Patricia Heaton (Merv, The Ritual), the star of Everybody Loves Raymond, shared with Deadline her backstory of how she landed the iconic television role. Heaton won two Emmy awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on Everybody Loves Raymond as the character, Debra Barone.
The character Debra Barone was the wife of Ray Romano (The Best You Can, Bookie), who was smart but often overwhelmed with all the family responsibilities, and juggling her relationship with Ray and his overbearing mother, Marie, played by the late Doris Roberts (Angie, The Red Maple Leaf).
Heaton told Deadline her thoughts about going through the audition process for the role.
“Well, I was going through —and I think why the show worked, we were all going through—what the Barone family was going through in our lives,” said Heaton via Deadline. “I had a three-year-old and a one-year-old in my life. I had a babysitting issue when I was coming to the audition, I needed to get back. I was cutting out coupons for 50 cents off two packs of Ball Park Franks, so I needed the gig.”
Heaton continued to tell Deadline her experience at the first set of auditions. She stated that there were at least eight other women in the waiting room waiting for the chance to read for the casting director. The only thing that was on her mind was getting back in time for her babysitter.
According to Deadline, Phil Rosenthal (Somebody Feed Phil, The Winklers), the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, said after seeing over 200 women for the role of Ray’s wife, he noticed that Heaton did something that none of the others did.
“The two of you had the most spectacular chemistry and I always said that Patty Heaton’s the best wife on television.”
Romano chimed in and told Deadline that the one thing she did differently was that she kissed him. While all the other actresses just mimed the kiss, Heaton really did kiss him. After Heaton’s audition, both Rosenthal and Romano said that she is the one. They said the same for Roberts after her initial audition, too. Everybody Loves Raymond ran on CBS from 1996-2005.
The show recently had an early 30th anniversary special featuring Reosenthal, Romano, Heaton, and other main cast members.