Where creativity meets connection
Despite it being just after 6am over in LA, Phil Rosenthal is cheery and animated. “The sun is just starting to come up,” he tells me. “I got up specially for you.” There’s a good chance he’s telling everyone this today. The Everybody Loves Raymond creator turned Netflix sensation seems to have a way with people. It’s evidenced in his global TV smash, Somebody Feed Phil. The format for this is reasonably straightforward. Rosenthal travels to some of the most interesting cities the world can offer, immersing himself in the local food culture. Along the way there’s sights to see and lived experiences to discover.
He's soon abandoning the warmth of LA for a UK tour, eight dates zipping across the nation with a stop at Brighton Dome on Thurs 3 April. “I'm excited to come to Brighton,” he tells me. “Even though I toured England with this show a couple of years ago, Brighton's a new spot for me.”
It sets me enthusiastically talking about the unlikely history of the Dome complex; the prestigious auditorium originally housing horses for the Prince Regent’s riding school. I notice Rosenthal is now wearing an expression of gentle incredulity, perhaps alarmed I might be a bit of a ‘character’ or that he’s booked in to play a drafty old barn in an eccentric seaside town. “So, I'm going from the Palladium in London, to a stable in Brighton the next day. OK,” he says with a chuckle.
In simple terms, An Evening with Phil Rosenthal does what it says on the ticket. “We show a little highlight reel, then I come out with a moderator. During the first half of the show, I tell funny stories about growing up and getting into show business; getting into Everybody Loves Raymond, and then Somebody Feed Phil… and all the behind-the-scenes stuff that entails. The second half of the show, which is my favourite part, is all question and answer from the audience.” At this, his face lights up with a big smile. If you’re among the millions to see his travelogue, you’ve probably realised he adores getting out and talking to others. Even if they make wild claims about stable blocks in a Regency pleasure palace.
He can be in the backstreets of Lisbon, talking to a restaurant owner called Jesus or finding out more about inequality in Washington DC, Rosenthal seems to spend as much time finding interesting characters as he does fresh tastes on Somebody Feed Phil. “I really do love meeting new people, because I'm always so pleasantly surprised by how lovely and charming most people in the world are. We don't get that from the news. The news doesn't report: ‘Oh, we met a nice fella today.’ The news talks about the extraordinary. ‘Here's someone who was not so nice. Look what they did!’”
The onscreen adventures have taken Rosenthal to new places in his own country, as well as Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Cape Town and Santiago – in fact anywhere foodie offerings blend the traditional and exciting. A mixture of delicious-looking dishes and his earnest demeanour saw the globe-trotting travelogue become Netflix’s most successful non-scripted show. But he tells me getting it into production was still a challenge.
“It took a very long time, even after having some success with Everybody Loves Raymond. ‘Oh, you did that show?’ They give you whatever you want... No, it's not like that! As a matter of fact, they don't look kindly on you if you want to switch lanes from being behind the scenes as a show runner and writer of a sitcom to hosting a travel show.” He says there’s not a lot of money in food and travel shows, which might have an impact on commissioning editors. But Rosenthal holds the success up as evidence that if you are single minded enough and prioritise something, not resting, you will probably achieve it.
“Yeah, that was me. I thought I had something to offer that was a little bit different from what was out there. And it's quite simple. It's a travel show with humour.” From sandwich culture to Southern cookouts, and Nashville dancefloors to outsiders who’ve made their mark on new towns, there’s a certain amount of zeal accompanying each new adventure. There’s no pretending his light-hearted approach and effortless charm isn’t an integral part of the series’ popularity. But similarly, the actual locations are just as much the stars of the show. Its photography seems to truly capture the essence of the places and communities he’s exploring.
“I think I can attribute that to the wonderful research team we have. We also have fixers who actually live in these places and make sure we're doing it correctly and show me what their town has to offer. So, as I'm discovering it, so is the audience.”
