killed them. And then he's doing great, they're really interested in what he's saying. And then he starts scratching his lav mic on his lapel and that is a really terrible sound.
And then we just fade out of that scene. We don't get to see any more of the interview. But I thought that this part of the episode, like this illustration of Ray's awkwardness was really funny. Personally.
[01:02:23] Speaker B: It was.
[01:02:24] Speaker C: I thought the second go at this was, you know, any of the little like we were saying, anytime Ray is being an absolute awkward nightmare is always funny on this show.
[01:02:37] Speaker A: Always a good time.
[01:02:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree with that. There was more work done on the second time in a much smaller space, so it was a lot.
Yeah, I liked you mentioned the mic scratching. I liked him crossing his legs and then just looking super awkward and uncomfortable.
[01:02:55] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, Kevin kevin had the ray is like, how do you sit? Do you cross your legs? And Kevin's like, no, but I can't.
Which is a classic Kevin James Weight joke that he squeezed seven seasons out of over on the King of, you know, good delivery of that line, Ray. So we cut to Ray coming home and everybody's there, they cheer for him, frank takes pictures, everybody's thrilled that he was on TV. And Marie even says they should give you the Robert is, you know, stoic. And then he mentions I was on TV when they busted John Gotti. And Marie says, but you didn't have any lines, dear, which was really funny.
[01:03:44] Speaker B: That was a great you yeah, I.
[01:03:46] Speaker C: Was going to ask you want me to tell you? I know who John Gotti is. I saw that John Travolta movie.
[01:03:52] Speaker B: I did not tell me about John Gotti.
[01:03:54] Speaker C: John Gotti was the boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City.
So a mob guy, he was arrested in so his big conviction was in 1992.
I wish there was just an easy for bribery and tax evasion. Okay.
[01:04:21] Speaker B: Probably the least of his crimes, but.
[01:04:23] Speaker C: Yeah, his big arrest was in 1990 and he was convicted in 1992 after being charged with five murders, conspiracy to murder, loan sharking, which seems like an afterthought at that point. Illegal gambling, obstruction of justice. We get into the minor ones now. Illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery and tax evasion.
And he was found guilty on all charges and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
[01:05:00] Speaker B: He did eventually die in federal prison. I actually just looked that up.
[01:05:04] Speaker C: Okay, good.
He's dead.
[01:05:06] Speaker B: Good.
[01:05:07] Speaker C: He's a human being, I guess.
[01:05:11] Speaker B: He also murdered five people, probably way more than that, but they only got him on five.
[01:05:16] Speaker C: Yeah, well, he's gone now, but Robert arrested him and was on TV, but did not have any lines. So that was just a really funny line.
Frank mentions in passing joe Garaggiola. Who? I am assuming he was referring to Joe Garaggiola, senior. And I actually looked this up, Mike. He was a baseball catcher who went on to just become a regular broadcaster, not a sports broadcaster. He was a regular panelist on the Today show.
So an interesting reference. But everyone's cheering for Ray, and then they send him off. He goes upstairs. And then we cut to Ray and Deborah in the bedroom. Deborah's looking at a large piece of yellow construction paper. Allie drew another picture, but still insists that the monsters aren't the parents. And I thought this was funny, even though Deborah says one is bald and one is carrying a covered dish.
So pretty funny.
[01:06:14] Speaker A: It's very good.
[01:06:15] Speaker B: It was, yeah.
[01:06:16] Speaker C: And then we find out that Kevin called to tell Ray that they need him on the show again tomorrow. And this is when the whole facade sort of falls apart of, oh, Ray, you did a great job.
Deborah is sort of hmm. She's pursing her lips. Ray calls her out for pursing her lips, and she just suggests that he practices a few words. So not getting into the know ball of wax of you completely flamed out and looked like a fool.
[01:06:45] Speaker A: Just work on a few things.
[01:06:46] Speaker C: Work on a few pronunciations.
So, asterisk Ray pronounces asterisks Asking, ray pronounces as Axing and cinnamon. Ray pronounces as cinnamon.
[01:07:00] Speaker A: One thing I noticed before you go any further, Adam yeah. In the interview before this, I was watching with subtitles on when Ray says asking in the actual show, like that they're doing on live TV. The subtitles say Axin g. And I.
[01:07:18] Speaker B: Thought that was a fun oh, interesting. Fun.
[01:07:20] Speaker C: Little foreshadowing to detail. Yeah.
It's interesting to note that people have been saying acts instead of ask since the 8th century.
This is what I found out.
The first English translation of the Bible has acts instead of Ask in many instances. And Chaucer used axe instead of Ask, even though there's a negative connotation to pronouncing it that way. That is mostly rooted in, you guessed it, racism. So, really, Deborah, just chill know, it's perfectly fine to have differences in pronunciation.
