OPINION
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We'll Miss You, Hank
A fond farewell to the 'character-driven whimsy' of King of the Hill
By Harry Kimball
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Posted Sep 12, 09 3:05 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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That an animated series from the creator of Beavis and Butthead would be one of the last champions of good-hearted American values is odd but true, Don Aucoin writes in the Boston Globe. As King of the Hill prepares to bow out tomorrow night, Aucoin offers a eulogy for “a particular kind of middle-age Everyman we don’t see much of anymore on television”—Hank Hill.
The Simpsons, the only longer-running animated series, “sprints through scenes,” Aucoin writes, while “King of the Hill sort of ambled along, picking up laughs and stray bits of wisdom with seeming inadvertence.” And at the center was Hank, a man of old-fashioned values and simple pleasures. “His relationship with his lawn also bordered on the carnal,” Aucoin writes. “‘Why would anyone ever smoke weed when they could just mow a lawn?’ he once asked.”