The King of Queens

Plot

Doug (Kevin James) and Carrie Heffernan (Leah Remini) are a middle-class couple living at the fictional 3121 Aberdeen Street in the Rego Park area of Queens, New York, along with Carrie's widowed father, Arthur Spooner (Jerry Stiller). Doug works for the fictional International Parcel Service (IPS) as a delivery driver, while Carrie works as a legal secretary in Manhattan. Their lives are plagued by the demands of Arthur; so much so that they eventually hire Holly, a professional dog walker, to spend time with him as she walks dogs in the park. Doug's constant deceit and schemes through various situations leave him humiliated as his plans backfire.

Also featured on the show are Doug's friends Deacon Palmer (Victor Williams), Spence Olchin (Patton Oswalt), and Richie Iannucci (Larry Romano), as well as Doug's cousin Danny Heffernan (played by James' real-life brother Gary Valentine). Deacon's wife Kelly (Merrin Dungey) is Carrie's best friend, having met through the relationship her husband has with Doug.

Most scenes take place in the Heffernans' home, but other common locations include Doug and Carrie's workplaces, the restaurant/pub "Coopers", and the residences of friends and family. While locations seen during the opening montage were filmed in areas around New York including the Empire State building, the Statue of Liberty and Sbarro Pizza, the series was filmed in California.

The series begins after Doug and Carrie have been married for 3 years, and how they met is somewhat unclear due to continuity issues. In one flashback episode, "Meet By-Product", Doug meets Carrie while he is a bouncer at a nightclub that Carrie attends. However, in another episode, "Road Rayge", Carrie reflects on a song that she says Doug asked her to dance to when they were in junior high school.

Characters

Main

Doug Heffernan (played by Kevin James) is an average parcel delivery man working for International Parcel Service (IPS). Born on February 9, 1965, in Montreal, Canada (his Canadian origin was unbeknownst to him until the season 5 episode "Dog Shelter"), he has a cheeky personality and never hesitates to protest his grievances vocally. Some of his problems are fueled by his love of food. These basic desires sometimes cause him to think of selfish, dangerous schemes in order to get what he wants, although they usually fall through in the end, causing constant arguments between Doug and Carrie. Doug's tendency to give in to his temptations, despite promising Carrie otherwise, is another common cause of conflict. He generally enjoys the simple pleasures of watching sports and playing poker with his friends.

Carrie Heffernan, née "Simone Spooner" (played by Leah Remini), is Doug's sardonic wife. She has a fiery temper and occasionally lashes out at people, mainly Doug. She has been characterized as scary by Holly and Doug, particularly when she is annoyed. During a flashback, Carrie concludes that she is happier when others are miserable. She never finished college and is employed as a legal secretary. Her constant attempts to make her relationship with Doug more romantic and loving cause Doug anxiety, as he prefers a simple life with as few restrictions as possible. The more impulsive and broad-minded of the couple, Carrie often pushes Doug to make more of himself and improve his outlook, but she is generally just as mean-spirited as he is. Although Carrie mocks Doug for his careless behavior, she has proven to be careless as well at times, with little patience for others' problems or tolerance for their quirks. Carrie's best friend is Deacon's wife, Kelly Palmer.

Arthur Spooner (played by Jerry Stiller) is Carrie's widowed father, who has been married three times. His fourth marriage is to Spence's mother (played by Anne Meara, Stiller's real-life wife) during the final episode of the final season, which ends shortly after in the same episode. Arthur is the classic oddball of the family. He lives in the basement of the Heffernan house because he accidentally set fire to his own uninsured home, burning it to the ground in the pilot episode. Very volatile, Arthur is mostly known for his incoherent, irascible outbursts and on rare occasion, offering up lucid thoughts and perspectives. He tells a lot of questionable stories of what he claims he has been through in his past, although his claim of having been a television and film actor for a time in years past turns out to be true. Arthur regularly causes chaos in the Heffernan household and gets on Doug's and Carrie's nerves. And, although he and Doug have a bitter rivalry in some episodes, he still approves of Doug, regardless. Doug and Carrie sometimes have trouble finding time alone because Arthur tends to get in the way. Arthur also tries to cause trouble with Doug's friends. He especially bullies Spence but also (unsuccessfully) tries it on Deacon, who often refers to him as "the old man". His narcissistic tendencies often lead to confrontations where he puts down other people or tries to take advantage of them. He often displays delusions of grandeur whenever he comes up with absurd business schemes.

