King of the Hill

1997 - Present

This animated series follows Hank Hill, an old-fashioned guy who sells propane and propane accessories in the fictional town of Arlen, Texas, and his everyday adventures with his kooky family and friends.

Stars: Mike Judge, Kathy Najimy, Pamela Adlon, Stephen Root, Johnny Hardwick, Brittany Murphy, Toby Huss, David Hermann, Ashley Gardner, Lauren Tom, Breckin Meyer, Dennis Burkley, Tom Petty
Created by: Mike Judge, Greg Daniels
Tags: animated

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Episode Tropes

Season 2

No Joke: Episode 16, "Traffic Jam" (1998). Bobby idolizes a Black comedian named Buddha Sack and tries to imitate him by making jokes about white people. He tries out his material on Buddha Sack, and Buddha tells him he needs to make jokes about what's funny to white people, so Bobby and Joseph search for jokes for white people and accidentally stumble onto a white supremacist website. Needless to say, Bobby's new material doesn't go over well at his first gig at Buddha Sack's hangout.

Season 3

Beauty Pageant: Episode 6, "Peggy's Pageant Fever" (1998). Nancy announces that she's been asked to be a judge for the Mrs. Heimlech, Peggy decides to enter, and the competition gets to her head, and the pageant becomes more important than her friends and family.
Magic Fingers: Episode 19, "Hank's Football Movie" (1999). Hank and Bobby travel to Wichita Falls to watch the Cowboys in spring training, and Bobby becomes enamored with the town. When he discovers that the beds in their hotel room have "Magic Fingers," he's convinced Wichita Falls is the best place in the world.
Play Ball: Episode 24, "Take Me Out of the Ball Game" (1999). Mr. Strickland organizes a softball team, and he asks Hank to coach. Since the rules require a woman pitcher, Hank convinces Peggy to pitch, but his coaching style clashes with her pitching style. A particularly tense argument shakes Peggy so much that she loses her pitching skills whenever Hank is around, so the only way the team can win is if Hank takes himself out of the game.
Jump: Episode 25, "As Old as the Hills" (1999). It's Hank and Peggy's 20th anniversary, and Peggy is feeling old and like she hasn't done enough with her life, so of course, she decides to skydive, and she talks Hank into doing it with her. Hank is nervous, but he does it and has a great time. Peggy hesitates at first, but ultimately she jumps. Unfortunately, neither her main parachute nor her backup parachute opened.

Season 4

World Record: Episode 3, "Bills Were Made to be Broken" (1999). When Bill's touchdown record is broken, Bobby is inspired to break a record himself, so he hops on a pogo stick and has Luanne count the jumps, but he falls off after every jump.
Waldorf Histeria: Episode 15, "Naked Ambition" (2000). Boomhaur falls asleep on an inner tube and floats down the river until he ends up in a strange city, sunburned and wearing nothing but a Speedo, so the police arrest him and send him to an asylum. He calls Dale, who calls Bill, and all three of them end up committed. Finally, they call Hank, who gets them all out.
Pyramid Scheme: Episode 17, "Bill of Sales" (2000). Since Mr. Strickland took back his restaurant, Peggy misses being a manager, so she browses the want ads and ends up getting mixed up with a pyramid scheme called Metalife. She struggles to recruit salespeople until Bill takes initiative and sells everything.
Bad Hair Day: Episode 19, "Hank's Bad Hair Day" (2000). Hank's barber, Jack, is losing his marbles, and he cut Hank's hair slightly wrong in a way that only he and Bill can tell. Reluctantly, Hank goes back to Jack and asks him to fix it. Jack not only ruins Hank's hair, he sprays it with peroxide and turns it platinum blonde. When Bill fixes it, the Army sends Hank a bill for $900.

Season 5

The Education of a Jock: Episode 5, "Peggy Makes the Big Leagues" (2000). Peggy substitutes for a high school teacher, and she refuses to let football star, David "The Flyin' Hawaiian" Kalaiki-Alii, pass her class, causing him to be suspended from the team, but Hank's booster club finds a loophole that lets him do "work study" at Strickland, and Hank gives him an A, even though he admits David deserved an F. When David finds out, he's angry, and he asks Peggy to tutor him before he plays in the next game.
What a Dummy?: Episode 12, "Now Who's the Dummy?" (2001). While Bobby is volunteering at a nursing home, one of the residents gives him his old ventriloquist dummy, "Chip Block." Hank is disturbed by Chip at first, but when Bobby gets some sports-related material from Peggy, Hank warms up to him.

