Hey there, it's Kathy. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to History of the 90s

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Fueled by successes like Roseanne, Seinfeld, and Home Improvement, recruiting stand-up comics

became the top priority for TV networks in the 90s.

This was the era of the great stand-up sitcom boom, and talent coordinators, producers, and directors packed comedy clubs in Los Angeles nearly every night looking for the next

Jerry Seinfeld or Tim Allen. In 1995, the owner of The Laugh Factory joked that on any given night,

40% of his audience was made up of industry people. Clubs were rated as network reps got into

bidding wars over up-and-coming comedians. This was a time of exuberance, and lucky comedians

could end up with six-figure development contracts.

Sometimes those deals worked out, but other times they failed miserably.

I'm Kathy Kinsora, and on this episode of History of the 90s, we continue our look back at some of the hits and misses from the 90s stand-up sitcom boom.

One of the big success stories from this era was Everybody Loves Raymond.

It ran on CBS from 1996 to 2005 and followed the lives of Ray and Deborah, a married couple raising their three young kids

next door to Ray's intrusive but lovable parents. The show was created by series star Ray Romano

and writer Phil Rosenthal, and it drew mainly on Romano's stand-up routine, which he had honed

in New York comedy clubs in the early 80s.

In 1989, Romano won a city-wide comedy contest, which helped him land his first television appearance on MTV's half-hour comedy hour.

But it wasn't until Romano's 1995 appearance on the late show with David Letterman

that his career would really take off.

That's what amazed me in Montreal. I went into a Burger King. The Burger King employees

are required to be bilingual. Just think about that for a second, folks. Have you been to Burger

King in New York?

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