The third season of Everybody Loves Raymond ran in the United States from September 21, 1998 to May 24, 1999.
Production
The third season of Everybody Loves Raymond was produced by HBO Independent Productions, creator Philip Rosenthal's company Where's Lunch, and David Letterman's Worldwide Pants. Patricia Heaton was pregnant with her fourth son during filming of the season, which the producers and directors try to hide, such as with her holding a large telephone book in the season's premiere. On March 22, 1999, Peter Boyle suffered a heart attack on set; he initially refused to go to the hospital despite strong insistence from the paramedics, but change his mind after Rosenthal told the actor he would be liable if Boyle died. While he survived, he would've been dead if he arrived at the hospital fifteen minutes later. This resulted in Boyle being absent for two episodes in order to recover. Despite media coverage reporting that he would likely appear in the season finale, this didn't happen. The dance choreography in "Dancing with Debra" was done by Travis Payne, who become popular a year before after choreographing a Gap advertisement. Some content of the season made the airwaves despite disapproval from CBS, such as the use of the word "ass" in "Big Shots" and the entirety of "Halloween Candy."
Beginning season two, Raymond was in competition with the Fox series Ally McBeal ; while media experts expected Ally McBeal to garner better ratings than Raymond through its entire run, this was ultimately not the case. By December 1998, in comparison to the same month of the previous season, the series was 6% higher in its average rating of 10.5 and a 16 share, and 23% with its 18–49 demographic rating of 5.3/13. A June 1999 feature from The New York Times reported the series to be "one of the biggest comedies on television" and also a part of a mainstream television trend of shows without bankable stars becoming hits. "The Sitter" received 363,000 male viewers who were 12 to 17 years old and was the highest-rated non-sports show in the demographic that week.
Reviews
Everybody Loves Raymond topped Entertainment Weekly's list of the best series of 1998: "This organic vision of family life as a chain reaction of comic agita is vividly rendered by a flawless ensemble," and the "comedy is rooted in characters as deeply drawn as those of TV’s best dramas." In October 1998, an Omaha World-Herald critic included Everybody Loves Raymond as one of his "shows I would like to watch nearly every night of the week." The State Journal-Register, in the middle of the TV season, claimed the show's third season to be the best of all Raymond years so far, also calling "Halloween Candy" a "particularly funny" episode for the Frankenstein costumes of Frank and Robert. Reviewing the fall 1998 television season, Chicago Tribune critic Steve Johnson wrote the show was a "deserved hit" for CBS. Everybody Loves Raymond topped Daily Herald critic Ted Cox's list of the best shows of the 1998–99 season: "the family sitcom cut dangerously close to the bone on how and why the family unit is at once so aggravating and enduring. And Brad Garrett established himself as the single funniest man on TV, displaying unexpected range as a physical comedian in two hilarious dance sequences at the beginning and the end of the season." Upon the 1998–99 TV season's closure, The Tampa Tribune named Raymond "a contender for the best sitcom on television, appealing to young and old viewers." The Star Tribune also praised the ensemble acting in the season, and the Hartford Courant called it one of the few "signs of life" in a landscape of series focus on demographics and profits over quality. Three episodes of the season made The Star-Ledger's unranked list of top ten Everybody Loves Raymond episodes: "Frank's Tribute" for its inclusion of both the "funniest" and "most poignant" sequences of the entire show, "Robert's Date" for Garrett's dancing and date slang, and "How They Met" for being the show's best flashback episode.
