Sadly, as the way we watch TV has changed, with streaming taking over our daily lives, so has the type of TV shows we watch. It used to be that sitcoms ruled the airwaves, all the way up through the 90s withSeinfeldandFriends,and the 2000s withEverybody Loves RaymondandThe King of Queens. These were simple looking shows with a laugh track that we could lose ourselves in at the end of a stressful day, and decades later, thanks to those aforementioned streaming services, still do.
The King of Queens, starringKevin James,Leah Remini, andJerry Stiller, ran on CBS for an impressive nine seasons, filling the emptiness left bySeinfeld’s exit (and allowing Stiller to keep showing how much of a comedic genius he was),and sharing space with another CBS sitcom,Everybody Loves Raymond. For most of us,the first time we ever saw Kevin James was when he appeared in a few early episodes ofEverybody Loves Raymondas Ray Barone’s (Ray Ramano) friend. Shortly after, James got a series of his own, and for years, many articles stressed howThe King of Queenswas a spinoff ofEverybody Loves Raymond. There’s just one problem with that: it wasn’t. In fact, Collider has the scoop from series co-creator,Michael J. Weithorn. Thanks to the information he provided to us, it’s time to set the record straight and acknowledgeThe King of Queensfor the original creation that it was.
Most People Think ‘The King of Queens’ Is an ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Spin-off
Many of our favorite sitcoms started as spinoffs from another show.If you were a TGIF fan as a kid, Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) was the star ofFamily Matters, butdid you know the series started as a spinoff ofPerfect Strangers, with Harriette Winslow (Jo Marie Payton) co-starring in a small but lovable role as an elevator operator at the newspaper Balki (Bronson Pinchot) and Larry (Mark Linn-Baker) work at? A more well known example is thatFrasieris a spinoff ofCheers, with Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) often spending his time at the Boston bar before moving to Seattle.
Kevin James wasn’t a big star untilThe King of Queens, but as most of us remember it, that series first started onEverybody Loves Raymond, where James played Ray’s friend, a delivery driver named Doug Heffernan. CBS was so impressed with James in the role that they decided to spin off the character into his own series, right? That’s what so many articles say online, and it’s what I believed as well.Everybody Loves Raymondis one of my top two or three favorite shows of all time, and I was certain that’s what had happened. It’s not.Perhaps it’s a little bit of the Mandela Effect going on, where the majority believe something is true even though it never happened. Just like we’re certain thatSinbadwas once in a movie calledShazaam, we know Doug was onEverybody Loves Raymond.
The King of Queensco-creatorMichael J. Weithornhas a theory about how we all came to believe this. Weithorn told Collider that he didn’t know this misconception was so pervasive until he was listening to a podcast a few years ago where the guest spoke aboutThe King of Queensbeing anEverybody Loves Raymondspinoff. This wouldn’t be out of the norm, except that the guest wasLaurie Zaks, an executive with CBS who began coveringThe King of Queensin its second season! If she thought the spinoff story was true, why wouldn’t the rest of us? Weithorn acknowledged that there were several contributing factors to this theory. Not only had Kevin James appeared in a few episodes ofEverybody Loves Raymond, butboth sitcoms are set in Long Island with “strong New York ‘voices,'“and in someThe King of Queensepisodes, Ray Romano,Doris Roberts, andPeter Boyleall showed up as theirEverybody Loves Raymondcharacters.
Because of this, Weithorn says, “It’s possible that those crossovers helped ingrain the idea that the two shows were somehow connected in a broader way.” If you want to put that to rest, though, all you have to do is watch the crossovers, such asthe early episode where Ray Barone runs into Doug Heffernan at the DMV and tries to cheat on a test. The two have a funny moment together, but it’s as strangers, not two old friends reconnecting.
Weithorn has had a decades-long career in film and television. Most recently,he wrote and directed the soon-to-be-releasedConnescene, a film starring real-life husband and wifeKevin BaconandKyra Sedgwick. He has been a writer and producer for several shows, was the showrunner for the short-lived 90s seriesThe Sinbad Show(which really did star Sinbad), and was a major contributor onFamily Tiesin many forms during its seven-year run. He was also the creator of several shows, but none have been more successful thanThe King of Queens, which he co-created withDavid Litt.
