CBS’s 9-season Long Island family sitcom premiered on September 13, 1996, ran 210 episodes through May 16, 2005, and never stopped reruning. Three decades after Ray Romano’s stand-up set on Letterman became a sitcom pilot, Romano, creator Phil Rosenthal, and the surviving Barones are returning to Austin for an ATX TV Festival reunion panel — on the heels of a record-rating CBS special and an unexpectedly tearful second helping that aired on December 22 last year.
The ATX reunion panel pairs Ray Romano, creator Phil Rosenthal, and members of the writing staff for a long-form conversation about the inaugural season, the Long Island household that fed it, and the November/December CBS specials. We’ll be in the audience with regular festival passes, not press credentials — a full attendee report follows on this page within 48 hours of the panel. The coverage builds toward our 2027 ATX media application.
| Ray Romano | Ray Barone — the sportswriter at the center |
| Patricia Heaton | Debra Barone — Ray’s wife |
| Brad Garrett | Robert Barone — Ray’s older brother |
| Monica Horan | Amy MacDougall-Barone — later Robert’s wife |
| Madylin Sweeten | Ally Barone — the eldest Barone child |
| Sullivan Sweeten | Michael Barone — one of the twins |
| Peter Boyle | Frank Barone — honored at the 2025 reunion on what would have been his 90th birthday (passed 2006) |
| Doris Roberts | Marie Barone — remembered alongside Boyle (passed 2016) |
| Sawyer Sweeten | Geoffrey Barone — the other twin (passed 2015) |
The origin story Phil Rosenthal still tells: he was watching Ray Romano do stand-up on The Late Show with David Letterman in May 1995. Letterman’s Worldwide Pants signed Romano to develop a sitcom; Rosenthal was hired to write it; the two met at Art’s Deli in the San Fernando Valley. The show that emerged was almost the opposite of the high-concept 1990s sitcom — a Long Island household, parents across the street, a marriage at its center, and a comedic engine built from minor domestic friction.
The honest answer the cast keeps giving is that the writers’ room cannibalised real life. Rosenthal’s line at the original reunion taping: “Ninety percent of everything you saw on the show happened to me, or to Ray, or to one of the other writers.” Three decades after the pilot, the comedy still works because the situations were never invented.
The 30-year reunion happens in the long shadow of three losses: Peter Boyle (Frank), Doris Roberts (Marie), and the actor Sawyer Sweeten. The 2025 special filmed on what would have been Boyle’s 90th birthday; Romano became visibly emotional discussing him. Rosenthal’s answer to the recurring question about whether they’d ever revive the show is short: “We’re never going to do one, because we’re missing three castmembers, three family members. We’d never try to do the show without them.”
It is now widely possible to underestimate the form. Everybody Loves Raymond was filmed in front of a live audience on a recreated suburban set with the same five-camera setup Norman Lear had used twenty years earlier — and almost no contemporary half-hour comedy works that way anymore. The 2025 specials filmed on the recreated Barone living-room and kitchen sets are, in retrospect, the form’s farewell tour.
The reference point for a kind of American sitcom that no broadcast network can currently afford to make. Rosenthal’s line at the reunion — “the domestic family sitcom is the building block of TV” — is also a quiet eulogy. The ATX panel will be one of the last chances to hear that argument from the room that built the show.
A round-up of a dozen sources, mixing the 2025 reunion coverage with the 2026 ATX-reunion announcements and contemporary milestones. Pull quotes are reproduced as published; links lead to the original.
It was surreal that after like a half hour we felt like we had never left, you know?TV Insider Ray Romano, on filming the November special — via Emily Aslanian, November 20, 2025
The domestic family sitcom is the building block of TV.TV Insider Phil Rosenthal
Ninety percent of everything you saw on the show happened to me, or to Ray, or to one of the other writers.The Hollywood Reporter Phil Rosenthal — via Rick Porter
We’re never going to do one, because we’re missing three castmembers, three family members. We’d never try to do the show without them.The Hollywood Reporter Ray Romano
The special delivered 6.32M Live+Same Day viewers on CBS — the most-watched primetime entertainment special of the 2025–26 broadcast season to date.Deadline Reunion ratings report
10.08 million viewers in live+7 multiplatform after the initial airing on Monday, Nov. 24, and a repeat airing on Friday, Nov. 28 — strong enough to greenlight a Part 2.Variety Part 2 announcement
It’s a 90-minute special, which is only 66 minutes with no commercials. We were out there for almost two and a half hours, three hours, maybe.Deadline Ray Romano, on why Part 2 happened
The one thing that was hard for Phil and I to cut was we did a little segment about our fathers.Deadline Ray Romano, on the unaired material
IMDb score 8.3/10 for the 30th-anniversary reunion mini-series — one of the highest scored network specials of the season.IMDb User rating, 30th-Anniversary Reunion (2025)
The festival shines a spotlight on an Everybody Loves Raymond reunion in honor of the beloved sitcom’s 30th anniversary, featuring star Ray Romano, creator Phil Rosenthal, and members of the series’ writing staff.TV Insider Erin Maxwell, ATX 2026 lineup
There is nothing we’re more passionate about than celebrating great television within our community.Variety Caitlin McFarland, ATX TV co-president, on the 2026 reunion bookings
The 30th-anniversary special reunited Romano, Heaton, Garrett, Horan, and the Sweeten siblings on a recreated set, honoring late stars Boyle and Roberts.Variety First-look photos coverage