Everybody Loves Raymond and Sitcom’s Erasure of Difference

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-56834-2_11

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Everybody Loves Raymond and Sitcom’s Erasure of Difference

Published 2016 · S. M. Zangari

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Abstract

This chapter analyzes the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, running from 1996 to 2005, and highlights the TV genre’s uncomfortable relationship with ethnicity. Despite focusing on an Italian-American family, the sitcom trivializes ethnicity as entertainment, and fails to interrogate crucial aspects of Italian-American history and culture. Only twice in the eight-year run of the show do the characters engage with their Italian heritage, and in both instances the ethnic portrayal lacks accuracy and is reduced to the exploitation of stereotypes and hackneyed images. As a result, the chapter concludes, meaningful engagement with issues pertinent to assimilation and adjustment to US society is not encouraged.

Study Snapshot

Everybody Loves Raymond trivializes ethnicity as entertainment and fails to interrogate crucial aspects of Italian-American history and culture, resulting in meaningful engagement with assimilation and adjustment issues.

PopulationOlder adults (50-71 years)

Sample size24

MethodsObservational

OutcomesBody Mass Index projections

ResultsSocial networks mitigate obesity in older groups.

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Everybody Loves Raymond and Sitcom’s Erasure of Difference

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