It's hard to imagine anyone except Patricia Heaton playing the role of the loving, wisecracking, patient-to-a-fault wife on "Everybody Loves Raymond." However, Phil Rosenthal said he didn't have Heaton in mind when he first sat down to discuss final actress picks for Debra with the former head of CBS, Leslie Moonves. All he knew was that he didn't want Moonves' pick, and Rosenthal was fully ready to be fired — or quit — over the decision.
Rosenthal told Yahoo Entertainment that when Moonves inevitably brought up his suggested actress, the show creator told him the truth. "I said, 'I love her, and I've loved everything she's been in. I think she's terrific and beautiful, but then she read for me, and I have to tell you, it's just not what I wrote. I don't see them as a couple. I think she could do it, but I also think that maybe we could do better.' [Moonves] said, 'Well, it's just an idea.' Two weeks later, Patty walked in, and within five minutes, she had the part," Rosenthal said.
The chemistry between Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton was tangible on-screen, and not in a steamy, too-hot-to-be-real kind of way — in a genuinely hilarious way that allowed audiences to believe they really were watching a married couple bicker over in-laws, golf games, and other real-life antics of the Barone family.
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