The Man Who Sold Propane and Propane Accessories
Meet Hank Hill. He’s a forty-something father living in Arlen, TX whose ambitions in life are to have a good family, and sell propane (and propane accessories) to all the good folks of Arlen. He lives in a quiet house with his family, next to his neighbors: Dale the conspiracy theorist, Bill the failure, and Boomhauer, who’s…. well, he’s Boomhauer.
King of the Hill was started in 1997, and entertained viewers for over a decade before recently getting cancelled, and failing to be picked up by ABC. To give you a sense of how old the show is, it was started in the same year that Bill Clinton started his second term in office.
The show has been parodied and ripped on for many years, but despite that it has always been successful. It was only about two years ago when I started watching, but I haven’t looked back since. It’s one of those shows where it’s easy to not get it if you only watch a couple of minutes, but after you watch an episode you start to understand the brilliance. I mean, how can you hate on a show where Dale misinterprets his father’s coming out as meaning his dad is a CIA operative, where Hank pretends to be a pimp to save a prostitute in distress, where Peggy’s poor Spanish (despite the fact that she teaches it) leads her to saying she is “embarazada” (pregnant) in a Mexican court, and where no one has qualms talking about Hank’s “narrow urethra” problems.
I know that I haven’t said anything extraordinary or crazy or probably even that interesting here. But I love King of the Hill, and since it’s being cancelled, I want to give it a proper farewell. So please… watch it in reruns on Adult Swim or Fox… buy the DVDs… make a propane joke… but above all, enjoy the brilliance. It’s an animated show that I will truly miss.
Yep.
