Frank, the Writer

Frank, the Writer
Ray and Frank in "Frank, the Writer"
Season	1
Episode	6
Air Date	October 18, 1996 USA September 8, 2004 Canada
Cast	Ray Romano Patricia Heaton Brad Garrett Doris Roberts Peter Boyle Madylin Sweeten Sawyer Sweeten Sullivan Sweeten Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kotoko Kawamura
Director(s)	Paul Lazarus
Writer(s)	Tucker Cawley
Preceded by	Look Don't Touch
Followed by	Your Place or Mine?

Frank, the Writer is the 6^th episode of Season 1, and is episode 6 of the full 210 episodes for the entire series. In this episode, Frank gets a funny story published in the Reader's Digest, which leads him to believe that he's a good writer and could possibly get his own column, just like Ray.

Episode Information

• Episode Title: Frank, the Writer
• Episode Number: Season 1, Episode 6 (#6 of 210)
• Air Date: October 18, 1996
• Episode description (from DVD): "After Reader's Digest publishes one of Frank's funny stories, he starts to consider himself a writer. To Ray's horror, Frank asks him to pass a sample column on to his editor."
• Cast:
  • Ray Romano as Ray
  • Patricia Heaton as Debra
  • Brad Garrett as Robert
  • Doris Roberts as Marie
  • Peter Boyle as Frank
  • Madylin Sweeten as Ally
  • Sawyer Sweeten as Geoffrey
  • Sullivan Sweeten as Michael
  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as Himself
  • Kotoko Kawamura as Japanese Woman
• Crew:
  • Paul Lazarus - Director
  • Tucker Cawley - Writer
• Preceded by: "Look Don't Touch"
• Followed by: "Your Place or Mine?"

Synopsis

The episode begins with Ray bringing basketball star Kareem Abdul Jabbar to his house to meet Debra. But Debra is asleep and doesn't even realize he's there. This scene has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the episode.

Frank mentions to his family that someone he knows got paid $50 for getting a funny little story published in Reader's Digest. So Frank, claiming that it's practically free money, gets the idea to send his funny stories in to the Digest. When he finally sees it in print, he considers himself a writer.

Frank then hands Ray some of his work and wants Ray to turn it into his editor at the newspaper. Reluctantly, Ray does. Ray then gets a call from the editor saying how horrible and embarrassing it was. Ray is then scared to tell his father what the editor said for fear that Frank would be mad.

Running Gags

Not many of the Everybody Loves Raymond episodes have two stories going on simultaneously. But this is one of the few that does.

Robert is afraid one of the twins doesn't like him. And this whole issue portrays Robert as a goof, which is how his original character was written during the first season.

Trivia

In this episode, we see a more goofy and happy side to Frank, which was in contrast to Frank's usual no nonsense and hard-ass attitude throughout the series, especially in the later seasons.

Similar to a few of the early episodes, there was a slight mistake with the staging and positioning of the cameras in the studio. Microphones can be seen in certain scenes.

Production Notes

By production order, this is the third episode of the first season. Due to airing out of order, this is Stephen Nathan’s last episode as co-executive producer and Dan Fendel’s last episode as technical coordinator.

Quotes

• Ray: Can you imagine, can you imagine if every man was Frank Barone?
• Ray: Do me a favor, please, keep every man out of here.
• Debra: How am I supposed to do that?
• Ray: How fast can you make a pot roast?
• Debra: "Why are we hiding today, Ray?"