Phil Rosenthal, creator of “Everybody Loves Raymond, went to Moscow at Sony’s invitation to help oversee a Russian-language production of his sitcom about a sportswriter played by Ray Romano.

Sony almost singlehandedly created the Russian sitcom, which sounds like an oxymoron.

Especially after reading that the pioneering breakthrough in 2004 was “The Nanny.”

The next show to be adapted was our anti-Cosby, “Married … with Children.”

Until perestroika in the 1980s, state-run TV’s basic staple was agriculture shows. Plus, “Russian comedy has always been much darker” than middle-class American sitcoms, so what caught my attention in Los Angeles Times coverage was that Rosenthal made his creative consultant lemons into lemonade with a must-see documentary, “Exporting Raymond.”

Rosenthal reportedly casts himself as the classic fish out of water, baffled by cultural quirks of everyday Russian life.

For starters, Russian TV offers so little in the way of prestige that the studio resembles an abandoned factory, prompting Rosenthal to quip, “Do you know which room they filmed ‘Saw’ in?’ ”

“TV is definitely not a big business there,” he said. “When I told them how important it was to have an audience at the taping, they actually said, ‘But we’d have to get chairs.’ Their budget for the show, all in — pre- and post-production, along with all the salaries — was $80,000 (per episode). They block and shoot a show every two days. Anything they don’t understand from the American script, they just throw it out.”

Rosenthal must look like a real-life Ray, constantly being scolded by his wife, brother and overbearing parents.

Russian writers complained Ray is not only unloved, he’s unlikable because he’s a wuss pushed around by women.

Rosenthal’s absolute rock-bottom low point was when he tried to help the taping of the first episode by laughing at the jokes.

The director told him to shut up or risk ruining the take.

“That was pretty awful,” he said. “Being shushed for laughing at comedy.” The Times says it’s one of the comic high points of the documentary.

It’s ironic such a cross-over market exists for American TV comedies remade overseas in local languages because the opposite is true of U.S. comedy films when it comes to finding foreign audiences. Rosenthal guesses action movies are more relatable — “you can understand a car chase in any language” — but movie stars like Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler parody a specific American type, the man-child who’s never grown up, which loses something in translation to other cultures.

The Rapture: I enjoyed catching up with the end of the world in the Oakland Tribune because May 21 I was busy attending the Pokagon Band’s service at Sacred Heart for a World War II hero and watching BMX bikes fly around the skatepark until it rained.

Harold Camping’s weekend “was a very difficult time for me” when his dire doomsday predictions again didn’t come to pass.

To duck the ringing phone and strangers banging at his door, the radio host and his wife sought refuge in a motel, praying and watching TV.

Camping, who believes God began judging earthly churches in May 1988, was wrong in September 1994, he was wrong May 21 and he will likely be wrong again Oct. 21 with his prediction that the end of the world commences with a series of earthquakes starting in New Zealand and making their way to the San Francisco Bay area.

Monday, June 20: “Countdown” host Keith Olbermann, who in January abruptly parted ways with MSNBC after eight years rebranding the cable network as a progressive alternative to Fox News, debuts on Al Gore’s Current TV, headquartered in San Francisco, with contributors ranging from Michael Moore and Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi (!) to comedian Richard Lewis and PBS documentarian Ken Burns).

The channel averages all of 23,000 viewers in prime time.

Outfoxed: Charlie Gratz fined me $1 at Dowagiac Rotary Club for my June 2 column. Guess Mr. Buckeye’s still sore about the resignation May 30 of Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel.

I don’t know which would be a more appropriate gift — the coach’s book, “The Winners Manual,” in which he writes, “Discipline is what you do when no one else is looking,” or maize-and-blue Vest in Peace shirts on sale in Ann Arbor the next day.

Charlie, in the spirit of the Four-Way Test, I’ll even give Fox a kudo for John Stossel’s “The Money Hole” June 12.

The German government announced Europe’s largest economy will phase out nuclear energy by 2022 and boost investment in solar and wind energy.

London-based charity Oxfam says in a new study the “international community is sleepwalking” toward humanitarian catastrophe from rising food prices.

“Growing a Better Future” predicts prices for basic staples shooting up 120 to 180 percent by 2030, partly from climate change but also because of speculation in commodity markets by — what else? — big banks and hedge funds.

Burnett on the Bible: The man who brought us “Survivor,” “The Voice” and “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader,” finds religion.

Executive producer Mark Burnett is bringing the new docudrama “The Bible” to the History channel. The five-part, 10-hour series will cover the Good Book from Genesis to Revelation, recreating such famous stories as Noah’s Ark and Jesus’ resurrection. He and his wife, “Touched by an Angel” actress Roma Downey, conceived the series.

Anniversary: Cleveland’s Dancing Wheels, which appeared at Dowagiac’s Dogwood Fine Arts Festival in 2001, 30.

Quips, quotes and qulunkers: “President Obama’s approval rating hit 60 percent — its highest in two years. Experts say at this rate, Obama can count on re-election if he just kills Osama bin Laden two more times.”

— Conan O’Brien

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“Paul McCartney is getting married again. The couple plans on having an intimate ceremony, which is a nice way of saying that Ringo is not invited.”

— Craig Ferguson, “The Late, Late Show.” McCartney plays Comerica Park July 24 and Wrigley Field July 31.