Season 6

Habitat for Humanity: Episode 4, "The Father, the Son and J.C." (2001). After driving drunk, Mr. Strickland is sentenced to community service and has to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. When Hank tells him he's been on the waiting list for two years, Strickland lets Hank take his place. Meanwhile, Peggy, for some reason, is trying to repair Hank's relationship with Cotton, and when he shows up at the site, he antagonizes Hank so much that Hank tells him he hates him.
Pump Up the Volume: Episode 5, "Father of the Bribe" (2002). Dale starts a pirate radio station in his basement and broadcasts about conspiracy theories 24 hours a day, but he quickly runs out of things to talk about and sells the station to Octavio.
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: Episode 17, "Fun with Jane and Jane" (2002). After Luanne is rejected from a sorority, she's invited to join one that turns out to be a cult, where they change every member's name to Jane, make them eat nothing but rice, don't let them go to the bathroom, and make them sell jams and jellies on the side of the road. When Luanne tells Peggy about it, she's so desperate for friends, that she gets sucked into it too.
Will You Marry Me Again?: Episode 18, "My Own Private Rodeo" (2002). Nancy wants to renew her vows with Dale for their 20th anniversary as a way to make a fresh start after ending her relationship with John Redcorn, but her perfect day is threatened when she insists on inviting Dale's estranged father, whom Dale disowned after seeing him French kiss Nancy at their first wedding.
Long Lost Parent: Episode 18, "My Own Private Rodeo" (2002). Nancy secretly invites Dale's estranged father, Bug, to their vow renewal. Dale, who has hated his father ever since he caught him kissing Nancy on their wedding day, isn't ready to accept Bug back into his life until he realizes that his father is gay.
Replacement Pet: Episode 21, "Returning Japanese" (2002). Luanne is dogsitting for Ladybird while the Hills are in Japan. When she sees Ladybird sleeping, she mistakenly assumes she's dead, so she runs out to adopt another dog that looks like her in an attempt to replace her. Of course, Ladybird wakes up, and Luanne realizes her mistake.

Season 7

Anger Management: Episode 7, "The Texas Skilsaw Massacre" (2002). When Dale loses a finger in a horrific circular saw accident, he blames Hank and gets a restraining order against him. Hank can't go within 100 feet of Dale until he completes an anger management course. At first, Hank is annoyed by the class, but when a fellow student dies after getting so angry he "strokes out," Hank decides to take it seriously.
Raging BullBull&@!: Episode 11, "Boxing Luanne" (2003). Luanne takes a tae bo class to get out her anger at being disrespected by men, and Buck Strickland recruits her as a boxer. When Hank sees how good she is, he decides to coach Luanne, but he quickly realizes that Buck and company aren't "respecting" Luanne like she things.
Election: Episode 14, "Board Games" (2003). When Bobby and Joseph's afterschool program is cancelled, Peggy, Nancy, and Minh all decide to run for the school board, and their campaigns get so aggressive that Peggy actually abducts a bunch of voters from a trailer park to stop them from voting for Nancy. Unfortunately, another woman ends up winning the election, and her first order of business is to abolish the afterschool program completely.

Season 8

Make-a-wish: Episode 5, "Flirting with the Master" (2003). The actor who plays Monsignor Martinez visits Arlen, and Peggy asks him to visit her Spanish class, but he says he only makes appearances for sick children, so Peggy makes Bobby pretend to be a a sick child by putting him in a wheelchair with a blanket and telling him not to talk. Afterwards, the Monsignor tells Peggy he could tell right away that Bobby wasn't sick.
When I Paint My Masterpiece: Episode 9, "Ceci N'est Pas Une King of the Hill" (2004). Mr. Strickland tasks Hank with buying an art piece, and he's not having any luck, so Peggy volunteers to make one for him. An art dealer sees her sculpture and gives her an art show. Peggy is thrilled until the dealer announces to everyone that she's basically an illiterate inbred hillbilly as his way to sell the art.

Season 9

Dying to Die: Episode 2, "Ms. Wakefield" (2004). An old woman named Ms. Wakefield shows up at the Hill house and says she used to live there and wants to die there. Hank and Peggy throw her out, but she keeps coming back, using lies and guilt trips to try to get inside, terrorizing the Hills.
Swinging Singles: Episode 7, "Enrique-cilable Differences" (2005). One of Hank's employees, Enrique, latches onto Hank because his marriage is falling apart, and he hangs around so much that it gets on the Hills' nerves. To get rid of Enrique, Hank takes him to a singles apartment building and tells him either he has to move in there or go back to his wife.
Murphy Bed: Episode 7, "Enrique-cilable Differences" (2005). To get rid of an employee who keeps hanging around his house, Hank sets him up in a singles apartment building, where the rooms are equipped Murphy beds.

