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!
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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.
Hi All, King of Queens is the best sitcom ever!!! I love it!! I can’t believe it’s over!! Unfortunately it was not filmed in Queens. The exterior shots of the IPS building in Brooklyn, Coopers tavern in Glendale, Queens, Danny’s and Spences apartment on Queens Blvd. and all the other exterior shots do exist in NYC. The rest is filmed on sound stages and back lots in CA. Even the episodes like the ones where Doug has to help Deacon coach his sons little league football team or Mister Softie Ice Cream Truck Episode… If you not familiar with the topography of Long Island, NY, where Queens and Brooklyn exist.. It is completely flat… the highest point on Long Island is just over 400 feet above sea level (Jaynes Hill). If you watch closely you can see mountains in the background on both episodes.
Episode (Seperation Anxiety) The exterior shot of the Loyola movie theater is not in Queens. It is located at 8610 S. Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. 90045. Unfortunately it is no longer a movie theater it is now being used as a medical office.
Episode (Holy Mackerel) The intersection shot for the fish market that Doug and Carrie frequent is in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It is Bay Ridge Ave. and 4th Ave. looking south towards Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
Episode (Cologne Ranger) The UA Crossbay movie theater that Arthur, Holly, and Spence sneak into is in Queens. It is located at 94-11 Rockaway Blvd., Queens, NY 11417. Unfortunately this is no longer a movie theater. It has become a Modells Sporting Goods store.
I forgot to mention in my last comment that the film crew who shot the exteriors were very clever. They used the same apartment building for both Danny / Spence and Deacon / Kelly. The front exterior facing Queens Blvd. for Danny and Spence. The side exterior facing 63rd Ave. for Deacon and Kelly. It is located at 95-08 Queens Blvd. Queens, NY 11374.
The film crew also took a second exterior shot for Deacon and Kellys apartment. It is located at 109-72nd Ave. Queens, NY. The shot was taken on the corner of Queens Blvd & 72nd Ave.
“the film crew who shot the exteriors were very clever. They used the same apartment building for both Danny / Spence and Deacon / Kelly. The front exterior facing Queens Blvd. for Danny and Spence. The side exterior facing 63rd Ave. for Deacon and Kelly. It is located at 95-08 Queens Blvd. Queens, NY 11374.”
Hahah-I knew it! I live about a half mile from there and was sure that it looked like the same or neighboring buildings.
I noticed that one of the location scenes that is frequently shown is actually in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can see the Verrazano Bridge in the background, and it looks to be around 4th ave looking west. Wonder if anyone can confirm this?
Hi Petey, I believe you hit the nail on the head. I’ve been using google maps, street walk function and that is the only place you can get the same angle. I think they shot the film at the intersection of Marine Ave. and 4th Ave. As you get closer to the Verrazano Bridge you start to lose all the store fronts.
Many of the episodes start out with a static shot of an intersection (Penelope Ave. and 83rd st.) in Middle Village, Queens. This is were you are lead to believe is the location of the Heffernan household. Plus it’s only a couple of miles away from the Lemon Ice King of Corona and the site of the 1964/65 New York Worlds Fair grounds. This can be seen in the opening intro. where Doug and Carrie are rolling around in the grass.
Less than a mile and a half from that intersection of the house is the Queens Center Mall on 59th Ave. and Queens Blvd.(exterior shots). Which is also used as a backdrop during many of the driving scenes that take place.
A few blocks away from the Queens Center Mall is the the apartment building where Danny and Spence lives 63rd Ave. and Queens Blvd. (exterior shots).
Excellent info! The first thing that I wondered as I saw the actual photo of the house.. is that in many of the shows, they show the outside door of a large garage (where Doug has his man cave).. When they show the garage door, it’s a massive door. Unless the giant garage doors are behind the house, I guess that was just one of the images the co-producer who stopped in talked about. LOL!
Also.. take a look at the front steps in the actual photo. The steps go right up to the door and there’s no seating area. In a few of the episodes, they show a small front porch area. One of the episodes even starts out with Doug sitting on the front porch, then Carrie coming out & also sitting there. When they witness a drug deal going down, they run inside. 😀
Loved that show! 🙂
Here’s the episode that I’m talking about (where it shows a small porch on the front of the house)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLSzkwLpPww
PS~ Your website is awesome! 😀
Hi Hockeypuck,
Most of the show is filmed at Sony Pictures Studios – 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California. According to IMDB all of the exterior shots of the Heffernan house in New Jersey are stock footage originally filmed for Sibs seven years before King of Queens was filmed. The house and backyard with garage doors you mentioned is a sound stage. When they are in the backyard check out the phony background it’s a backdrop.
