Donkey God

A spin-off of the popular TV series Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens first hit the airwaves in the Fall of 1998. The show follows the life of Doug Heffernan (played by comedian Kevin James), a package delivery man for IPS (far different from UPS for you litigious-minded readers out there), and the show utilizes much of the same marital and relationship humor found in Ray Romano’s blockbuster sitcom. With seven successful seasons under its belt, and even more yet to come, King of Queens is a hilarious comedy series well worth one’s time and attention…

King of Queens revolves around the life of Doug Heffernan, a hard-working, sports-loving parcel delivery man living in Queens, New York. In his thirties, and married to a lovely woman named Carrie (Leah Remini - who played Carla’s daughter on the hit show Cheers), Doug spends most of his non-working hours basking in the glow of his state-of-the-art 70-inch TV with two buddies who share his fanatical love of sports, Spence (Patton Oswalt) and Deacon (Victor Williams). But Doug’s personal paradise suffers a devastating blow when Carrie’s widowed father Arthur (Jerry Stiller of Seinfeld fame) moves in with the couple. Doug’s TV fantasy room is converted into an in-law suite, and after several failed relocation attempts, the TV is pushed into the garage… Now Doug and Carrie must learn to share their palace with an eccentric, and oftentimes annoying, father/father-in-law with a penchant for messing up the couple’s well-grounded routine…

The King of Queens (Season 3) DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the season premiere “Do Rico” in which Doug begins imitating the accent of the new guy at work, Rico, because it turns Carrie on in the bedroom. But when Doug begins to grow jealous thinking Carrie wants Rico, Carrie turns the tables on him by imitating the Italian accent of Rico’s girlfriend Francesca. Meanwhile, Arthur is on a personal quest to find someone to inscribe his wisdom in a tome for the ages… Other notable episodes from Season 3 include “Fatty McButterpants” in which Doug becomes self-conscious of his weight when he learns that Carrie has been buying his clothes from the “Big and Tall” shop, and “Hi Def-Jam” in which Doug and friends conspire to watch the Super Bowl on the high-definition TV at Carrie’s boss’s house…

Below is a list of episodes included on the King of Queens (Season 3) DVD:

Episode 51 (Do Rico) Air Date: 10-02-2000
Episode 52 (Roast Chicken) Air Date: 10-09-2000
Episode 53 (Fatty McButterpants) Air Date: 10-16-2000
Episode 54 (Class Struggle) Air Date: 10-23-2000
Episode 55 (Strike One) Air Date: 10-30-2000
Episode 56 (Strike Too) Air Date: 11-06-2000
Episode 57 (Strike Out) Air Date: 11-13-2000
Episode 58 (Dark Meet) Air Date: 11-20-2000
Episode 59 (Twisted Sitters) Air Date: 11-27-2000
Episode 60 (Work Related) Air Date: 12-04-2000
Episode 61 (Better Camera) Air Date: 12-11-2000
Episode 62 (Wedding Presence) Air Date: 01-08-2001
Episode 63 (Hi Def-Jam) Air Date: 01-29-2001
Episode 64 (Paint Misbehavin’) Air Date: 02-05-2001
Episode 65 (Deacon Blues) Air Date: 02-12-2001
Episode 66 (Horizontal Hold) Air Date: 02-19-2001
Episode 67 (Inner Tube) Air Date: 02-26-2001
Episode 68 (Papa Pill) Air Date: 03-19-2001
Episode 69 (Package Deal) Air Date: 04-09-2001
Episode 70 (Separation Anxiety) Air Date: 04-16-2001
Episode 71 (Departure Time) Air Date: 04-20-2001
Episode 72 (Swim Neighbors) Air Date: 05-07-2001
Episode 73 (S’no Job) Air Date: 05-14-2001
Episode 74 (Pregnant Pause: Part 1) Air Date: 05-21-2001
Episode 75 (Pregnant Pause: Part 2) Air Date: 05-21-2001

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of The King Of Queens (Season 3) DVD.

Nominated for 17 Emmys in its short four-year run, Soap premiered in the Fall of 1977 as one of the most controversial shows in American television history (and all before a single episode ever aired). The show was opposed by many groups who thought its subject matter would be too mature for a prime-time audience. But Soap never overstepped its bounds, and the show became an instant smash hit with its brilliant and satirical spoofs of classic daytime programming. Sporting an all-star cast and talented producers, the show spawned successful spin-off Benson in 1979, a series that launched Robert Guillaume’s career to a whole new level…

