King of the Hill

Thought I should talk about this one before it's no longer relevant due to the show is coming to an end, the final episode seems to be scheduled for March 22nd. King of the Hill has been on the air continuously since 1997 making it the 2nd longest running American animated series in history, right behind the Simpsons, and was named one of the greatest television shows of all time by Time magazine; of course let's not forget that this is the same magazine that in times past has chosen both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as men of the year.

I'm a big animation fan and I'm always willing to give a new cartoon a chance so that's exactly what I did back in January of 1997. I gotta say that I wasn't blown away but I did find myself entertained, and that basically sums up the entire run of the show and, in my opinion, the root of its success. The show never really had a big splash and never captured a giant audience or made a major impact in popular culture and, as a result, it never had anything to live up to; each episode led gently into the next and although they did have a few cliff hanger episodes it was nothing that would really draw in new viewers but it would rivet a regular watcher. The show just kept chugging along purely on its characters and their quirks. Finally I gotta say that they always had real solid writing with a really good creative team to find ways to make these characters funny and surprisingly fresh despite their lack of depth or development.

I think the big problem with King of the Hill was the Hills themselves, Hank was as exciting as paint drying, Peggy was annoying in every way imaginable , and Bobby got the worst of both parents, Hanks boring personality with Peggy's obnoxious quirks, and I'm sure he was at least mildly mentally challenged. The supporting cast though was some of the funniest characters every assembled, from Bill the fat has-been loser to Dale the wussy survivalist, all the way up to Lucky, the redneck with the monster truck who made his money by "slippin' in peepee at the MegaLoMart", voiced surprisingly well by Tom Petty. My favorite was Hanks father Cotton, a veteran of WWII who had his shins blown off in the Pacific theatre, although not before he "killed fity men!!".

I have to say that I always had a fondness for Luanne, voiced by none other than Brittany Murphy herself, someone who can get my motor running with nothing more than the sound of her voice. Speaking of voices, check out the person behind the voice of Bobby, not too bad for someone who has the ability to sound like a mentally challenged 13 year old boy from Texas.

Anyway, it's a little late in the shows life to do a review, I just wanted to let anyone who may be interested that it's reached the end of its life and if you want to check it out do it now or forever hold your peace. I think they managed to produce exactly the show they wanted in exactly the way they wanted to, something of a metaphor for real life, and I respect that. I for one will miss it but the bigger problem I have is that I don't believe that the show that will be replacing it will be any good. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to give Cleveland his own show?