Recurring

Kelly Palmer (played by Merrin Dungey), Deacon's wife, and Carrie's friend. Dungey was absent from the show in 2002 because she needed to take a break from the series and during this period, she and Deacon are separated and engaged in divorce proceedings, and she is involved in a brief affair, before they reconcile.

Lou Ferrigno (himself) (seasons 3–9) is the actor best known for his role as The Incredible Hulk. He and his wife are the Heffernans' next-door neighbors. A running gag on the series is that the neighbors (including the Heffernans) are fascinated by him, and it gets on his nerves. Lou does not like people telling him Hulk jokes, for instance, and other characters often make reference to that previous role. In one example, Doug is angry, and Lou attempts to calm him down; Doug retorts with the well-known line from the opening of The Incredible Hulk, "Don't make me angry; you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Also, in the episode "Gym Neighbors", it is revealed that Lou's character suffers from a video-game addiction. Ferrigno's wife Carla makes a number of appearances as herself throughout the series' run.

Supervisor Patrick O'Boyle (played by Sam McMurray) (seasons 3–9) is section supervisor for the fictional International Parcel Service. He is Doug's boss throughout most of the show, whom he mostly refers to as "Heffernan". A recovering alcoholic and gambling addict, he appears in many of the IPS scenes throughout the series' run. O'Boyle is portrayed as mildly aggressive and annoyed at Doug. A character named Supervisor Jack O'Boyle (played by John F. O'Donohue) appears in an episode from season one ("White Collar", 1999). In season 8, on the episode "Consummate Professional", Doug flashes back to when he first started working at IPS, and the McMurray O'Boyle character is portrayed, not the O'Donohue O'Boyle character.

Joe Heffernan and Janet Heffernan are Doug's parents (played by Dakin Matthews and Jenny O'Hara) (seasons 3-9). They live in a retirement community in Florida, but occasionally come to visit or Doug goes to see them. They both tend to treat Doug like a child, a role he readily slips into, as comes to light in the Season 4 episode "Screwed Driver" when Janet and Joe come to visit while Carrie is out of town and Doug reverts to adolescent behavior, or when they revealed that they kept getting a new dog to avoid having to tell Doug his childhood dog had died many years earlier. Joe and Janet have a brief marital issue when Janet feels neglected by Joe and she starts spending more time with Arthur.

Series background

Centered on the lives of blue-collar couple Doug and Carrie Heffernan, The King of Queens debuted on CBS on September 21, 1998. During its run, it brought in solid ratings (usually ranking in the Top 40, and peaking at #19 in its fourth season) for the most part and was a Monday night staple, competing with shows such as the long-running drama 7th Heaven. In 2003, when moved to Wednesday and scheduled against The West Wing and Nanny 911, it began to drop in the ratings. The final episode aired on May 14, 2007. The series was shot at Sony Pictures Studios' Stage 28 in Culver City, California. The character of Arthur was conceived with Jerry Stiller in mind, but he initially turned down the role. Veteran comedian Jack Carter was then cast and a pilot was shot. Soon afterward, Stiller changed his mind and took the part, which required re-shooting of scenes featuring Carter.

The King of Queens was partly inspired by the classic television sitcom The Honeymooners, the characters of Doug and Carrie being loosely based on the Kramden couple, with some similar mannerisms and deadpan expressions. In the 2001 episode "Inner Tube", the show pays homage to The Honeymooners as a distraught Doug dreams that he is Ralph Kramden, Carrie is Alice Kramden, and Deacon is Ed Norton. The sequence was filmed in black and white, and the audio quality (including audience reactions) matches a 1950s style.

