Letters to the Editor
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Why KoQ Lasted
Excellent review, Sarah. I'm a King of Queens fan myself, and I agree with what you said about the show. I was surprised to find out that in all the years it's been on, the show never won a single Emmy or People's Choice Award. Unusual for a show that lasted this long, no?
KofQ has never been historic appointment television, but it's always been competant - the Tim Meadows of sitcoms, if you will. A basic premise expertly executed by talented writers and actors. How much more do you really need?
Also, the eternal hotness of Leah Remini is one reason I still check out reruns. I've always suspected she's too "ethnic" to register as mainstream eye candy, but she's as beautiful and talented as any recent sitcom actress.
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This show was garbage to begin with and
symptomatic of why dipshits Americans voted GW in for 2 consecutive terms and why great shows like Arrested Development, which actually is intelligent, don't last. Most of America is too fucking stupid to get anything but jingoistic, propagandistic bullshit that fills their head with more crap.
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KoQ - Underappreciated during its time
I am also a fan of this show. I started watching late...around the 2nd season when I found out that my college classmate Victor Williams was on the show.
I was hooked. Doug and Carrie are full of flaws and freakin' hilarious. I think a better description for Carrie is "wanna-be sophisticate" but she can't escape that Queens accent or attitude.
I think Leah Remini's character is a rare one where a female character is fully developed. She's not just Doug's wife, she's debating motherhood, she's a career-woman, she doesn't have many friends and the ones she has even gets on her nerves...Carrie is ballsy, vulnerable, funny, honest, shady, corrupt, mean, nice, selfish, giving all at the same time. There is no other female character on television that gets to show and actually voice that type of range. And she did it so well.
As for Arthur....what can I say...he's the cherry on top. Just genius.
What a great cast and a truly funny, funny show. It's a shame these guys never got the accolades they deserved.
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It can never be said too much (apparently) that Dumbya was never elected to the presidency even once.
And that kind of wraps up KoQ; it's one of those shows which, while perfectly solid if not solidly perfect, brings out the bile in pretentious people who really don't have a clue.
I enjoyed the finale, too. Good for them and good for us. If the last six years have shown us anything, it's that there are worse things than less-than-perfect sitcoms.
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All true, but...
I still think Roseanne was a better show, and better written. I just caught a couple of episodes during a weekend matinee, and was reminded again why it was so good.
And I watched KofQ last night, though I'm not a regular viewer of it during any current season, just the occasional episode in syndication. It was funny enough, but there was a feeling of desperation about it, too. I suppose that could be because of the story lines, but it seemed more than that to me.
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P.S....
How about a column mourning the loss of well-written sitcoms of any type? I think they're pretty much done, for now...
and what do we get in return? A bunch of lousy "reality" shows, game shows, and a plethora of "branded" multi-night, police dramas.
I know I'm not the target demographic, but still...
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Eh
For me, this show has always been just another one of those "fat man, skinny hot woman" shows that irritate me to no end, because they have no counterparts. I'd love to see a sitcom starring Camryn Manheim and Matthew McConaughey... a pairing no less ludicrous than this one, or than Jim Belushi and whatsername, or even Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton. Grr!
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While I didn't like the show....
I have to mourn the loss of any scripted show.
scrapping a scripted show and replacing it with reality TV is the same as outsourcing labor. 15 writers? Out of work. 6 actors with a possibility of rotating upwards of 100-200 more throughout a show's lifetime? out of work. Say what you want about exhorbitant actor salaries for principle characters, but most of the "rotators" (you know, folks that when you see on TV, you say, "Hey! It's That Guy!") make less than a tenth of that, and NEED scripted shows to keep the roof over their head. When you watch reality TV, you put someone out of a job. It's like a UAW worker buying a German car.
The flip side is all the sitcoms were the same. Dumpy, stupid guy, hot wife. Guy does stupid stuff. Wife chastizes him, but loves him in the end. because KoQ spun it differently is EXACTLY why it never won any awards, and the incessantly whiny Everybody Loves Raymond or the incredibly banal World According to Jim did. (Jim, we were promised that you'd be as good as John, they lied.) Hell, it's been that way since The Dick Van Dyke show. At least early sitcoms were well written. Now it's a race to the lowest common denominator. A race to lower the level of the status quo.
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Sorry, Anonymous
If he wasn]'t elected then why is he sitting in the fucking oval office, you dimwit. I don't want him their either but you sound like one of those fools who think our government burned the World Trade Center and jets had nothing to do with it.
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Television Overload
Why is there so much coverage of television in Salon? TV articles outnumber articles about film, music, or books (and lets not even try for theater or art) by a large margin. Bring back artist interviews, real art coverage. I like TV, too but enough already!
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No need to apologize, Ben Dover, just pay attention to the world instead.
That's like asking if Dumbya isn't qualified to be President, then why is he? Or if a successful thief didn't earn his money honestly, then why is he rich?
He's sitting in the Oval Office through a combination of interference by Republicans on the Supreme Court and other election fraud including massive voter deletion, intimidation, various other forms of voter suppression, and the collusion of corporate and state and federal government officials. This isn't a secret. It was all done out in the open and it's all documented.
Before you cast stones at the lower folk who chuckle at a harmless sitcom, you might want to get your facts straight. Or at least come up with a different holier-than-thou put-down. Perhaps you could use some of the time you spend obsessing over 9/11?