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• Article on Ms. Roberts
• Children Affected by AIDS Foundation
• Ms. Roberts' bio

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Tavis: I am pleased to welcome the very talented Doris Roberts to this program. The 4-time Emmy winner, of course, stars on the hit series 'Everybody Loves Raymond.' Next month, as if you didn't know, the show comes to an end. 9 years--the final episode set to air May the 16th. She is also the author of a memoir called 'Are You Hungry, Dear? Life, Laughs and Lasagna.' But it is, obviously, the part of meddling mom Marie Barone that's made her part of TV history. Here now, a scene from 'Everybody Loves Raymond.'

Marie Barone: Their days are so full. They've got golf and a health spa and theme nights. Meanwhile, Frank and I, we had a good time. I haven't had that much fun with your father in a long time. We laughed, and we took walks, and we held hands.

Tavis: I'm delighted. I'm honored to have Ms. Roberts here. She asked me when she walked on the set to call her Doris. But Ms. Roberts, my mother's watching, and I'd be in trouble all weekend if I called you by your first name.

Doris Roberts: And I don't want to get you into trouble.

Tavis: Well, thank you. so please allow me to call you Ms. Roberts.

Roberts: OK.

Tavis: I'm glad to have you on the program.

Roberts: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

Tavis: A funny story, before we get started. The young man who miked you when you came on, his name is--we call him Cheech. His name is Cheech. Cheech put the microphone on you today and was telling a funny story. A story that I found funny, at least, before you walked out. The first year of 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' he was working on a crew that did the sound, and the guy who he worked for decided, "Ah, I'm going onto another show."

Roberts: Hmm.

Tavis: "I'm not sure this show's going to make it." so they left and went to do another show that lasted, like, 6 episodes, and that's why Cheech is working with me now.

Roberts: Ha ha ha.

Tavis: So what did you know that Cheech's boss didn't know about how successful this show was going to be 9 years ago?

Roberts: First of all, he should have read the script.

Tavis: Yeah.

Roberts: It's a wonderful script, the series one. The pilot. It was just great, and we were in a bad place. We were on Friday nights in the beginning, and no one was watching. In fact, the last time CBS was successful on a Friday night was Gomer Pyle time. So that was a long time ago. But Les Moonves believed in our show and said, "Wait. Be patient. I will move you the minute I can." he moved us to Monday and we just went through the roof. It was great.

Tavis: I know you've been asked so many questions, and I'm trying to avoid asking the same questions that one gets asked repeatedly when they're doing the circuit for the final episode of a very popular show. Let me ask you what it is you think about the comedy on 'Raymond' that worked so well for 9 years. There are a lot of comedies that come out every year and half of 'em don't make it. I was just reading the paper earlier this week. All the shows that are on the bubble, most of 'em comedies. What is it about the comedy on your show that resonated with the American audience, you think?

Roberts: Based on reality. It's true. It's honest. Every episode is something that happened in one of the writer's lives or their families' lives, and they make 24 minutes of hysterical humor out of it. I mean, the one that I did where I drove the car backwards into the house and drove right through; that happened to one of the writer's aunts. So it's based on reality and the relationships, which I think are fabulous.

Tavis: Uh-huh. Tell me how you--I'm always fascinated by actors who do these takes over and over and over again, find a way to make it funny or funnier every time, and I've heard all kinds of stories about you and the different ways you would try this and try that, talk to me about your comedic timing, your comedic style. How have you worked as a part of this program?

Roberts: One thing about timing, it's something you cannot learn.

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Roberts: You either--you have it or you don't. You don't, right. I approach it, even though it's comedy, as if it was a drama...

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Roberts: And it was real. That's all. Honest, real, I am that person. If you hear my voice now, it's a very deep voice. That's my natural voice. But when I play Marie Barone, it's way up high, and I say, "Are you hungry, dear? You want somethin' to eat?" so it's less imposing, and it's less frightening, I think. If I played Marie with this deep voice, I think you would not like her.

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Roberts: And you would certainly turn her off 'cause she would be too strong.

Tavis: Yeah. Are you OK with the fact that, even though you've been in this business for such a long period of time, I want to go back to how you got started. 'Cause Ms. Roberts decided not in junior high or high school, she decided in kindergarten that she wanted to be an actor. I want to find out how she figured that out so early on. But are you OK with the fact that with all the work you've done, you may very well forever be remembered by this particular character? Are you OK with that?

Roberts: No.

Tavis: No. Why not OK?

Roberts: Well, because I'm an actress, and I'm a dramatic actress as well. I'm not just a funny lady.

Tavis: Mm-hmm. Behind scenes on a show this popular, it's kind of hard to top.

Roberts: I know. I'll tell you what's wonderful. I travel a lot. I love to travel. It's in 171 countries in the world.

Tavis: The show, sure.

Roberts: And everywhere I go...

Tavis: 'Everybody Loves Raymond.'

Roberts: They say, "I love you."

Tavis: Yeah.

Roberts: "Thank you for the humor you're bringing to my home. I watch you. I don't watch the news. I want to go to bed with a smile on my face." That's wonderful that I can make people laugh like that.

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Roberts: That's just great. I love that part of it, and I love playing this part. But I will do other things as well. I just did a movie called 'Nana's Boy.' And it's Adam Sandler's company. He is not in it. But he's producing it, and it's one of the Adam Sandler kind of things, and I have a hunch I may get run out of town.

Tavis: From playing this part? Oh. Is that all you can tell me about it?

Roberts: That's all. Well, there's Shirley Jones and Shirley Knight and myself, and it's a very young script and young people in it. We're the older people in it. I play Nana of 'Nana's Boy,' and it's hysterically funny.

Tavis: One should always be leery of playing anything that Adam Sandler...

Roberts: That's right.

