Written by Nicole Pedersen

It has been nearly three years since Ray Romano’s uber-successful sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” completed its nine year run on CBS. Have I missed him? Well, no, actually. The show is on such a heavy and all-pervasive syndication schedule that I would bet that I could watch “Raymond” at anytime of the day or night, if I so chose. TBS even airs three episodes of the family comedy back to back on a daily basis… what’s to miss?

But apparently a man can not live on incredibly lucrative royalties alone. Romano insists on working and has just landed a pilot pick-up order with TBS’s more mature sister network TNT that will bring the Jersey boy back to primetime. My Grandma will be thrilled - or maybe not, considering that Romano’s new project is a DRAMA.

The TNT pilot, co-written by Romano and fellow “Raymond” scribe Mike Royce, is called “Men of a Certain Age.” It will bring all the family insight and down-home wisdom we remember from “Everybody Loves Raymond” and make it, well, sadder.  

The series is described as a “character based project.” It concerns three college buddies in their forties who are struggling with careers, families and their imminent status as “middle-aged.” Romano will play Joe, a divorced father of two who had dreams of becoming a professional golfer. Gee, except for the divorced part, I feel like I know this ‘Joe’ already. I wonder if he has, like, a REALLY tall older brother.

I actually like “Everybody Loves Raymond.” I fought it for a long time, but I will be shamed no longer. As Paul Rudd says in “The 40 Year Old Virgin” when caught with a “Raymond” tape, “that’s just a really good show.” There’s something about Romano’s observational humor that is appealing - even in its most low-brow incarnations. Hey, he’s from New Jersey. He writes what he knows.

Romano says that what he knows now is that he’s “middle-aged, neurotic and fat.”

I don’t know – that still sounds like a funnyman talking. I’ll be interested to see if “Men of a Certain Age” can pull of wryly dramatic as well as “Raymond” pulled off bumbling and comedic.

Surely, somebody must hate Raymond here.