The Queens Bum

I didn’t really get to watch much today, because I was trying to fix my frickin’ Xbox for hours. Damn, the red rings. (If you have an Xbox you know what I’m talking about) So I want to talk about something I watch almost every day.

As a huge fan of sitcoms it is always great news when I find out that one of my favorites is going into reruns. When there is nothing else on, you always know that one of your old reliable shows is always going to be there. In my house we go on certain sitcom rerun trends. Cheers, Friends, Seinfeld, & Two and a Half Men have all been set on the DVR to be there to throw on at a moments notice for a dependable laugh.

The flavor of the month has been The King of Queens. So many people wouldn’t even realize that the show was actually on for 9 years. Seriously, 9 years. I watched the show when it was still on CBS and I didn’t even realize that it was on for that long. It ran on CBS from 1998-2007.

Kevin James and Leah Remini play Doug and Carrie Heffernan, a simple hard working blue collar couple. Doug loves the simple things in life, especially food, and Carrie is a loud and forceful typical Queens girl. She has the same attitude and volume as so many girls that I knew growing up in Brooklyn, even the ones in my own house. One of the best protagonists on the show is Carries father Arthur Spooner that is played by the always classic Jerry Stiller. Arthur is a legend in his own mind; he loudly, and hysterically, voices his opinion at any given moment. Jerry Stiller’s Arthur is pretty much the same character he played in Seinfeld, but he adds so much to the show that it just doesn’t matter.

I know some of my friends would say: Seriously? You’re talking about The King of Queens? But I don’t care. The show makes me chuckle. However, the best part of the show is all the ridiculous moments that make my wife and I look at each other and laugh when we realize that we the same issues or argue about the same nit picky things as they do, or even just get on each others nerves enough to simply say “Shutty!”.

The show might have ended it’s run three years ago, but it has given Kevin James the opportunity to become a movie star, and with hits like “Hitch”, and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” he has solidified himself on the big screen. He is even been able to fill the shoes of the late great Chris Farley in the upcoming movie “Grownups” starring SNL alums Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, David Spade, and Rob Schneider. You know that that other role would have gone to Farley if he was still alive, but Kevin James looks to be a perfect fit with those other guys.

The King of Queens might be a silly generic sitcom for most people, but to us its comfort and a quick laugh. So if you don’t like it, well that’s cool, but I do suggest finding one of the amazing reruns on TV nowadays, because it’s always good to have something there that you can always count on. Hey, it beats the hell out of channel surfing.