Tavis: Is behind. So I get the point you're trying to make here. Speaking of making people laugh around the world, I read somewhere of a very moving story of your going to ground zero, and you remember the story?

Roberts: I do.

Tavis: And, please, why don't you share it?

Roberts: I was in a parade, and I met these gentlemen who were firefighters and...

Tavis: Paramedics.

Roberts: And yes. People who were down there, and they said, "When are you coming to New York?" I said, "Actually, in 2 weeks." They said, "Oh, we'd like to take you to the ground zero." I said, "All right. I'd love that, and I'll bring my grandchildren." We went, and they were wonderful. They showed everything to my grandchildren. They said, "This was where the BMT would come through" and all that, and then he said, "I would like to give you a present," and I said, "Oh, thank you," and I expected a little pin or something like that, and he gave me-- I can't help but respond. A flag that flew over ground zero and a piece of one of the towers, and he gave it to me, and I said, "Oh, my God. Why are you giving it to me?" Then he said, "My dear, we've been here since ground zero happened. We've been looking for pieces of our friends, and we go home at night and turn on the television and there you are, and you make us laugh and bring us back into life. That's why." Well, that's the greatest honor I've ever had, and I have it in my home and will have it, and when I'm gone, that will go to a museum. Isn't that incredible?

Tavis: That's more than incredible. That's got to make--not that you did not enjoy the 9-year run. But I can't imagine anything that makes that run more meaningful than to have someone say that to you.

Roberts: No. And it just--when I think about it, I just--I get emotional. I can't help it. 'Cause it's just an incredible honor, and that I'm able to do that. To make them forget that kind of experience and I make them laugh is wonderful.

Tavis: Let me ask you, and I want to ask this question. I ask this very respectfully.

Roberts: OK.

Tavis: So if you want to slap me, I'll lean closer and you can slap me for asking this. But I think you've done something wonderful. My grandmother, Big Mama, God rest her soul, would not let me use the word "old." she preferred to be called "chronologically gifted."

Roberts: Good.

Tavis: So we're going to say, "chronologically gifted."

Roberts: OK.

Tavis: I think you've done something special for those actors who are chronologically gifted in this business. Do you think you have?

Roberts: Yes, I do. I have a big mouth, a big mouth, and I have spoken to the senate on ages, and there's no reason in the world that we should be stopped from continuing a full life. I mean, if this is still working and your body's still working, why should we be told we cannot work anymore? You don't see anyone in movies or television for that matter over the age of 40 today practically, you know, and it's wrong. I mean, would you say that Picasso shouldn't paint anymore or Einstein shouldn't have any more theories because he's over 40 or 50 years of age?

Tavis: Mm-hmm. So why do you think Hollywood does it, then?

Roberts: Hollywood does it because, well, I think Madison Avenue dictates what we look like, what we should be looking like, what we eat, what we dress like, and it's ridiculous, just ridiculous. I mean, I don't know about you. But I find these poor actresses who starve themselves to death who look like little boys. They have no breasts, they have no hips, they have nothing.

Tavis: And you don't like that, and neither do I. I'm with you.

Roberts: All right.

Tavis: I like a little somethin' to work with.

Roberts: That's right.

Tavis: Yeah, I'm with you, Ms. Roberts. Give me a little somethin' to work with.

Roberts: That's a woman.

Tavis: Yeah, that's a woman.

Roberts: The other is like a little boy.

Tavis: Yeah.

Roberts: But anyway, and I will keep my mouth goin' about this until I can't do it anymore.

Tavis: You have a big mouth about a lot of things, and AIDS, HIV; you speak a lot about that. Where'd the passion come from for--around that particular issue?

Roberts: In 1984 when it wasn't chic to talk about it, I used to put on variety shows to raise money for AIDS because I come from theater in New York. I did 20 years on Broadway before I came out here, and it began to hit us all in New York and how many people and friends of mine had died from that terrible disease.

Tavis: Mm-hmm. Let me go back to the question that somebody may have thought I forgot. Kindergarten. Go back to the beginning. You decided in kindergarten you wanted to do this for a living. How did you figure out in kindergarten that you wanted to do this?

Roberts: I had one line in a little play, and this is what the line was: "I am Patrick Potato, and this is my cousin, Mrs. Tomato."

Tavis:

Roberts: And I heard laughter. I thought, "Oh, I love that. They're laughing, and they're laughing with me. I love that." I thought that was what I wanted to do. Then I went on and I auditioned for Hearn's Amateur Hour at this big department store in New York, and I sang, and I had a lisp at the time, and I sang... Snow's glis-thnin', and the rain, rain is glis-thnin'. I got the bells, the horn, the gong--they couldn't get me off fast enough. Anybody with a brain would have thought, "No, this is not the career for me. I'm not going to do this anymore." But, no, I kept comin' back.

Tavis: Yeah. So you did know you wanted to do this.

Roberts: Oh, yes. I was--

Tavis: Made the right decision?

Roberts: Absolutely. I love what I'm doing.

Tavis: Yeah. Did--how do I ask this? Is 'Everybody Loves Raymond' going off of the air at the right time?

Roberts: No, I don't think so.

Tavis: You don't think so?

Roberts: No. I understand that writers get dried up. But I think the writing this year has been certainly the best they've ever done, and I think we would have easily done 2 more years.

Tavis: Yeah.

Roberts: But the powers that be say no. So you move on.

Tavis: You gave us 9 great ones, and we're glad to have you on.

Roberts: Thank you.

Tavis: I'm delighted to have you.

Roberts: All right.

Tavis: 'Are You Hungry, Dear? Life, Laughs and Lasagna,' the book you can get from Doris Roberts to learn more about this remarkable woman and her remarkable life. Congratulations again.

Roberts: Thank you.

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching and keep the faith.