does everybody really love raymond?

Perhaps I'm biased. Perhaps I watched Knocked Up too many times, and took to heart Pete's lament: "Marriage is like that show Everybody Loves Raymond, but its not funny. All the problems are the same, but you know instead of all the funny, pithy dialogue, everybody is really pissed off and tense." I completely agree (though I'm not married), except for the mere fact that I don't think Ray's life is funny...at all. I just think it's really sad.

I know this show went off the air 5 years ago, but it still rears its ugly head in syndication almost every day. I don't watch TV that much, but I feel like every time I get a spare hour or so to turn on the tube, this damn show with its damn laugh track is taking up space on some network. It's worse than Friends (don't even get me started on that show...6 of the stupidest characters on TV).

What really bugs be about Everybody Loves Raymond is Ray himself. He's a stick in the mud who doesn't have the balls to stand up for his wife, and does whatever his mother wants him to do. Ray is slowly turning into his father, a man who is apathetic towards life who seems to resent his wife and sons. Debra and the kids seem to be a nuisance to Ray--an inconvenient mistake that has become the deflated balloon that is his life. And the laugh track...the false crowd recorded and played at moments when characters seemingly just stare at each other. No one is ever happy. Everyone is always annoyed. Is this what married and family life is really like?

If my life was like Ray's I wouldn't be laughing...ever. Maybe it's because I'm young and not married (or even in a serious relationship), but if my marriage and life turn out like Ray Romano's I will be devastated.