Arthur Spooner

Infobox character
bgcolour = orange
name = Arthur Spooner


first = Pilot
last = China Syndrome Part 2
portrayer = Jerry Stiller
birthdate = September 1926
location = New York City, United States
occupation = Served in the U.S. Army during WWII, countless jobs after that, prior to Carrie's birth he was an actor
spouse = Sophia Spooner, Lily Spooner, Tessie Spooner, Veronica Olchin
children = Carrie Spooner, Sarah Spooner (written out after the first season)

Arthur Eugene Spooner is a fictional character played by Jerry Stiller on the sitcom "The King of Queens". He lives with his daughter Carrie and her husband, Doug Heffernan. Arthur is an avowed atheist.

Biography

Little is known about Arthur's early life. He was born in 1926 to an abusive father (played in one episode by Stiller's own son, Ben Stiller), but nothing is known about his mother. He was a gifted singer as a child and performed jigs for the workers at the Empire State Building. Arthur has an estranged half-brother named Skitch.

Arthur served in World War II in the Italian theater and in The Battle of the Bulge, and also mentions being in Paris, France. He variously claims to have been in the US Army 33rd Brigade and the 71st Infantry.

Sometime after the war, Arthur took up a career as an actor, performing on Broadway and at other venues. It was during this time that he met his first wife, Sophia, a show dancer. After a night of passion, the couple found out that Sophia was pregnant, and decided to get married for the sake of the child, Simone (later Carrie). Arthur quit his acting career in an attempt to create a more stable life for his daughter.

During Carrie's young life Arthur held an innumerable number of jobs, including at a crab cannery in Maryland, jobs in sales, a brief stint working for PBS on "Sesame Street", and many others. He was unable to maintain any of these careers for more than a month at a time, resulting in a very volatile home life for his family.

At some point during Carrie's early teenage years, Sophia died. With Arthur unable to stay employed, Carrie was forced to work in addition to attending high school.

During a Thanksgiving episode, it was mention that Arthur met his second wife Lilly at a bus stop. Arthur: "WHY DON'T YOU GO BACK TO THE STREET CORNER WHERE I FOUND YOU!!!!" Lilly: "I WAS WAITING FOR THE BUS!!!!"

In the pilot episode, Arthur's third wife Tessie has died. Arthur subsequently burns his house down while cooking on his "lucky hot plate." This forces Arthur and his other daughter Sarah (who was written out during the first season without explanation) to move in with Carrie and Doug. Arthur quickly shows himself to be obnoxious, boorish, and mentally unstable, frequently bursting into tirades at the slightest provocation. His grating personality angers Doug, but as the series progresses, they grow accustomed to each other.

A good example of Arthur's behavior is when he discovers a videotape in which he appeared on "The $10,000 Pyramid" in 1976, a fact that he has told Doug "several dozen times." When asked if he won, Arthur in turn asks if he would be "living in this dump if [he had] ." He later asks for Carrie's help in " [suing] the boyish grin off of Dick Clark's face" because he never got the full year's supply of Rice-A-Roni that he had been promised after the appearance, a scandal he has named "Rice-A-Roni-gate." In an effort to placate Arthur, Clark's representative offers to give him a book instead of the boxed rice meal, the continued production of which the representative is unsure. After assuring the representative that Rice-A-Roni is "still made in a variety of mouth-watering flavors," Arthur refuses screaming, "I don't wanna read. I wanna eat!" Arthur ultimately receives a 30-year supply of Rice-A-Roni, in addition to the original supply he was promised on the game show, after (presumably) blackmailing Dick Clark with a photo of the TV icon "locked in a muddy embrace with Fannie Flagg," which was captured from his appearance on the "Battle of the Network Stars". (The vintage "Pyramid" clip used for the episode is from an actual appearance Stiller made on the game show that same year.)Season 7, Episode 12, "Gym Neighbors"]

Arthur marries his fourth wife Veronica Olchin (played by Stiller's real wife Anne Meara), mother of Doug's friend Spence Olchin, in the series finale "China Syndrome" and divorce one year later.

Role in the series

Sarcastic, brash, and always scheming, Arthur lives in the basement of Doug and Carrie's house. Quick to take offense, he shouts frequently and often unnecessarily, and often comes up with absolutely absurd, irregular or illogical money-making scams.

Arthur frequently makes bizarre claims (for example, that he invented the moist towelette, and claiming that Charles M. Schulz based Charlie Brown on Arthur's life). He also steals change from Doug's nightstand. Arthur is walked by a dog walker named Holly Shumpert (Nicole Sullivan), and his best friend is Mickey (Ford Rainey).

Arthur is a steadfast socialist, and supporter of the communist nations around the world. In the episode "Steve Moscow" he claims that the Soviet Union was a "workers' paradise," and in the episode "Strike Out", he says that he was once enrolled at a socialist summer camp. In one episode, Arthur and Spence hatch a plan to invent and market a revolutionary new backpack. When Spence suggests that they outsource the labor to save money, Arthur reacts angrily, stating that "Unipack will be made in America, by good labor union workers!" When Doug goes on strike, Arthur almost kisses him out of pride, and when Doug takes a scab job at a school as a substitute teacher, Arthur grows disgusted with Doug, saying "Whatever helps you sleep at night you douche."

Along with the banning of Halloween, Arthur also attempts to ban a long list of other things from the Heffernans' house, including red pens, soft cheese, non-American VCRs (but not DVD players), mentioning Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness, and miniature Kit Kats.

Footnotes

References

*imdb title|id=0165581|title=The King of Queens