‘Everybody Loves Raymond’: Doris Roberts Said This Is What Marie Barone Would Be Doing Today
In her role as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, Doris Roberts unknowingly created one of the most enduring characters in television history.
Intrusive, manipulative, and outspoken, Marie Barone liked to claim on the classic TV comedy that she did everything for her family, with love – persistent, demanding love.
Roberts speculated post-Raymond as to what her beloved television persona would be doing today, and it sounds about right.
The ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ finale
In the show’s series finale, Ray Barone, played by show star Ray Romano, must have his adenoids surgically removed. The family accompanies him to the hospital, of course. After his successful surgery, a nurse informs Debra that they are having trouble bringing Ray out of the anesthesia.
Debra becomes upset, but in the end, Ray wakes up and all is well. Except Marie, who has gone to the bathroom, isn’t aware of what’s transpired.
Doris Roberts recalled that final scene, in a 2005 interview with Television Academy Foundation, when Marie is finally told what happened to her son.
“The last show that we do is absolutely hysterical,” Roberts said. “And I think it’s probably the worst nightmare that Ray would ever have…For some reason, Peter Boyle my [television] husband, is in bed with me and he tells me by mistake, I think [about what happened to Ray].”
“And I jump out of that bed, and go across the street to Ray and Debra’s home. I opened the door to their bedroom, they are in each other’s arms. I leap into the bed, separate her from him, take him into my arms, and carry on. Now if that’s not a nightmare for any son to have, you tell me what is,” Roberts said, laughing.
Doris Roberts died in 2016
Roberts passed away in 2016 at the age of 90 from natural causes.
Continuing in her conversation with the Television Academy Foundation, she was asked what her proudest career achievement was.
“My proudest achievement? I put my head on my pillow at night and know that I’ve been a good person,” she reflected. “I would like to be remembered as a wonderful human being who was helpful and loved people and did the best she could. Doesn’t give in, doesn’t give up, doesn’t take no for an answer.”
What Roberts felt Marie Barone would be doing after ‘Raymond’ ended
Asked to consider what Marie Barone might be doing after Everybody Loves Raymond was finally done, the actor didn’t have to think long.
“Oh, I think Brad [Garrett, who played her son Robert Barone] and his wife Monica [Horan] would have had children, so she’d be a grandmother again, and when they’re very young, they need a lot of help.”
At this point in the interview, Roberts lapses into first person, revealing how much she seemed to identify with Marie Barone, the character she played for 9 years.
“So I’d be called to come over and hold the baby, feed the baby, change the baby. And I’d be in my youth again, you know?”
