MKH: "King Of The Hill" breaks all the rules. There are so many elements of it which are actually marks of what's wrong with various attempts at prime-time animation. Theoretically, it could have been produced as a live-action sitcom. The jokes exclusively come from dialogue and situations...there is not much visual humor. They have even stooped to the tactic of having high-profile celebrity voices...something which I find at times grating in recent seasons of "The Simpsons." But you know what? KOTH works. And the reason why it works is the keen observation of human nature that is at the heart of Mike Judge's whole career as a cartoonist.
KOTH is set in the fictional Texas town of Arlen, a town where the local Middle School is named after former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry and where good ol' boys spend their days drinking beer and tinkering with their cars. The show centers around the Hill family: the father, blustery Hank Hill (Mike Judge); the mom, Peggy Hill (Kathy Najimy), whose greatest pride is in being chosen as best substitute teacher of 1996; and their son Bobby (Pam Segall), a pudgy pre-teen whose passions include video games and sophomoric humor. A niece, LuAnne (Brittany Murphy), lives under their roof, a refugee from an obviously dysfunctional family.
Dr.T: The secondary characters are a lovable and fascinating group. Judge has always had a keen eye for Homo vulgaris; every character in "Beavis and Butt-Head", from store clerks to the boy's classmates, seemed to be drawn from true life, warts and all. There is no one character in KOTH that is especially attractive but this works to the show's advantage, giving it an air of cinema verite. We are introduced to Dale (John Hardwick) who has uncovered every UN/government conspiracy extant but has not figured out that his "son" is not of his parentage; Bill (Stephen Root), a pot-bellied, unshaven hick with a basically sweet nature; and best of all Boomhauer (Judge again), whose incomprehensible statements, spoken in an accent thicker than Texas succotash, are often the highlight of the show. Judge claims that he patterned the voice from that of an irate caller who once complained that "Beavis and Butt-Head" did not air on time. This impediment does not keep Boomhauer from being a virtual magnet to the opposite sex.
MKH: Boomhauer seems to be the character everyone is latching on to. His rapid-fire rants have inspired not one, but two web sites so far. No wonder, considering how hilarious they get..."I tell ya what you do...you just take them dang ol' spark plugs out...and that little hole...you just put a little oil around there...just like Bob Unser said like it go BOOM...just like that." I mean, when it's there in print it's not really hugely funny, but when you add Mike Judge's vocal characterizations, the character really takes off.
The milieu of Texan suburbia is a fruitful place for humor. And in the case of KOTH, the humor is very much present but it's never condescending. In all the first 6 episodes which have aired as of this writing, there has never been a character you really can feel contempt for. Even when Dale leaves threatening messages on the answering machine when Peggy is called in to teach sex education, he's so inept he's laughable. Mike Judge seems to have a real fondness for the suburban Southwestern landscape he grew up in, and it extends to all the characters in the show.
DrT: The series did take some time to get going. The pilot episode dealt with a comedy of errors which led an effeminate social worker to mistakenly conclude that the Hill home was a hotbed of physical abuse. At the end, Hank has to "express his feelings" to his son in a clumsy, stereotypical finale. Essentially a live-action episode, it was further marred by Hank's "God Bless America" speechifying. This almost sank Hank's inherent likeability right off the bat. Episode Two, "Square Peg", had Peggy in the uncomfortable position of having to teach a sex education class to Arlen's youth. Despite several amusing moments, including Dale's ludicrous attempts at terrorism, it did not seem as if KOTH was going to fly; there was little bite to the humor and the situations were predictable and banal.
With the third episode, "Snipe Hunt", KOTH finally began to hit stride. In this deceptively complex episode, the neighborhood boys, including Bobby, are attempting to earn a coveted badge in the Order of the Straight Arrow (a parody of the "Order of the Arrow" in Boy Scouts). We learn that Hank and company were humiliated by the callow deceptions of their fathers during their own induction ritual into the Order years before. Dale's paranoia and Bill's vulnerability begin to make sense, and Hank slowly comes to realize that Bobby needs the boyish dreams and beliefs that were crushed out of Hank by his own dad. Gone by now were Hank's rantings; the character gained depth and believability.
Mixed into this episode were also some terrific bits of humor, including a gratingly accurate portrayal of a long car trip with children and a spurious Straight Arrow pledge led by Hank that somehow transmutes into a vow to vote down the importation of Mexican propane. Bobby, thinking a rare whooping crane to be a "snipe", seemingly kills the bird with a cudgel (it's merely unconscious). A terrified Boomhauer confessess to the crime but the gang goes free because the park ranger cannot understand a word he says. The scene where Hank and the dads decide that old sweat socks are a perfectly acceptable stand-in for sacred Indian spirit-catchers is perfectly done: not only is it funny, but we realize that these men mean no disrespect - they simply don't know any better.
MK-H: My favorite moments so far? Boomhauer's monologues, the 6th episode where Hank Hill suffers from constipation and every single regular character is affected by his affliction, Bobby Hill using Hank's beloved guitar as a cheese grater, and the very beautiful little segment of animation where the whooping crane that everyone thought was a casualty of the Order of the Straight Arrow Snipe Hunt suddenly takes wing.
The only hateful moments I have found thus far are the intrusive celebrity cameos which showed up on two of the first six episodes. Perhaps this is a symptom of a desire to make KOTH succeed straight out of the starting block, perhaps this is a carryover from the celebrity mania of "The Simpsons" of late. The weakest of the episodes was the one which involved Willie Nelson in the plot. If it had just been an episode about Hank's obsession with the guitar of his youth, it would have been a great episode. But throwing Willie Nelson into the mix, however well-intentioned, made the episode stiff and creaky when it should have had that certain flow to it which characterizes the best of KOTH. And Chuck Mangione? Jeez, folks...what did Chuck Mangione add to that great episode where Hank tries to fix up his niece LuAnne and instead LuAnne and Boomhauer briefly shack up?
There seem to be more KOTH episodes in the pipeline for this season, and it's been renewed for the next season. Hopefully Fox primetime will treat KOTH better than Fox Kids Network treated The Tick.
Dr.T: Fox apparently has a winner. KOTH has never finished out of the top 20 in the Nielsen ratings, twice finishing as high as 12th against first-run competition. Fox ordered 22 more episodes in February 1997, so it appears that the People have spoken with a clarity somewhat greater than Boomhauer's. To my eye, the show remains a promising work in progress. The animation, reportedly tightly controlled by Judge, is problematic. Characters at rest are caught in stiff, unnatural poses. Facial expressions often seem to suggest a mild anxiety attack and do not always match the emotional nuances suggested by the voice actors. Body proportions at times seem highly plastic. Some of the work is even sloppy, such as when characters take a seated position (or rise from one). Some scenes still need more punch and bite; this flaw can be deadly in a dialogue-driven show.
MKH: The animation in KOTH varies a lot, though. It's done by two overseas houses, Rough Draft Korea and Plus One Animation. The Plus One episodes seem to be the ones with the sloppier animation overall...however, there have been good moments from both studios. I give the edge to Rough Draft...they did the animation on "Snipe Hunt" that I liked so much.
Dr.T: One also hopes that the inclusion of "celebrities" is a passing fancy. This works better on the surrealistic and more cartoony "Simpsons".
MKH: I would argue about the cameos working better on "The Simpsons," though...I think at times they do it when they run out of ideas. There seems to be no shortage of ideas with KOTH. But that's just nitpicking...KOTH has gotten off to a promising start. One hopes they can maintain the pace in future episodes.
Check out our review of Daria too!
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