The title “Everybody Loves Raymond” is at least a little ironic. The show’s title character, Ray Barone (Ray Romano), has a mildly antagonistic relationship with just about every member of his family, with his higher-pitched voice often sparring melodiously with brother Robert’s (Brad Garrett) deadpan bass.
But there isn’t an ounce of irony to be found in the observation that everybody loves “Everybody Loves Raymond.” It’s a modern sitcom classic, a domestic multicam that breathed new life into the well-worn genre not through flashy deconstruction but by deepening its fundamentals. In its writing and performances, “Raymond” feels lived-in and well-observed. Even as its characters frustrate each other, the experience of watching is akin to a warm hug.
So if you’re looking for more comedies that offer that same comforting feeling, look no further. These are the 10 best TV shows like “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Home Improvement
“Everybody Loves Raymond” stars a beloved standup comic as a fictionalized version of himself, heading a suburban family. For a similarly charming, entertaining formula, check out ABC’s eight-season “Home Improvement,” a show so successful it even birthed a short-lived spin-off starring another beloved standup comic that you likely forgot existed.
This series stars Tim Allen as Tim “The Tool-Man” Taylor, a local Detroit TV show host with a tough, wisecracking wife (Patricia Richardson), three adorable sons (Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith), and a neighbor who conspicuously never shows his face (Earl Hindman). As the Taylor family grows, so, too, do Tim’s paternal instincts, despite his often self-sabotaging appetite for shenanigans.
While “Everybody Loves Raymond” has its share of domestic squabbles, it’s fundamentally a gentle, good-hearted show. “Home Improvement,” conversely, has a rougher edge, especially in its portrayal of Tim as a brash, even chauvinistic manly man. It plays a little like “Raymond” with a dash of hyper-masculine “Tool Time” bravado, though it always finds its way back home to improve its comically flawed characters.
The King of Queens
Ray Romano and Kevin James worked together on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” with the latter standup comic appearing as Kevin Daniels on numerous episodes and co-writing the Season 2 episode “Golf” alongside Romano and Tom Caltabiano. And even though James kinda thought “Everybody Loves Raymond” would be a flop, he eventually got his own CBS working-class family show, “The King of Queens.”
That series ran for nine seasons, starring James as everyman Doug Heffernan, a package delivery person. Like many of the sitcoms on this list, Doug has a no-nonsense wife (Leah Remini), an overbearing in-law (Jerry Stiller), and a group of male friends more than willing to indulge his man-child tendencies.
The tone often leans a little more vulgar or churlish than “Everybody Loves Raymond,” though James’ natural charisma makes it hard not to find him endearing. The connection between the shows continued almost immediately, as Romano and his “Everybody Loves Raymond” castmates crossed over, returned the favor, and officially placed both sitcoms in the same universe.
King of the Hill
You might pitch “King of the Hill” as a kind of slowed and reverbed “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Like the Ray Romano-starring show, “King of the Hill” follows a middle-class, loving but rigid father and husband, Hank Hill (co-creator Mike Judge), as he navigates an ever-changing domestic life. But whereas “Raymond” can get loud and even aggressive in its comedic conflicts and how its actors play them, “King of the Hill” stays reserved. It’s rare to say an animated show feels more realistic than a live-action show (in part because of its animation rules), but here we are.
Both Hank Hill and Ray Barone are stubborn traditionalists, and both have to be dragged into adapting to the modern world. But Hank’s world gets some appealing wrinkles thanks to the depth and intrigue of his family. Hank’s wife Peggy (Kathy Najimy) is a lot more impulsive and erratic than your average family sitcom’s voice-of-reason wife.
And Hank’s son, Bobby (Pamela Adlon), is one of the great TV characters, forming an equally memorable father-and-son duo with Hank. Their relationship is fascinating, curious, and revealing while never resorting to cheap, punching-down laughs.
Mad About You
“Everybody Loves Raymond” takes place on Long Island. For more East Coast familial sitcom vibes, let’s travel west through Queens, hop on the Long Island City ferry into Manhattan, and get “Mad About You.”
The show stars co-creator Paul Reiser and national treasure Helen Hunt as a married couple trying their best to get through their days without the titular “mad” taking on a different definition. It’s a little like the domestic relatability of “Everybody Loves Raymond” crossed with the acerbic sensibilities of “Seinfeld.” That blend makes the crossover of “Mad About You” with “Seinfeld,” alongside many other NBC shows, seem almost inevitable.
“Mad About You” isn’t exactly as cozy as “Raymond,” and Paul Buchman (Reiser) is a more difficult protagonist than Ray Barone. Nevertheless, the shows share a similar point of view about family life, with frustration turning into satisfaction and sharpness softening into warmth. It’s gritty yet comforting, showing that the warts-and-all realities of marriage are an essential part of the deal, not something to run away from.
The Middle
After “Everybody Loves Raymond,” Patricia Heaton struck sitcom gold again. ABC’s “The Middle” stars Heaton as Frankie, the working-class matriarch of the five-member Heck family, made up of her husband Mike (Neil Flynn), son Axl (Charlie McDermott), daughter Sue (Eden Sher), and son Brick (Atticus Shaffer). Together, the family gets by in a fictional Indiana town, learning lessons through its misadventures.
“The Middle” is comfort viewing of the highest order, a single-cam comedy uninterested in provocation or experimentation, much to its benefit. It zeroes in on its relationships, especially nailing that very Midwestern quality of trying to keep up appearances despite a core vulnerability.
