This survey is devoted to a series of investigations developed in the last fifteen years, starting from the introduction of a sequence of positive linear operators which modify the classical Bernstein operators in order to reproduce constant functions and 2 on [0,1]. Nowadays, these operators are known as King operators, in honor of J. P. King who defined them, and they have been a source of inspiration for many scholars. In this paper we try to take stock of the situation and highlight the state of the art, hoping that this will be a useful tool for all people who intend to extend King's approach to some new contents within Approximation Theory. In particular, we recall the main results concerning certain King-type modifications of two well known sequences of positive linear operators, the Bernstein operators and the Szász-Mirakyan operators.