Such is the success of Somebody Feed Phil, it’s been renewed for an eighth season. “We’re very happy about that. Every season we do, we don't know if we're coming back. We don't sign long term contracts, because they (Netflix) don't give them. They want to judge every single season to decide. So, it’s coming out in a few months. We’ve just finished going to eight new places.” Obviously, asking to choose a favourite destination is much like picking your favourite child. Musing on the Sophie’s Choice style conundrum for a moment, he narrows down the contenders to Italy, Spain and Japan. “But I really, truly love England. London is one of the great cities on Earth, if not the greatest. The food scene they now have is spectacular.”
He concedes that almost every city in the world presents booming food culture. This might be due to immigration bringing in new ideas and flavours, or homegrown chefs becoming inspired upon their own travels, but the internet has also had a huge impact. “A little kid in Brighton can see what a chef in Los Angeles is doing, learn something, emulate that and maybe use local ingredients in a new way. ‘Hey, we can grow things here too! Look at this. This is delicious. Let's make a local farm to table restaurant right here...’ We all need to eat.”
It makes me wonder if this Queens-raised lad can still find decent pizza and bagels, having relocated to Los Angeles. There’s long been an assumption that the difference in water influences the quality of dough. Rosenthal dismisses this as a fallacy. “It's funny that you mentioned those two things,” he says. “Both of those have come up exponentially in the last few years. I could put some LA bagels that I know up against any bagel in New York. What I learned from a real baker is that you can make up for differences in everything – like different water, different altitude, even air pressure and humidity. You have to adjust all these things no matter where you are.”
He started out as an actor, a trade he’d return to over the years with parts in Spanglish, Curb Your Enthusiasm and 30 Rock, but writing is where Rosenthal found massive success. In 1996, he created the CBS primetime comedy, Everybody Loves Raymond. Running for nine seasons, it was syndicated across the world and had a massive influence on all sitcoms to follow.
“That was one of the joys of my life. I was so happy and proud that people still enjoy the show.” It does seem a little odd that he could have enjoyed so much success since, but conversations always drift back to that one show. “It was purposefully designed to have some lasting value. We didn't write about topical things. We wrote about our own lives. We went home at 5 or 6pm every night. Why? Because that's where the stories were coming from. If you work for me, your job was to go home, get in a fight with your wife and come back!” This basis in domestic reality might be a factor in the extraordinary success of Everybody Loves Raymond. The conversations seemed genuine. Characters used language which was believable.
“It's not that there hadn't been shows like this before us. We were actually trying to emulate shows like The Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi and Cheers, with people talking the way people really talk.”
He tells me the basis of writing great comedy is to make everything as honest as possible, and not just rely on bombarding the viewer with jokes. If you can create a believable reality with rich and interesting characters, the audience become willing to get to know them and understand their motivations and foibles. “Then you can get laughs by showing someone's face, you know what they're thinking. That's the key to everything.”
Despite it being just after 6am over in LA, Phil Rosenthal is cheery and animated. “The sun is just starting to come up,” he tells me. “I got up specially for you.” There’s a good chance he’s telling everyone this today. The Everybody Loves Raymond creator turned Netflix sensation seems to have a way with people. It’s evidenced in his global TV smash, Somebody Feed Phil. The format for this is reasonably straightforward. Rosenthal travels to some of the most interesting cities the world can offer, immersing himself in the local food culture. Along the way there’s sights to see and lived experiences to discover.
He's soon abandoning the warmth of LA for a UK tour, eight dates zipping across the nation with a stop at Brighton Dome on Thurs 3 April. “I'm excited to come to Brighton,” he tells me. “Even though I toured England with this show a couple of years ago, Brighton's a new spot for me.”
It sets me enthusiastically talking about the unlikely history of the Dome complex; the prestigious auditorium originally housing horses for the Prince Regent’s riding school. I notice Rosenthal is now wearing an expression of gentle incredulity, perhaps alarmed I might be a bit of a ‘character’ or that he’s booked in to play a drafty old barn in an eccentric seaside town. “So, I'm going from the Palladium in London, to a stable in Brighton the next day. OK,” he says with a chuckle.
