# "Everybody Loves Raymond" Houses Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 22, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147 "2008-10-22T23:25:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/1 "2008-10-22T23:25:13Z")
I’ve been watching _Everybody Loves Raymond_ in reruns and I was just wondering where the parents live in relation to Raymond. Do the parents live across the street or behind them? Because a lot of time the parents or Robert come in the back way. And Robert and Ray and Deborah often come in through the parents kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/2 "2008-10-22T23:42:03Z")
I believe they lived across the street. That’s where Ray and Robert grew up, too. Yeah, I know, it does seem like a lot of unnecessary walking to go in through the back of the house. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/3 "2008-10-23T04:05:53Z")
They live across the street. Otherwise Marie couldn’t have backed the car out of their driveway and wound up in Raymond’s living room. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/4 "2008-10-23T04:58:19Z")
I thought that the car entered the front room head first. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/5 "2008-10-23T05:25:32Z")
I only started watching it in reruns, and I was wondering why the character often enter through the back door. As one poster noted it seems a long way to go around. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/6 "2008-10-23T06:20:18Z")
It’s a pretty standard sitcom cliche that drives me nuts: characters will always enter a scene at the nearest door regardless of how little sense it makes. “Family Ties” perfected this. ---
**Author:** ![4everkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/76d3ee/32.png) [@4everkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4everkid)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/7 "2008-10-23T06:38:25Z")
This has been bothering me for years! I know The Shroud is right, but it still irritates me. I like to rationalize excuses like: a. the visitors know that the occupants will be in the kitchen at this particular time of day. b. Ray & Deborah locked the front door to keep them out, so the parents went around. The other thing that bothers me is when a family sits down to the table in a C formation, facing the camera. Doesn’t matter how many there are and how ridiculous it looks. They will pack 8 people on one side of a table just to have them all facing the camera. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/8 "2008-10-23T12:32:53Z")
> [@The\_Shroud](#): > > It’s a pretty standard sitcom cliche that drives me nuts: characters will always enter a scene at the nearest door regardless of how little sense it makes. “Family Ties” perfected this. I’ve never noticed this in general, and never really watched Raymond at all - but wouldn’t anything else be awkward? If the scene is set in the back of the house, people can either enter through the back door, or come through the house - where it’s not immediately clear if they just entered the house from the front or had been in the house. Obviously you could clear up where they’d really come from with one line, but that would get tiresome. Not to mention, it might make sense for an adult son to walk into his parents’ home without knocking and walk through the house to the kitchen, but more generally that would be at least as weird as entering through the back door. The alternative is to knock and drag another character out of the scene to open the door, which sounds tedious. I guess you weren’t saying you don’t understand, just that it drives you nuts. But it seems pretty non-nutty to me. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/9 "2008-10-23T13:21:01Z")
They lived across the street. If Marie was coming over solo, she generally came in through the kitchen door. Probably so she’d have an excuse to inspect Debra’s food & cleanliness. If Frank was coming over, with or without Marie, he/they would generally come in through the front door. If Robert was coming over, and wasn’t on duty, front door. If he was on duty, back door. Raymond and/or Debra would pretty much enter Marie & Frank’s house via the back door, unless it was for a family event. The only person who ever knocked was Debra - everyone else just walked in the door. There were exceptions to all of the above, but that seemed to be the general trend. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/10 "2008-10-23T13:37:26Z")
Didn’t the Fonz (who lived in the Cunningham’s room above the garage) always seem to enter the Cunningham’s house from the closest exterior door depending on where the scene was. If everyone was in the living room he came in through the front door. If everyone was in the kitchen he came in through the exterior kitchen door. I never saw him come wandering in from the kitchen to the living room or vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/11 "2008-10-23T14:12:34Z")
