'Everybody Loves Raymond' creator takes show to Russia

There's got to be an easier way to figure out if everybody does, in fact, love Raymond.

Yet, there's Phil Rosenthal, the creator of the long-running CBS sitcom, arguing with Elena Staradubtseva, a Russian wardrobe consultant who wants to dress that country's version of "Everybody Loves Raymond's" decidedly frumpy characters in fashionable frocks.

"I would like it to look more trendy," Staradubtseva conveys through a translator, "to educate people; let them understand more about clothes and fashion and style."

Rosenthal can't understand why anybody would suggest something so un-"Raymond."

"I don't know if you want to change the show to fit fashion," he replies. He tries to make the point — as diplomatically as possible so as to avoid international incident — that these are average people and they need to dress accordingly.

"Won't it be boring?" Staradubtseva replies.

The documentary "Exporting Raymond," Rosenthal's film chronicling his efforts to create a version of the popular American show for Russian television, is anything but. The Sony Pictures film opened the Austin Film Festival on Thursday, Oct. 21, at the Paramount Theatre.

One of the movie's early scenes shows Rosenthal escorted down a Los Angeles corridor by Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, who points to the posters lining the walls. He indicates the Russian version of "The Nanny." And the version that plays in Argentina. There are Indonesian and Chilean versions, too.

"Sony created the sitcom business in Russia," Rosenthal tells me. "The sitcom did not exist as a form in Russia before Sony brought over ‘The Nanny' in 2004. Imagine! They never saw a sitcom."

The Russian version became a huge hit, and the translation process intrigued Sony, which suggested that Rosenthal travel to Russia, observe the sitcom conversion process (this is not mere language dubbing — the shows are recast with native actors and rewritten for each country's sensibilities) and pen a fictional motion picture comedy based on the experience.

"I said, ‘Oh, that sounds funny,' " Rosenthal recalls. "But if these people really exist and the situation really exists, why not do a documentary?" Sony executives suggested that they try exporting "Raymond."

The idea of re-creating the show around the world appealed to Rosenthal, who had initially found it difficult to get "Raymond" on the air here in the States.

"It wasn't hip and edgy, and they wanted hip and edgy. I remember this conversation. I said, ‘I'm trying to do an old-fashioned, traditional, well-made sitcom.' And the studio said to me, ‘All words which should be avoided.' "

"Raymond" was slow to catch on here but became a bona fide hit, running for nine seasons and winning 13 Emmy awards. But maybe that shouldn't be a surprising accomplishment for somebody who grew up glued to the tube. "My parents used to say, ‘What are you going to do, get a job watching television?' So, the minute I made any money in TV at all, I went out and bought them the biggest TV I could find and I sent it to them with a note that said ‘Ha ha,' " he says with a laugh.

Rosenthal began his career as an actor but found little success. "I ate tuna fish every night as an actor. Then I became a writer and now I eat whatever I want," he says. Still, he has an engaging presence and serves well as "Exporting Raymond's" erstwhile narrator and lead character. That doesn't mean he doesn't get upstaged in the film, though.

Rosenthal's parents (the elders in "Everybody Loves Raymond" were based upon the couple) appear in two scenes in the film and walk away with both of them. In the first, the director visits his boyhood home ("This is where I got rejected by many, many women. Many of the scenes from ‘Raymond' happened right here in this house of horrors," he tells the camera as he approaches the house) to view a slideshow of snapshots from a trip they'd taken to Russia.

"We put microphones on them, there are lights, there's two camera guys ... this is not what they're used to. And within five minutes, they're fighting with each other as if no one is there. Unbelievable. It's like you couldn't ask for better actors in a movie," Rosenthal says. As he leaves, the couple hopelessly attempts to say goodbye in Russian. "I'm dead," he deadpans.