Remarkable Ram: Phil Rosenthal
By Rachel Sobel, News Editor
Image courtesy of USA Today
Mindful Mondays, Tunes Tuesdays, Friday night football games, cramming for a test in the hallway hoping the bell won’t ring, clubs, honor societies, junior ball, prom, senior breakfasts, pep rallies, and volleyball tournaments, where do we go from here? Life is pretty exciting here at Clarkstown North, but what happens when we leave this bubble? Let’s look at some people who made it big in the real world……
Phil Rosenthal (class of 1977)
Phil Rosenthal was born on January 7th, 1960, in Queens. He participated in the Cue and Curtain Club during his time at North. After graduating from North, he attended Hofstra University, majoring in theater. He started his career in entertainment in New York City but later moved to Los Angeles. In 1996, he created the popular sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond. He was the Executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond for the nine years the show aired, 1996-2005. Everybody Loves Raymond won 16 Emmys, winning Best Comedy Series twice. Rosenthal won the Writers Guild award for excellence in television writing in 2002. He also helped write America: A Tribute to Heroes, which was a telethon for 9/11, for which he won a Peabody Award and a nomination for Outstanding Writing at the Emmys. He then went on to have his first travel food show called, I’ll Have What Phil’s Having, which received two Taste awards and the 2016 James Beard Award for Best Television Program. Phil currently has a show on Netflix called Somebody Feed Phil, which is on its 4th season. In this show, he travels the world, tasting new foods and exploring new cultures. He also wrote a book called You’re Lucky You’re Funny: How Life Becomes a Sitcom. He also started a foundation to provide food for voters in the long lines during the 2020 election. Phil Rosenthal has been very successful in the entertainment industry, as a comedy writer, and with his food series.
Image courtesy by Wikipedia
INTERVIEW:
Phil Rosenthal (class of 1977)
Do you have one memory from your time at Clarkstown North that sticks out to you?
“I was in school plays and that changed my whole life because I was kind of shy, and kind of nerdy, I wasn’t very popular. But as soon as I got into school plays, I became very popular because I was funny on stage and I seemed to be a big star, especially my senior year. It was so encouraging and the people were so supportive, that I decided to pursue this in college. I went to Hofstra University and majored in theater. I struggled of course because even if you’re a big star in high school or college, you move to New York and they don’t seem to care. We did a spring musical at North and I was the lead in the show. It was a very big part. It was a part that a very famous comedian named Sid Caesar had done on Broadway, and they gave it to me. Sid Caesar played seven different roles in this play and so did I. I remember that first night, you don’t know how it’s going to go until you’re in front of an audience. The audience’s response was so massive, that it was almost scary, it was overwhelming, like a tidal wave, and I will never forget that moment”
If you could give advice to students at North, either specifically about entertainment or in general, what would it be?
“The stuff you do after school, that turns out to be the most important thing. If you can find your career in that, that means you’re doing what you love. You don’t even realize it at the time, you think ‘oh, this is just something to keep me busy’, or I like this so I’ll do it. Take note of that. Because that may be what you want to do with your whole life. That extracurricular stuff, that is where your life is.”
Going off of your show, Somebody Feed Phil, if you were filming an episode in New city/Rockland, where would you eat either a current place or a place from when you were in high school?
“We lived in New City. In the Mid- 70’s, New City did not even have a McDonald’s or Burger King. We had something called Carol’s, which was a knock off. So, instead of a Big Mac, we had the club burger. We loved it though. That was our connection to pop culture in food. We used to beg to go there. When Mcdonald’s was hitting in the ’70s, it changed everything because now they made food fun, especially for kids. You don't realize it now, because it is everywhere. When it first came out, it was like ‘wow, what a fun thing!’ They had all the happy meals and toys. But, we didn't even have Kentucky Fried Chicken, we had Kansas style fried chicken in Nanuet. It wasn't until the Nanuet mall was built in the ’70s that we had a mall, and they built Nathan's hot dog, which I loved. Nanuet Hotel was our favorite pizza place, it still is the greatest, because it has that little pie crust thing. I thought that was fantastic. If I was to film in Rockland County, I think that would be the number one place I would go. There was a place called the New City deli, and we loved that. It was a real New York, Jewish deli. We also loved that farmstand, M&M farms. It was so cool, we thought. We did not have anything like that until it came. There was a lot that was nice, and there was a lot that we needed. Luckily, New York City was close, so we could go there. But there was no train in Rockland, so we had to take a bus.”
Phil Rosenthal World, www.philrosenthalworld.com/.