In simple terms, An Evening with Phil Rosenthal does what it says on the ticket. “We show a little highlight reel, then I come out with a moderator. During the first half of the show, I tell funny stories about growing up and getting into show business; getting into Everybody Loves Raymond, and then Somebody Feed Phil… and all the behind-the-scenes stuff that entails. The second half of the show, which is my favourite part, is all question and answer from the audience.” At this, his face lights up with a big smile. If you’re among the millions to see his travelogue, you’ve probably realised he adores getting out and talking to others. Even if they make wild claims about stable blocks in a Regency pleasure palace.
He can be in the backstreets of Lisbon, talking to a restaurant owner called Jesus or finding out more about inequality in Washington DC, Rosenthal seems to spend as much time finding interesting characters as he does fresh tastes on Somebody Feed Phil. “I really do love meeting new people, because I'm always so pleasantly surprised by how lovely and charming most people in the world are. We don't get that from the news. The news doesn't report: ‘Oh, we met a nice fella today.’ The news talks about the extraordinary. ‘Here's someone who was not so nice. Look what they did!’”
The onscreen adventures have taken Rosenthal to new places in his own country, as well as Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Cape Town and Santiago – in fact anywhere foodie offerings blend the traditional and exciting. A mixture of delicious-looking dishes and his earnest demeanour saw the globe-trotting travelogue become Netflix’s most successful non-scripted show. But he tells me getting it into production was still a challenge.
“It took a very long time, even after having some success with Everybody Loves Raymond. ‘Oh, you did that show?’ They give you whatever you want... No, it's not like that! As a matter of fact, they don't look kindly on you if you want to switch lanes from being behind the scenes as a show runner and writer of a sitcom to hosting a travel show.” He says there’s not a lot of money in food and travel shows, which might have an impact on commissioning editors. But Rosenthal holds the success up as evidence that if you are single minded enough and prioritise something, not resting, you will probably achieve it.
“Yeah, that was me. I thought I had something to offer that was a little bit different from what was out there. And it's quite simple. It's a travel show with humour.” From sandwich culture to Southern cookouts, and Nashville dancefloors to outsiders who’ve made their mark on new towns, there’s a certain amount of zeal accompanying each new adventure. There’s no pretending his light-hearted approach and effortless charm isn’t an integral part of the series’ popularity. But similarly, the actual locations are just as much the stars of the show. Its photography seems to truly capture the essence of the places and communities he’s exploring.
“I think I can attribute that to the wonderful research team we have. We also have fixers who actually live in these places and make sure we're doing it correctly and show me what their town has to offer. So, as I'm discovering it, so is the audience.”
Such is the success of Somebody Feed Phil, it’s been renewed for an eighth season. “We’re very happy about that. Every season we do, we don't know if we're coming back. We don't sign long term contracts, because they (Netflix) don't give them. They want to judge every single season to decide. So, it’s coming out in a few months. We’ve just finished going to eight new places.” Obviously, asking to choose a favourite destination is much like picking your favourite child. Musing on the Sophie’s Choice style conundrum for a moment, he narrows down the contenders to Italy, Spain and Japan. “But I really, truly love England. London is one of the great cities on Earth, if not the greatest. The food scene they now have is spectacular.”
He concedes that almost every city in the world presents booming food culture. This might be due to immigration bringing in new ideas and flavours, or homegrown chefs becoming inspired upon their own travels, but the internet has also had a huge impact. “A little kid in Brighton can see what a chef in Los Angeles is doing, learn something, emulate that and maybe use local ingredients in a new way. ‘Hey, we can grow things here too! Look at this. This is delicious. Let's make a local farm to table restaurant right here...’ We all need to eat.”
It makes me wonder if this Queens-raised lad can still find decent pizza and bagels, having relocated to Los Angeles. There’s long been an assumption that the difference in water influences the quality of dough. Rosenthal dismisses this as a fallacy. “It's funny that you mentioned those two things,” he says. “Both of those have come up exponentially in the last few years. I could put some LA bagels that I know up against any bagel in New York. What I learned from a real baker is that you can make up for differences in everything – like different water, different altitude, even air pressure and humidity. You have to adjust all these things no matter where you are.”
