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The King of Queens
Format	Sitcom
Created by	David Litt Michael J. Weithorn
Starring	Kevin James Leah Remini Jerry Stiller Victor Williams Patton Oswalt Gary Valentine
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	9
No. of episodes	207 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 Minutes (30 Minutes with commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Picture format	480i 4:3 (SDTV), 1080i 16:9 (HDTV)
Original run	September 21, 1998 – May 14, 2007
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The King of Queens is an Emmy nominated, American comedy series that ran for nine seasons, from 1998 until 2007. The show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions and filmed at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, USA.

Contents 1 Plot summary 1.1 Award Nominations 2 Cast 2.1 Recurring characters 2.2 Minor characters 3 Series finale conclusion 4 Show background 5 Trivia 6 Nielsen Ratings 7 Episodes 8 DVD releases 9 References 10 External links

Blue-collar couple Doug 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 as a secretary for a law office. 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 is 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). Many of the plot lines of the show satirize conventional, "wholesome", and/or generic sitcom and family show plot clichés and devices. For example, Doug and Carrie, unlike typical sitcom or family show couples, are, together, good natured, but typically very shifty and petty, acting much like the stereotypical New Yorker. Attempts to do good deeds (such as donating to charities or helping a person find a job), reconcile or apologize, or do something beneficial for themselves (such as selling a house, or investing in the stock market) often end up going completely wrong, and bad often humorously goes to worse, often leaving the characters in a stagnant position by the end of the episode.

Emmy Awards:

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Kevin James (2006)

• Doug Heffernan (played by Kevin James): Doug is best known for his goofy words, immature mannerisms, and screaming. Doug's parents paid for him to go to college, but he never went. 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 beautiful wife. Carrie dropped out of college, but is a hard-working paralegal. Carrie loves fancy footwear and 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. She often acts as wrongly and unscrupulously as Doug. Carrie can be overly bossy and smart-mouthed at times. She's even been judged by Holly and Doug as being scary when she gets upset, and, during a flashback, finds that she is usually happier (she describes herself as never being truly happy) when others are miserable.
  

  

  Leah Remini, Jerry Stiller, and Kevin James in a scene from The King of Queens.
• 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 incoherent irascible outbursts. 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". Deacon and his wife Kelly have two sons, named Major and Kirby. 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.
• 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 used to work as a subway token collector. In one episode he is a "house boy" for Deacon and Kelly. This character is based heavily off the actor who plays him, Patton Oswalt.
• 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 looked as if they were involved in a romantic relationship together and fought like a married couple. Danny also used to own a Pizza Place and is divorced. He once had the nickname "Stumpy" which was given to him by Doug. Gary Valentine and Kevin James are brothers in real life. They both created last names for acting. Valentine is his father's middle name.

• Kelly Palmer, Deacon's wife (played by Merrin Dungey): As Carrie's best friend, Kelly is Deacon's typically 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. On one occasion Deacon mentions being hit in the head with a frying pan. Kelly's split with Deacon coincided with Merrin Dungey's appearance in the regular cast of the Jennifer Garner series Alias.
• Holly Shumpert (2001–2005, 2007) (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 habits and the men she dates (not to mention her habit of over-drinking, which she openly confesses to). In one episode Holly asks Carrie, "What am I doing wrong? I give them money, I let them stay at my house." Overall, however, Holly is a very sweet person, especially when she puts up with Arthur's antics.
• Richie Lanucchi (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 as per Romano's request to work on another sitcom. He only appeared on one episode "Paint Misbehavin'" during the third season. 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): Sara was Carrie's irresponsible, wannabe actress younger sister. The character of Sara Spooner had appeared in only 4 episodes (episodes 1,2,3,&6) and disappeared after that without any explanation or mention of her ever again. After the show started gaining popularity, Kevin James had been interviewed and was asked about what happened to Sara. James explained that the producers couldn't think of any storylines to develop Rieffel's character so she was discontinued. In the episodes where she did appear, her character did not appear much except for the pilot she was on camera roughly half the episode. Future dialogue suggests that Sara Spooner never existed

• Stephanie Heffernan, Doug's sister (Ricki Lake)
• Veronica Olchin, Spence's mother (Grace Zabriskie) in the first season episode "S'ain't Valentine's". Anne Meara (Jerry Stiller's wife) from 2003 (Meara also appears in "S'ain't Valentine's" as a woman named Mary whom Arthur meets at the Senior Center).
• 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 (2000–2007): Himself
• Carla Ferrigno, Lou Ferrigno's wife (2000-2007): Herself
• Denise Battaglia, Spence's girlfriend (Rachel Dratch)
• Mr. Kaplan, Carrie's former boss (Victor Raider-Wexler)
• Kirby Palmer (Omari Lyles/Marshaun Daniel/Philip Bolden)
• Major Palmer (Desmond Roberts)
• Young Doug (Tyler Hendrickson)
• Father McAndrew, priest at the Heffernan's Church (Joe Flaherty)
• Tim Sacksky, the Heffernan's neighbor (Bryan Cranston): returned unexplained for one episode (3x22) after moving out in episode 2x22 due to ripping off Doug in a water filter pyramid scheme. After that, the Sacksky's were never heard of again.
• Dorothy Sacksky, Heffernan neighbor (Dee Dee Rescher)
• Ayatollah Rodriguez, Doug's baseball-playing friend from high school.
• Mike Ross (Michael Lowry)
• Debi Ross (Marcia Cross)
• Mickey (Ford Rainey), a friend of Arthur's
• 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)
• Marc "Shmenkman" Shropshire (Sean O'Bryan)
• Abby "Shmenkman" Shropshire (Elisa Taylor)
• Rico (Angelo Pagan, Leah Remini's husband) works at IPS with Doug. Greets with "Hey, Jack!"
• Kyle, Bianca, and Dave
• Winthrop (Graham Phillips)

