Everybody Loves Raymond House

If you ever thought Marie Barone's "dropping by" was a sitcom exaggeration, a trip to Margaret Boulevard will set you straight. On Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray and Debra's house sits directly across the street from Frank and Marie's — close enough for Marie to materialize in the kitchen uninvited, mid-sentence, holding Tupperware. And here's the thing: the production didn't fake that geography. The two real houses used for the show's exteriors genuinely stare each other down across one quiet street in Merrick, Long Island. The Barone block is real, and Marie's commute really is about thirty seconds.

The Scene

Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2004) follows Ray Barone (Ray Romano), a Long Island sportswriter whose biggest professional hazard isn't deadlines — it's his parents living across the street. The show's fictional Barones live in Lynbrook, but the establishing shots that open so many episodes — the tidy suburban street, the two houses facing off — were filmed in Merrick, New York. Ray and Debra's home is the real house at 135 Margaret Boulevard; Frank and Marie's is the one directly across the street at 136 Margaret Boulevard.

Those exteriors do a lot of quiet comedy work. Every "walking across the street" transition — Frank storming over in his robe, Marie gliding across with a foil-covered dish, Robert sulking along behind them — plays against the actual geography of Margaret Boulevard. The interiors, of course, were never in Merrick: like nearly every multi-camera sitcom of its era, the show was taped on a soundstage, on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California. But the street is the street, and it's still there.

The Backstory

Everybody Loves Raymond was created by Philip Rosenthal and built around the stand-up comedy of Ray Romano, who plays a version of himself: Queens-raised, sports-obsessed, and hopelessly outmaneuvered by his wife Debra (Patricia Heaton) and his mother Marie (Doris Roberts). It premiered on CBS on September 13, 1996, and ran for nine seasons and 210 episodes, ending on May 16, 2005 as one of the most decorated sitcoms of its era — 15 Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Comedy Series in 2003 and 2005.

What to Look For

Stand on the sidewalk (the sidewalk — these are private homes) and take in the standoff: 135 on one side, 136 on the other. Ray and Debra's house is the light-colored two-story; Frank and Marie's sits across the street in reddish-brown. The block itself is pure mid-century Long Island suburbia — the exact visual the show's fictional Lynbrook was going for — and you'll recognize the rooflines from a hundred establishing shots. No tour, no plaque, no gift shop: just the street, doing what it's done since 1996.

Getting There

135 Margaret Boulevard (and 136, across the street), Merrick, NY 11566, on Long Island in Nassau County.

This is a drive-by hunt, and an important etiquette note: both houses are private residences. View from the street or your car, take your photo, and move along — no knocking, no trespassing, no lingering on lawns. By car it's roughly 45 minutes east of Manhattan via the Southern State Parkway. By transit, take the LIRR Babylon branch to Merrick station, then grab a cab or rideshare for the short hop to Margaret Boulevard.

Trivia

• In the show, the Barones live in Lynbrook — a real Long Island town, but not where the exteriors were shot. The Merrick houses just looked right.
• Everybody Loves Raymond launched a small sitcom universe: Kevin James debuted his Doug Heffernan character on Raymond before spinning off into The King of Queens.
• The series finale drew over 32 million viewers, one of the most-watched sitcom finales of the 2000s.

The Hunt Clue

On Margaret Boulevard, the joke's no lie —

At one-three-five, Ray's house meets the eye.

Now cross the street (no need to drive):

One-three-six is where the Maries arrive.

Two houses staring, side to side —

Dear hunter, Marie's already inside.

Photos by AITFFan1 via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0