Here’s something else about Raymond’s house. I caught part of a rerun the other night where Deborah cleans out the junk drawer in the kitchen, accidentally throwing out Raymond’s letter from (I think) Muhammad Ali. Deborah’s in the kitchen and hears the trash truck and goes running out the back door with the kitchen trash, which leads me to assume there is an alley behind the house. However, there have been other episodes where they are in the back yard, and it looks like your normal suburban back yard, with a swingset for the kids and no alley in sight, so who knows. (Maybe she ran out the back door with the trash and around to the front of the house. On her way to Marie and Frank’s back door. ;)) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/12 "2008-10-23T16:01:54Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > The alternative is to knock and drag another character out of the scene to open the door, which sounds tedious. > > I guess you weren’t saying you don’t understand, just that it drives you nuts. But it seems pretty non-nutty to me. Yeah, it makes sense, but the nutty part is that Skippy the annoying neighbor somehow knew with 100% veracity which door to knock on. Same with Marie and Frank. I think it’s one of those things that, if it happens in one or two episodes, it doesn’t even faze me, but if it happens in upwards of 100 episodes, it becomes very weird. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/13 "2008-10-23T18:11:51Z")
> [@4everkid](#): > > The other thing that bothers me is when a family sits down to the table in a C formation, facing the camera. Doesn’t matter how many there are and how ridiculous it looks. They will pack 8 people on one side of a table just to have them all facing the camera. The Bradys didn’t do this, Mr Brady on one side, Mrs Brady across from him and 3 kids on each side. But now that you mention it most TV shows use the “C” formation. Never noticed that before. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/14 "2008-10-23T18:15:38Z")
> [@4everkid](#): > > The other thing that bothers me is when a family sits down to the table in a C formation, facing the camera. Doesn’t matter how many there are and how ridiculous it looks. They will pack 8 people on one side of a table just to have them all facing the camera. A big offender in this regard is the Golden Girls. They have a square dining table in the kitchen with three chairs. (no chair on the side where the camera is) When all four of the girls are sitting at the table…they drag a barstool over from counter to sit on. It irritates me to no end when they do that. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/15 "2008-10-23T18:26:17Z")
Wow, people actually try to make sense of sitcoms! Most sitcom plot devices are used to move the story along and to show the characters when they’re speaking. Hate to tell y’all but the characters in the sitcoms aren’t living in real houses! One time I visited the Frasier set and was astonished by how small it was. TV shows have a way of creating illusions of size and reality that does not exist. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/16 "2008-10-23T19:42:55Z")
> [@4everkid](#): > > The other thing that bothers me is when a family sits down to the table in a C formation, facing the camera. Doesn’t matter how many there are and how ridiculous it looks. They will pack 8 people on one side of a table just to have them all facing the camera. Ever since DaVinci pulled it off with The Last Supper everyone thinks they can do it now. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/17 "2008-10-24T01:31:55Z")
> [@nivlac](#): > > Wow, people actually try to make sense of sitcoms! Most sitcom plot devices are used to move the story along and to show the characters when they’re speaking. Hate to tell y’all but the characters in the sitcoms aren’t living in real houses! One time I visited the Frasier set and was astonished by how small it was. TV shows have a way of creating illusions of size and reality that does not exist. Of course we know that but to me it makes no sense for Ray’s folks and brother to walk completely AROUND the house to enter the back way when they could simply walk THROUGH the living room. It’s bad staging. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/18 "2008-10-24T01:53:19Z")
It’s very simple. The streets of Raymond’s home of Lynnbrook, NY were laid out by M.C. Escher. Rather than being striaght or curved like most streets, Ray’s and his parents’ homes are located on a Mobius strip. Since every door is directly across from every other door, everyone on the block has equal access to both the front and back of all houses. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/19 "2008-10-24T06:36:45Z")
What I want to know is why Deborah agreed to move across the street from Marie? Surely they knew they hated each other early on. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147/20 "2008-10-24T14:21:15Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > It’s very simple. The streets of Raymond’s home of Lynnbrook, NY were laid out by M.C. Escher. Rather than being striaght or curved like most streets, Ray’s and his parents’ homes are located on a Mobius strip. Since every door is directly across from every other door, everyone on the block has equal access to both the front and back of all houses. Brilliant! That explains my post as well. Thanks! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everybody-loves-raymond-houses-question/469147.md?page=2)