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It could be argued that Phil Rosenthal owes much of his success to his parents, whose outraged reaction to his enrolling them in the Fruit of the Month Club worked its way into the very first episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond."
But the "Raymond" creator - who would go on to exploit the foibles of the rest of his family as well as the those of star Ray Romano, his family and the families of the show's other writers for nine successful seasons - owes his first book to a bad vacation.
And to his wife, known to millions of "Everybody Loves Raymond" fans as "Amy."
Rosenthal, whose book, "You're Lucky You're Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom" (Viking, 243 pages, $25.95), hits bookstores this week, has never struck me as a cranky man.
"I am one of the luckiest people you will ever talk to," he told me only last week.
Certainly one of the funniest.
But that doesn't mean that the apple - or maybe this month it's the grapefruit? - falls far from the tree.
A few years ago, "I went on this vacation at this all-inclusive resort," said Rosenthal, who recounts the experience, in hilarious detail, in Chapter 9, "You Need a Vacation."
A good time may have been had by many, possibly including Rosenthal's actress wife, Monica Horan, and their two children.
But not by all.
Certainly not by Rosenthal, who was underwhelmed by everything from the food to the water pressure ("like a drooling drunk"), and professional that he is, couldn't keep his feelings to himself.
"The only solace I had was sending these daily e-mails" to his friends, he said, detailing the latest indignities visited upon him during his first real vacation in six years.
"My wife is not thrilled with my demeanor," he writes. "She wants to know what I've been writing about. I just showed her, and she left the room, saying, `You're lucky you're funny.'"
The luck continued as "the e-mails found their way to a book agent, who said, You should write a book,'" Rosenthal recalled, saying his first reaction was, "If you can sell that book, good luck to you.'"
Though by that point he was several years in to writing and producing a hit television show, and had even written jokes for President Clinton, "I was petrified at the notion" of a book, he said. So when the agent did sell it, "I hired somebody to interview me."
After the tapes were transcribed, "I had something to start from" other than a blank page, he said. So "if the book sounds conversational, it's mainly because it is."
Hiding in plain sight amid Rosenthal's riffs on bad vacations and good food - a notorious foodie, he claims to have planned his entire book tour around restaurants he wants to visit - isn't just the story of how a Hebrew school class clown came to be one of television's most successful producers but a primer for anyone who might want to try the same thing.
Less-ambitious "Raymond" fans should find "You're Lucky You're Funny" a fine companion piece to the series, which lives on in syndication and is now available on DVD through Season 7.
Not that Rosenthal really planned a commercial tie-in.
"I've never been a business guy in my life," he said.
"I'm pretty bad at it, actually. I guess it's proof that if you put your head down and just concentrate on the work, the business will come later."
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Ellen Gray: graye@phillynews.com
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(c) 2006, Philadelphia Daily News. Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.
