From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. You can also hear this show at cCRW.com.

In 1996, Phil Wilsenthal's creation, Everybody Loves Raymond, hit the air.

Nine seasons and several Emmys later, it made household names of its cast, and its ironic title became

part of the culture. He couldn't have dreamed the show it traveled to Russia. Well, parts of it

anyway. His adventures are translating the show for a Russian audience can be seen in his documentary,

exporting Raymond, which he directed and stars in. Phil, welcome back to the show. It's nice to be with you again. I have to say, I mean, when this idea first came up, I just remember how

shocked you were about it. Yeah, I didn't, the head of Sony asked me to, if I would go over and observe how they

make sitcoms in Russia.

You know, Sony created the sitcom in Russia.

It didn't exist until Sony brought the nanny over a few years ago.

And that became a big hit.

But you know, the Russians that came to work on this new form came from very disparate areas like soap operas.

And I said, why are they coming from soap operas to work on sitcoms?

And they said, because they are also a half hour, right?

So they came from that.

They came from sketch shows.

They did have sketch shows.

That was the only comedy they had at night on the air in Russia.

And they came from the world of science because it was a new form.

Like the head of comedy, I think you see in the movie, worked with laser beams.

Well, did any shows comedies ever get bootlegged in a black market or anything like that?

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