"You just go ahead and grieve any way that you want. Redbook says that losing a boyfriend is the fourth most painful loss. Right between grandmother and penis." - Peggy Hill (Kathy Najimy) to her bereaved niece
King of the Hill: The Complete Third Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
King of the Hill's second season ended with a bang - literally. In the final episode of the season, an explosion triggered by unsafe conditions in the propane department of the Arlen, Texas branch of Mega Lo Mart left the fate of several characters up in the air. Would propane salesman Hank Hill (series creator Mike Judge) live to hang out in the alley with paranoid exterminator Dale (Johnny Hardwick), incomprehensible ladies' man Boomhauer (Judge), and emotionally crippled divorcee Bill (Newsradio's Stephen Root)? Would remedial beauty school student (and Hank's niece) Luanne Platter (Brittany Murphy) survive, thus allowing her to turn another customer's hair a sickly green hue? Would her slacker boyfriend Buckley (David Herman) live to mutter another disaffected "hey"? Would Peggy Hill (Kathy Najimy) be able to afford to send her twelve-year-old son Bobby (Pamela Segall Adlon) to college to study "prop comictry" if she has to support the family on her substitute teacher wages? And would trumpeter Chuck Mangione ever play "Feels So Good" again? With the release of King of the Hill: The Complete Third Season on DVD, the suspense is finally over.
As it turns out, there were only two casualties of the explosion: hapless Buckley and Luanne's luxurious hair, which was completely singed off by the fire. As her Aunt Peggy says, "Luanne is gonna look different.maybe even hypnotically grotesque." Hank has also been changed by the explosion. He's so spooked that he now drinks beer out of a glass rather than straight from the can. And as if that isn't heretical enough, he also harbors a secret fear of propane. With the help of their family, friends, and the Manger Babies, the two are soon on the road to recovery.
Things then return to normal for the Hill family. Well, to as normal as things get on King of the Hill. Hank learns that he is about to have a much younger sibling ("Next of Shin"); participates in a lawn mower focus group ("Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men"); and becomes obsessed with learning how a magic trick involving Peggy, a piņata, and a magician named the Astounding Herrera was performed. Peggy is chosen to write a column of homespun "humor" for the local paper ("Peggy's Headache"); belatedly discovers the true nature of the relationship between Dale's wife, Nancy (Ashley Gardener), and healer John Redcorn ("Peggy's Headache"); enters a beauty pageant in an effort to win a pick-up truck ("Peggy Pageant Fever"); and becomes known as "Paddlin' Peggy" after being fired for spanking a student ("To Spank, with Love"). Bobby falls in love with an older woman ("And They Call it Bobby Love"); gets "married" to Luanne after replacing her birth control pills with candy (the hysterical "The Wedding of Bobby Hill"); and burns down a church after engorging himself on a gas-inducing casserole ("Revenge of the Lutefisk").
In a show filled with eccentric characters, Stephen Root's Bill stands out during this season. This is due to a combination of good writing and Root's sunnily morose characterization. Bill often steals the show even when he only has one or two appearances in the episode. He barely appears in "Good Hill Hunting," for example, but a scene in which Bill is caught riffling through Dale's garbage can is priceless. The character takes center stage in the excruciatingly funny "Pretty, Pretty Dresses." In this episode, Bill faces the seventh anniversary of his beloved wife, Lenore, walking out on him on Christmas Eve. The episode starts out with the amusing image of Bill crying uncontrollably in the Hills' back alley while perky Christmas music plays. He pauses only long enough to proclaim that he loves the holiday. Bill has a hard time coping with the anniversary. First he buys an iguana which he names Lenore (leading to the classic line "I dreamt that Lenore came back and stole Lenore, and then drove off with Lenore, and I ran down the street after them and I yelled 'Lenore! Lenore!' And then my teeth fell out"). When that doesn't help to ease his pain, he decides to bring his ex home by becoming Lenore. Hank is determined to preserve his friend's sanity, leading to an ending which again proves that King of the Hill is expert at mixing broad comedy with warm-hearted sentiment.
