‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ creator Phil Rosenthal rules out reboot or remake

Everybody loves reunions.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, a multitude of iconic TV casts are hosting virtual reunions, in the name of a good cause.

Now, the cast of “Everybody Loves Raymond” is following suit, reuniting Friday night to do a virtual table read, which will be hosted by series namesake and star Ray Romano. The event will benefit The International Myeloma Foundation, its Black Swan Research Initiative, and the Peter Boyle Research Fund.

Boyle, who played Ray’s crotchety and unfiltered dad Frank, died in 2006 after a lengthy battle with the disease.

“We always participate in the Myeloma Foundation event every year. But this is the first time we kind of threw on the old costumes and did a table read for any reason,” series creator Phil Rosenthal told the Daily News Thursday.

“We became a family. And we’ve been friends since 1996 and so we see each other often, the kids grew up together, the wives are friends. Ray’s family and my family vacation together. So we’re close. But to actually play again … it’s very, very special, and that it worked is very special. That it was still funny and they could slip so easily back into those characters was wonderful to see.”

As excited as the Queens native, 60, was to play director as the cast — Romano, Patricia Heaton, Brad Garrett and Monica Horan — got back in action, the team has no intent of rebooting nor remaking the Emmy-winning sitcom, which ran on CBS from 1996 to 2005.

“We don’t even get two words out of that question out of our mouths before we say no, because we’re missing key ingredients,” said Rosenthal, pointing to the late Boyle and Doris Roberts, who died in 2016 and played Ray and Robert’s (Garrett) overbearing and critical mother Marie.

“There is no show without them,” he went on. “We could do something different but it wouldn’t be ‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’ There’s an old showbiz axiom, by the way: get off the stage before somebody says, ‘Get off the stage.’ And we did. CBS wanted us to continue, nice people who watched wanted us to continue, even family members wanted us to continue. But we knew we had run the course. And we also knew that we were out of stories after nine years. And we wanted to stop before we became lousy.”

And if nothing else, “Why mess with it?”

The nearly-two hour virtual reunion, which the “Somebody Feed Phil” host will introduce, will see the cast act out several memorable scenes, many of which are not just “fan favorites” but scenes “that were not dependent on Peter and Doris.”

In the 15 years since “Raymond” took its on-air bow, Rosenthal said he’s most proud of is the show’s timelessness.

“What does that mean? No topical jokes, no jokes or situations that are gonna date the show,” he explained. “Maybe some of the hairstyles and outfits are going to date the show, but the content will not date the show. The content is the stuff of relatable life: family problems, parental problems, housing problems. Right? These are the things that endure. And that’s what I’m most proud of, but it was designed that way. And so I’m very proud of the fact that we designed it that way and that it was built to last and that it did last.”

The 14th Annual Virtual Comedy Celebration’s “Everybody Loves Raymond” Cast Reunion will livestream on YouTube, Facebook, and the event site Friday at 9 p.m. ET

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