Success comes at a cost. For an unlucky few, the price is too steep, and it robs them of everything on their way to the top. They trade in personal relationships and sacrifice their integrity as they scale the mountain toward fame and fortune.

Ray Romano is not one of those guys. By all accounts, he's always been a pretty down-to-earth kind of dude, and sitcom glory didn't change that in him. However, Everybody Loves Raymond did strip him of one important quality: His anonymity.

When Raymond ended after nine seasons, the world was Romano's oyster. He could jumpstart a new series, retread those same comedic premises, or sail away on some new endeavor. In a 2005 interview with The Sioux City Journal, Romano stated he was even considering doing a drama.

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"Why not?" he said. "If somebody wants me to play a villain, I wouldn't rule it out. But what I truly am in my core is a stand-up comedian."

While that may have been true of his own self-perception, the world no longer agreed with him. We no longer saw Ray Romano, a stand-up comedian. We instead saw Ray Barone, a hard-done son and husband, and father of three who couldn't catch a break from all of life's wacky hardships.

So while he may have yearned to return to his stand-up craft, it would be an uphill battle.

"The one thing about stand-up that was great was I was a total stranger. No one had ever known or seen me before and I had to win them over. Now, when I play Vegas, they come to see me. They're going to laugh no matter what I say for the first 10 minutes."

While this doesn't seem particularly devastating, the undue welcome was certainly unfavorable for a guy like Romano, who took being silly very seriously.