Lew Schneider

In his two-hour interview, Lew Schneider talks about his first interest in performing as part of the "Mask and Wig Club" at the University of Pennsylvania. He chronicles his experiences at Second City in Chicago and his work as a stand-up comedian. He talks about his move to New York City, where he became the host of a children's game show called Make the Grade. He describes the CBS summer series Wish You Were Here which had him traveling on location across Europe (where his character filmed his trip with a camcorder to send video letters back home). He then relates 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. Schneider discusses his transition to writer-producer with The George Wendt Show, and he describes his work on this show with Peter Tolan. He then speaks in great detail about his work as a writer-producer on the entire run of the long-running sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. He discusses working in the writers' room, the atmosphere on the set, and the real-life stories that were made into episodes. He speaks 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 speaks about some of his post-Raymond projects including The New Adventures of Old Christine. Gary Rutkowski conducted the interview on July 16, 2007 in Pacific Palisades, CA.