You're Lucky You're Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom

"In You're Lucky You're Funny, Phil Rosenthal, the creator and executive producer of Raymond, tells the behind-the-scenes story of the making of a number-one smash-hit sitcom. Based on Ray Romano's actual life, the show also took much of its material from Phil's equally, and hysterically, dysfunctional family characters and experiences. Little did Phil's parents realize that when they yelled at their TV-obsessed young son, "Turn that damn thing off and go out and play! What are you going to do, get a job watching television?" that that was exactly what he was going to do. There were a few missteps on the way there, however - a stint as a museum security guard, during which he fell asleep in a three-hundred-year-old bed; a bartending nightmare; and an early writing job in which our awestruck hero found himself writing for one of his idols, Robert Mitchum, who had somehow been cast in a hapless show in which he made his first appearance wearing an apron.".