Brian Damage
04-29-2009, 10:59 AM
"King of the Hill" has never made the same splash as its Sunday night compadre "The Simpsons," but everyman Hank Hill has provided a kind of breather among the harder-core characters who populate most of Fox's animated evening.
Now "King of the Hill" is winding down, with just a handful of shows left, and for its 250th episode tomorrow, it flirts with getting downright sentimental.
But don't worry. It's still a sitcom, and it has the sense to toss out another laugh whenever things threaten to turn mushy.
The episode revolves around Hank's lament that a year after the death of his father, Cotton, he realizes there's much he never knew about his dad. His wife, Peggy, says he isn't missing much, his father was nasty.
That's true. Still, when Hank's stepmother, DiDi, says she needs to see Hank, for the first time since the funeral, Hank draws up a list of questions. Alas, DiDi doesn't have time to answer any of them, since she's getting remarried.
But she does leave Hank something - a list of last requests from Cotton, like slapping the bottoms of the VA nurses and flushing his ashes down the toilet at a bar where Gen. George Patton once had a drink.
Peggy thinks it's hogwash, but Hank's pals sense this exercise is important.
Underscoring the theme of male bonding, Bill and Dale start an argument that threatens to end their friendship, which in turn leads to a funny exchange about the protocol of a "dude-vorce." Hank tries to patch things up by explaining what all his pals mean to him, despite his regret that "we never got to experience the horrors of war together."
In the end, Cotton's ashes become the tie that binds, since it requires some creative teamwork to make his final wish come true.
"King of the Hill" will probably leave as it lived, with a relatively low profile. But any TV show that lasts 13 seasons and more than 250 episodes has made it a long way up that TV mountain.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/04/25/2009-04-25_king_of_the_hill_ending_its_reign_on_warm_note.html
Now "King of the Hill" is winding down, with just a handful of shows left, and for its 250th episode tomorrow, it flirts with getting downright sentimental.
But don't worry. It's still a sitcom, and it has the sense to toss out another laugh whenever things threaten to turn mushy.
The episode revolves around Hank's lament that a year after the death of his father, Cotton, he realizes there's much he never knew about his dad. His wife, Peggy, says he isn't missing much, his father was nasty.
That's true. Still, when Hank's stepmother, DiDi, says she needs to see Hank, for the first time since the funeral, Hank draws up a list of questions. Alas, DiDi doesn't have time to answer any of them, since she's getting remarried.
But she does leave Hank something - a list of last requests from Cotton, like slapping the bottoms of the VA nurses and flushing his ashes down the toilet at a bar where Gen. George Patton once had a drink.
Peggy thinks it's hogwash, but Hank's pals sense this exercise is important.
Underscoring the theme of male bonding, Bill and Dale start an argument that threatens to end their friendship, which in turn leads to a funny exchange about the protocol of a "dude-vorce." Hank tries to patch things up by explaining what all his pals mean to him, despite his regret that "we never got to experience the horrors of war together."
In the end, Cotton's ashes become the tie that binds, since it requires some creative teamwork to make his final wish come true.
"King of the Hill" will probably leave as it lived, with a relatively low profile. But any TV show that lasts 13 seasons and more than 250 episodes has made it a long way up that TV mountain.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2009/04/25/2009-04-25_king_of_the_hill_ending_its_reign_on_warm_note.html