[01:08:01] Speaker A: And much like we find out, or even just saw in the interview, ray's got bigger issues with the way he did his perform, the way he presented himself. I don't think that was an issue.
[01:08:15] Speaker C: Yeah. What was funny about this scene was the way that, first of all, Ray's reaction to not being able to change his pronunciation, and then when Deborah spiraling yeah. And then when Deborah pivots to know, just in case they go to the IHOP. I thought that was a funny thing.
[01:08:34] Speaker B: That was a fun line, too.
[01:08:35] Speaker A: Bring memories.
[01:08:37] Speaker C: Well rip rest in Pancake d hop. Ray goes over to his parents'house to ask them about his pronunciation issues, and they say they didn't notice this, but this is their opening, I feel like. And Frank points out the microphone scratching, being super. Annoying. Marie points out Ray Gesticulating waving his hands around and then they just continue to criticize him. And this makes Ray upset. Obviously, once he realizes that he did not do a good job everyone was just telling him that he did and then talking about how bad he was behind his back. And then as he interrogates Frank and Marie, he asks them, how long have you been lying to me? And then Frank gives three weeks. Funny little look. Three weeks.
Which is really funny.
[01:09:28] Speaker A: So good.
[01:09:29] Speaker C: And then Robert at this point comes in but is not acknowledged. He goes over to the freezer and Marie says that the day Ray was born was the happiest day of their lives. And just anytime Robert's look of, oh, my God.
And then I forget what he says to oh, marie just tells him to put whatever he's taking out of the freezer back.
[01:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And just the look that he yeah, yeah.
[01:10:01] Speaker C: Robert's look is so funny in this scene. And then Marie sort of sums up her thesis is parents are supposed to lie to their kids to make them feel better. And Ray says, actually they're supposed to believe in their kids.
[01:10:15] Speaker B: And what was Marie's follow up line?
[01:10:17] Speaker A: No, they don't.
[01:10:18] Speaker B: No, they don't. Which we've already kind of touched on this before. Right, when with the handsome yeah. And like, almost tells Ali the Santa secret, like that kind of thing. Right? Yeah. So this is the theme that has appeared before, but yeah, it's always funny.
[01:10:38] Speaker C: We cut to the next time Ray is on the show and he is just like we mentioned. He's just flaming out completely. He's sitting on his hands, he says, acts and then overcorrects himself saying, Ask. And then all of the other panelists are just staring at him like mouths.
[01:10:59] Speaker B: Again, unwind as he just goes like, tradition is the thing. And I know, I know. Nobody raises a point.
[01:11:09] Speaker C: It's just completely spiraling.
[01:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[01:11:13] Speaker C: And then Ray comes home, everyone's in the living room and they're kind of somber and they're just honoring about how bad it was. And he starts to grasp because clearly he's feeling the absence of the normal ego boost that he gets whenever he does anything. He's sort of like grasping at something positive. Like, well, at least I tried, right? And then they sort of latch onto that and they're like, yeah, you tried. It's good to try new things. Great for you, Ray. And Ray's like, well, it wasn't a total disaster. Right. And I think it's Frank who's know how many total disasters are?
[01:11:53] Speaker B: Good.
[01:11:54] Speaker C: So fucking good.
It is funny to see Robert's joy in this scene as well about Ray.
[01:12:02] Speaker B: Failing, which is he's waving the recording, the VCR. Yeah.
[01:12:08] Speaker C: And they just sort of send him off on these I'm sorry. Go ahead.
[01:12:13] Speaker B: After Rey goes upstairs, there's also this really funny moment when they're all just like they gave him that ego boost. They cheered him up. They moved on. He went upstairs. And then Deborah looks at Robert and holds out her hand for the VCR. And Robert is really reluctant to hand it over because they're going to destroy it. I just thought that was a really funny thing of Marie nudging him. And they're just like, it's got to go, kind of thing.
[01:12:39] Speaker C: I like the idea of Robert wanting to hold on to something tangible that shows that Ray is yeah, exactly.
But we go to our hot clothes and Ray and Deborah, honestly, I don't think we've seen a confirmed good old sex in a long time.
[01:12:59] Speaker A: Here it is.
[01:13:00] Speaker B: No, they gave it to us right at the start of the second season.
[01:13:04] Speaker C: We saw it at the start of the first season. We see it at this at least once a season. We will get a confirmed good old sex.
[01:13:11] Speaker A: Yes, they heard our complaints. They got our letters all those years ago.
[01:13:18] Speaker C: Well, the Royal R Complaints and the Royal R Letters of the American Public.
Right.
Ray says he's thrilled to have had good old sex, of course. And he says, I don't think that was a total disaster. And Deborah says, well, how many total disasters are there?
