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The King of Queens

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The King of Queens
File:KingofQueensTitleCard.jpg
The King of Queens title card
Created byDavid Litt
Michael J. Weithorn
StarringKevin James
Leah Remini
Jerry Stiller
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes201 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time22 Minutes (30 Minutes with commercials)
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 21, 1998 –
May 14, 2007

The King of Queens is a long-running, Emmy nominated, American comedy series that debuted on September 21, 1998 (the very same day that Will & Grace debuted on NBC), and is scheduled to end after the 2006-2007 season. It is also in syndication and reruns have been showing on TBS since October 2006. The program is filmed at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California.

After reaching a deal with Kevin James, the sitcom was renewed by CBS for a ninth season of thirteen episodes. The ninth season began airing on December 6, 2006. This brings the show to its final season, as confirmed by co-star Leah Remini on her official website. [1][2]

The 9th season's first six episodes aired between December 6 through January 3 in the Wednesday night timeslot. The remaining seven episodes will begin airing April 9, 2007 (according to Broadcasting & Cable magazine) on Monday nights at 9:30 pm ET with Two and a Half Men serving as the show's lead-in. Should the episodes air as planned, the show will conclude its run on Monday May 14, 2007 [3]. (That indicates that the finale will most likely consist of two episodes, as there are 7 episodes remaining and May 14 is 6 weeks away) Those shows were taped between the month of January through March 15, 2007. The show took a brief hiatus from production as James took time off to focus on his forthcoming films. [4]

Plot summary

Blue-collar couple Doug Heffernan and Carrie Heffernan (Kevin James and Leah Remini) share their home in Rego Park, Queens, New York with Carrie's oddball dad, Arthur Spooner (Jerry Stiller). Doug, who makes a living as a parcel deliveryman with the fictional IPS (pun to UPS) often has to scheme to find time alone with Carrie, who works at a real estate development firm. This is complicated by Arthur, who can be quite a handful — so much so that they hired a dog-walker, Holly (Nicole Sullivan), to look after him. When he's not working, clashing with Arthur, or nesting with Carrie, Doug hangs with his advice-giving buddies Deacon Palmer (Victor Williams), Spence Olchin (Patton Oswalt), and his cousin Danny Heffernan (Gary Valentine).

Cast

File:KingofQueensCast.jpg
Leah Remini, Jerry Stiller and Kevin James in a scene from The King of Queens.
  • Doug Heffernan — played by Kevin James — Doug is best known for his bizarre made-up words, goofy mannerisms, and screaming. Doug's parents paid for him to go to college, but he dropped out. If he isn't delivering parcels, he's with his buddies, watching sports television, or bickering with his wife who is always telling him what to do. The main reason Carrie and Doug are a squabbly couple is due to Carrie's giving Doug orders, then Doug disobeying those orders behind her back and being dishonest about it. Carrie often finds out about his dishonesty. This ends up in them having an argument in which Doug is often called names about his being overweight and Carrie is accused of being mean and screamed at by Doug. Doug's disobedience in eating fatty foods after Carrie has told him not to is another common reason why the two have some disagreements.
  • Carrie Heffernan — played by Leah Remini — Doug's attractive wife. Carrie dropped out of college, but is a hard-working real estate development firm worker. Carrie loves fancy footwear, fancy dresses, enjoys shopping for them, and owns way too many of them. Carrie's best friend is Deacon's wife, Kelly Palmer. She's not crazy about any of Doug's friends, but is closest with Deacon out of all of them. Although Carrie's usually in the right and knows what's best, ironically she'll sometimes behave just as wrongly and unscrupulously as Doug. However when Carrie is guilty of something, she's a lot more likely to admit to it or become apologetic about it than Doug is. Being the wisest and most responsible, Carrie has the most responsibilities and is in charge. Carrie can, however, be overly domineering, intimidating, and sharp-tongued at times. She's even been judged by Holly and Doug as being intimidating, especially when she gets upset. For the most part, Carrie's very understanding, loving, and patient with both her father and husband, who are both a handful.
  • Arthur Spooner — played by Jerry Stiller — Arthur, Carrie's widowed father, is the classic oddball of the family. He lives in the basement of the Heffernan house because he accidentally set fire to his own home in the pilot episode. Arthur is mostly known for his irascible outbursts for no apparent reason. He tells a lot of questionable stories of what he claims he's been through in his past. Arthur's usually seen causing regular chaos and getting on someone's bad side with his antics, craziness, and obnoxious behaviors. Carrie and Doug sometimes have trouble being romantic or just spending time together because of Arthur's getting in the way. What with all of his bad behavior, Arthur still has a way with making Doug and Carrie feel guilty about something in the end. Arthur also tries to cause trouble with, and pick on Doug's friends. He's able to and often does towards Spence, but he is not as successful when he tries it towards Deacon, who often refers to him as, "the old man."
  • Deacon Palmer — played by Victor Williams — As Doug's best friend, Deacon is the classic "family man". He's often seen hanging out with Doug, whether it's at their lunch break, over the weekend, or for a family gathering. Although he is often experiencing relationship problems, Deacon always has time to chill out and have fun.
  • Kelly Palmer , Deacon's wife - Merrin Dungey — As Carrie's best friend, Kelly is Deacon's agreeable, soft-spoken wife and the two of them have two children together. Kelly and Deacon have experienced some serious relationship problems, much more serious than the petty arguments between Doug and Carrie.

