ET Flashback '98: Kevin James

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By DAVID WEINER
July 02, 2011

Kevin James talks to the animals as the 'Zookeeper,' and we flash back to his first ET interview in 1998 as he cracked us up with the use of a single word: "Clavicle."

More than 10 years ago, Kevin had graduated from guest star on "Everybody Loves Raymond" to leading man status on his new sitcom, "The King of Queens," which would end up running for almost a decade. Talking to ET about his new endeavor, the 33-year-old funnyman was humble about working with his co-stars, Jerry Stiller and Leah Remini, and demonstrated just why he was plucked from the stand-up circuit to be a TV star.

"We laugh a lot, and we laugh too much -- it gets annoying to other crew members because we'll do takes over and over again," said Kevin of his chemistry with co-star Remini. "Once I start going I'm pretty bad with that, so I don't even look her in the eye very much anymore. I find her clavicle, and I stare at that. … I like the clavicle."

Kevin also gave credit where credit was due to Ray Romano, who supported his jump to "The King of Queens" and appeared several times on the show as his "Everybody Loves Raymond" character.

"Ray enabled me to be myself on his show," he said. "I wrote an episode with him where I could really use my voice, as opposed to have someone else writing for me, and the people at CBS saw that and they were happy."

"We have a blast here, we really do," he concluded. "We have a lot of fun. These guys are the real actors, you know, Leah and Jerry, and I just kind of follow suit. We have a lot of fun, and that's basically it. We laugh at each other, and I think that's what makes it real."

Tonight on ET

ET Flashback '85: 'Ferris Bueller'