Good little callback. And that's the episode. That is season two, episode one, Rays on TV. So it's time now for us to turn our attention to the barometer just to reset a little for people who may have skipped our first season. The barometer is a scale from one to ten on which we evaluate Ray's performance as a husband, son, brother, father, sportscaster, sports journalist in general. And this is being done as part of a research project that's being funded by the Board of Regents at Lynbrook University who are very invested in studying this show as a reflection, know masculinity, fatherhood, what have you. Just life in Lynbrook. So we are honor bound to faithfully rate Ray at the end of each episode on this scale. One being the let's flip this around for this season. I didn't misspeak I meant to do this one is the worst men of television history. You've got your Don Drapers and Walter White all the way up to ten, which are the great sitcom dads of all time, like Uncle Phil and Danny Tanner. So, Alex, where is Ray coming in for you this episode?
[01:15:10] Speaker A: This is a tough one, I think, because once again we have Raymond not it not being rey presented with an issue in solving it for someone else. It's really how kind of he reacts to the situation around him. And I honestly think he didn't do anything particularly bad or good in this episode. Right. Like he was asked to go on TV, he said yes, he made mistakes. Not because he's a bad person, just because he's inexperienced in being on TV.
The kind of family charade of them lying to him comes out in their false support.
And, I mean, the way he reacts to this was maybe a little overdramatic. I mean, he knows his family.
He should not expect as much from them as I think he did.
And I think he overall just did a fine job. He let what they said get to he concerned himself with what they said. I feel like I'm talking, like, how Ray was on TV, because I'm still figuring out the score in my head.
[01:16:34] Speaker C: Well, tradition, and.
[01:16:38] Speaker A: I know that you're going to say that Ray did a bad job, but if you ask me, I think he didn't do too bad. I think talking in public and on TV is a tough thing to mean. For this one. I'm going to meet him at the middle of the road, and I'm just going to say six.
[01:17:03] Speaker C: All right, six. I'm going to go now because Mike is in time out.
[01:17:11] Speaker B: It's very weird. You've drawn the line here, but that's all right. All right.
[01:17:15] Speaker C: Well, this Am firm, a lot of people are sort of passively accepting the reality that the Earth is an oblate spheroid that is circling the sun, and that's the shape of the globe. You don't remember that from Earth science?
[01:17:37] Speaker B: I remember there being a map.
[01:17:43] Speaker C: What do you think a topographical map is representing, then? If you think that as we've established, you don't think mountains are real, what are those changes in gradation? That a topographical map represents a stylistic choice?
You think somebody just came and drew some squiggles?
[01:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah, just drew some squiggles because it was too boring. Otherwise, they just yeah, okay.
[01:18:08] Speaker C: But I am actively around Earther, and I go to the meetings and stuff. We actually have a little community at the RV.
[01:18:17] Speaker B: There are meetings about round. Somehow I think that meetings of round Earthers might be a little it's just.
[01:18:22] Speaker C: It'S me and Diane at this point. And we sit around the pond at the RV park and we look at the globe and we're like, yep, there it is. And we sort of know the latest astrophysical developments and read journals and yeah, we are actively round Earthers. We give money to round Earth organizations. And that's why I'm so hard on your newfound group of friends, because it's important to me to spread the word that, yes, the world is round.
[01:19:02] Speaker A: You got there.
[01:19:03] Speaker C: So for me on the barometer, I'm going to agree with Alex that the conflict here is just Rey trying something and failing. He doesn't really create an issue, but I am going to judge him a little more harshly because he sort of forces everybody at the end of the episode to maintain the status quo.
It is a growth opportunity for him to try something, fail, have a conversation with his family about it's not helpful to me when you lie to me and tell me I did a great job. You can point out the things that I did well and point out areas for improvement. But it's not helpful to just say that I did perfect when I really didn't. That's an opportunity for growth. That I feel like Ray, being the cowardly sort of feckless guy that he is, doesn't embrace and turns away from and says, you know what? Let's just get everyone to tell me what I did great again and build up my ego again. So I'm going to give Ray a four because I wish he would have taken that opportunity for growth.
[01:20:27] Speaker A: Very fair.
[01:20:29] Speaker C: Yeah. Mike, where are you coming in?
[01:20:33] Speaker B: I'm actually going to side more with I understand your complaint, Adam. I don't think it's enough for me to bring him down. Two whole points, though, if I'm being honest with mean, let's be real. He made a fool of himself on national television. Like an absolute embarrassment. Like, it cannot be overstated how bad he did a job of on television. Like, if the kids were a bit older, I would genuinely be concerned that they would be bullied in school if it was not just because of Ray's behavior. He did a terrible job.
That being said, I don't think he did anything morally wrong. Just kind of if anything, the only person here that did anything wrong was the network inviting him.
Like, genuinely, why the hell they saw what we saw? Why did they bring him back?
There had to be more people to replace Howard Johnson than Ray Brown.
[01:21:37] Speaker C: There had to be Harvey Johnson.
