The Children's Book

The Children's Book
Ray pretending to be a bunny in "The Children's Book"
Season	2
Episode	8
Air Date	November 10, 1997 USA September 24, 2004 Canada
Cast	Ray Romano Patricia Heaton Brad Garrett Doris Roberts Peter Boyle Madylin Sweeten Sawyer Sweeten Sullivan Sweeten
Director(s)	Will Mackenzie
Writer(s)	Steve Skrovan
Preceded by	Working Late Again
Followed by	The Gift

The Children's Book is the 8^th episode of Season 2, and is episode 30 of the full 210 episodes for the entire series. In this episode, Ray and Debra compete to see who can write the best children's book.

Episode Information

• Episode Title: The Children's Book
• Episode Number: Season 2, Episode 8 (#30 of 210)
• Air Date: November 10, 1997
• Episode description (from DVD): "Ray helps Debra write a children's book."
• 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
• Crew:
  • Will Mackenzie - Director
  • Steve Skrovan - Writer
• Preceded by: "Working Late Again"
• Followed by: "The Gift"

Synopsis

Debra finishes reading a bedtime story to the kids, then complains to Ray that she's tired of reading the same old stories. So she gets the idea to write one of her own. She plans on using her own experiences, and she knows what kids like. She also asks Ray to help her with it since he's a writer. Ray is reluctant at first, but soon caves in.

When the rest of the family finds out that they are writing a book, each family member has their own opinions. Marie wants them to right about the times Robert wet his pants on the field in Little League baseball. Robert wants the story to be about a tall crimefighter. And Frank mentions that he had done some art of his own...some painting. He painted a bullfighter and a nude portrait of Marie.

Finally sitting at the computer in Ray's office together, Ray and Debra soon find out that they have some creative differences. The story was going to be about a child that wants to run away, but soon realizes that home is much better than any other place. This happened to Ally one time, Debra recalls.

Ray wants the character to be a dinosaur, while Debra wants the character to be a bunny. They fight over it and nothing gets done.

Time passes and Ray comes home from work to find Debra scribbling out the story on a pad of paper. She gets frustrated and starts tearing it to shreds. Ray feels sorry for her so he takes the notes she made and rewrites the story and irons out some things. After she finds out what he's done, she rewrites his story.

Ray's story about a bunny named Winky, and Debra's story, which rhymes, about a bunny named Clive are pitted against each other when they read both stories to Ally. Then they wait for Ally to decide which story is better.

Running Gags

This is one of the many episodes in which the family is talking about Robert just as he enters the scene. And then Robert replies, "Is this about me?"

Trivia

In this episode, Marie talks about the times Robert wet himself as a kid on the baseball field. In a later episode, Ray mentions a similar situation that happened to him as a kid.

In many episodes, Ray calls Debra some funny nickname as he enters the kitchen. In this one, Ray calls her "Clive", referring to the character she had created for the story.

Production Notes

Twins Sawyer and Sullivan Sweeten are now more centered in the credits in original airings, but not as much as in today's reruns.

Quotes

• Debra: "I hate this freaking bunny!"