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» » The King of Queens Apartment Complex (1998–2007)

Short summary

Doug and his friends get an apartment above a Chinese restaurant in order to be away from the women in their lives. Carrie takes on Kirstie Alley as a client but soon finds out she has to be a designated "eater": for her. After a botched delivery by Doug (who takes on a job at the restaurant to pay the rent) Carrie finds out about the apartment.

Kirstie Alley appears as herself in this episode, a client Carrie (Leah Remini) works for. Kirstie and Leah previously worked together on "Cheers" in 1991, and again in 1993 when Leah played Serafina, the daughter of Carla Maria Victoria Angelina Teresa Apollonia Lozupone Tortelli LeBec and Nick Tortelli, Carla's ex husband.

Actress, April Hong, the waitress in the Chinese restaurant, is the real-life daughter of the owner of the restaurant/ landlord of the building, legendary character actor/ voice over artist, James Hong.

At the time this aired, both Leah Remini and Kirstie Alley were Scientologists.

Actor, James Hong, Doug's new landlord, and owner of the Chinese Restaurant that Doug works in part-time as a cook/delivery driver, was the maitre'd in the legendary Seinfeld episode, "The Chinese Restaurant."

User reviews


  • comment
    • Author: Cenneel
    I found this episode really funny, as there was a new scene. Carrie needs the house to work, so Doug and the guys go out to a Chinese restaurant and find a flat on top to play their games. They share the payments.....and then it gets funny. I found this the funniest episode in the whole series because it actually made me 'laugh'. The others were all good, but not really funny. Its quite different from 'friends' where almost every line is hilarious. Though, i think this episode is right at the top with friends...... The inclusion of a Chinese restaurant was good, and i allover give it an 8 out of 10. Also in this episode, Carrie met Kirstie Allie which was i think a surprise to the whole sitcom.
  • comment
    • Author: Tegore
    This episode had me dropping my jaw--unable to believe this absurd plot.

    First, Doug and his buddies want to play some poker in the dining area of his house. For some reason, Carrie has decided her office upstairs is no good and has papers spread out for work on the table.

    The guys come in while she is upstairs and just take all her stuff and move it. Really? They could see she had several stacks of papers spread out like she was in the middle of something. Now I could believe these guys being that rude, but in real life, this behavior is not what most people would do.

    So Carrie comes down, kicks them out (no mention of why she isn't just using the room dedicated to her doing work) so they decide to just go out to a Chinese restaurant together. They did explain why none of the other guys could host a poker game, but they did not say anything about why they didn't just move their game to the garage where Doug has his "man cave" all set up.

    At the restaurant, they see a sign for an apartment and agree that it was worthwhile to spend $200 apiece for this $800 a month apartment--just to play their occasional poker game. (Just wait, the realism bubble gets stretched much farther.) Now I think if they were wealthy businessmen they would have had enough sense to know they were wasting their money. There are all types of more affordable options, even in Queens. But as fairly lowly-paid men, the affordability makes this part of the story just unbelievable. In Doug's case, we know Carrie pays the bills, so how is he going to get around letting her know about this $200 per month that is disappearing? They "move in" and meet often for poker and build a wall of containers from the restaurant, happy to have food delivered regularly. (As though this is a difficult thing to do in the city? I think there are lots of places that deliver anywhere around there.) Then they get bored and give up the apartment. Except Doug decides to keep it for himself. He brings in more things and starts hanging out there all by himself. It is explained only near the ending that he worked out a deal with the landlord, the owner of the Chinese restaurant, to work for him to pay for the apartment. This is so we see him spending time delivering things for the restaurant, and, somehow, working in the kitchen.

    Of course, Carrie finds out and this is what we were building for--him trying to hide from her and then they get into a fight about the stupidity of the whole thing. They were right--it was stupid.

    I just couldn't accept that this guy who works 40+ hours per week, has a home and a wife he wants to spend time with, has so much time leftover that he wants to have a separate apartment so he can do all the same things he does at home, only without his wife and father-in-law around. I get that Arthur mostly annoys him, but then again, Arthur is mostly in his basement room or at the senior center. Carrie lets him do what he wants at home.

    How does he have time to work for the restaurant enough to pay for an $800 apartment? That's got to be at least 20 hours a week at a second job? It seems he would have no time to be at home and no time for the guys--no time for fun.

    The one scene I found amusing was when he tried to hide from Carrie when she spotted him in the restaurant. The other scenes of him and the guys in the apartment were just vignettes seeing what they do--there was nothing funny about it.

    The whole thing was ridiculous, even for this series of far-fetched characters.

    I thought it one of the least funny episodes of the series.
  • Episode cast overview:
    Kevin James Kevin James - Doug Heffernan
    Leah Remini Leah Remini - Carrie Heffernan
    Victor Williams Victor Williams - Deacon Palmer
    Patton Oswalt Patton Oswalt - Spence Olchin
    Gary Valentine Gary Valentine - Danny Heffernan
    Jerry Stiller Jerry Stiller - Arthur Spooner
    Kirstie Alley Kirstie Alley - Kirstie Alley
    James Hong James Hong - Mr. Soo
    Lucille Soong Lucille Soong - Lili
    Juan Carlos Cantu Juan Carlos Cantu - Hector
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