Phil Rosenthal Movies

President Clinton: Final Days shows a lost and lonely Bill Clinton (playing himself) wandering the empty corridors of the White House during the final days of his presidency. Ignored by his staff and by the press, Clinton fills his time with such activities as mowing the lawn, watching movies, and cleaning the presidential limousine. Aside from the classic sharpness of its satire, what distinguishes President Clinton: Final Days is its authenticity -- that's the real White House lawn, the real presidential staff, the real press briefing room, and so on. Produced for the 2000 White House Correspondents Dinner, President Clinton: Final Days is an unprecedented exercise in self-deprecating political humor. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

In Part One of Everybody Loves Raymond's Season Two finale, a simple question from Ray (Ray Romano)--"Why did you marry me"--sends Debra (Patricia Heaton) flashing back some ten years to the events leading up to the Barones' marriage. Despite Ray's nervousness, the proposal comes off quite well. But as the Big Day approaches, Ray begins to wonder if Debra really loves him, or merely loves the idea of a "dream wedding." Fred Stoller makes his first series appearance as Ray's cousin Gerard. ~ All Movie Guide

Frustrated by her lack of progress, Ally (Madlyn Sweeten) wants to give up the piano lessons being administered by her grandmother Marie (Doris Roberts). Hoping to show Ally the value of persistence, Ray decides to resume his own piano studies--again with Marie in charge. If this "solution" were to work without a hitch, Everybody Loves Raymond would have been left without a plotline, so guess what happens. Series costar Doris Roberts has cited "Mozart" as her favorite episode. ~ All Movie Guide

Debra (Patricia Heaton) can't help but notice that her newlywed friends are constantly showering one another with public displays of affection. Why, asks Debra, cannot her husband Ray (Ray Romano) even bring himself to say "I love you?" Perhaps reticent Ray needs a few subtle hints--and we all know just how "subtle" Debra can be. This episode marks the first series appearance of Sawyer and Sullivan Sweeten as the Barones' twin sons Geoffrey and Michael. ~ All Movie Guide

The first season of Everybody Loves Raymond drew heavily upon the standup routines of comedian Ray Romano, who depicted himself as a loving but befuddled husband and father of three children, bedeviled by his own overbearing Italian-American parents and a jealous older brother who happened to be a policeman. In the series proper, Romano played Ray Barone, Long Island-based sportswriter for New York Newsday. Ray, his wife, Debra (Patricia Heaton), and their three children lived next door to Ray's parents, bombastic Frank (Peter Boyle) and snoopy Marie (Doris Roberts). Frank and Marie in turn lived with Ray's older brother, a divorced cop named Robert (Brad Garrett), who still harbored a childhood jealousy for his younger sibling. In the pilot episode, Ray's three children were played by the Ferreira children: Amber, Drew, and Justin. The youngest kids, twin boys, were named Matthew and Gregory (after Romano's real-life children), while the six-year-old daughter was not identified by name. Thereafter, the children were known as Ally, Michael, and Geoffrey, and were played by members of the Sweeten family: Madylin, Sullivan, and Sawyer. During season one, a handful of semi-regulars were introduced, among them Ray's friend Andy (Andy Kindler), a sports statistician; Nemo (Joseph V. Perry), the owner of the pizza parlor; and Amy MacDougall (Monica Horan), Robert's off-and-on girlfriend. Also firmly established was the intensely combative relationship between Ray's parents, who also had a cute habit (cute to everyone but Ray's long-suffering spouse Debra) of dropping into their son's house unannounced and poking their noses into everyone else's business. More welcome drop-ins occurred whenever Ray's sports-world friends -- usually celebrity athletes and famous TV commentators -- opted to pay a visit to the series. Despite languishing in a low-rated Friday-night slot, Everybody Loves Raymond quickly became a critical favorite, encouraging CBS to move the series to a more advantageous Monday-night berth in mid-season. Though the ratings didn't exactly go through the roof, the series garnered enough of a fan following to warrant a second season. ~ All Movie Guide

Who Shot Patakango? is a coming-of-age tale set in Brooklyn during the late '50s. Though the film briefly suggests racial tensions at the interracial vocational high school where the movie is set, it prefers to pursue a purely nostalgic story line instead. Over the course of the film, the filmmakers run through a number of good-natured, humorous anecdotes about growing up during the late '50s. It's an entertaining, if slight, film that features a fine performance by David Knight as the film's narrator. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide