Monday, November 10, 2008
News Fox cancels, Cartoon Network acquires "King of the Hill"
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 10:30 PM
The king is dead, long live the king! Hot on the heels of the Fox Network's Oct. 31 announcement that the current, 13th season of "King of the Hill" would be its last, Atlanta's Cartoon Network declared that the animated sitcom set in the heart of Texas would anchor a new hour of Adult Swim programming:
Starting in January, 2009, "King of the Hill" will kick off Adult Swim every night at 10 p.m... "With 'King of the Hill' joining 'Family Guy' in our Adult Swim lineup, we now have two of the greatest animated series ever made," said Mike Lazzo, senior vice president of programming and production for Adult Swim.
The second longest-running animated series in history (behind, of course, "The Simpsons"), "King of the Hill" has been one of television's most underrated programs since its debut in 1997. It didn't help that Fox so frequently bumped "King of the Hill" for football and sports events that even a die-hard fan like myself lost track of when it aired, but with luck it'll find a new audience among Adult Swim fans. "Beavis and Butt-Head" creator Mike Judge and Greg Daniels (who has found new success with NBC's American version of "The Office") offer an extremely affectionate portrayal of "Red State" America, with propane salesman Hank Hill serving as a middle-American everyman at odds with the excesses 21st century. Compared to Archie Bunker's reactionary buffoonery on "All in the Family," Hank proves to be more sympathetic and open minded, "I tell you what."
The first scene of "King of the Hill's" pilot name-checked "Seinfeld" as "a show about nothing," and "King of the Hill" followed suit as one of the most deadpan, realistic animated series ever made, which should provide a welcome counterpoint to the aggressive surrealism of the original Adult Swim shows. My favorite "King of the Hill" regular remains conspiracy-buff Dale Gribble, one of the strangest, funniest characters of any animated sitcom, who rather resembles "Doonesbury's" Uncle Duke, if the character were a security-obsessed, cuckolded exterminator in Arlen, Texas. In this recent clip, Hank, Dale and their pals discuss the MySpace phenomena:
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The first episode I saw was when Child Services tried to take Bobby from Hank because of child abuse. The evidence was the black eye received by Bobby while playing baseball. Two lines entered my catch phrase lexicon. The hippie-dippie child services rep saying to Hank "Loud is not allowed". The best came from Bobby. Boobby had a 3-0 count and Hank told him he couldn't get on base without swinging the bat and Booby said he could get a walk. Hank's reply" Don't play lawyer ball". "Lawyer ball" I LOVE it! Also, when Hank told Bobby that if he gave 110% he was sure to win. Bobby then asked "What if the other kid gives 111%?". I always hated that coachy giving-over-100% crap.
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