But how did Weithorn and Kevin James cross paths and come together to create television history? James was a standup comedian in the fall of 1997, andafter a great set at the Montreal Comedy Festival the year before, he got himself a holding deal with NBC. Remember the days when networks looked for comedians to sign and turn into the next big sitcom star? James did an NBC pilot that didn’t get picked up, but at the same time, Weithorn had a deal with Sony to develop shows and was coming off the heels of the cancelation of his Fox series,Ned and Stacey. NBC sent him a VHS tape of the comedians they had deals with, and it was Kevin James that got his attention more than anyone else. Weithorn said he was drawn to James because he was a big guy who “at times goes very loud and angry with his comedy, but it’s a comedic anger, never threatening.“An excited Weithorn called the head of NBC Studios, Tom Nunan, and told him how much he liked Kevin. Nunan already had an idea for the comic too,envisioning him in a modern dayHoneymooners. With that prompt, it then clicked for Weithorn to make Kevin’s character a delivery driver. Every sitcom lead needs a wife, so Weithorn modeled Carrie after his father’s secretary when Weithorn was a kid, “a very pretty gum-chomping ‘outer borough’ girl named Jeanette.”
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NBC executives liked the idea, so Weithorn went off to write it, bringing in David Litt, a writer onNed and Stacey, to co-write the pilot with him. As any fan ofThe King of Queensknows, though, the series aired on CBS and not NBC. That’s because NBC was turned off by the blue-collar aspect.SeinfeldandFriendswere big hits at the time,with the characters living in Manhattan, yet here was this guy who was happy being a truck driver.NBC President Warren Littlefield thought that made James' character a “loser”, but with Weithorn and Litt refusing to budge on their vision, NBC lost interest. Weithorn’s agent,Beth Uffner, then sent the script to CBS, who agreed to shoot a pilot if they could get the show away from NBC. If you loveThe King of Queens, say some thanks to Beth Uffner. Without her, it would never have happened.
The Belief That It Was an ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Spin-off Hurt ‘The King of Queens’
Kevin James was in place, butThe King of Queensneeded a cast to support him.Leah Reminiwas the first choice for everyone, but they had to wait for an NBC show she was working on to be canceled before offering her the part. As for the iconic Arthur, Weithorn had first envisioned actorFord Rainey, who he had worked with onNed and Stacey, in the part, but fate intervened. In the spring of 1998,Seinfeldcame to an end andJerry Stiller, the genius behind George Costanza’s (Jason Alexander) loudmouthed father, Frank, was available, so they went after him hard to play Arthur. When Jerry Stiller unexpectedly dropped out, another actor,Jack Carter, was brought in, but the pilot didn’t work with him in the part.After showing Jerry Stiller the pilot, he agreed to come back. If he hadn’t, the series may have crumbled even before it started, because it’s Stiller who got the biggest laughs week after week.
The King of Queenswas a huge hit for CBS, becoming a dependable Top 40 show year in and year out. Kevin James became a household name because of it, but do you know how many EmmysThe King of Queenswas nominated for in a near decade? One.In the final season, James was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, a nod given more as a thank-you for the series than anything else, even though he rightfully deserved it.
The King of Queensis a hilarious sitcom filled with unforgettable characters and some of comedy’s best moments in recent memory, but it was never a critically acclaimed show. That’s probably because it was seen as being some less-than spinoff, a show based on another, which was then compared to that.Everybody Loves Raymondhad more viewers, and more critics loved it, so much so thatit was nominated for 69 Emmys and won 15.The King of Queenshad to live in that shadow, which wasn’t fair to them.It’s especially unfair sinceThe King of Queenswasn’t even a spinoff ofEverybody Loves Raymond. According to Michael J. Weithorn, when he created the series, “At this point I had no idea that Kevin had appeared on a few episodes ofRaymond. The character of Doug was created with no connection to that.” In fact, he couldn’t be, becauseThe King of Queenswas initially developed on a different network, making the spinoff idea impossible.
Weithorn says the spinoff myth diminished the stature ofThe King of Queenswith the industry and the press, which is why they didn’t get the recognition. Maybe his series lost out on the accolades because of that, but they didn’t lose out on the fans. Audiences tuned in by the millions for 207 episodes, whether they thought the show was a spinoff or not. It was funny, which was all that mattered to them. Despite the frustration of the spinoff talk over the years, Weithorn acknowledges this, gratefully saying, “The industry didn’t pay any attention to us, but fortunately millions of viewers were paying lots of attention, and have been continuously since 1998. So – no complaints here.”
The King Of Queens
Deliveryman Doug Heffernan has a good life: He has a pretty wife (Carrie), a big television, and friends with which to watch it. Then Carrie’s goofy, annoying father Arthur moves in with them.
Every season ofThe King of Queensis available to watch on Peacock in the U.S.