[01:21:40] Speaker B: Harvey Johnson. Sorry.
[01:21:41] Speaker C: Howard is Howard Johnson hotelier. Yes.
[01:21:44] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right.
[01:21:45] Speaker C: This place.
[01:21:53] Speaker B: So, listen, all I'm saying is there were definitely other sports writers or as we learn, the other esque people of Chinese descent that would have loved to be in this position and would have done a much better job.
If anything, I guess Kevin must have been wanting to prank him. But I don't know, man. I don't think that that was a very good I think that Kevin sucks.
[01:22:19] Speaker A: I'll be real with you.
[01:22:20] Speaker B: First he tries to replace Ralph Kiner, and then he tries to embarrass Ray. So fuck Kevin. But that's not really the point of the show. The show is to review Ray. Ray doesn't do much wrong. I think that he was desperately at the end. I think he was trying to look for something to make himself feel better because he walked away from that with the feeling that he did atrocious. And I don't think it was wrong for him to look for some comfort from his family. And his family, sure, maybe they didn't have to lie to him, but, my God, he walked in and the first thing Marie said was, well, that didn't go too well, did it? And Deborah goes, you know, I begged you to say little star. They immediately start saying the bad things. So I don't think Ray did anything bad. I don't think he did anything he definitely didn't do much. Right. But he didn't do anything too bad. I'm going to stick at a six because I don't think that he did enough to be even better than that. So, yeah, I'm also going to say.
[01:23:24] Speaker C: Okay, before you do the average, I will revise my score because it's been so long, I forgot my rule about giving Ray a bonus when he has good old sex.
[01:23:37] Speaker B: Oh, that's right. Yeah.
[01:23:39] Speaker C: So I'm going to bump him up to a five. And even though I hear what you're saying and I think I should bump him up to a five anyway, but, yeah, I'm going to come up to a five.
[01:23:51] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:23:52] Speaker B: Well, that rounds Ray out to a season two opening score of 5.6 on the way.
[01:24:00] Speaker A: Better than his start in season one, let me tell you.
[01:24:03] Speaker B: Yeah. What did he start at, like a four? Something like that.
[01:24:06] Speaker C: He actually started at a five. Exactly. So he is moving up.
[01:24:12] Speaker B: That's an improvement.
[01:24:14] Speaker C: Okay, so that's that good for you. Ray coming in just a little bit above average.
That's ray's on TV.
Listen, if you enjoyed this program, please rate and review it on Apple podcasts Spotify. Wherever you find it, we will read your review on the air, of course, if it's positive. And follow us on Instagram and Facebook at barone. We're on the reddit. We are on the email. We're on email now. You can hit us up at
[email protected]. And speaking of postfund.org, if you are interested in getting a little bit more of this show each month, we've got monthly bonus episodes in the Barone Zonus. Go over to Slash, donate and get lifetime access for a dollar amount of your choosing. It's a pay what you want wall. And the other thing we mentioned this last week, Alex and I, in the parking garage.
[01:25:24] Speaker A: That's right.
[01:25:24] Speaker C: But we have a segment on this show called Remembrances. Those are appearances of this cast in other media, other shows, other just one off. If you see a TMZ video of Patricia Heaton coming out of a Ben and Jerry's, that we will take it and we will talk about it for 25 minutes. We also have Judge Deborah. These are oppositional hypothetical situations where we're comparing one related thing to another related know who.
Why is the first thing that I thought of. Who has the bigger dick, Frank or Robert? But we're not going to do that.
[01:26:07] Speaker A: Robert.
[01:26:08] Speaker B: Yeah, Frank's got the power.
[01:26:11] Speaker C: Frank does not have the a who would you rather spend a passion filled night with, Robert or Frank?
[01:26:20] Speaker B: Frank.
[01:26:21] Speaker A: Robert. I feel like he would just take care of me.
[01:26:24] Speaker B: Yeah, but Frank, let's save it for.
[01:26:32] Speaker C: That.
[01:26:32] Speaker A: Debra. Oh, my God.
[01:26:33] Speaker B: Okay, Frank to top. I'm done here for that. You can cut that. No.
[01:26:38] Speaker C: So that's judge my new ringtone.
So we have those segments and previously we've asked them to be sent in to
[email protected] or through the social channels. We would like those to be sent via the new Postfund forums forums. So go to forums postfund.org and you can post a remembrance of Judge Deborah. Talk about the episodes as they come out. We would love to foster a little community around this show and our network, etc. So head on over there. We do have our Icebreaker that we started last week of your favorite Billy Joel song. You can put that in if you're a little shy, but that's where we'll be taking those, as well as any questions or comments that you want to share with us. We will be checking those frequently, so there's only one last thing to say. It's our classic sign off.
[01:27:38] Speaker A: Everybody loves Raymond and we love.