Theme song and opening sequences

The season one main opening was a simple eight-second sequence which showed the window of a subway train moving past and then quickly stopping at the original show logo, which then peeled off to reveal the names of the show's creators. Starting with the entire 2nd season, the show added a new theme song called "Baby All My Life I Will Be Driving Home to You", which was written by series writers Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, composed by Jonathan Wolff and Scott Clausen, and performed by Billy Vera and the Beaters. An instrumental version was used as the closing theme during season 2, but was replaced in season 3 with a new closing theme composed by Kurt Farquhar.

With the show's transition to widescreen, the opening credits introduced in season 2 featured an opening shot of Doug climbing aboard an IPS truck, which then cuts to a long shot of his truck driving past the 111th Street elevated subway station, where the show's logo is digitally placed on the exterior. It then cuts to scenes of Doug, Carrie, and Arthur spending time around Queens, including local landmarks such as the Unisphere and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. In the season 2 sequence, James' starring credit was placed over a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge with the Manhattan skyline, but was edited after the September 11 attacks that felled the World Trade Center.

Reception

Critical response

The show's first season scored a 33% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The website's consensus reads: "Strong chemistry among its charming leads can't help The King of Queens rise above its toothless humor and dated sitcom set-ups." However, Clint Morris of FilmThreat lauded the series, praising James as "one of the funniest guys to grace the TV tube since Bill Cosby." By the ninth and final season, the show received largely positive critical reviews with an 85% "fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes. The website's consensus reads: "The King of Queens would never reign as a critical darling, but the series bowed out with dignity as an unassuming and undemanding sitcom worth having a beer with." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the series has a score of 55 out of 100 based on the reviews of 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards

In 2006, James received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his portrayal of Doug Heffernan.

BMI Awards

The King of Queens received BMI Awards in the TV Music category in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. These awards were presented to Kurt Farquhar, Josh Goldsmith, Andrew Gross, and Cathy Yuspa.

Nominations

During its final two seasons, The King of Queens was nominated in the People's Choice Awards' Favorite TV Comedy category for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. In 2004, Scott Heineman and Mark Waters were nominated by the Art Directors Guild for the Excellence in Production Design Award. Victor Williams was nominated in 2007 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series by the NAACP Image Awards.

Syndication and streaming

The show has been in syndication over-the-air stations in the United States from the early 2000s until its removal in fall 2024, and is also a mainstay of cable syndication through the channels of Paramount Skydance and A&E Networks, including Nick at Nite from January 1 to November 10, 2019, TV Land since October 24, 2011, CMT since 2020, Lifetime from 2019 to 2020, and A&E and FYI in 2022. It has also streamed on Peacock since the service's launch in spring 2020. Previously, it aired on TBS from September 2006 until September 2019. In July 2024, Cozi TV acquired the rights to the show along with Married... with Children and began airing on September 9. As of September 2024, the show also began airing on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, replacing Everybody Loves Raymond. Today, the show is streaming on Paramount+, Pluto TV, and Peacock.

Home media

In Region 1, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released all nine seasons of The King of Queens on DVD in the U.S. and Canada.

In Region 2, Paramount Home Entertainment has released all nine seasons on DVD in the UK. The complete series has also been released in Germany by Koch Media.

In Region 4, Paramount Home Entertainment has released all nine seasons on DVD in Australia.

Blu-ray releases

Seasons 2 and 3 were released on Blu-ray disc by Koch Media on November 21, 2008. On March 26, 2015, Koch Media released the whole series on Blu-ray in HD. The complete box set is distributed for Region B/2.

Reunion and future

In March 2021, a reunion table read was hosted on Facebook. The reunion was held to benefit Henry Street Settlement, a New York City social services, health care, and arts organization where Stiller got his start in theater. Series stars James, Remini, Williams, Oswalt, Valentine, Sullivan, and guest star Rachel Dratch all reprised their roles in the table read with Weithorn, reciting the 2003 episode "Cowardly Lyin'". The reunion was moderated by Sibley Scoles and also featured a video tribute to Stiller. In January 2024, James stated to The Kelly Clarkson Show, that there would be no reboot due to the death of Stiller.