What Ever Happened To Ray Romano

Generation X knows Ray Romano from his stand-up comedy and sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and millennials know him as the voice of "Manny" from the Ice Age films. But the once ubiquitous comedic actor has slowly started to phase himself out of our lives. WHERE DID YOU GO, RAY ROMANO?

Since Everybody Loves Raymond was canceled, Ray Romano has made most of his money from the Ice Age franchise. Having lent his voice to more than ten different Ice Age productions, Romano is raking in money from voice acting. With the franchise still churning out new films, video games, and shorts, it looks like we will be hearing Romano's voice for a very long time, even if he does not make another on screen appearance. 

At least for now, I am selling Romano short. He was a regular on three seasons of NBC's hit show Parenthood, playing Hank Rizzoli. The character was the love interest to Lauren Graham (you know her from Gilmore Girls), and, as such, got A LOT of screen time. However, this is pretty much as far as it gets for Romano. Unlike Midas, everything he seems to touch - not Ice Age of course - seems to utter garbage, plunging him deeper and deeper into the shadows. 

In 2016, it looked as if Romano would have a come back, landing a regular role in HBO's Vinyl. Nonetheless, the show tanked and was not renewed for a second season. Starring alongside Bobby Cannavale and James Jagger, Romano played a Jewish music personality. To put it nicely, he was horrendously miscast. So, is it really his fault? Ehhhh. No one can really say for sure. 

As he was promoting the HBO flop, Romano went on all of the late night talk shows and his hilarious, comedic self managed to squeeze the last bit of limelight out of his fifteen minutes of fame. Sadly, Romano only has two films slated for 2017. One is a VERY indie film that will probably only play in small theaters and on Netflix. The other is a mob movie starring Chris O'Dowd, and, by the looks of the cast, the film will be a comedy. Let's hope that this film will bring back Ray Romano to pop culture. Everybody really does love Raymond.