That the series also manages to avoid being sugary is nothing short of miraculous. Late in the season, "Wings of a Dope" revisits the Mega Lo Mart explosion when Luanne believes that she has encountered Buckley's angel on a trampoline purchased from the dead slacker's estate. She knows it is Buckley's angel because the Mega Lo Mart name tag on his vest says just that: "Buckley's Angel." This episode is outlandish yet touching, as when Luanne and Buckley bounce on the trampoline to the tune of Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town." Why has Buckley returned? Because Jesus asked him to deliver a message to her about beauty school. This sad, sweet episode is one of the series' best.
King of the Hill consistently and effectively tackles the subject of father and son relationships. In "Good Hill Hunting," Hank takes Bobby on an abortive "rite of passage" hunting trip in order to make a man out of the immature boy. As usual, things don't go as planned, but both learn valuable lessons about what it means to really be a man. In "Three Coaches and a Bobby," Hank attempts to toughen up Bobby's football team by recruiting his former coach, an abusive old coot, to whip the team into shape. He becomes disillusioned when the insane coach drives almost all of the players from the team with his weird, abusive behavior. Hank eventually comes to accept that Bobby will never be the star player that he once was, but when Bobby rallies the team, he concedes that Bobby might make a good coach. Bobby agrees, as long as he can still wear his uniform. And a cape.
Hank's relationship with Bobby isn't the only one explored by the series. Hank finally learns to stand up to his own abrasive father ("Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men"). In a brief but tender moment, Dale shows his simple love for Joseph, the son who looks amazingly like his wife's masseuse ("Peggy's Headache"). Even at its most outrageous, the series remains grounded in reality by scenes like these.
Of course the series isn't simply a modernized retread of family sitcoms like Father Knows Best or The Cosby Show. The show tempers its relationship-based storylines with a generous helping of absurdity. Hank is horrified to discover that an x-ray of his blocked colon is on display in an art gallery ("Love Hurts.and So Does Art"). In that same episode, Bobby develops gout after overindulging in chopped liver and other "delicacies" at Arlen's first "New York-style" deli. Another inspired episode features Hank being sexually assaulted.by a dolphin ("Jon Vitti Presents: 'Return to La Grunta'"). The series is always funny, but ridiculous bits like these make it even funnier.
King of the Hill ends its third season with "As Old as the Hills," one of the most audacious season enders of all time. Feeling old after celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary, Peggy convinces Hank that they need to recapture their lost youth. When a drunken bender fails to do the trick, Peggy decides that skydiving is the invigorating shot in the arm that their marriage needs. The cliffhanger ending (involving Peggy's jump) takes full advantage of the fact that anything can happen in animation. The ending walks a fine line between brilliant and ill-conceived, and viewers who have seen it are unlikely to ever forget the episode's final moments. If season two ended with a bang, season three ends with a thud, and a shockingly funny one at that.
Guest voices in season three include Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mary Kay Place, Carol Alt, CHiPs' Erik Estrada, Kathy Ireland, Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, Northern Exposure's Barry Corbin, The Beverly Hillbillies' Buddy Ebsen, Matthew McConaughey, Pauly Shore, Phyllis Diller, Uta Hagen, The Golden Girls' Betty White, Mary Tyler Moore, Beverly Hills 90210's Gabrielle Carteris, and Jane Wiedlin.
King of the Hill: The Complete Third Season marks a change in format from the series' previous DVD releases. This time around, the season's twenty-five episodes are divided onto three double-sided discs. The discs are housed in slim, clear keepcases. The front covers feature large close-up pictures of Hank (disc 1), Bobby (disc 2), and Peggy (disc 3). The back covers include episode titles, plot synopses, original airdates, and basic creative credits. The double-sided coversheets show through to the inside of the cases and spotlight the show's secondary characters, Bill, Boomhauer, and Dale. The three keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which showcases a tailgate party in the alleyway behind the Hill home.
One positive thing about having double-sided discs is that it allows fans to be treated to six different full motion menus set in the Hill's alley, each of which cleverly uses the castoff sofa that makes an appearance in "And They Call It Bobby Love." There is a "play all" feature, or the episodes can be chosen individually. There are no scene selection menus, but the episodes are divided into chapters.
