The King of Queens House
Oct 30th, 2009 | By Lindsay | Category: TV Locations
As mentioned in Wednesday’s post, I have many stalking adventures to share from the day my fiancé and I spent with fellow stalker Owen in New York City, including one that actually led us off the island of Manhattan and into the Garden State, aka New Jersey. In all of my many trips to the Big Apple, I have only actually been off the island once and even then I only ventured as far as Brooklyn. So, leaving Manhattan to head to an entirely different state was quite the stalking endeavor for me! The location that led us to such uncharted territory, you ask? The home where the Heffernans lived in the Kevin James/Leah Remini sitcom The King of Queens. Owen had actually tracked down this location back in August, after what he described as “the longest, most headache-inducing search for a location that I’ve been through”. LOL Oh, I’ve so been there!!! 
Owen’s quest for The King of Queens house actually began ordinarily enough, with him contacting numerous people who had worked on the series, from production designers all the way up to the Vice President of Sony’s Media Relations! Not kidding! Unfortunately, they all came back with the exact same answer – they had absolutely no idea where the Heffernan house was located. Owen certainly had his work cut out for him on this one. I mean, if a production staff doesn’t even know where one of their filming sites is located, how are any of us stalkers ever supposed to find it??? One of the crew members did remember one pertinent piece of information, though. He said that the establishing shots of The King of Queens house which were used throughout the series nine year run had been found in the Columbia Television (now Sony) Stock Footage Library shortly before the pilot first aired. No one on The King of Queens staff knew who had taken the footage or what production it was originally used for and in the nine season run of the show, no one had ever come forward to claim the house as theirs.
For those not familiar with Hollywood lingo, stock footage, or archive footage as it is sometimes called, is basically a video image of a location that is not taken for a specific production, but is instead cataloged in a studio’s stock footage library to be used on an as-needed basis. Footage that has actually been used in a specific production can also very well wind up in a stock footage library. Using stock images ends up to be much cheaper for a production than actually sending a crew out to shoot establishing shots of each different locale needed for a particular show or movie. So, in essence, footage originally shot for, oh say, a car commercial, may wind up being used regularly on a hit television series almost a decade later. Which is pretty much exactly what happened with The King of Queens house. Anyway, once Owen found out that the images of the Heffernan house had been procured from the Sony Library, he went through the painstaking task of searching through all of Sony’s archives until he came across the right video. But, amazingly enough, his quest didn’t end there! All Owen was able to gather from locating the footage of the Heffernan house was that it had originally been shot in 1991 for use in a production entitled SIBS II. Because he had never heard of SIBS II and because that production is not listed in the IMDB database, thought his search may have suddenly hit a brick wall. Until an idea struck him. Owen decided to rifle through some of the other stock footage that had been taken for the mysterious SIBS II production and eventually stumbled across this video, in which a clapboard with two crewmember’s names written on it was visible in the opening frames. Employing a bit of internet savvy, Owen somehow managed to track down one of the crewmembers listed and sent him an email asking if he remembered the location of the Heffernan house. Here is the crew member’s response, “You should work for the FBI. I’d be delighted to answer your question, if I can find the info. But hopefully you’ll be kind enough to answer mine: How in the hell did you find me?” LOL LOL LOL
The shocked crew member said he had the address of the house written down in one of his files and promised to dig through them to find it. As promised, just a few days later he emailed Owen with an address, FINALLY putting to rest the mystery of the Heffernan house location! And because Owen knew that I would be coming to New York just a few weeks after he had received the address, he promised to wait to stalk the house until I arrived. YAY! So, on October 2nd, Owen, my fiancé, and I ventured across the Hudson River to do some King of Queens stalking. And, let me tell you, seeing the Heffernan house in person was extremely exciting, especially considering the long road that got us there!
A big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location and for waiting to stalk it until I could join him!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The King of Queens house is located at 519 Longview Avenue in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. If you plan to take a cab ride from Manhattan to the Heffernan house, be forewarned, even though it is only about a ten mile ride, it will cost you upwards of $45! Not kidding!!!! I would suggest taking a bus there instead, as it is the much cheaper option.
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someone knows where is the other houses from king of queens? spencer home, deacon home and doug work?
Yeah, this is the house they used for the shots, but they actually didnt use this house for shooting. If you remember, in one episode when the guy with the ye patch had the wait outside, on thanksgiving dinner night, doug closes the blinds on the LEFT of the door (from the inside), and as u can see there is only a window on the right. Also, when theyre all on the porch, the porch is much bigger in the show.
Awesome find though
Travis…they didn’t use a house for the filming….they used a set. Shows don’t use houses for filming…
I’m curious..where was the bldg Doug worked? We always crack up because every time they show the bldg the same car is parked in front…which means that shot has been used over and over and over….
Hi to all. I have lived in this house with my family for the last five years so it’s very exciting to read all this online and see pictures of the house! Right down to our cars (Black Land Rover and Silver Volvo).
When we bought the house we did not know. We had watched the show a few times but it did not register any memories when we first looked at the house. Perhaps because the inside of the house does not look anything like the set used in the show. But we loved the house so we went for it. When we moved our neighbors told us this was the house used on the show the King of Queens and we were like “REALLY?” So that Monday night, 5 years ago, we watched the show. We saw the house! It was awesome and I remember we laughed so much during that particular show but there may been a bit of pride of ownership mixed in those laughs. I also became a fan of the show and watched it regularly and still do.
I am not sure if the previous owners were ever paid, not sure how those things work. We never did!
The only change we made to the front is to take out the cherry tree because the roots were getting unruly. We planted some bushes instead. Otherwise, it’s the same house.
BTW, that is correct, right around the corner of our house is the house used in the movie Big with Tom Hanks and Elizabeth Perkins. We watched the movie again and recognized our block, our kid’s school, the park, etc.
All in all, Cliffside Park is a small, culturally diverse, great community, minutes to NYC and we are happy to live here. Thanks for the posts!
Maritza
WoW you should be the luckiest person ever, King of Queens is my favourite show of all time and I’m still watching it. It’s kinda my dream to see the house in person let alone living in it.
I live in Canada and am planning to come all the way to New Jersey just to see this house in person, don’t be freaked out if you see stranger taking picture with your house, lol
LOL! No worries! My neighbors tell us that people stop by to take pics all the time while we are at work!
Lindsay,
I have to say that I usually don’t read blogs, but after this, I’ll make an exception lol. My initial intent was to simply find a picture on Google images, but this was a pretty good story ! If it’s alright, I was wondering if I could get your email, because you seem pretty educated on stalking houses and if you could let me know where the original 90210 house is located or is it simply fiction.
Regards,
Vu
My email is :
whoisluuman@yahoo.com
Hi Vu,
You can see it here – http://www.iamnotastalker.com/2008/11/26/casa-walsh/ If you want to see my other 90210 posts, just put “90210″ in the toolbox that is located in the upper right hand corner of my site.
,
Yes the 90210 house is real.
Happy Stalking
Lindsay
This is the house across from my grandma’s. I know the man who lives there
Wow! I’ve got to give you guys kudos for going through ALL THAT WORK!! I just had to laugh when reading that process…seriously, WOW! haha! Awhile back I tried to stalk out the Heffernan house and obviously had no luck and now I know why. Seriously, big thank you for finding it!