If we’re going to talk simple stories, none are simpler than those on Everybody Loves Raymond.
Consider the 6th episode of the sixth season, Frank Goes Downstairs, written by Jennifer Crittenden.
In a very short tease, Ray and Debra fall out of bed while doing it (off screen) And both get hurt. Ray is excited. It’s his very first sex injury.
Act One has two scenes. In the first, Ray boasts to his pals about his sex injury. Then doesn’t want his father to know, so makes up a lie about falling down stairs. In the second scene, Debra finds out that Ray has been boasting. Then Marie wants details about the injury and the lie gets bigger. The act break comes when Frank, who is repairing those dangerous stairs, falls through them into the basement.
Act Two takes us to the hospital. The needling about the lie continues. Debra is filled with remorse and insists Ray buy his father satellite TV to make up for his injury. Ray has a moment alone with his dad in which he tells the truth. The emotion of the moment is balanced with comedy.
And then there’s a short comedic tag which doesn’t tie into the story at all.
What could be simpler? Certainly not filling in the rest of the 22 minutes with jokes — every single one of them built on character. Pretty awesome work.
An episode called Lucky Suit written by Tucker Cawley has a few more turns, but still no B-story.
In the tease, Robert announces that he’s got a job interview with the FBI. He’s going to wear his lucky suit.
At breakfast, Marie irons and ruins the suit.
Robert goes to the interview in another suit and Marie sends a fax to the interviewer apologizing for ruining Robert’s lucky suit and recommending him for the job.
Robert announces he didn’t get the job because of Marie’s sabotage and tells her to stay out of his life.
Marie goes to the FBI agent and begs him to give the job to Robert. She reveals that she doesn’t want him to get the job because it’s too dangerous. The FBI agent says that Robert didn’t get the job because other candidates were more qualified.
Marie makes up with Robert.
In the tag, we get the last beat of a runner about Ray.
Simple, clean, straight forward stories. And I laughed a lot.
claire dunn
Hey Jill,
loving this analysis of pilots, as always. I watched a ton of Everybody Loves Ray while writing a comedy. It is amazing how simple the ELR stories are. The scripts must be short, too, I bet. So much of the episode’s comedy comes from, absolutely, character – and it’s the same jokes over and over, which makes them funnier. Ray’s brother Robert is a loveable loser who is jealous and resentful of his brother. The biggest laughs for Robert come from the faces he makes at his brother when his theory that Ray gets everything he doesn’t is borne out. Again. And the actor holds the look of childish resentment. And holds it. And the longer he holds it, the more we laugh. And the laugh track (or live audience? I’m assuming laugh track) rolls with it too. I wonder how much page time is given to laughs in these US sitcoms. We don’t have that time, given we almost never have laugh tracks. We try to do the same laugh cues with music, but it doesn’t always work.
ELR is a brilliant family comedy, with family members we have come to know and love.
Thanks for the ongoing insights into these shows.