As a family sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond thrived on relatable characters and the kind of everyday chaos that made audiences laugh because they’d been there, too.

The Barones were far from a picture-perfect family. The family had plenty of flaws. But beneath the bickering was a genuine love for one another, giving viewers a family they could recognize, laugh at and root for.

Patricia Heaton, who played Debra Barone throughout the series’ run, once called Ray an "anti-hero" in an interview with The Birmingham News. He wasn't exactly the kind of guy you'd expect to save the day — unless the day involved avoiding responsibility.

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"There’s nothing in him that’s heroic," Heaton said. "In fact, he’s kind of a sad sack. He’s not a superhero but 'everyman.' And the show itself is full of love. It isn’t fantasy but how things really are, and we take comfort from that."

Heaton explained that Everybody Loves Raymond never aimed to portray the perfect American family. After all, perfection makes for a pretty dull sitcom. Instead, the series held up a mirror to everyday American life, often drawing inspiration from the real experiences of its cast and writers.

Sometimes, the best sitcom material wasn't made up at all — it was happening right outside the writers' room.

"What happens to the members of the cast and the writers is the stuff of this show," Heaton said. "The chat around the water cooler can work its way into the script. During the last hiatus, I was in Canada, away from my kids, making a movie and saying, ‘Yahoo! No kids for six weeks!’ And I caught myself feeling guilty, and I said, ‘Why don’t we do a story about Debra feeling guilty about leaving the children at home?'"

The show's knack for turning ordinary family frustrations into comedy was part of its charm. Even Heaton's real-life dynamic with Ray's portrayer, Ray Romano, seemed to echo the playful tension between Debra and Ray.

She had plenty of affection for her co-star, though she wasn't about to let him know it without a little heat.

"He’s a good guy, but don’t tell him I said that," Heaton said. "I give him as much grief as possible, but what it comes down to is that he and Phil Rosenthal are a couple of geniuses."