SCREENS The World Is Flat How ‘King of the Hill’ helped make Texas three-dimensional again BY CINDY WIDNER “I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t themselves when it gets a little intense. By the want to compete on a state level, especially time things have escalated to such a ridiculous when that state is Texas.” – a baffled Hank pitch, we’re too tired to bring up John Henry Hill to son, Bobby, in the series finale of King Faulk or Billy Lee Brammer or Barbara Jordan of the Hill or Robert Rauschenberg or even our excel- lent highway system. For many of us, being a It’s the last day of August, Rick Perry is Texan – by choice or by happenstance – is a on a tear, and Rachel Maddow is going rela- torrid love-hate affair that never ends. And the tively ballistic. comedy is built right in. Nothing really ruffles the wonkish pundit, it’s true, but as these things go, the idea that ‘I’m a Little Worried About the Texas secession movement could gain some mainstream traction has her fairly frothed. Being a Slut’ Interviewing The Dallas Morning News’ Mike Judge didn’t grow up in Texas, which Wayne Slater about some psychotic Texas might be why his animated series King of the Nationalist Movement rally at the state Hill could dive into the state’s indisputably Capitol, she asks, with only a soupçon of con- singular mythology (really – are there a lot of descension, if it’s “even possible” to seem too swimming pools shaped like Oklahoma?) with extreme, “politically, right now in Texas,” and dispassionate hilarity and affection. if Perry “would support there being a referen- As a regional comedy in a country where dum on secession or there being some sort of regional identity has largely disappeared, inherently collaborative format, he would have that explores Bobby’s natural meat-grading formal debate of it in the Legislature.” King of the Hill walks a fine, smart line, made the show a little meaner and the central abilities. Both involve such series mainstays No stranger to shaping his Texpertise for creating sort of site-specific characters and characters a little less obviously heartwarming, as fundamental goofiness, small-town kicks, mass consumption (see Bush’s Brain and situations with transcendent appeal: patri- making viewers confront their biases and work copious amounts of beef, and the father-son Alexandra Pelosi’s Journeys With George, for arch and propane (and propane accessories) a little harder to embrace them. relationship, tying up the series without mak- starters), senior political writer Slater gently salesman Hank Hill; no-nonsense wife Peggy It was, after all, co-creator Greg Daniels ing a big deal of it. disabuses her of the notion, explaining that (a substitute Spanish teacher and Boggle (now the creative force behind the American At the end of it all, you’ll be happy to Perry’s strategy is “rhetorical” – something a champ); and their odd, round son Bobby, The Office) who came up with some of the know, that boy still “ain’t right” (even before Rhodes scholar can surely appreciate – and at who shows no interest in sports or cars more fanciful, as well as gut-punchingly hilari- breakfast). Thank God, Bobby. Thank God. In the same time gets in some swipes of his own and wants to be a prop comic; along with ous, characters that make Hank the model of honor of your adventures past and future and (“I guess ‘enlightened Republicans’ in Texas Hank’s sidekicks Dale, Bill, and Boomhauer reason and empathy by comparison: conspira- your family’s, but mostly yours, we present means the ones that go to NASCAR but don’t and assorted neighbors, strangers, relatives, cy theorist Dale Gribble, gullible trailer queen/ this highly subjective, incomplete, opinion- put the Confederate flag on the window of friends, and nemeses – all grappling with the Luby’s namesake Luanne Platter, and shinless, ated King of the Hill retrospective. their car”). surprisingly interesting minutiae of their lives mean-to-the-core Cotton Hill, Hank’s dad, Wematanye, y’all. Well, that’s showbiz – which almost always in Arlen, Texas. among others. involves reducing a complicated situation to Writer-driven and meticulously researched, Judge addressed this issue, kind of, in its most frightening and laughable compo- King of the Hill delivers laughs in the form of Texas, Our Texas one of University of Texas Radio-Television- nents. Still, it can be tiresome to live in one subtle utterances and keenly observed details, The megahit Seinfeld is mentioned more Film professor John Pierson’s Master Class of the few states (hello there, Florida) that realized through the cast’s considerable vocal than once over the course of King of the Hill’s broadcasts on KUT recently. Essentially char- reliably serves as a national punch line. talent; it’s humor with a long half-life – a trait run – partly, as Daniels points out, to locate acterizing Beavis and Butt-Head as his Beverly Almost as infuriating as the firsthand knowl- it shares with Judge’s live-action films (Office Arlen in a contemporary moment, deflating Hillbillies, a show in which “nobody is por- edge that many of those stereotypes land pretty Space, Idiocracy, Extract). the notion that it, or any small American trayed positively” (and one that he greatly close to the truth are the craven disavowals of Like animation bar-setter The Simpsons, town, could any longer be culturally isolated. admires), Judge likened King of the Hill to liberal creative-classers (“I don’t live in Texas; King of the Hill is also a working-class comedy. A more specific reason is that Seinfeld was at Leave It to Beaver or The Andy Griffith Show: I live in Austin”) and sycophantic piling-on, Given Judge’s demonstrated willingness to go once universal and provincial – it was funny to class comedies in which most of the char- usually by expatriates or coastal sophisticates for the jugular – particularly that of a well- pretty much everyone, but knowing the spe- acters, despite their laughable flaws, have at who enjoy thinking they’re the smartest peo- meaning, clueless upper-middle class – and cifics of location threw in a subtextual kick. least some redeeming qualities. ple in the room, mucking about in the hokum, his own periods of being less than flush, one Despite the fact that King of the Hill draws Relating that his role in King of the Hill and interpreting the exotica, then distancing wonders if, left to his own devices in a less from numerous regional sources, particularly naturally lessened over the years, he added adjacent ones – a co-worker’s wife can’t even that the series could have veered too far into watch the show because Hank sounds, acts, a sentimental direction for his taste or to stay and looks like her Oklahoman father; one sto- true to the original tone and that a large part That’s What She Said ryline delves into Bill’s Louisiana roots; and of his job in its later years was “trying to get The Simpsons made a phenomenon of the television vocal cameo, and King of the Hill is no in “Enrique-cilable Differences,” you could ridiculous Garfield smiles off Bobby’s face.” slouch in carrying on that tradition. Here’s a random and partial list of guest voices from 13 swear Danny Trejo’s Enrique just flew in from King of the Hill’s series finale airs this week- seasons: Ann Richards, Willie Nelson, Troy Aikman, Tammy Wynette, Snoop Dogg, Carl Reiner, northern New Mexico – everyone knows the end, after 13 seasons (more or less – some sea- David Cross, Jason Bateman, Pauly Shore, Betty White, Johnny Knoxville, Danny Trejo, Burt place that gives it that kick is Texas. sons were truncated by long-running sports Reynolds, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Kathleen Turner, Bernie Mac, all three Below, just a few of the ways King of the Hill events and aired later as new, shorter sea- members of Green Day, Brendan Fraser, Brad Pitt, Owen Wilson, Renée Zellweger, Gary Busey, addressed what Texana means now: sons), with back-to-back episodes: “The Boy Jimmy Carter, Johnny Depp, Jeff Goldblum, Jeff Garlin, Pamela Anderson, Kid Rock, Lucy Liu, Willie Nelson worship. It’s pretty hard Can’t Help It,” in which several popular girls, Lindsay Lohan, Henry Winkler, Marion Ross, Dusty Hill, and, of course, Tom Petty (who became not to love Willie: He’s Texas with all the the full-blown recurring character Lucky). – C.W. Heathers-like, toy with Bobby’s affections, and “To Sirloin With Love” – an instant classic CONTINUED ON P.54

52 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E SEPTEMBER 11, 2009 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m