Heffernan on the Heffernans

Kudos to NY Times TV scribe Virginia Heffernan for her valentine to The King of Queens today. I also think the CBS comedy is far more clever than people give it credit for, and I’ll also miss it when it goes on hiatus until spring, then off the air for good thereafter. (Of course, you can catch King just about any waking moment of the day in syndication.)

On the give-and-take dynamic between Carrie and Doug Heffernan (uh, no relation to her, discloses Virginia Heffernan), she writes: “This checkers match to maturity keeps jokes on tap, and it’s a reminder of why comedies set among average Joes, who detect a wider range of mockable pretensions, are more durable than “hip” comedies…Also, the imperative to stasis—not to budge from the couch, the family, the buddies, the neighborhood—is just funny, and clearly of a piece with the ambition-free practice of television watching.”

Well said, Heff.

By Michael Malone