26 Years Ago, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’s Most Controversial Episode Changed the Sitcom Genre in a Major Way

Through the first half of its nine-season run, Everybody Loves Raymond was largely a formulaic — albeit very funny — sitcom. Ray (Ray Romano) would invariably do something to showcase his talent for dumbassery, or make a situation worse by trying to justify his actions, and Debra (Patricia Heaton), being the only voice of reason (as is the case with most sitcom wives), would watch it all unfold. That wasn’t the case with one Season 4 episode, however. Debra drops the stereotypical act and instead behaves, as Lauren Rosewarne says in her book Periods in Pop Culture: Menstruation in Films and Television, in “ways more extreme than audiences are used to seeing her.” That episode, “Bad Moon Rising,” is one of the best of the series, and a real game-changer for both the show and the sitcom genre as a whole.

‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Episode “Bad Moon Rising” Lets Patricia Heaton Cut Loose

At the best of times, Ray’s ineptitude is enough to make Debra annoyed. But when she is going through premenstrual syndrome (PMS), “annoyed” is replaced with a range of extreme moods ready to react to Ray’s oafish behaviors, and that’s where “Bad Moon Rising” begins. Ray is explaining his situation to Robert (Brad Garrett) and his father, Frank (Peter Boyle), as if he’s the one suffering. Frank tells Ray to take control of the situation before her “bad mood takes over and becomes her only mood.” Hardly sage advice, as Ray buys a pill meant to alleviate the symptoms, which only angers Debra more than she already is, and makes him come off as insensitive.

Even Marie (Doris Roberts), who is always on Ray’s side, is with Debra on this one, backing her up by chastising Ray for acting the same way Frank did whenever she had PMS. Now, a wise husband would know that you should give a woman the space they need during this time, but Raymond is not wise. Instead, he furthers the argument for being the worst sitcom husband by accusing Debra of using this particular time of the month to torture him, noting that just last month, he found his golf clubs in the garbage.

To back up his argument — and we are talking some spectacular stupidity here — he plays a tape recording he made of Debra yelling at Ray about dryer lint. Ray certainly has gone too far, and Debra tears into Ray, reminding him of his own failures, including, but not limited to, watching sports on TV while Debra gave birth to the twins, pretending to snore at her grandmother’s funeral, and taping over their wedding video, as seen in “The Tenth Anniversary.” As she berates him, he backs away, eventually being cornered by a bookshelf. But when the phone rings, Debra lightens up again, talking to her friend Amy about their excursion earlier in the evening. Once she’s off the phone, Debra apologizes to Ray for the way she treated him, and she’s thankful that he’s there for her during life’s struggles. All’s well that ends well… until Ray offers her more PMS pills, enraging Debra one last time before the episode’s end.

Now, granted, this is hardly the correct or even a dignified way to end the episode, especially with Debra apologizing to Ray after he’s been such a nightmare all episode, and this is just one of the moments that prove that many of the sitcoms of the ’90s have aged poorly. For the time, Ray getting a talking-to by both his wife and his mother was a big deal, but in this case, Ray is simply given a pass, and his behavior is played off for laughs. Though Heaton gives her all in this performance, it only leaves Ray looking worse by the time the episode wraps.

Patricia Heaton’s Performance in This ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Episode Is Emmy-Worthy

Patricia Heaton is not given nearly enough credit for her exceptional comedic talents, holding her own against Ray Romano and shouldering her follow-up sitcom, The Middle, as the lead. “Bad Moon Rising” is the perfect example. The episode calls for Debra to hit a range of emotions — happiness, anger, sadness — and switch between them throughout. Heaton deftly does so, but with an innate comic timing that makes the moments land, holding out between the mood swings just long enough to make the viewer wonder what’s coming next, but quickly enough that it feels real. That well-deserved Outstanding Actress Emmy is all the proof one needs.

Romano, too, deserves credit for his reactions to Debra’s wild mood swings. He is so unbelievably clueless — and we’ll get to that shortly — that it justifies Debra’s reactions, setting up scenes to allow for Heaton to shine. Ray is every inept man in this situation, perfectly playing the husband who doesn’t know what to do or how to react in the face of something he knows nothing about. All he knows is he wants to rescue Debra. Not for her benefit, of course, but for his own, so that things go back to normal sooner rather than later. Truthfully, it’s an episode that plays to each of their strengths, an intimate knowledge of both actor and character from the Emmy Award-nominated writing.

“Bad Moon Rising” marked a turning point in Everyone Loves Raymond, and, by extension, the sitcom genre. To that point, Everybody Loves Raymond stuck to standard sitcom beats (for all intents and purposes, brain candy). But this wasn’t the only episode when the sitcom tackled more complex topics without sacrificing the comedy. The exploration of the complicated family dynamics that come with Ray’s parents living across the street, Debra dealing with her parent’s divorce in Season 6 and trying to reconcile how their perfect marriage fell apart while the imperfect nature of Marie and Frank’s is solid, and Frank’s admission to being abused when he was younger in Season 9’s “Boy’s Therapy” are just a few examples. It’s moments like these and more that paved the way for sitcoms to break out of their stereotypical confines.