Set in suburban Connecticut, Soap follows the lives of two sisters - Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond), a wealthy yet dim elitist, and Mary Campbell (Cathryn Damon), a housewife in a more traditional blue-collar atmosphere. But regardless of their social station in life, neither woman manages to escape the scandal and intrigue surrounding a typical soap opera family. Jessica’s daughter Corrine (Diana Canova) is smitten with a priest, yet they are both having an affair with the same tennis pro. Meanwhile, Jessica and her husband Chester (Robert Mandan) incessantly cheat on one another. As for the other side of the family, Mary’s husband Burt (Richard Mulligan) is certifiably insane, her son Danny (Ted Wass) is a mobster, stepson Jodie (Billy Crystal) is an out-of-the-closet homosexual, and all of them are caught up in a family filled with promiscuous infidelities and quite possibly murder! Throw in the insubordinate and sarcastic Tate butler Benson (Guillaume), and Soap holds its own as one of the funniest sitcoms in TV history…

The Soap DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the series premiere in which the audience learns the background of the two differing, yet similar, families. Jessica overhears Chester making plans to meet his mistress just before she meets her own lover, a local tennis pro named Peter. Jessica leaves Peter just before Corinne arrives for a lesson of her own… Meanwhile, the Campbells are beset by a rift between Danny and Burt, and Burt reveals to Mary that his inability to perform in the bedroom is a result of guilt from having killed her first husband… Other notable episodes from Season 1 include Episode 4 in which Jessica and Corrine encounter each other in Peter’s apartment, and Episode 25 in which Charles Lefkowitz (Sorrell Booke of Dukes of Hazzard fame) orders Danny to marry Elaine or else he will kill the entire Campbell family…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Soap (Season 1) DVD:

Episode 1 (Episode 1) Air Date: 09-13-1977
Episode 2 (Episode 2) Air Date: 09-20-1977
Episode 3 (Episode 3) Air Date: 09-27-1977
Episode 4 (Episode 4) Air Date: 10-04-1977
Episode 5 (Episode 5) Air Date: 10-04-1977
Episode 6 (Episode 6) Air Date: 10-25-1977
Episode 7 (Episode 7) Air Date: 11-01-1977
Episode 8 (Episode Air Date: 11-08-1977
Episode 9 (Episode 9) Air Date: 11-15-1977
Episode 10 (Episode 10) Air Date: 11-22-1977
Episode 11 (Episode 11) Air Date: 11-29-1977
Episode 12 (Episode 12) Air Date: 12-06-1977
Episode 13 (Episode 13) Air Date: 12-13-1977
Episode 14 (Episode 14) Air Date: 12-27-1977
Episode 15 (Episode 15) Air Date: 01-03-1978
Episode 16 (Episode 16) Air Date: 01-10-1978
Episode 17 (Episode 17) Air Date: 01-17-1978
Episode 18 (Episode 18) Air Date: 01-24-1978
Episode 19 (Episode 19) Air Date: 02-07-1978
Episode 20 (Episode 20) Air Date: 02-14-1978
Episode 21 (Episode 21) Air Date: 02-21-1978
Episode 22 (Episode 22) Air Date: 02-28-1978
Episode 23 (Episode 23) Air Date: 03-14-1978
Episode 24 (Episode 24) Air Date: 03-21-1978
Episode 25 (Episode 25) Air Date: 03-28-1978

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Soap (DVD).

In our part of Idaho, we watch the first half of Leno and then the first half of Letterman. Then we go to bed unless Letterman is interviewing Genghis Kahn.

Both shows start with a monologue. Leno’s monologue drags on. Letterman’s is very short. Both use jokes that are repetitive and silly. Leno favors celebrity jokes over squirrels, rats, and nuts. I’ve never figured why they repeat jokes. They also use each other’s jokes, perhaps slightly modified. If either ever told a very funny joke, that might wake the audience.

While Leno is reading his crazy ads or wedding announcements and Letterman is playing Name Your Cuts of Meat we need something to do. Here are some suggestions:

Stop holding it. Go to the bathroom.

Read your copy of War and Peace.

Go to the kitchen and make that liverwurst and onion sandwich you’ve been craving.

Write a letter to President Bush praising his wit and competence.

Memorize the Gettysburg Address (Not Lincoln’s, the two-hour one given by the guy that spoke before Lincoln. His name was Edward Everett. You can find the beginning and ending paragraphs at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address#Program_and_Everett.27s_.22Gettysburg_Oration.22. After that, you are on your own.)

Build a large ship in a bottle fetched from your office water cooler. (Hint: Cut the bottom off the bottle; slip the ship in when no one is looking, glue the bottom back on.)

Call your Aunt Mildred in Cincinnati. Tell her you think about her all the time and that you love her and that you just love the hat she knitted and gave to you for Christmas in 1984. (If a stranger answers, your Aunt probably died in 1985, especially if you didn’t get a pair of knitted gloves for Christmas in 1985.)

Make a pass at your spouse. If he or she won’t wake up, get a Popsicle® from the refrigerator.

Run down to the drugstore and buy a Snickers® bar with almonds. (Okay, buy two.)

Put your television on Mute. Listen to your Elvis Presley 8-track tapes.

Go to sleep. When the television plays the National Anthem and the screen goes white, turn it off and go back to sleep.

The End

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine, Jones is Executive Representative of International Wealth Success. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS wealth-success books and kits and business newsletters / TopFlight flagpoles)