Lew Schneider

Lew Schneider was interviewed for two hours plus in Pacific Palisades, CA.  Schneider talked about his first interest in performing as part of the “Mask and Wig Club” at the University of Pennsylvania. He chronicled his experiences at Second City in Chicago and his work as a stand-up comedian. He talked about his move to New York City, where he became the host of a children’s game show called Make the Grade.  He described the CBS summer series Wish You Were Here that had him traveling on-location across Europe (where his character filmed his trip with a camcorder to send video letters back home). He then related his move to Los Angeles and his casting as a regular on the FOX series Down the Shore, where he met future Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal. With The George Wendt Show, Schneider transitioned to writer-producer, and he described his work on this show with Peter Tolan. He then spoke in great detail about his work as a writer-proudcer on the entire run of the long-running sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. He discussed working in the writers room, the atmosphere on the set, and the real-life stories that were made into episodes. He spoke about such classic series episodes as “Boob Job” (where Debra tricks Ray into thinking she has had a boob job), “The Christmas Picture” (in which Debra invites her parents to be a part of the Barone’s family photo), “Wallpaper” (in which Frank and Marie crash the car through Ray and Debra’s house), “Humm Vac” (where Debra discovers that Marie’s home is as clean as she says it is when demonstrating a new vacuum), “A Vote for Debra” (where Ray votes against Debra for president of the school board), and “Bad Moon Rising” (where Ray tries to deal with Debra’s PMS). Lastly, he briefly spoke about some of his post -Raymond  projects including The New Adventures of Old Christine. The interview was conducted by Gary Rutkowski on July 16, 2007.