He started out as an actor, a trade he’d return to over the years with parts in Spanglish, Curb Your Enthusiasm and 30 Rock, but writing is where Rosenthal found massive success. In 1996, he created the CBS primetime comedy, Everybody Loves Raymond. Running for nine seasons, it was syndicated across the world and had a massive influence on all sitcoms to follow.
“That was one of the joys of my life. I was so happy and proud that people still enjoy the show.” It does seem a little odd that he could have enjoyed so much success since, but conversations always drift back to that one show. “It was purposefully designed to have some lasting value. We didn't write about topical things. We wrote about our own lives. We went home at 5 or 6pm every night. Why? Because that's where the stories were coming from. If you work for me, your job was to go home, get in a fight with your wife and come back!” This basis in domestic reality might be a factor in the extraordinary success of Everybody Loves Raymond. The conversations seemed genuine. Characters used language which was believable.
“It's not that there hadn't been shows like this before us. We were actually trying to emulate shows like The Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi and Cheers, with people talking the way people really talk.”
He tells me the basis of writing great comedy is to make everything as honest as possible, and not just rely on bombarding the viewer with jokes. If you can create a believable reality with rich and interesting characters, the audience become willing to get to know them and understand their motivations and foibles. “Then you can get laughs by showing someone's face, you know what they're thinking. That's the key to everything.”
Image by Richard Rosenthal
Another interesting nuance of Everybody Love Raymond was how it dealt with the peculiar dissatisfaction which pervades Western society. The title character is a writer living in suburban New York City, who covers his lack of confidence by veering between sarcasm and detachment. On the surface, he appears to have a perfect life, yet subconsciously disrupts the domestic bliss.
“Everybody, no matter if they're rich or poor, has to deal with other people in their home! I think it wouldn't have worked at all if you didn't know there was an underlying love in this family. People say the mother-in-law was a monster. Well, not to her. She's thinking she's helping, because she loves them so much. Yeah, but isn't it? We can be killed by people wanting to help too much.”
The legacy of Everybody Loves Raymond is undeniable, and its influence can still be found throughout TV comedy today. Which gets me wondering if Rosenthal harbours similar ambitions for Somebody Feed Phil and the genre of globe-trotting gourmet programming. “You know, people watched Curb Your Enthusiasm, because they liked Larry David. They already liked him on Seinfeld, even though he wasn't on camera. It was his sensibility. I guess this is my version, except I should call mine Why Curb Your Enthusiasm? I love hanging out with people.”
Phil Rosenthal takes An Evening with Phil Rosenthal of ‘Somebody Feed Phil to London Palladium on Weds 2 April and Brighton Dome on Thurs 3 April 2025, as part of a nationwide tour. His show, Somebody Feed Phil, is available to stream on Netflix now.
Main image by Richard Rosenthal
Image by Richard Rosenthal
Another interesting nuance of Everybody Love Raymond was how it dealt with the peculiar dissatisfaction which pervades Western society. The title character is a writer living in suburban New York City, who covers his lack of confidence by veering between sarcasm and detachment. On the surface, he appears to have a perfect life, yet subconsciously disrupts the domestic bliss.
“Everybody, no matter if they're rich or poor, has to deal with other people in their home! I think it wouldn't have worked at all if you didn't know there was an underlying love in this family. People say the mother-in-law was a monster. Well, not to her. She's thinking she's helping, because she loves them so much. Yeah, but isn't it? We can be killed by people wanting to help too much.”
The legacy of Everybody Loves Raymond is undeniable, and its influence can still be found throughout TV comedy today. Which gets me wondering if Rosenthal harbours similar ambitions for Somebody Feed Phil and the genre of globe-trotting gourmet programming. “You know, people watched Curb Your Enthusiasm, because they liked Larry David. They already liked him on Seinfeld, even though he wasn't on camera. It was his sensibility. I guess this is my version, except I should call mine Why Curb Your Enthusiasm? I love hanging out with people.”
Phil Rosenthal takes An Evening with Phil Rosenthal of ‘Somebody Feed Phil to London Palladium on Weds 2 April and Brighton Dome on Thurs 3 April 2025, as part of a nationwide tour. His show, Somebody Feed Phil, is available to stream on Netflix now.
Main image by Richard Rosenthal
Stuart Rolt
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