Ray Romano's Favorite Everybody Loves Raymond Episodes Will Leave You In Stitches

"Everybody Loves Raymond" was the poster child of sitcom television throughout the show's nearly decade-long run from 1996 to 2005. Those nine seasons saw the production of over 200 episodes, with creator Phil Rosenthal, comedic legend Ray Romano, and an incredible supporting cast (including the likes of Patricia Heaton and Brad Garrett) generating an endless stream of knee-slapping moments centered on the mundane life of the Barones of Long Island.

Each episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" has something to like. As always, though, some stand out above the rest. If you reference the crowd-sourced ratings on a website like IMDb, audiences found episodes like season 5's "The Wallpaper" and season 7's "Debra Makes Something Good" to be peak sitcom.

But what about the man himself? What does Romano think are the best episodes of his show? In an interview with PEOPLE Magazine in 2024, the actor revealed that he had finally sat down and watched the entire 210-episode run for the first time since the finale aired nearly two decades earlier. In that time, he had also taken the initiative to rate every. Single. Episode. He used a 1 to 100 scale and nothing got higher than a 96. "We were never perfect," he admitted.

Here are the three episodes Romano thinks deserve top treatment:

• "Good Girls" is the 19th episode of season 2 and aired on March 9, 1998. It follows the stiff in-law competition that unfolds as Marie (Doris Roberts) expresses rampant favoritism for Robert's (Garrett) girlfriend Amy (Monica Horan) over her current daughter-in-law, Debra (Heaton).

• "She's the One" is the ninth episode of season 7 and aired on November 18th, 2002. In it, Robert introduces a one-off girlfriend named Angela (Elizabeth Bogush) who turns out to be obsessed with frogs and even eats flies.

• "Baggage" is the 22nd episode of season 7 and aired on May 5th, 2003. It features a three-week feud between Ray and Debra over who should put a suitcase away. (It's somehow much better than it sounds.)

All three of these show the power of the series to spin comedic gold out of everyday life in a way that could have you busting a gut at a moment's notice. Unfortunately, we don't know where Romano thought the low points of the show were, as he was wise enough not to throw himself and his fellow writers (some of whom he is still in contact with) under the bus.

While "Everybody Loves Raymond" remains a staple for many, there is little to no chance that we'll see a reboot or reunion anytime soon. In 2023, Romano went on record saying he thought reboots were never as good as the original and that he wanted to preserve the show's legacy as it is. It's a good sentiment, especially considering the fact that "Everybody Loves Raymond" was canceled after nine seasons specifically because, in the words of Phil Rosenthal, "We ran out of ideas." If you're willing to end an iconic television show because you're self-aware enough to see that you're running out of steam, you can bet you're not going to fire things back up again unless the moment is right and everything is in place.