Shark Bytes

I loved it because it was so corny, and growing up in Southern Ontario, i was amazed that I saw local content on TV. To those of you who are b*tching that Al is talking on the phone while the operator is talking, and you think he should be listening? Well, if you pay ATTENTION, destiny is calling him, and the operator is saying the line is STILL busy (King is talking). Whadda Guy!

Possibly the worst Canadian TV comedy show ever made.

Never a great show, it was nonetheless something i enjoyed WAY back when...until they Brought in Jayne Eastwood and made Larry an athletic director of a youth centre. (Right, "Hey kids, get fit like ME!")
For some reason, they decided that rather than have "King" marry his sweet GF Tina ( And have the show go back to its old format, but with a new wife ), that he should dump her without even a given reason and change the show COMPLETELY......Good call boys NOT!!!!!!!!!

okay show, until that episode where he gets set up on a blind date with an overweight woman and decides he'd rather not be seen with her and spends the rest of the night trying to get away from her. hello, did this man not own a mirror?! he was no slim jim himself. guess he's not such a king after all. i couldn't take the show seriously after that.

Filmed in Toronto? Yes. Legendary? Not quite.

While it had its moments, I don't think the show truly picked up until the addition of Gwen Twining. Which happened to be in the last season. Go figure. Jayne Eastwood is most certainly not Canada's answer to Ted McGinley! At least we got some snappy, smart-assed and truly funny one liners out of her. I almost want to say this show did a reverse jump.

Adding to everyone else's opening credits complaints: My only problem with them would be the fact that they eventually ended with our clearly oh-so-humble hero grinning and going "What a guy!"

Retch. I kept hoping the basketball thrown at him would some day catch him off guard and smack him in the face, but alas, 'twas never the case.

Just a quick correction to KABLAAAM's comment. The operator's line in the opening sequence (voiced by Air Farce's Luba Goy, if I'm not mistaken) says, "I'm sorry. That line is still busy." The footage of King talking on the phone makes a little more sense now, doesn't it? A great show? No, but it was entertaining when I was 12 years old. Any view of the Big Smoke is exciting when you live in the wilderness, even if that view is inaccurate.

When the pilot for this show was being shot in the summer of 75 I happened to be walking through Kensington market where they were shooting the closing scene for the show and was asked to do a walk by. I was only 10 at the time and didn't know what was going on until one of the crew members told me the name of the show. I personally don't think the show jumped as it portrayed the everyday lives of people in the Kensington community, it didn't make life seem more glorified than it really was .I guess you had to live there at the time to get the feel of the show.

I believe that 'The King of Kensington' came close to jumping the shark on the episode where King's lady friend Tina (Rosemary Radcliffe) reported being robbed by a purse snatcher. The writers unfairly portrayed the Toronto cop who responded to the robbery as a BLITHERING IDIOT!

Unlike one of the submissions that clearly had no sense of reality re. The King of Kensington, I do believe this show was reasonable piece of entertainment along the lines of traditional U.S. sitcoms. It had a very memorable opening theme (contrary to the other submission in this section) and a strong cast. Larry's divorce and move to work at the Youth Centre really changed the program. As someone who frequents the real Kensington Market, the store setting made the most sense. It's just too bad Ted McGinley wasn't brought in as Larry King's long lost cousin or something. He would have been great helping Larry restock the store shelves.

This was a good Canadian sitcom. Which places it in the same rare company as a straight Liza Minelli fan. Yes, the jokes are often lame and the plots predictable, but KOK did achieve a long run on the CBC, and that is impressive for a sitcom. But, when Fiona Reid left the show, the program went the way of every other sitcom when they need to replace a key character. Instead of having Larry King go back to associating with his pals, they tried to turn him into a ladies man. Uh.....Al Waxman was not a ladies man. What made the show popular was that he was an everyman, who had everyman friends, in an ethnic part of Toronto. His wife was not particularly beautiful (Sorry Fiona), but he loved her. Once Larry King starts dating hot chicks, this premise is shot! Look at tv these days...how many sitcoms, almost all on CBS, have fat, dumpy everymen with ultra hot wives? TOO MANY! KOK at least portrayed real people. That's why it stunk when Larry got divorced. As far as Al Waxman, he was good in the role of Larry King, but in person he was a complete jerk. As an intern working for YTV back in the early 90's, I had the misfortune of having to work with Waxman. He was rude, arrogant, and intolerant of everyone. He wouldn't even discuss King Of Kensington. He'd talk about Cagney and Lacey until your face turned blue, but tell him how much KOK meant to you, and you got the cold shoulder. It shot to hell my naive days of thinking tv stars were nice people like the characters they portrayed.

Definitely jumped when Fiona Reid left the show at the end of season 3. The focus of the show changed from the convenience store to a community centre, and they brought in the requisite New Love Interest. But what really sunk the show was the introduction to the cast of Canada's answer to Ted McGinley: Jayne Eastwood.

"King of Kensington" isn't well-known in the US (though I believe there was a very brief syndie run), but I remember seeing this show in reruns when I visited Toronto in '81. It was sort of the Canadian answer to Norman Lear-type shows, but with a nice-guy tone and characters. Kensington was Toronto's old produce-market district- Jewish, Jamaican, Portuguese, Polish, and a million other kinds. "King" (first name Larry, just like you-know-who) was that great and colorful character actor, and proud Torontonian, Al Waxman. Though I only saw it once, I have to put it under "Never Jumped" because my oldest friend, the late Canadian sportscaster Daryl Wells, loved it and was also very friendly with the Waxmans. (Al's wife was the restaurant critic for one of the Toronto papers.) In fact, I think Daryl even guested on one episode as himself. So if it was good enough to attract Daryl Wells, that's good enough of an endorsement for me!

This show for most of its five year run was very entertaining. It also had some special guest stars eg. Eddie Shack. For those who don't remember him. He was a very popular Toronto Maple Leaf back in the seventies. This show did jump when Larry and Cathy divorced for no reason. It's true I have seen reruns and one episode she wants to leave him. He asks why and she replies I don't know. I think if they were going to divorce they should have had some arguments for a few shows which would lead up to the divorce and made it more realistic.

This show definitely jumped when Fiona Reid left. Granted she didn't carry the show or was funny like Waxman or Helen Winston, but when they brought in new girlfriends for King, and then Gladys starts dating, it got soooooo lame.

This Canadian show was an excellent show. I don't understand why most here have bad mouthed it. It was the best Canadian shows next to Hockey Night in Canada. It was about a man who owned a convenience store in downtown Toronto. He lived with his wife and controlling, big mouthed mother. It was kind of like King of Queens is now. I think the only reason people don't want to like this show is because it's Canadian, so it must be crap. When I was a kid watching this show I was surprised myself when my dad said this is not an American show. It does prove that they can make good Canadian shows, but too many Canadian actors and comedians go south where the money is.