That one has one of my favorite exchanges (much funnier when heard than when read- just remember Cotton’s neither offended nor being sarcastic):
PEGGY: Cotton Hill, I do not know what I hate more about you – the way you talk to me or the way you treat your wife and your little child.
COTTON: Well, think about it.
Also from “Cotton’s Plot:”
Cotton: Are you prepared to hate me more than you’ve hated anyone in your entire life?
Peggy: I already do!
It’s not easy for me to talk about this show. When I stop watching a program, it’s usually because the quality gradually drops off or the overall focus changes to something I don’t like. For King of the Hill, I watched it religiously…right up to the point where Peggy turned from a mature, capable achiever to a snivelling good-for-nothing…upon which I gave up on it for good. (I may have caught two or three episodes after that horrific transformation.)
Which is too bad, because up until that point this one of the funniest shows on television and a more than worthy companion to The Simpsons. The best part was that it never tried to force anything; it put a bunch of quirky folks on screen and let them deal with life. And it worked so well, I barely even recognized any resemblance to Mike Judge’s more famous work (I’ve said my piece about Beavis and Butthead before; to all you new Dopers, suffice to say that I’m apparently the only person on the planet who watched the show and hated it). Even that idiot Khan managed to be not only tolerable, but pretty funny most of the time.
And then they had to absolutely wreck Peggy and ruin it all. I don’t care if the show “needed” this (and I definitely don’t consider a show that needs an irritating neurotic worth watching), it was unforgivable. For me, only Samurai Jack had a more sharply defined jump-the-shark moment (ep. 17, natch).
Oh well. Three or four seasons (don’t remember which, it’s been a while) of good fun. Much better than some programs I could name.
Footnote 1: Khan referring to Khan Jr. as his son was funny once. Maybe twice. Not as a freakin’ running gag. Sheesh.
Footnote 2: For some reason, I missed the end to the episode with that huge firecracker (“La Bomba”). Anyone remember if it ever did go off?
I never really noticed a particularly abrupt transformation in Peggy’s personality. She’s always been the character that I love to hate.
I’ve seen every episode multiple times, and perhaps I just have a faulty memory, but this never seemed like a running gag to me. I’d be hard pressed to think of more than a couple of instances where Khan refers to Connie as his son.
It was a dud. The firecracker in the statue’s hand was show through the entirety of the closing credits… doing nothing. It made for a sort of amusingly anti-climactic ending.
Eh, I don’t have much of a problem with Peggy. She’s naive, arrogant, and has a really low self esteem, but she’s friendly, generally means well, and she loves her husband and son. Plus I liked the episode where Randy Travis stole her songs.
I like the show a lot but I seem to miss it frequently on Sunday. (it is on Sunday isn’t it?)
I grew up in Oklahoma and I never have a problem understanding Boomhauer.
One of my favorite episodes features Cotton and Hank’s wife. Peggy is injured and Cotton gives her tough love to get her walking again.
Just the words “Hank’s wife” makes me crack up.
I don’t know. I find her so unbelievably self-centered that it overshadows any good qualities she may have. She habitually takes sole credit for things in which she played a bit part, or none at all (“And that, Bobby, is how I saved Christmas”). When Bobby does something good, you’re just as likely to see her face burn with jealous anger as you are to see any kind of happiness or pride for him.
She certainly wasn’t being friendly when she was torturing a busload of people from her church with ridiculous games and bad singing in Peggy’s Fan Fair. She couldn’t see past her hyper-inflated ego to notice the scowls on every face on the bus. Peggy actually seemed to learn a lesson about keeping her unbridled arrogance in check at the end of that episode, but she was back to her old self in short order.
I do think that Peggy’s character is very well-written, and possibly the most complex character on the show. I developed a smidgen of sympathy for her after seeing the way her mother acted, but generally she just makes me wish that someone would stab her in the eye with a propane accessory.
That episode had one of the best endings of a show that is known for great endings.
I thought Hank was being his usual stick in the mud self, but taking it WAY too far.
But at the end, it was shown that it wasn’t his biases that were driving his behavior, but his desire to see Bobby’s faith continue after that phase passed.
“I don’t want God ending up in this box.”
Good stuff.
First of all, that is not an appropriate use of propane accessories. And that’s the thing. She was being friendly when she was torturing the people on the bus with her games. She just was really bad at the whole being friendly part. But she almost always means well…she’s just so socially inept that she doesn’t see how people are going to actually respond to her…she has the whole encounter planned out in her mind before she starts, and then when people don’t act the way she’s planned they’ll act, she gets frustrated and angry, and then blames them for their bad reaction. But she almost always means well. Maybe I’m biased, though, because my mom is just like her.
I thought the “La Bomba” was actually a display and the kids didn’t realize it.
That was a good episode.
Bobbie: (sobbing) It tastes like baby turtles.
I don’t think friendliness was her intention. I think she just wanted to be the center of attention and something of an authority figure. She even assigned seats on the bus (ignoring the pastor’s objections).
Again, because she was helping. She was using her super-organizing skill to save the outing from total chaos. Sure, part of what Peggy does is to be the center of attention and to be in charge, but it’s more because she figures that she’s the only one there who’s competent.
Another from the Jimmy Carter episode: Hank offers to buy his father a Xmas ornament-a round ball saying “Peace”.
Cotton: Dammit, Hank, we’ve always been a ‘Joy’ family!
Hank: It’s Jesus-peace, not hippie-peace.
Hehe.