Ray Romano Saw Cast Troubles Coming

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday September 05, 2003 12:40 PM EDT

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Ray Romano blames his own high salary for causing the recent troubles on the set of his top-rated "Everybody Loves Raymond," as he tells New York's Daily News.

Costar Brad Garrett staged a work walkout for two weeks until CBS and the show's producers hiked his reputed $160,000-per-episode fee. (Peace -- and work -- was eventually restored.)

Earlier this year, Romano, 46, cut a deal to get $1.8 million per episode, plus a slice of the syndication fees, which reportedly are eventually expected to reach $1 billion. As a result of Garrett's move, the entire cast will now be cut into those fees.

"It was inevitable. When my salary came out in the papers, I knew stuff would happen," Romano tells the Daily News, emphasizing that everybody loves everybody again. He even threw a cast party at his Malibu home for Labor Day, says the paper.

"I'd do exactly the same thing as this cast did," Romano said. "I don't hold anything against anyone, not the cast or CBS. I'm loyal to both of them ... I wanted it to get resolved, but I knew it had to play its course."

Of Garrett's walkout, Doris Roberts, 71, who plays the monstrously funny mother on the sitcom, said: "It was icky. But everybody was glad to come back to work."

And as for receiving a percentage of the syndication money, which some industry observers have pegged at being $20 million per actor, Roberts said: "In the years to come, my grandchildren will always have some money coming in from syndication, and that's great."