NOTE: This is the “old” version of this review. It has been replaced by a new version.
It’s time to begin taking a look at the wonderful television series that was King of the Hill, and of course we will start at the beginning – Season 1, Episode 1, known only as “Pilot.”
The episode opens to a pan over the small Texas town of Arlen, focusing on Hank Hill, Dale Gribble, Bill Dauterive, and Jeff Boomhauer taking a look at Hanks semi-reliable truck. This gives us our first look at the nature of each character and just how perfectly normal everyone is — real people in an animated form, as opposed to the typical cartoon where everything is a little eccentric.
We move on to more character establishment as we meet Bobby Hill, the 11 year old only son of Hank and Peggy Hill.. Nothing like his father, he doesn’t much care for sports and “traditional” things, more into comedy and video games. We also get our first introduction to Bobby’s cousin, Luanne Platter, who’s living with the Hill family while her own parents work through some issues.
The divide between Hank and Bobby is stressed even more so at a baseball game where, despite Hank’s coaching attempts, Bobby barely even really tries to play the game and, in the end, gets hit with a ball! Ouch.
On the way home Hank needs some tools, and stops in Mega-Lo-Mart, the Walmart parody store in the King of the Hill universe. Naturally, with it being a parody of Walmart you have the employee who has no clue. This, of course, enrages Hank who, reasonably so, expects an employee at a store to at least be somewhat competent. Still, Hank over reacts, catching the attention of fellow shoppers who recognize Hank, and wonder about the black eye Bobby got at baseball and if the two facts are related. Thanks to the small town nature of gossip this eventually becomes a story of hank assaulting the employee and his son and reaches child protective services.
Later on Hank, Bill, Dale, and Boomhauer are talking more about Hank’s truck. This gives us a chance to look at Dale’s conspiracy nut side, giving Hank a chance to berate Dale, all while a thumping sound occurs in the distance.
This sound winds up being Bobby throwing a ball against his wall. Peggy comes in to suggest Bobby stop watching TV and go outside, only to wind up being hit with the Ball, giving her a bruise of her own. It’s about this time when the social worker, named Anthony Page, arrives to conduct an investigation on the family. Certainly not the best timing, especially when Hank comes in after injuring himself while working on his truck (thanks to Dale’s incompetence) only to yell at Bobby for bouncing the ball and annoying him — all in front of the Anthony.
We get to the interview, where Hank stays relatively angry, eventually going on a monologue about how hard working of a man he is and how he sells “propane and propane accessories” before finally kicking the Anthony out of his house.
Anthony goes on to interview the neighbors, starting with Dale Gribble. This gives us our first look at Dale’s wife, Nancy, and a hint at what’s going on behind the scenes with her and her “healer” John Redcorn. If it wasn’t obvious at first, the reality is made quite clear when Joseph, Dale and Nancy’s son, is inquired about how Hank treats Bobby. He then moves on to Boomhauer, who’s fast talking nature seems to confuse and scare Anthony.
As he continues to walk through the neighborhood, he overhears Dale and Bobby mimicking Hank, only to believe it’s actually Hank threatening Bobby!
We get a quick moment for more character builing with Luanne as she finds out that her mother and father got into a fight, destroying the trailer (and a wig she styled for beauty academy,) thus meaning Luanne has to stay at the Hills for a while longer.
That’s when Anthony comes to the door again, this time to take Bobby to a foster home. Hank won’t allow this, and Bobby doesn’t want to go, causing Hank to rightfully go after Anthony, scaring him away.
When returning to his office, Anthony is confronted by his manager on the entire investigation, and how poorly conducted it seemed to be. The end result is the case is closed. Bobby gets the call and, instead of telling his family, he rides out the fear they have of him being taken away to do anything and everything he wants!
In a small interlude, we get a look at a trait of Luanne’s which was later removed from the show — she fixes Hanks truck without any real trouble, making Hank think the idea of her staying around longer isn’t such a bad idea.
Back to the Bobby situation, Anthony’s boss comes by to discuss the situation with Peggy. This is where she learns that the investigation has been off for a week and that Bobby didn’t tell her or Hank. Bobby gets scared that Hank will get mad at him, and explains he only did this so that his father will still like him even when he messes up! A sad situation that’s all too common.
The episode ends with Hank and Bobby bonding. Hank isn’t one to express much emotion, but finally gets across to Bobby that he is going to love him no matter what, even if he gets angry at him for things.
Quite the fitting end for an episode that needs to establish so much, and set a “normal” world for an animated series.
Final Rating: 3.0/5
This was a solid opening episode for its time, and while the series would change quite a bit over its decade plus run, the core elements of it — the dynamics of the Hill family and their friends and neighbors — wouldn’t really change much.
This was a great moment in animation, and set the stage well for the many stories to come. Still, as a first episode it is somewhat stale and pretty basic. It does what it needs to do, build the characters and their world, and nothing more.