The King of Queens ended its 9 season run on May 14, 2007 with the one-hour series finale "China Syndrome". The airing was #12 in the Nielsen ratings with 13.61 million viewers. The season average is #33 with 11.4 million viewers, which is higher than the past two seasons. At the end of the show Doug and Carrie are seen with 2 children (one adopted in China and one of their own) living in the same house with Arthur.

Based on the lives of blue-collar couple Doug & Carrie Heffernan, The King of Queens debuted on CBS on September 21, 1998. For most of its run it was a Monday night staple, competing with shows such as the long-running drama 7th Heaven. In 2003, when scheduled against The West Wing and Nanny 911, it dropped slightly in the ratings. The final episode aired on May 14, 2007, which made The King of Queens one of the longest-running sitcoms of the 1990s. The show is currently in syndication worldwide and airs on TBS in the United States.

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Most episode titles for the series are puns on two-word combinations (such as "Assaulted Nuts" is a pun on the words "salted nuts"). Others are names of real and fictional people. The only exception is the pilot.
• 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 whole Stiller family has appeared on the show, which includes Jerry Stiller, Ben, Amy, and Anne Meara.
• The King of Queens was the last live action American sitcom that debuted in the '90s to go off the air.
• The King of Queens is the 12th longest running sitcom in TV history.
• The King of Queens is the 4th most syndicated show.
• The show was first pitched to NBC, but after NBC wanted to make changes that the producers didn't like, they pitched the idea to CBS, and CBS picked up the show.^{[citation needed]}
• The stingers and cutscenes are very prominent throughout the show. In the first season, the stinger music was played first on a Moog synthesizer, and in the second season, an electric guitar took the lead. The best-remembered pieces of music debuted in the third season, led by an acoustic guitar. The cutscenes also became prominent from the third season on, although they had been featured in select scenes of episodes from the previous two seasons. Syndicated episodes from Seasons 1, 2, 6 and 8 contain the more traditional fade scenes, although the same episodes that aired on CBS featured the cutscenes. Except for the series finale, all episodes from Season 9 contain the fade scenes.
• The show's theme song is performed by Billy Vera and the Beaters. It was introduced in Season 2, along with the more-common opening sequence.
• There are two versions of the theme song. One is a slightly faster upbeat tempo.
• In Season 1, the opening sequence consisted of an animated subway car stopping at a station whose walls were plastered with the show's original logo. After one of the logo signs fell off, the names of the creators (Michael J. Weithorn and David Litt) were revealed on the wall. Also, the theme song was completely instrumental.
• During the final season, CBS ran promos of the show that featured a slightly modified recording of Luna Halo's "The Kings and Queens" as the background music. This version uses the show's name, which sounds very similar to that of the original song.
• In one scene from Season 8 Episode 6 there is a quick shot of a subway entrance. Above the entrance is a poster advertising the Ricki Lake Show. Ricki Lake plays Doug's sister on 'The King of Queens'.

1998-1999 Season: #35

1999-2000 Season: #34

2000-2001 Season: #25

2001-2002 Season: #19

2002-2003 Season: #27

2003-2004 Season: #33

2004-2005 Season: #48

2005-2006 Season: #49

2006-2007 Season: #33

Main article: List of King of Queens episodes

Season 1 has been scheduled for a Region 2 release in the UK on January 29, 2007 [1] 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. Seasons 1 to 7 were released in Germany and Austria by Koch Media, all special features of the Region 1 version were included, Koch Media will also release the final seasons in the German speaking countries.

DVD Name	Region 1	Region 2 (UK)	Region 2 (Germany)	Ep #	Extras
Season 1	November 18, 2003	January 29, 2007	November 26, 2004	25	Pilot Episode Commentary "Just Having Fun" featurette and bonus episodes and trailers.
Season 2	April 20, 2004	July 9, 2007	March 31, 2005	25	"Kevin James: A Day in the Life of an International Superstar" featurette and Audio Commentary with Kevin James and Michael Wiethorn.
Season 3	February 22, 2005	TBA	September 2, 2005	24	Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
Season 4	April 14, 2005	TBA	December 2, 2005	25	Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
Season 5	June 20, 2006	TBA	May 26, 2006	25	Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
Season 6	September 19, 2006	TBA	November 24, 2006	24	Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
Season 7	January 16, 2007	TBA	March 9, 2007	22	Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
Season 8	May 1, 2007	TBA	August 24, 2007	23	Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
Season 9	September 25, 2007	TBA	October 19, 2007	13	Bonus trailers (No other Bonus material).
Complete Series Box Set	November 6, 2007	TBA	November 23, 2007	207	Interviews with the cast and other exclusive extras.

• The King of Queens official website at Sony Pictures Television, who produce the show
• The King of Queens at CBS, who airs the show
• The King of Queens at the Internet Movie Database
• The King of Queens at TV.com

The King of Queens

Main characters: Doug Heffernan | Carrie Heffernan | Arthur Spooner

List of The King of Queens episodes