User Reviews

After Beavis and Butthead, Many back then would be wary of Mike Judge's newest creation.

Would it be dangerous? Would it be Controversial?

Would it be the next South Park? King of The Hill is a tamer creation from Mike Judge, rather than the usual violence and foul language that Beavis and Butthead had ( not to badmouth the show ) we get an everyday man who makes Propane obsession, lawn care and conservative yet questionable values interesting.

The pilot shows a simple group of characters: Hank, Army Barber and lonely divorced neighbor Bill Dauterive, Conspiracy Theorist and local exterminator Dale Gribble and mysterious mumbling ladies man Boomhauer enjoying beer but beginning seems to lack dialogue, something that would evolve later on. The plot lies heavily on Hank, Peggy Hill, a substitute spanish teacher who highly boast herself on her simple achievements and Bobby Hill, a relatable youth who Hank shakes his head at most of his activities but still loves him and Luanne Platter, a unique character with a sad, troubling background who lives with her aunt and uncle due to her parents' troubling marriage leads to one of them incarcerated.

The episode shows a trial run of the everyday life of the Hills, despite some boring dialogue and the annoyance of Bobby's teasing at Hank almost ruining his introduction, the episode shows the beginning of series full of laughs, ups and downs and interesting storylines that would define Fox's Animation Domination lineup. Its use of the simple Texan background is less Beavis and more Office Space. The character of Hank shows a conservative but entertaining propane salesman who is patriotic and Andy Griffin-esque but sometimes oblivious. The wit is dry and animation blotchy and not such a rememberable first episode of an animated series but it was a start to something wonderful.

The lesson of the episode does show that Hank is caring despite his strict behavior and reaction to stressful situations, rumors in a small ( town or city ) can spread and misinformation and poor judgment can cause trouble.

Yup.

It's been a while since I watched King of the Hill.

I must confess I kinda overlooked this show during my childhood and teenage years: Maybe it was the more realistic art style or its more subtle type of humor (opposed to the wackier tone of the shows I used to watch back then, like The Simpsons, South Park and Futurama), but for some reason I couldn't get into the series back then. (And it didn't help its schedule keep constantly changing)

Rewatching as an adult, I was able to appreciate better many of its qualities, particularly its more down to earth tone in comparison with other animated sitcoms.

I found the writing of this pilot to be pretty clever, amusing and relatable, definitely a pretty solid beginning for the series to any casual viewer.

Four friends are standing, drinking beer, contemplating the truck of one of them, wondering why the truck is not working and after the owner of the truck bring another round of beers one of the friends says to the others if they catch the Seinfeld show of the night before, "just a show about nothing" says one of them, and then it begins: those four friends, Hank Hill, Dale, Bill and Boomhauer, just standing outside drinking beer, the world is certainly moving but… and it's just one of the greatest title sequences of all-time.

Not long ago the new show of Mike Judge, The Goode Family, aired for the very first time and unfortunately it will be the only remaining Mike Judge show in the air since King of the Hill is expected to air just half-dozen or maybe just two new episodes and go out the air. King of the Hill aired for the first time back in 1997 (just some months before South Park) but just now I'm really getting into it. Over the last years I saw King of the Hill a bunch of times and unlike with the Simpsons or South Park and like with Futurama when was time to watch a season on DVD basically all of the episodes were never seen before by me. And just days ago I began watching King of the Hill from its pilot…and I'm loving it! I have seen by now the entire first Season and I'm more than ready for more, for hours of only King of the Hill, it's just a great show (and yeah, a damn shame it's going out the air, in part, because of another Seth MacFarlane show).

So, the pilot is a really great, solid show. It's about the father and son relation, and basically is a very unfortunate time for the main character Hank Hill (voice of Mike Judge). Meet the Hills (from Arlen, Texas), Hank and Peggy and their son Bobby (I love this character, and Bobby is like Bart Simpson and Joseph Gribble, the son of Dale and Bobby's best friend, voiced by a woman. Pamela Adlon is truly wonderful as Bobby, and is Brittany Murphy who voices Joseph as well as Luanne Platter who is the niece of Hank and Peggy living with them), and meet the mentioned friends of Hank, Dale, Bill and Boomhauer. Is just fantastic when we meet the family of Dale, there's something really wrong going on since long time ago, certainly, but Dale loves his son Joseph, period! And well, Mike Judge is great as Hank but as Boomhauer he definitely steals the show!

Anyway, like I said this is basically a very unfortunate time for Hank, and we know before Hank that he is going to have a really bad time: we see how a couple of women see a very upset Hank and a Booby with a black eye so you know, misinterpretation, mouth to mouth information, gossips and all of that end with a public worker investigating Hank. That is certainly just the beginning, and later on we not only see Bobby and Joseph imitating Hank (hilarious! Yet this won't help Hank!) but we also see Bobby receiving the news: the investigation towards his father is over, good news for Hank, right? Well not really since basically he will not hear immediately about those good news, is a fun time for Bobby and for Hank, well "it's hard Peggy. I don't wanna lose my little boy, my only son. But oh, it's hard", but the ending is great and hilarious ("he punched him, I knew it!"). I love this one!

The highlight on liberal hypocrisy is welcome, and relevant even all these years later (now more than ever) but I don't appreciate the whole thing with Dale's son being an obvious lovechild from a cheating relationship (much less the cheating itself). It feels totally out of place and sleazy in a show otherwise pointing regularly to good family values. Would've been seven stars if it weren't for those points.