Thanks for the information, Lindsay. If anyone is interested, “The wonder years” house is known too, just search the web. It’s in Burbank Ca
yo, know it was a few years ago but great effort on finding the heffernan house. I live on the Isle of Wight in England, i live for this show, without fail ill watch an episode or ten everyday. Am in NY for 5 nights in march 2012, staying in times square. whats the travelling like from NY to the house and NY to Queens? any info on other locations to check out. Pretty sweet getting a comment from Michael Weithorn, great show Mike!
Hey burchy – Queens is just a short NYC subway ride from Manhattan, pretty safe and easy. You can get to Cliffside Park, NJ by bus or rail using NJ Transit from the Port Authority or Penn Station in Manhattan:
http://www.njtransit.com/hp/hp_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=HomePageTo
This has to be the most satisfying post in LIFE!!! I can’t WAIT until my next visit to New Jersey! That is a disclaimer to Maritza. Hubby and I will be there!
Now I must find the IPS building!Whose with me?
Crystal, the IPS building is at approximately 5487 Foster Ave. in Brooklyn. It’s at the E. 55th St. intersection, near Kings Highway.
Dear Lindsay, Thanks for posting this. KoQ is our favorite sitcome…I bought the box set through ebay ’cause they didn’t sell the Season in Canada. Anyways, I was wondering if you know about the restaurant they always go eat at the same table. I was wondering if that a set film or a real location in Queens. Going to NY in 2011 and planning on visiting the house, thanks again
Hi Lynn,
Unfortunately, the restaurant was just a set that was built on the Sony lot. But I believe the exterior of it was Cooper’s Ale House in Glendale, NY, althought it is now called Yer Man’s Irish Pub. http://www.yelp.com/biz/yer-mans-irish-pub-glendale
Happy Stalking! 🙂
– Lindsay
Hi, I’m Michael Weithorn, the co-creator of The King of Queens. Fascinating to stumble across this article and the other comments as well. For whatever interest this may be to anyone — when we were editing the pilot episode, we needed to place an “establishing shot” of the Heffernan house in several spots, but because we were just a pilot at the time we didn’t have the budget to go shoot our own, so our editor just found some things in the Sony stock footage library. A few physical things mismatched the set we had built and shot the pilot on, but I figured that this didn’t matter for the pilot — if we got ordered to series, then we could go shoot a house that matched better. But by the time we did get picked up for the first season, I had grown attached to the look and feel of the house in that original shot, and decided to stay with it, mismatches and all. But until now I never knew where the actual house was located. So this has been an education for me as well.
Wow! Thank you so much for posting a comment, Michael! It was fascintating to read the history behind how you came to choose the house. I’m glad you now know where it is located! 🙂
hey michael im actually glad u created this series becuase king of queens is an inspiration if you get me cos (doug) he is a bit overweight but still i like him he is the best actor living and he makes jokes bout his weight this kid at my highschool we r in yr 10 and for 4 yrs he has been upset that he is over weight so i took him to mine and put on king of queens and carrie sed summit to him like “fat doug wuld never do this to me”and he replied “fat doug is a little harsh lets go with fd ” and he started to enjoy this series after 6 weeks hols in yr 9 he was a new boy someone sed hey fatty he replied hey stick and he is like now blending in our group the bottom line is its the best sitcom there is and if i won the lottery i wuld make one last series with the heffernans thank you for reading this has helped people 😛
Love this show so much…Complete box set. I love how Carrie loves her Dad. I take care of my elderly dad as well and work in a office and my husband drives truck… see the similarity. Well wriiten show I can watch with my kids and grandchildren….Thanks.
someone knows where is the other houses from king of queens? spencer home, deacon home and doug work?
As someone else from Queens posted above, Spencer and Deacon’s places are right in the same area. They are on Queens Blvd and 63rd ave across from 62nd drive. It’s the same building but one shot from the front and the other from the side. It is not in Lefrak City, about a half mile/mile from LC. I live a half mile from there. Though the “Heffernan house” wasn’t in that area, there’s a lot of houses that look like similar. One of the shots was 83rd and Penelope and that area looks similar but the house is obviously not there because Lindsay here took a picture in front of it and it’s in Jersey… Hahah, we actually walked around that area this weekend trying to find the house.
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!
Wow – That’s great! How lucky are you!? Like everyone else here, King of Queens is my favorite sitcom, ever. It would be cool if you could post a few interior photos of your house (without exposing your privacy too much), or maybe a few of the outside or the back, showing different angles, because everyone has really only ever seen just one shot of that house. Ah, but maybe that would ruin some of the mystery and the magic..lol. Thanks for posting here. Your insight as the homeowner was fun to read.
Floorplan would be interesting
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,
Yes the 90210 house is real. 🙂 You can see it here – https://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.
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! 🙂