Season 10

Training Wheels: Episode 3, "Bill's House" (2005). When Hank, Peggy, and Bobby all get sick with the flu, Peggy tells Bobby that if she survives, she wants to finally learn how to ride a bike, and when they're all feeling better, Bobby holds her to it and tries to teach her, but he finds her to be unteachable and tells her she'll never learn.
Historical Whorehouse: Episode 4, "Harlotttown" (2005). Hank wants the town of Arlen to clean up a rock formation they call the "Tea Kettle," so Peggy decides to write an article about it for the "Arlen Bystander." While she's researching the history of the Tea Kettle, she accidentally discovers that the town used to be called Harlottown because it was founded by prostitutes, and they were so popular that men came from miles away to use their "services." When a town official reads Peggy's article, he decides to capitalize on it with a celebration called "Harlottown Days," a museum of prostitution, adult film awards, and more objectionable plans. Hank is of course appalled, but his protests fall on death ears.
Screaming for Change: Episode 13, "The Texas Panhandler" (2006). Bobby and Joseph get jobs holding signs so they can afford cool jeans, but they get discouraged when some of their schoolmates make fun of them. When they see some cool-looking guys asking people for change on the street, they decide to do it too, and apparently this makes them seem cool to everyone at school, but not to Hank.

Season 11

Past Due Prom: Episode 4, "Luanne Gets Lucky" (2007). Luanne's depressed because all of her young clients are getting their hair done for the prom, and she had to miss hers because she had to testify against her mother in court. To make matters worse, Lucky is ignoring her because he wants to dig up a stump in the woods. When one of Luanne's clients tells her he's not going to the prom because he doesn't have a date, she convinces him to take her.

Season 12

Ticket Scalping: Episode 1, "Suite Smells of Excess" (2007). When Hank sees Bobby watching a football game on TV, he gets excited that Bobby might actually be interested in a sport, so he takes him to a Longhorns game, but as they're about to enter the stadium, Hank realizes that Dale bought counterfeit tickets, so reluctantly buys some from a scalper.
Don't Buy This House: Episode 17, "Six Characters in Search of a House" (2008). When Peggy accidentally sells their house, the only way out of the deal is to fail inspection, so Hank takes some inspiration from Bill's house to make his house appear to be falling apart. The inspector fails the house but implies to Hank that it would take a "master craftsman" to make such a well-maintained home seems like it's in disrepair.
Whodunnit?: Episode 19, "Strangeness on a Train" (2008). For her birthday, Peggy takes Hank, Luanne, Lucky, and all their friends to Studio 54-themed murder mystery party on a train, where Luanne is recruited to fill in for an absent actor. Luanne asks the gang who "Roy Cohen" is, and Dale explains, prompting Luanne to asks why he would want to kill her, accidentally giving away the mystery and ruining the trip. This starts off a chain reaction of disasters that leads to the whole gang getting kicked off the train in the middle of nowhere.

Season 13

See You in Court: Episode 3, "Square-Footed Monster" (2008). Ted Wasanasong build giant "McMansion" overlooking the alley, and it's so obscenely large that it blocks out the sun, but when a storm hits, the high winds start tearing the house apart. To prevent it from falling on their homes, Hank and the gang tear it down themselves. Ted sues them, but the judge rules in their favor.
Playing the Market: Episode 6, "A Bill Full of Dollars" (2008). Peggy, Minh, and Dale want to invest in the stock market, so they follow Bill around to find out what the average "Joe Blow" likes. They clean up, but when Bill finds out what's going on, he decides to invest too, and he goes broke.
Author, Author: Episode 17, "Manger Baby Einstein" (2009). Dale decides to write a children's book about a gun that lost its bullet.
Who Brings a Dog to a Leg Funeral?: Episode 17, "Manger Baby Einstein" (2009). When Luanne steals Dale's children's book idea for her new, "hipper" Manger Babies show, he retaliates by stealing the Manger Babies and destroying them, so Luanne holds a memorial service in memory of them.
Home Sweet Office: Episode 22, "Bill Gathers Moss" (2010). Bobby and Joseph search for a "ghost" in the school, but they discover it's just Principal Moss sleeping at the school because his wife divorced him and took the house and the car.

Character Tropes

Mommie Dearest