'Everybody Loves Raymond's' original set reconstructed at Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame

The big fork and spoon are still hanging on the kitchen wall, both bygone icons of an "Everybody Loves Raymond" episode. The original stove and refrigerator are here too. That stuffed couch in the living room looks authentic enough except it's far too immaculate to be (yup, a replica).

But the famed "Toastmaster" is the real deal.

You'll see that just as you walk past the entrance of the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame's tribute to the show ("Celebrating 30 Years: Everybody Loves Raymond") starting Friday. It sits suspended in a glass case, like some precious heirloom from a long-ago civilization. ("Raymond" ended its nine-season run 20 years ago, so in TV terms, this is from a long-ago civilization.)

The original "Raymond" set has been reconstructed at LIMEHOF's Stony Brook headquarters — the headliner of this "immersive" tribute, which wraps next fall when the actual 30th anniversary arrives. The feng shui of this spread — the clutter, the comfort, the whole ur-'90s-faux-Lynbrook vibe — looks just about right, and well it should: This is the exact same set that appeared on Monday's "Everybody Loves Raymond" CBS tribute special, and which also appeared on 210 episodes from 1996 to 2005.

Ray Romano and showrunner Phil Rosenthal "wanted to do a show that was real, about real people and real things," said Rory Rosegarten, an executive producer of "Raymond" and Romano's longtime manager who now lives in Manhasset and helped organize the exhibit. The set was also designed to be "average, in the best possible way."

Sets and the props that compose them are the unsung, uncredited and (for the most part) unnoticed stars of any sitcom. You don't really think about them unless you imagine the show without them — Archie Bunker's arm chair, for example, or Jerry Seinfeld's Superman statue and cereal boxes. They're an extension of a show's personality, or inevitably part of the story too. Put another way, they put the "sit" in "sitcom."

"Raymond" held to a "one-story, one-set" approach throughout its run, which meant one story would unfold per episode, most typically in the kitchen. As such, the set and assorted bric-a-brac were often part of the story, or sometimes the whole story, like those spoons (season 6, episode 11) and that hallowed toaster (season 3, episode 12).

The idea for LIMEHOF's first-ever entertainment exhibit came from Ernie Canadeo, the hall's chairman and longtime executive director, who was inspired by the Paley Center's recent "Raymond" exhibit (which did not have the set). He recalled telling the show's producers, "it would be a sin if this disappeared. It can't disappear."

"I really feel this is going to be bigger" here, he said, because "this was a Long Island show" — set at the fictional 319 Fowler Ave., Lynbrook (although exteriors were actually shot on Margaret Boulevard in Merrick).

Authenticity for this project fell to LIMEHOF's design director, Kevin O’Callaghan, who on Nov. 21 led an impromptu tour through the still not-quite-complete set. "We've gone to great lengths to get the details right," he said, "because fans notice everything."

O'Callaghan has surrounded the reconstructed set with a series of micro-exhibits, devoted to costumes, the co-stars (Peter Boyle, Doris Roberts), to (New York) Newsday (where Romano's Ray Barone was a sports columnist), and even to Robert Barone's (Brad Garrett) ventriloquist dummy, Traffic Cop Timmy (season 2, episode 21).

Earlier this fall, after the CBS special was taped, the St. James native (also longtime professor at Manhattan's School for Visual Arts and designer of the MTV Movie Awards) traveled to CBS Television City in Los Angeles to pack the entire set, which had been donated to LIMEHOF.

"I'm still waiting for the [kitchen] telephone," O'Callaghan said, "because it's one of those cordless things with an antenna. Try to find one!" (CBS rented its own phone, he added.)

Reminded that the famous turkey Debra (Patricia Heaton) wrestled with (episode 5, season 9) was also missing, O'Callaghan happily replied, "We've got a fake turkey coming."