And as much as Heaton shines on “Raymond,” “The Middle” might be her crowning achievement as a TV comedy performer. She and Flynn, whom you might best know as the ad-libbing janitor on “Scrubs,” have a lived-in chemistry rivaled by few other TV couples. Heaton also juggles her character’s many conflicting priorities with endearing grit and a big heart.
Modern Family
Speaking of comforting single-cam sitcoms: “Modern Family,” one of the best ABC shows of all time, takes the mockumentary format of its contemporaries like “The Office” and largely ditches its ubiquitous dive into cringe comedy. Instead, like “Everybody Loves Raymond,” it offers a revealing, lovely look into the everyday dynamics of a family unit, no matter what that family unit looks like.
“Modern Family” follows three branches of one extended family, the most similar to “Raymond” being the brood of Phil and Claire Dunphy (Ty Burrell and Julie Bowen). Phil has a sprightly sense of humor, and while he can be just as goofy as Ray Barone, his antics stem from childlike enthusiasm rather than a lazy avoidance of duties. He is pure of heart and spirit, something that can frustrate his more down-to-earth wife, Claire, who would make a great drinking buddy for Patricia Heaton’s Debra.
The Dunphy stories are charming and familiar, but they aren’t the only pleasures of “Modern Family.” The show also delves into the lives of a gay couple (Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet) and a blended family (Ed O’Neill and Sofía Vergara), making it a quietly groundbreaking show in terms of representation in mainstream pop culture.
The Nanny
In a Season 5 episode of “The Nanny” called “The Reunion Show,” Ray Barone shows up to Fran’s (Fran Drescher) high school reunion, establishing that the two sitcoms take place in the same universe and that the characters went to high school together. This curio might be enough of a reason for “Everybody Loves Raymond” fans to jump over to “The Nanny,” but the shows share enough similar DNA to capture your heart and funny bone regardless.
Fran is a street-smart Queens woman with a lust for the finer things in life. She lands a job as a nanny to the children of wealthy widower Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) in his lavish Manhattan home, navigating their culture clashes to warm their hearts and give them exactly what they need.
Is it “Everybody Loves Raymond” meets “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”? Is it “Mary Poppins” meets “Frasier” (there is a character named Niles, after all)? It’s an alluring cocktail of many familiar ingredients that nonetheless tastes fresh and relentlessly funny all these years later.
One Day at a Time (2017)
The original series called “One Day at a Time,” developed by the great Norman Lear, is worth any TV comedy fan’s time. But its reboot, unjustly canceled after four seasons, may give “Everybody Loves Raymond” fans exactly what they’re looking for. It’s one of the great underrated sitcoms of recent years.
In this version, Justina Machado plays Penélope, a single mom raising two kids in the Alvarez family in Los Angeles. She struggles to pay the bills while managing her mental health after serving in the military. And just like “Raymond” and many of these other shows, there’s an overbearing parent in the picture by way of the legendary Rita Moreno.
Like “Raymond,” “One Day at a Time” uses the multicam form to its fullest advantage, giving tightly written jokes and the characters’ deep, driving emotions equal room. And like the best Lear shows, when this “ODAAT” is firing on all cylinders, it transcends the TV set and starts to feel like electric theater performed by a locked-in ensemble cast.
The legendary, multi-talented entertainer Reba McEntire toplined her own sitcom, “Reba,” an entertaining and underrated six-season show from the 2000s. She plays Reba Hart, a tough, wisecracking woman whose life gets spun on its axis when she discovers that her husband (Christopher Rich) has been having an affair with his dental hygienist, Barbra Jean (Melissa Peterman), who is now expecting a baby. So she gets herself a divorce and sets off on a new path, raising an expanded, blended, and thoroughly modern family.
“Reba” is a frank show, bolstered by some of the most pointed line deliveries from McEntire in sitcom history; she would walk all over the oft-oblivious Ray Barone. But like “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Reba” is suffused with authenticity. Maybe some of the plot machinations are contrived for the sake of comedic conflict, but the intention is never to pander. “Reba” treats its audience with intelligence even as its jokes go broad, making for a delightful mixture of highbrow and lowbrow pleasures.
Plus, Dolly Parton shows up for a silly guest role. What’s not to love?
Roseanne
A clear antecedent of not just “Everybody Loves Raymond” but many contemporary working-class sitcoms, “Roseanne” broke the mold, becoming one of the best shows of the ’90s.
Burgeoning standup comic Roseanne Barr starred as Roseanne Conner, the hardworking and hard-living matriarch of a family that included her husband, played by the great John Goodman; her sister, played by Laurie Metcalf; and her three children, with a fourth arriving later in Season 8.
Like Barr’s well-honed stand-up persona, Roseanne Conner was caustic, loud, in-your-face, and fiercely independent. It made for quite the refreshing watch, given that the typical formula for family sitcoms, including, pretty inarguably, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” involves a buffoonish husband and his eye-rolling wife.
The family dynamic was also unlike many of its peers, presenting an authentic look at working-class, blue-collar life. “Roseanne” dove headfirst into financial difficulties and emotional problems, always irreverent but never disrespectful.
If “Raymond” is a loving father, “Roseanne” is the brassy aunt who livens up every Thanksgiving dinner. It makes the perfect addition to your television family tree.
