Can
you believe that it has been ten years since the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" aired its final episode? It doesn't even seem like it was that long
ago!
Of
course, it could be because the show is still in syndication and probably will
be until the year 2030.
Now,
even though it's been a decade since the show aired, a lot of people from that
show have gone on to do great things.
Ray Romano has appeared on "Men of a Certain Age" and
"Parenthood". Patricia Heaton
is one of the stars of "The Middle".
And Brad Garrett seems to be in almost every single Disney movie ever
made these days. "Finding
Nemo", "A Bug's Life", "Planes"...am I missing any?
And
you know, for what it was worth, the show did have some great episodes. Who could forget the time in which the
family went to Italy? Who could forget
the love quadrilateral with Robert, Amy, Stefania, and Robert's ex-wife? Remember when Robert's girlfriend ate a fly? Or the time Marie made a sculpture that
looked like a diagram you might see in sixth grade sex education class? The show had some funny storylines, and I
can see why it lasted ten years and over 200 episodes.
So,
why am I bringing up the show "Everybody Loves Raymond" during Easter Week in this blog?
Well,
it's quite simple. Would you believe
that in all of the sitcoms that have ever been made that very few Easter themed
episodes have been made? You can find
episodes for Christmas, Halloween, and even Valentine's Day fairly easily, but
try finding an episode about Easter and it could take you quite a long time.
Fortunately,
"Everybody Loves Raymond" made not just one Easter episode, but
two. And in today's edition of the
blog, we will be having a look at one of the two episodes.
The
episode that we'll be discussing today will be the one entitled "The Canister", and it was the nineteenth episode of the show's fifth
season. Original airdate: April 9, 2001.
The
episode starts off quite calmly as the Barone family makes plans to have Easter
dinner together. On the guest list is
Ray, Debra, their three children, Robert, Marie, and Frank. And Marie is determined to make this Easter
the greatest one ever.
But
of course like every sitcom, there has to be some conflict in order to make the
episode flow, or else it would be quite boring.
In
this case, the point of conflict happens to be a little yellow canister - one
that one may use to store sugar, salt, or other spices. It turns out that Marie needs it for Easter
preparations and she can't seem to locate it anywhere in her house. Her first instinct is to go and ask Debra if
she borrowed it - after all, Debra and Ray live right across the street!
But
Debra claims that she never had the canister.
This causes a little bit of an argument between the two and Debra is
angrily insisting that she never took Marie's canister, despite Marie's
insistence that she did.
Eventually,
Marie concludes that Debra must be telling the truth, and she offers Debra a
heartfelt apology, which floors both Ray and Robert! After all, Marie is the type of mother-in-law that most people
dread having. Argumentative,
condescending, and never being wrong about ANYTHING!
But
with the apology made, things go back to normal, and Debra is feeling pretty
proud of herself for standing her ground with Marie...
...that
is until Debra and Ray's daughter Ally comes into the living room holding the
canister causing Debra to have a full blown panic attack! You see, Debra did borrow the canister after
all, and Ally believed that the canister would be a great container to store
her crayons for her colouring book.
Of
course, with Ally being in possession of the canister, Debra is now freaking
out. She knows that the right thing to
do is return the canister, but if she does, Marie will become even more
sanctimonious and even more judgmental, and that would be absolutely unbearable
for her.
I
can honestly say though that I completely understand Debra's point of
view. I imagine that all of us have
been in a situation before where we all have been accused of something that we
claim we didn't do...and then having to eat a big slice of bitter humble pie
when we come to the conclusion that yes, yes we did do what we were accused of
doing, and now we feel bad because of it.
Been
there, done that.
Of
course, in any of my situations, none of the people who have confronted me have
been as manipulative or excruciating as Marie Barone.
(Can
you tell I'm NOT a Marie fan? A Doris
Roberts fan, absolutely. A Marie Barone
fan? Never.)
But
what's interesting about "The Canister" isn't the way that the
episode plays out, but how the episode ends.
You see, the relationship between Ray and his father could be considered
prickly at best, and Frank Barone has never really been considered Mr. Congeniality.
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