Recurring characters

  • Spence Olchin — played by Patton Oswalt — Spence, another friend of Doug's, is often viewed as the nerd of the group. Not only is he very paranoid, he also takes an interest in science fiction and comic book conventions, interests that his friends don't share. He is of Albanian heritage and works as a subway token collector. In one episode he is a "house boy" for Deacon and Kelly.
  • Danny Heffernan — played by Gary Valentine — Danny Heffernan, Doug's cousin, is also seen hanging out with Doug, Spence, and Deacon. At the beginning of the show, Doug didn't like his cousin very much and they were distant. As the show progressed, they become buddies and regularly hang out along with Deacon and Spence. Danny even becomes Spence's roommate in a small apartment. The two often fight like a married couple. Danny also used to own a Pizza Place and is divorced. Gary Valentine and Kevin James are brothers in real life. They both created last names for acting. Valentine is his father's middle name.
  • Holly Shumpert (2001-2005) — played by Nicole Sullivan — Holly is a cheerful yet insecure dog walker hired by Doug and Carrie to walk Arthur. She is often seen arriving at the Heffernan house to pick up Arthur but is also a family friend of the Heffernans. She is often viewed as a bit strange because of her unique habits and beliefs. She's also very patient, having the ability to put up with Arthur.
  • Richie Ianucchi (1998-2001) — played by Larry Romano — Richie was also one of Doug's closest friends, but was quietly written out of the show in the third season, replaced by Danny. Richie was known as the ladies man among Doug's friends, even admitting to sleeping with Doug's sister. Richie is a FDNY firefighter.
  • Sara Spooner (1998) — played by Lisa Rieffel — Carrie's sister. Little is known about her, as she was written out of the show after the first few episodes. She initially moved in with her father and took the room upstairs. When she was written out of the show, the room was used as an office instead. Future episodes tend to refer to Doug as a single child with her sister not even existing.

Minor characters

  • Stephanie Heffernan, Doug's sister — Ricki Lake
  • Veronica Olchin, Spence's mother — Anne Meara (Jerry Stiller's wife)
  • Doug Pruzan, Carrie's former boss — Alex Skuby
  • Joe Heffernan, Doug's Father — Dakin Matthews
  • Janet Heffernan, Doug's Mother — Jenny O'Hara
  • Supervisor Patrick O'Boyle, Doug's Boss — Sam McMurray
  • Lou Ferrigno, the Heffernan's next door neighbor (2000-) — Himself
  • Denise, Spence's Girlfriend — Rachel Dratch
  • Mr. Kaplan, Carrie's Former Boss — Victor Raider-Wexler
  • Kirby Palmer — Omari Lyles/Marshaun Daniel
  • Major Palmer — Desmond Roberts
  • Young Doug — Tyler Hendrickson
  • Father McAndrew, Priest at the Heffernan's Church — Joe Flaherty
  • Tim Sasky, the Heffernan's neighbor — Bryan Cranston
  • Dorothy Sasky, Heffernan neighbor — Dee Dee Rescher
  • Mike Ross — Michael Lowry
  • Debi Ross — Marcia Cross
  • Mickey — Ford Rainey
  • Kim — Melissa Chan
  • Amy — Christine Gonzales
  • George Barksdale — Gerry Black
  • Stu, Doug's uncle and Danny's father — Gavin MacLeod
  • Jimmy, Doug's co-worker at IPS — Jimmy Shubert
  • Duke, another of Doug's co-workers — Steve Tancora
  • Georgia Boone, Carrie's boss — Lisa Banes

Trivia

  • Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, and Doris Roberts from Everybody Loves Raymond have all appeared on the show as their characters from Everybody Loves Raymond. Romano appeared on the show four times, while Heaton, Roberts, Boyle and Garrett have appeared only once. Leah Remini never appeared on Everybody Loves Raymond. However, in earlier episodes of "Raymond", Kevin played "Kevin", a fellow sports reporter and in later episodes he made slight cameos as "Doug".
  • Kevin James inked a deal with CBS to pay him $500,000 per episode in the 2005-2006 season.
  • The show was mentioned in the Fountains of Wayne song "Someone to Love".
  • This show, along with many others, was mentioned in the "Weird Al" Yankovic song, "Couch Potato".
  • Ben Stiller appeared in an episode as Arthur's father in a flashback; in reality, Jerry Stiller is Ben Stiller's father.
  • The King of Queens is the last live action American sitcom that debuted in the '90s to go off the air.

Episodes

Main article: List of King of Queens episodes

Broadcasters

DVD Releases

Season 1 has been scheduled for a Region 2 release on January 29, 2007 [5] but the set will not contain the special features contained in the Region 1 set. The set will be distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment (through its rights to distribute CBS-owned programs) instead of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment which distributes the Region 1 sets. Paramount will not release the set in Germany because a local distributor owns the rights to the series there.

Cover Art DVD Name Region 1 Region 2 Ep # Extras
File:KingofQueensS1.jpg Season 1 November 18 2003 January 29 2007 25 Pilot Episode Commentary "Just Having Fun" featurette and bonus episodes and trailers.
File:KingofQueensS2.jpg Season 2 April 20 2004 TBA 25 "Kevin James: A Day in the Life of an International Superstar featurette and Audio Commentary with Kevin James and Michael Wiethorn.
File:KingofQueensS3.jpg Season 3 February 22 2005 TBA 24 Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
File:KingofQueensS4.jpg Season 4 April 14 2005 TBA 25 Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
File:KingofQueensS5.jpg Season 5 June 20 2006 TBA 25 Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
File:KingofQueensS6.jpg Season 6 September 19 2006 TBA 24 Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
File:KingofQueensS7.jpg Season 7 January 16 2007 TBA 22 Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
File:KingofQueensS8.jpg Season 8 May 1 2007 TBA 23 Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
Season 9 TBA 2007 TBA 13

References

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